I want chickens.....But....

[dooleysm]

I wanted to raise chickens for many years and finally started last spring. I built a 6x9 coop and fenced in an area about 15x50. I have about 15 hens, 1 rooster, and 3 guineas. I have a mixture of large egg layers and bantams. I am having a blast with them so far. We have plenty of room for them to roam here, but they seldom venture out of about a half acre area immediately surrounding their coop. With the garden just starting up I am keeping them penned up more, because they can and will tear up a garden.

Unfortunately, my 2 gardens and a good bit of my wife's landscaping is in their 1/2 acre home range. They love to scratch in mulch and make a huge mess of it. I try to only let them out when I'm going to be around to cahse them away from the gardens and landscaping. I could easily keep them penned up all the time and I think they would be perfectly happy and productive. I like to let them out more for my enjoyment than theirs though.

I live very much in a rural setting and the only losses I've had to predators is when some of the younger chickens and guineas flew into my dog pens. My dogs killed and ate them in a heartbeat. No wild predators have gotten to any of them in the past year.

They couldn't be any easier to care for once they are old enough to be on their own. The chicks need more care, but that is only maybe for 2 months and still not terrible. Backyardchickens is a good forum, but those people are a bit fanatic and overboard, so they can tend to get worked up about certain issues, a bit like we are here with tractors. Just keep that in mind if/when you go there for advice.

My sons are 18 months and 3 years and are fairly ambivalent about the chickens. My older son loved to chase and catch the younger ones last summer, but he doesn't really care about them now. We had a mean rooster for a while that chased the boys and I think is part of the reason they leave the chickens alone now. I didn't put up with that nonsense and we ate him. Now I'm down to 1 rooster that is well behaved. I very much enjoy hearing him crow and watching his antics. I think the girls are happy to have him around.

I think there are enough guys with chickens on this board that can give you plenty of great advice, most of which you've already received. GO FOR IT!

 

[Bedlam]

Ive done allot of raising of ducks and a few chickens, Ive found the ducks are easier to get to 'herd' into the coop.
I do wonder now tho with feed cost through the roof, just how many chickens of ducks one would have to have to break even?
I realize that there is the value of the 'fun' of raising them and especially for the kids, and also the fresh eggs for yourself. But seems to me anyway the cost is great.

 

[Redneck in training]

Chickens for eggs are pretty easy to manage, chores are easy too.
You will need to protect them from predators.

Colleague of mine bought bunch of chickens few years back. He doesn't have chicken coup or fenced confinment but they lay eggs in his barn. Most of them were dead taken by coyotes first season. Only four that learn to roost on top of his porch survived for past four years.

 

[irwin]

my wife let hers roam free on about 6 acres and says hers were a pain to bring into the coop. And they have poor eyesight after dark, making them "sitting ducks"

Not sure what the difference is, but as the sun starts to set all our chickens (11) head back to the coop and are snug and resting by nightfall.

No rooster, just hens and they started laying eggs about when we were told they should..I forget exactly maybe 18-22 weeks a couple began laying weeks before we started collecting 8 to 10 daily.

 

[sal64]

hello i have 17 hens 2 roster the basicly take care of themselfs i oppen them up in the morning lock them up at night clean coop 1 every 2 weeks takes about 10 min and dump in garden ,i sell the eggs it hasent cost me a penny in years and we get free eggs ,and the tast is the best .as fare as meat in my oppinion we slaterd some chickens at 12 weeks we didnt like the tast i think because we are use to walmart chickens witch are full off cemicales and fat.in the summer i free range my chickens and dont feed them only little cract corn at night and table scraps.

 

[tony123]

I hope you meant my thread when you mentioned Tony....It's nice to see that what we post here may be of value to people long after we finish our little adventures.

The short answer: We hardly even know that we have them! They have been easier than I could have imagined. We did have issues where other peoples dogs got a hold of our first group. We've had the second group for many months now without issue, and the coop is now extra fortified! All of our dogs have adjusted to them and aren't a concern.

What is life like with 5 hens and a rooster? Well, about once a week I spend 5 minutes filling the feeder and waterer. Every day I spend about 1 minute gathering eggs! Most evenings I give them all our table scraps. And four or five times a week we let them out of the coop to free range for the last couple of hours in a day. They put themselves back in the coop like clockwork. About three times this year we've had some chicken related project that takes a few hours. Easy as that! Really, we go weeks at a time and hardly even know we have them. A wild guess at cost to feed might be about $4 per month.

We do try to time their free range time so that they get more time out the day before a rain. They tend to leave lots of presents around on the concrete and rain the next day washes it for us.

I highly encourage you to at least get a small flock of a few hens.

 

[sal64]

one disadvantage on free range u have to fence everything they scratch up the mulch, garden flowerbeds rocks for mower to hit they take dust bathes and leave holes around .but still worth having them.

 

[jimmyj]

Go for it, they are easy.

As long as you have a safe place to lock them up a night you probably will be OK (stray dogs are WICKED though). Start them off in a coop with a fenced enclosure like the others say and they will learn that that is their "home". Make sure the coop has a few high perches where they can roost at dusk and they will naturally come back to it.

We have all sorts of chickens and roosters of different types. We also have raised other poultry. Nothing is cuter than a wee flock of chickens with a master rooster watching over them scratching around the property. BUT, you will lose the odd one even in the day.

We finally have built an aviary with electric fence protection and a covered top to keep them in all of the time. This is only because they were scratching the dickens out of our flower and veggie gardens. I would rather have them loose and put up with the damages but SWMBO is not of the same opinion.

They are very easy to raise. Get a small number to start and see how you like it before you go whole hog. Some breeds are easier too. There are "sex links" which are a good cross for eggs and or meat. Cornish meat birds may be a challenge for a first timer and have heart attacks in extreme heat (cuz they grow so fast). Barred rocks are a great brown egg layer, long lived, tame and very quiet. Leghorns lay white eggs like they are going out of style but they are flighty nervous birds and not as good for a pet.

There are all sorts of cool bantams too (mini chickens) and even breeds that lay pastel coloured blue / green eggs. Try some, you will like it but have a coop and a fence for safety when you start.

NOTE: Too many roosters or roosters that did not grow up together co-habiting is a very bad thing- they will kill the weakest ones. Also, too many roostes and not enough hens will really be bad for the poor hens as the roosters breed like crazy and are rough about it.

 

[jimmyj]

Here is the aviary and coop. It's pretty cool actually. The aviary is 60 x 16 and made of cedar poles and rails with avairy netting on top and wire fencing. There is electric around the perimiter as well so any animal that trys to bust through the wire or climb over gets a zap. The building part is 24 x 16 with a couple of overhangs for shelter and multiple inner rooms so I can segregate parts. There is a separate feed room too with old freezers inside as they are mouse proof.

 

[greenmule]

I think every one should do the chicken thing,that way they will know that there are some things that sound like a good thing,but are actually not.