Anyone Raise Chickens?

[goldtopper]

After doing tons of research, I'm about to set foot in...chicken poo.
I'm scouring craigslist for playhouses, coops, shed, forts- whatever I can get free or cheap. You see, I have the building skills of a chef...so.
I'm going with a small backyard flock of Orpingtons or Rhode Island reds, just hens.
Any tips on housing and first hand rearing knowledge would be much appreciated.

 

[asatfan]

We've had many chickens over the years. My wife wants to get some again (I'm not that keen on it) for the fresh eggs. There is a real difference between fresh home raised, and store bought!

If you live in the country...or maybe not....you'll need to keep them fenced well. I've always had fence wire over the top, too, as some breeds fly well. Also, it keeps out the racoons, foxes, coyotes, dogs, hawks, etc. They're very easy to maintain. Keep some decent grain, and let them have all your table scraps. They love weeds and grass, so if you have a small flock, you might want to have a movable coop. Keep fresh water available (they muck it up in a hurry) and that's about it. We always had at least one rooster, as the hens seem much happier! I think Rhode Island Reds give white eggs...not sure about the Orpintons. We never had much trouble. All of our hens died of old age and that can be as much as 5 or 6 years! Of course they stop laying well after 2 or so.

Best of luck!

 

[emu!]

We had over 100 chickens when I was a kid. My first chore was to gather the eggs after school. My uncle had a whole chicken plantation...thousands of chickens with the egg weighers and everything.

We'd buy our chicks through the mail...they came in boxes of about 25. The boxes had little holes in them. Lots of chirping going on. We kept the chicks in the pullet room seperate from the hens until they were ready to join the crowd. The main hen roost looked like football stadium bleachers. This room also had wooden chicken boxes on all three walls. The wooden boxes, about 6 high, where maybe 2' x 2' and filled with straw. The hens magically congregated in the hen roost room at dawn, and someone (usually me) would close the door to protect them from skunks. Usually, they would fly up into a wooden box to lay an egg...sometimes not. Chicken wire covered the windows. At dusk, someone opened the door, and the hens pucked their way around the fenced in hen yard all day looking for worms, bugs, etc. There was also a stock tank for water. Chicken feed was poored into the long chicken feeders around 6 PM or so. This feed was bought at the co-op and was supposed to be good for the hen's egg production. Once a year in the winter, my dad would start a small log fire in the hen yard. A huge metal kettle was positioned over the fire and filled with water. My brother and I would catch chickens...my dad held them by the legs...and with a sharp hatchet...off with their heads. Funny thing was, they kept blinking and moving their beeks after decapitation. And the body would flap the wings like crazy. After the blood letting, the body was doused into the boiling water and my mother would start-a-plucking. The feathers came out pretty easily after the scalding hot water loosened them up. Then the gutting happened...not a happy experience for the chickens.

 

[studio1087]

We have 5 laying chickens.

We live on 40 acres in the country and 5 chickens give us more organic eggs than we can eat.

It started as a 4H project for my daughter and evolved into us buying a Hen Spa.

This little coop has two wheels inside. The chickens poop on the grass and once a week you push down on the lever (the weels deploy) and move the thing 10 feet. The rain washes the poop into the lawn. The lawn looks beautiful. You never clean up poop. You get 5 eggs per day.

It wouldn't take a lot of thought to knock off this design....it's very clever.

http://www.henspa.com/

We painted ours brick red to match our brick home and it sits out near my wife's raised garden beds a couple hundred feet from the house. The guy that came up with the Hen Spa had a great idea. It gets delivered common carrier in parts in a big corrugated pallet gaylord and you put it together like a big dog house. All the lumber in the kit was straight and true.

5 birds make lots of eggs. 30 per week is plenty for a family of 5. We give lots of eggs away to friends.

John

 

[allen st. john]

We live in a suburb of NYC where a quarter acre lot is big, but we had a chicken (Clover was a special needs chicken so, sadly, she wasn't with us long) that my daughter hatched in her second-grade class.

But lots of neighbors have chickens too. The one thing to watch--raccoons. It's pretty hard to raccoon-proof a coop--they have nimble little fingers, and they like nothing more than chickens. As much as you might try to avoid it, I think it's inevitable to get attached to your hens, and having one killed in this way is pretty grim.

