backyard chickens....

easternreefer · Mar 27, 2018

so we are contemplating getting a couple chickens to have In our backyard. anything I should be aware of?
just a couple so that we can get some eggs no roosters.

happyhourhero · Mar 27, 2018

What would you like to know?

Greybeard · Mar 27, 2018

We keep a dozen or so. Valuable members of the household.

Got any specific questions?

tupes · Mar 27, 2018

@easternreefer be sure to check your local city code as you might have restrictions on certan wildlife being kept like that. Some areas close to me prohibit chickens in the yard.

We have actually thrown the idea around also but not sure of the cost to have them and don' know if they are worth it. Being in Louisiana we have hurricane and sometimes have to evacuate and that's just something else to worry about beside our dogs and aquarium.

Please keep us posted with what you do.

happyhourhero · Mar 27, 2018

Pretty Poop Factory

easternreefer · Mar 27, 2018

We have checked with our local co-op and we are good to have chickens. We don't know what we don't know so. I guess how much time to keep up. vet care? better foods? hints and tricks to keeping them. We plan on eventually having a run that will surround most of our raised bed garden.

redfishbluefish · Mar 27, 2018

Friends who have done this in PA and south NJ had problems with bears and foxes, respectively. The PA friends lost all their chickens to a bear in one night. Note both lived in very rural areas.....surrounded by woods.

happyhourhero · Mar 27, 2018

They will eat everything
They crap a lot
A wet coop or run is a stinky and unhealthy coop or run
Sand is easy upkeep if you stay on top of scooping poop
They require attention to refill food and water usually twice a day (I spend maybe 30 min a day with upkeep)
They can catch a lot of diseases but you can treat most at home with meds you can buy at a livestock store
Food is up to you if you want organic or not. They eat most table scraps including meat
backyardchickens.com has a TON of articles and a very active forum that is worth checking out.
Racoons and Bears and other predators want to kill them so make a very secure coop

aabjones888 · Mar 27, 2018

I've had chickens for awhile and there a fun animal to watch out in the yard. They scratch and peck the ground constantly. My biggest problem with our chickens is the variety of other animals after them. We have Raccoons, foxes and minks in our area. It sucks going out to feed the chickens and u have a dead one. My advice would build the best pin that you can . Good luck with your adventure.

Greybeard · Mar 27, 2018

I got chickens initially because I couldn't walk from my back door to my workshop during the summer without having to pick ticks off of my legs. Eggs were an afterthought.

We keep barred rocks, trying to keep the flock at around a dozen. They're good layers, hearty in our weather conditions, and excellent foragers. Place called the 'Cackle Hatchery' is just a few miles away, we generally buy chicks there and raise them ourselves.

They absolutely worked for the ticks. I seldom find any around the house. My Great Pyrenees brings ticks in from all over the area... he will regularly lay in the sun while half a dozen hens pick him clean. He really seems to enjoy their attention. Of course, the Pyr is here mainly to protect the chickens... we're way out in the woods, lots of coyotes, possum, raccoon, fox, bobcat. Rambo does a good job of keeping them safe. About the only losses we get are from birds. Red tailed hawks and barn owls. We count on loosing 1 or 2 pullets to bird strike after we put the new chicks out each summer.

My initial coop was a 'chicken tractor' type, where it doesn't have a bottom, and you're supposed to move it around as the waste builds up. Didn't work for me, I ended up raising that chicken tractor up onto a solid wood 'box' that I built for it from a couple of 2 x 12's and a sheet of plywood, and using a fairly deep bed of pine shavings as an absorbent in the bottom of the coop. It's located under a metal roof off of the south side of my workshop, right next to my dog kennel. Works great. Doesn't stink. We have to clean out the laying boxes and add shaved pine every month, but we only have to really clean the coop once a year. Pull the top off and shovel out the old pine and waste. It'd probably make good fertilizer, but I just dump it in the woods.

Mouse control becomes a problem... spilled chicken feed will bring them out in mass. Amazon sells 'roller traps' that work pretty well. No danger to the birds.

BackyardChickens.com, mentioned above is a good resource. We use the 'deep litter method' that they document with excellent results.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...st-way-to-deal-with-chicken-litter-dlm.47740/