Raising chickens for eggs can be fun and rewarding. I love how different their personalities are and how they always make me smile. Collecting eggs daily is always fun for me and my kids. Raising chickens is fairly hands-off and easy. That is probably why most new homesteaders start with chickens. If you are wanting to get started with chickens, now is a good time to start.
I think most of us start with laying hens, hens that are kept for eggs. This is an easy way to have fresh eggs year-round and start your journey in raising livestock. Chickens are also great to raise for meat. Before you start you may want to consider a few things.
Raising animals for meat, or in this case eggs, will greatly change how you live your everyday life. Sometimes we don’t really think about what all we will need to address until it is too late. So, before you dive in, ask yourself a few of these questions.
Before Getting Chickens
- What purpose will the chickens serve?
- Have you done enough research to be prepared for chickens? Being knowledgeable about common issues with chickens is important. Knowing what to look for in ill chickens could potentially save your whole flock from getting ill.
- Are you allowed to have chickens? Some areas, especially in city limits, will not allow chickens or will only allow a certain number of chickens.
- Where will the chickens live? Will they have a stationary chicken coop or will they live in a chicken tractor. (Later we will discuss the pros and cons of each.) Will you have enough room for the number of chickens you are wanting to keep?
- Are you prepared to deal with sickness and death of your chickens? Inevitably sickness and or death of one or more of your chickens will happen. You need to be prepared to deal with it. Will you be willing to care for sick or injured chickens?
- Who will care for your chickens when you are out of town? When leaving your home for longer than a day you will need to make sure someone will be able to come to your home to feed your chickens and check on them. Chickens are easy prey for predators and if you are not there, someone will need to stop by regularly to check on your chickens.
Although they are fairly hands-off animals, they do still need care and attention regularly. Make sure that you can properly care for chickens before jumping in.
Choose The Breed
Not all chickens will produce the same color or size egg. Some chicken breeds lay more often than other breeds. Be sure to research breeds before buying chickens. It may help to find out which chicken breeds locals keep in your area.
Some breeds are well suited for areas that get really cold. In areas that have mild winters, you may even be able to keep getting eggs through the winter. The two breeds that we started with on our homestead are Black Marans and Blue Rock Plymouth. Both of these chickens lay throughout our mild winters here in East Texas.
They even kept laying eggs through a freak winter storm a few years ago, in -5°F! Not all of the chickens will lay every day, egg production does slow down during the cooler weather, but we still get eggs.
Some of the friendliest chickens I have owned are Barred Rocks. I call them the nosey sisters because they are always right beside me, even jumping up on me, whenever I am in their coop. They are super nice and love attention. My Bielefelder chicken loves being held and petted. She is the sweetest chicken.
Chicken eggs come in many different sizes and colors. This may be a deciding factor in deciding on a specific breed, or two. I do a lot of baking, so I like to have chickens that lay large to extra-large eggs. Finding breeds is easy, most of your online hatcheries will have info on the breeds they sell. Read up on the breeds you plan on getting before getting them.
How Many Chickens Should You Get?
This depends on your usage of eggs. How many eggs are you already using in a week? Do you use a lot of eggs in cooking and baking? This will help you decide on how many chickens you need to keep.
You can expect each chicken to lay 1 egg every day or two. If you are lucky, you will be able to get 1 egg from each chicken every day. I would say 3 chickens per person in your household would be sufficient.
If you do a lot of baking, you may need to keep a few extra chickens. If for some reason you start to get overran with eggs, it happens to us all, family and friends are usually happy to receive fresh eggs.
Where Will The Chickens Live?
Chicken Coop or Chicken Tractor? There are pros and cons to both a stationary chicken coop and a movable chicken tractor. You can build your own or buy them online or in stores.
A stationary chicken coop is what most of us are familiar with. It is probably what you think of when you think of a chicken coop. These types of coops are not movable a usually have a fenced in area surrounding the chicken coop called the chicken run. These types of coops are great. They provide the chickens with their basic needs to live.
Shelter from the weather and predators, roosting bars and nesting boxes. The size of the coop and run should reflect the size of your flock. Making sure to give each chicken enough room is important. While they don’t take up much space inside the coop, each chicken should have plenty of room outside the coop in the run.
The con with stationary chicken coops is that the chickens will quickly exhaust the grass where they are and when it rains it will be super muddy. Chickens also really like getting to roam around in fresh grass. By keeping them in the same spot they will not be able to do that.
One alternative to this is to use movable poultry fencing. This allows the chickens to be on fresh grass every few days and prevents them from exhausting the grass. The same principle is used for chickens kept in a tractor. Happy chickens equal lots of eggs.
Chicken tractors are movable chicken coops. These are great for allowing your chickens to be on fresh grass all the time and never allowing them to sit in one place. This will prevent them from exhausting the grass.
