Anytime you add livestock to your homestead, you need to make sure you have a place for them first. We’ve done it the other way – Oh, look, what pretty goats! And what a good deal! – and, take my word for it, there are difficulties with bringing home some animals and then building or buying what you need to house and care for them.
Chickens are fairly simple. They don’t require anything fancy. But if you build a good, substantial hen house to start with, it will serve through many generations of poultry, for years to come.
The first thing you need to do in preparing for your flock is to make a few decisions:
A laying flock probably requires the most preparation, because a good flock of layers will be around for 2 ½ - 3 years. The hen house for a laying flock does not need to be fancy, but it should be sturdy and able to keep the birds comfortable through all kinds of weather.
If you live in the city, there will be restrictions on what you can have. A rooster is not a good idea. His crowing (that starts about 4 a.m.) would not be appreciated by your neighbors, even if city regulations do not prohibit it. To find out what you can legally have, go to City Hall and ask for a print-out of all city animal ordinances. Don't say, "Can I have chickens?," because if there are no laws on the books regulating chickens, you don't want to draw their attention to it. Better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission.
Look through the ordinances to see if any of them restrict what you intend to do. At least two towns I've lived in had not updated their animal ordinances in 50 years. The restrictions in one town said you could not let your ox, horse, goats, cows, or poultry roam free, and you were not allowed to have bees or pigs within 50 feet of another person's dwelling!
If a close examination of your town's animal ordinance reveals there are no restrictions, you still need to be discreet. Keep your birds in a place hidden from casual view, don't let the hen house get stinky, and don't keep a rooster. It also helps to make a gift of fresh eggs to your closest neighbors. They will come to appreciate the occasional cackling from a hen that's just made a deposit.
If you have never raised chickens before, I recommend starting with day-old chicks mail-ordered from a hatchery or picked up from the farmer's co-op or Tractor Supply.
You can often find mature birds on Craigslist or in your local paper, but getting healthy, productive poultry that way is a tricky operation. Sometimes you’re buying someone else’s problems.
The farm-supply stores start selling chicks about the middle or end of February where I live. That may vary, according to where you live, because they try to take shipment on new chicks from the hatchery when the weather begins to moderate and the chicks stand the best chance of surviving.
When you go to the store to select your chicks, you will be faced with two main choices: What breed you want, and whether you should pay more to buy chicks already sexed (males or females) or go the cheaper route of buying "straight-run" -- where there's no telling if they are male or female. Unless you plan to butcher the excess males, I suggest buying pullets (young females) only. Even though it costs a little more, you generally know you're getting enough females to start a laying flock. Sometimes there will be a stray cockerel (male) in the batch, anyway.
A rooster is not necessary to get eggs, but they do protect the hens. If you want a rooster, buy a couple of chicks from the straight-run selection, and likely as not you'll get at least one roo.
Most chicks come already vaccinated for Marek's Disease, which is spread in the dander left by infected birds and can cause paralysis, tumors, blindness, and death in poultry 8 weeks old and older.
If you buy chicks, you will need something in which to house them -- a large cardboard box is sufficient to start with -- a feeder, a waterer, a heat lamp to keep them warm, and some bedding to put down in the box. I use newspaper as bedding, and change it every day. You will also need a "chick starter" feed. No, you can't just feed them cornmeal; they will die. Most of these items you can purchase where you get the chicks.
When you get home, you can set up the box in your living room or a utility room, but it needs to be inside, out of the weather. Chicks have to be kept warm until they get their feathers. Think of it....hen-raised chicks spend most of their time under their mother's feathers, huddled together with the warmth of the hen to keep them cozy. You have to reproduce that warmth mechanically. And because we don't know exactly how warm the chicks like it, I always put the heat lamp on one end of the box, so when the chicks are too warm they can go to the other end of the box, and when they're too cold they can get up under the lamp.
Okay, take a look at the picture I've posted here of the chicks in their box. See if you can spot all the items you need to keep your chicks healthy and happy:
NEXT WEEK: Raising chickens, Pt. 3 -- Caring for my chicks
Chickens are fairly simple. They don’t require anything fancy. But if you build a good, substantial hen house to start with, it will serve through many generations of poultry, for years to come.
