A Beginner's Guide to Raising Chickens
Raising chicks is exciting! Knowing how is just as important. This beginner鈥檚 guide to raising chickens is the first article in our Raising Chickens series. Let us help you 鈥渟tart from scratch,鈥 so to speak!
Why Should You Raise Chickens?
There鈥檚 a lot to like about raising chickens in your backyard. The eggs are a real temptation鈥攖astier and fresher than any store-bought eggs, and better for baking, too. The shells, along with the chicken poop, can be tossed right into the compost pile.
Most of the day, the birds entertain themselves, picking at grass, worms, beetles, and all the good things that go into making those yummy farm eggs. Plus, with their keen eye for insect pests, chickens make for great gardening companions.
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Remember, though: Nothing good comes easy!
Things to Consider Before Getting Chickens
- First, check local town ordinances to ensure that keeping chickens is even allowed in your neighborhood or if there is a limit to the number of chickens you can keep at once. The last thing you want is to invest time and money into preparing for chickens and then find out that you can鈥檛 even keep them!
- Make sure you have the space for a henhouse or a full-size chicken coop. It has to hold a feeder and water containers, a roosting area, and a nest box for every three hens.
A proper coop should be large enough that you can stand in it to gather eggs and shovel manure comfortably, but a simple henhouse can be quite a bit smaller. Plus, any housing must be sturdy enough to keep your chickens safe from all the predators out there! Here鈥檚 how to build a chicken coop in your backyard. - Chickens need food (and water) daily. Feed is about $20 per 50-pound bag at my co-op, but prices vary depending on your location and the quality of the feed. How long a bag lasts depends on the number of chickens that you have.
- Hens will lay eggs through spring and summer and into the fall, as long as they have 12 to 14 hours of daylight. Expect to collect eggs daily, or even twice a day.
- All year 鈥榬ound, you鈥檒l have to shovel manure. Yippee!
- If you go away on vacation, you鈥檒l need a reliable chicken-sitter鈥攁nd they can be scarcer than hens鈥 teeth!
How to Raise Chickens: Flock Size, Spacing, and Start-Up Cost
How Many Chickens Should I Keep?
Chickens are sociable creatures, so plan to keep three to six birds. With this amount, you鈥檒l always have a steady supply of eggs, since an adult hen lays about two eggs every three days, on average.
Chickens are most productive in the first two years of their lives; after that, egg production will slow, so you鈥檒l need to think about replacing your flock with younger birds eventually. Young chicks can be bought from suppliers quite easily, or you can hatch your own if you have a rooster (which we do NOT recommend). Read more about raising baby chicks here!
How Much Space Do Chickens Need?
Ultimately, it depends on which breed of chicken you鈥檙e raising. According to the University of Missouri Extension, one medium-sized chicken needs at least 3 square feet of floor space inside the coop and 8-10 square feet outdoors. The more space, the happier and healthier the chickens will be; overcrowding contributes to disease and feather picking.
The birds will need a place to spread their wings, so to speak: a sizeable chicken run, for example, or a whole backyard. (Our hens have lots of outdoor time. They have places to take a dust bath and catch a few rays.)
Either way, the space must be fenced in order to keep the chickens in and predators out. (Predators include your own Fido and Fluffy, too!) Add chicken-wire fencing to your list of equipment.
How Much Does Keeping Chickens Cost?
All of this costs money, of course. The materials to build and furnish a coop and a 20x5-foot run鈥攊ncluding wood, fencing, and hardware鈥攁re going to set you back at least $300. If you can鈥檛 do this work yourself, you鈥檒l also be buying skilled labor.
Overall, expect to spend between $500 and $700 when just getting started, depending on the size of your flock, coop, and run.
Gardening with Chickens
Most folks who keep chickens do so largely for the constant supply of fresh eggs, but did you know that keeping chickens can be also be beneficial for the garden?
When the gardening season has finished for the year, let the chickens into your gardening space and watch them go crazy! They鈥檒l uproot the stems and stalks of weeds and gobble up any damaged or overripe vegetables that remain. They鈥檒l eat any weed seeds or insects they find in the soil, and will peck apart and digest vegetable remnants, especially broccoli stems, carrot tops, chard, and kale.
After that, they鈥檒l scratch the ground and peck out hidden worms or insects, mixing up the soil in the process鈥攁ll with endless enthusiasm and curiosity.
Chickens don鈥檛 only provide a constant supply of fresh eggs鈥攖hey produce an endless amount of manure, too. Luckily, chicken poo can be composted, aged, and eventually added to the garden. In about 6 months鈥 time, you will accumulate about 1 cubic foot of manure per chicken.
During your daily cleaning of the coop, collect and pile up the chicken poop and used bedding materials. The best decomposition occurs when the pile is 2 parts poop to 1 part bedding materials. Lawn clippings and fruit and vegetable kitchen scraps, as well as leaves, twigs, and shredded paper, can also be added into the mix. Soak the pile and, over the next year or so, wet and stir it regularly to add air. A temperature of 130掳F to 150掳F is recommended to eliminate bacteria.
More of Raising Chickens 101
Still interested in raising chickens? See more of our beginner鈥檚 guide below:
Chris Lesley
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thank you. very informative as it was a good reality check. this is going to cost more then just buying eggs. but now i'll be more ready when i do get chickens.
Ducks can create a lake if mud from a teaspoon of water! They are insanely messy! There are ways to stay ahead of the mess. Put their water in something heavy or weighted, that is too tall for them to hop inside of, but still allows them to dip their heads.
When they are grown, for winter, I put their drinking water in a heated horse bucket, in the barn, on a pallet to keep it up out of the wet.
Of course, they love to swim, but we have hawks, eagles, owls, so they can't be allowed to use our pond in warm seasons. Instead, I hooked up a pump/filter to a child's pool in a corner of the garden, and run it daily. The filter needs constant cleaning. The used water goes into the garden. It's a bit of work, but we feel that it's a good trade!
Something everyone should consider but never mentioned in all my research!
A chickens Life expectancy and caring for them after they stop laying Are you a humane committed pet owner for their entire life??? You will still have all the expense & care for possibly a few years.
That鈥檚 a real commitment to think about in the giving, not the receiving end!
Older hens go in the stew pot. That is just the way it is.
I found it interesting when you said that you can consider keeping three to six birds to ensure a steady supply of eggs. My father will surely consider this tip because he is planning to care for livestock such as chickens. He wanted to ensure the continuous production of eggs, so I could imagine him purchasing salt blocks and minerals for his chickens.
Why don't you recommend roosters?
Should be obvious, but roosters are loud at inconvenient times and will make your neighbors angry.
Basicly, they're too loud to be good neighbors. No neighbors? No problem. Otherwise, they can be aggressive protecting thier girls but, honestly, who will win that fight.
There are many advantages to owning your own chickens. Farm fresh eggs are healthier, tastier, and readily available from your own back yard. Meat birds are fast growing, take little space to raise and are fairly inexpensive for the resulting outcome in food production. Raising your own chickens means you get to decide what goes into the making of the final product. I personally build a great chicken coop following this easy and step by step guide I found HERE:
easy-chicken-coop.hqtips.net
Someone here says 700$ is off putting, that it won鈥檛 cost that much. Well..I say, oh, oh yes, it will cost so very much more than that. If you live on a farm and have structures built, sure, but suburban or in towners must build a secure, up to code structure, or purchase one, and it will add up quickly. You don鈥檛 want to do it halfway, then have them killed by predators or diseases caused by poor maintenance. Do your research! Cleancoops dot com can help with three different sized coop plans, I just built their largest, the Shiloh.