You will find two variations of the chicken tractor, one that is completely enclosed, the other is a tractor that has a door to let the chickens out into a fenced in area. Everything about the chicken tractor is great. If I had to think of one con, it would be moving the tractor and fence several times a week. But a little hard work never killed anyone. Plus, if the chickens are happy, you get eggs!
It really boils down to which method of keeping chickens is better suited for you and your family. You may start with a stationary coop and decide later on that you want to use a chicken tractor, or vice versa.
Chicken coops will need to be cleaned at least twice a year. You want to make sure and muck out any manure or spent bedding and just spray or wipe down anything that has manure on it. This will help keep your hens healthy and happy.
Nesting Boxes
Nesting boxes are important for egg layers. Providing your chickens with nice clean nesting boxes will prevent them from laying in random places. This also gives them a bit of privacy.
Hens will lay their eggs wherever they can nest, as long as they feel safe. If you provide them with a nice clean nesting box, you will save yourself from a daily egg hunt. Nesting boxes will also keep your eggs cleaner.
It is important to change out the bedding you use in the nesting boxes whenever it needs it. Once a month should be fine, unless a chicken has been brooding or sleeping in the nesting box. Then you may find the nesting box has manure in it and needs to be cleaned.
Feeding Your Hens
Hens need to be fed layer feed in order to keep them producing eggs. Layer feed is a balanced diet consisting of 16% to 18% protein. This is very important; you do not want to keep feeding them chick starter after 18 weeks. This is usually the time that your hens will start laying eggs. To keep their bodies healthy, you need to feed them properly.
It is also good to feed them ground oyster shells for calcium. Since their eggs are made up of calcium it is recommended to keep a separate container of oyster shells available for the chickens to eat as needed. You can find these at most of your local feed stores. If you ever see an egg that has either formed a very thin shell or even no shell at all, your hens need oyster shells. It is best to make it a habit of feeding it to them or keeping it available to them.
During the winter they will also need to be fed scratch grains for extra fat. This is not meant to replace their layer feed, just an addition to their normal feed to help them stay warm. A handful or two of scratch grains every day or every other day should be fine. Meal worms are also a great treat to give your chickens.
Chickens eat all day, really, all day. So, any treat you give them, they will be happy with. They really enjoy fruits and veggies like cabbage, broccoli, apples and strawberries. Even tossing them some of your yard trimmings is a great way to give them a nice treat.
I also like to add Diatomaceous Earth to my chickens feed every few days to help prevent parasites. DE (Diatomaceous Earth) is a great for chickens to ingest and for them to dust bathe in.
Water for Your Chickens
It is important to keep fresh water available to your chickens at all times. Make it a habit to regularly clean the water pale as well. The chickens will kick dirt into the water, constantly, so make sure to clean it often.
Adding a splash of Apple Cider Vinegar to the chicken’s water is a great way to keep you chicken’s immune system boosted. Keeping your flock healthy by adding Apple Cider Vinegar to their water is an easy step to take. I especially like to add it to their water during the hot summer to help their digestive tract.
For some reason chickens will drink less water while it is hot. I have found that adding black oil sunflower seeds to their water once a day is a great way to get them drinking it. Trust me, they will not pass up a chance for extra food.
If it is extremely hot it is important to give your chickens fresh water throughout the day. Chickens will not drink as much as they should if their water gets too hot. You can also add ice to their water to keep it cool.
If you see your chickens sitting next to the water and panting, chances are they need cooler water because it is too hot, and they are having a hard time cooling off.
Monitoring Your Chickens
Knowing what to look for when a chicken is ill is important. As chicken owners who have invested money into our chickens, we need to know what signs to look for when a chicken is not feeling well. This will help you prevent your entire flock from getting sick and hopefully cure what your chicken has before it is too late. There are many online sources to help determine what is wrong with your chicken, if anything at all.
There are a whole host of illnesses that can plague your flock. Parasites like mites and lice are something that you should watch for too. The best way to tell if something is off with a chicken is by their behavior. Chickens hardly lay around, except for the occasional rest, which doesn’t happen often, or a dust bath.
So, if you see a chicken not moving much, definitely check on them. Especially if they are keeping away from the rest of the flock. Chickens will do this to keep the others from getting sick too.
You want to listen for breathing problems, sneezing and oozing from the eyes, nose and mouth. All of these symptoms indicated illness and should be treated promptly. Check the color of their combs, wattles and feet. If they are pale looking, then something is probably going on with the chicken.
You should also make it a habit to pick your chickens up and check their skin for mites and lice. Usually if your chicken is bothered by mites or lice, you will notice them scratching or biting at their skin quite often. You will even notice feathers missing and irritated skin.
I like to sprinkle diatomaceous earth (DE) in the area I see my chickens dust bathing in (if you have never seen this, it is the cutest thing) to help prevent parasites.
Thankfully there are ways to help cure your chickens of most illnesses and parasites. Some feed stores will have treatments available. Keeping them separated from their flock while treating them is important. This will help prevent the spread to the rest of the flock.
I hope that this post is helpful and that you are now ready to start raising your own chickens for eggs!