The first thing you need to do in preparing for your flock is to make a few decisions:
- What breed of chickens are we getting?
- Hens, roosters, or straight run?
- Chicks or grown birds?
A laying flock probably requires the most preparation, because a good flock of layers will be around for 2 ½ - 3 years. The hen house for a laying flock does not need to be fancy, but it should be sturdy and able to keep the birds comfortable through all kinds of weather.
If you live in the city, there will be restrictions on what you can have. A rooster is not a good idea. His crowing (that starts about 4 a.m.) would not be appreciated by your neighbors, even if city regulations do not prohibit it. To find out what you can legally have, go to City Hall and ask for a print-out of all city animal ordinances. Don't say, "Can I have chickens?," because if there are no laws on the books regulating chickens, you don't want to draw their attention to it. Better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission.
Look through the ordinances to see if any of them restrict what you intend to do. At least two towns I've lived in had not updated their animal ordinances in 50 years. The restrictions in one town said you could not let your ox, horse, goats, cows, or poultry roam free, and you were not allowed to have bees or pigs within 50 feet of another person's dwelling!
If a close examination of your town's animal ordinance reveals there are no restrictions, you still need to be discreet. Keep your birds in a place hidden from casual view, don't let the hen house get stinky, and don't keep a rooster. It also helps to make a gift of fresh eggs to your closest neighbors. They will come to appreciate the occasional cackling from a hen that's just made a deposit.
If you have never raised chickens before, I recommend starting with day-old chicks mail-ordered from a hatchery or picked up from the farmer's co-op or Tractor Supply.
You can often find mature birds on Craigslist or in your local paper, but getting healthy, productive poultry that way is a tricky operation. Sometimes you’re buying someone else’s problems.
The farm-supply stores start selling chicks about the middle or end of February where I live. That may vary, according to where you live, because they try to take shipment on new chicks from the hatchery when the weather begins to moderate and the chicks stand the best chance of surviving.
When you go to the store to select your chicks, you will be faced with two main choices: What breed you want, and whether you should pay more to buy chicks already sexed (males or females) or go the cheaper route of buying "straight-run" -- where there's no telling if they are male or female. Unless you plan to butcher the excess males, I suggest buying pullets (young females) only. Even though it costs a little more, you generally know you're getting enough females to start a laying flock. Sometimes there will be a stray cockerel (male) in the batch, anyway.
A rooster is not necessary to get eggs, but they do protect the hens. If you want a rooster, buy a couple of chicks from the straight-run selection, and likely as not you'll get at least one roo.
Most chicks come already vaccinated for Marek's Disease, which is spread in the dander left by infected birds and can cause paralysis, tumors, blindness, and death in poultry 8 weeks old and older.
If you buy chicks, you will need something in which to house them -- a large cardboard box is sufficient to start with -- a feeder, a waterer, a heat lamp to keep them warm, and some bedding to put down in the box. I use newspaper as bedding, and change it every day. You will also need a "chick starter" feed. No, you can't just feed them cornmeal; they will die. Most of these items you can purchase where you get the chicks.
When you get home, you can set up the box in your living room or a utility room, but it needs to be inside, out of the weather. Chicks have to be kept warm until they get their feathers. Think of it....hen-raised chicks spend most of their time under their mother's feathers, huddled together with the warmth of the hen to keep them cozy. You have to reproduce that warmth mechanically. And because we don't know exactly how warm the chicks like it, I always put the heat lamp on one end of the box, so when the chicks are too warm they can go to the other end of the box, and when they're too cold they can get up under the lamp.
Okay, take a look at the picture I've posted here of the chicks in their box. See if you can spot all the items you need to keep your chicks healthy and happy:
- Box -- check.
- Paper bedding -- check.
- Heat lamp -- check.
- Feeder with chick starter feed -- check.
- Waterer with plenty of fresh water -- check.
- Happy chicks? Check!
NEXT WEEK: Raising chickens, Pt. 3 -- Caring for my chicks