 

[10Alex10]

I bet this guy does.
image removed

Legend has it that he was raised in a chicken coop by chickens.

 

[ROADMAN]

my son is afraid of spiders

image removed

 

[mechanicdave]

I picked up a bucket of them the other day.

 

[drf64]

We have 5 laying chickens.

We live on 40 acres in the country and 5 chickens give us more organic eggs than we can eat.

It started as a 4H project for my daughter and evolved into us buying a Hen Spa.

This little coop has two wheels inside. The chickens poop on the grass and once a week you push down on the lever (the weels deploy) and move the thing 10 feet. The rain washes the poop into the lawn. The lawn looks beautiful. You never clean up poop. You get 5 eggs per day.

It wouldn't take a lot of thought to knock off this design....it's very clever.

http://www.henspa.com/

We painted ours brick red to match our brick home and it sits out near my wife's raised garden beds a couple hundred feet from the house. The guy that came up with the Hen Spa had a great idea. It gets delivered common carrier in parts in a big corrugated pallet gaylord and you put it together like a big dog house. All the lumber in the kit was straight and true.

5 birds make lots of eggs. 30 per week is plenty for a family of 5. We give lots of eggs away to friends.

John

The Henspa human models look really happy. I guess there is pleasure to be had in movable coops.

On a serious note, I'd love to move to the country, bring along the horse we now board, buy him a friend, and raise chickens, guinea fowl, milk goats and maybe a lama or two to keep the coyotes away. Not to mention big organic garden, fruit trees and maybe some feeder calves. I grew up on a farm. I love the smell of manure and I'm not making that up. You know, the organic, been on the ground a while cow manure smell, along with loamy earth on a warm spring day? Nectar to my nose.

dan the wannabe farmer

 

[timgreene]

I have a duck, not one of my better ideas.

 

[hannigan]

Coyotes were often killing my friends chickens now there is a guard dog and the coyote stay away.

 

[choupique]

I hate chickens. When I lived in Hawaii my neighbor raised fighting roosters. They were always getting loose and ending up in a tree outside my bedroom window. The racket they made was maddening. I think 3 am was their favorite time to start up with the crowing. Did I forget to mention that I hate chickens?

 

[doster]

I've got six chickens and I love them. The eggs are incredible. Protect them from varmints, give them water and food and they are good to go.
City chickens have names, so they are pets and it's sad when something gets them, but that's nature I guess.
They can be quite friendly, following you around and are happy to be held and the sounds they make are soothing.
Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens will tell you everything you need to know. Check local zoning, I'm seven miles from downtown and we're allowed to have chickens.
They are awesome, each breed offers something different.

 

[guitarguytim]

I hate chickens as well... My Dad loved raising chickens, they're noisy, smelly, and roosters are freaking mean!

The only up side I see happened about 10 years ago when I was living in Mozambique... If you wanted chicken, you had to buy live chickens and butcher them yourself... Fortunately as a child I had learned this "skill". I was one of the few Americans I knew who ate chicken fajitas regularly

 

[bossaholic]

I too have been entertaining the idea of raising chickens and/or rabbits for a food source.

I live in the country with an acre of land. Been looking for an inexpensive coup. My only concern is being anchored down. We don't travel that much, but I remember my cousin raising chickens and they could never go anywhere because they had to feed and water the chickens daily.

 

[bossaholic]

I hate chickens. When I lived in Hawaii my neighbor raised fighting roosters. They were always getting loose and ending up in a tree outside my bedroom window. The racket they made was maddening. I think 3 am was their favorite time to start up with the crowing. Did I forget to mention that I hate chickens?

I grew up on Maui and the locals love their chickens. Since all of Maui is zoned agricultural (even the crammed neighborhoods), it seems chickens are everywhere. I too lived next to a neighbor who had a chicken coup right out side my bedroom window. Damn roosters crowed ALL NIGHT LONG and it stunk like ammonia all of the time.

 

[3 Chord Monte]

I hate chickens.

Ferrule cats are better.

I suppose coyotes are worse.

I hate chickens.

If you love chickens, fine. Otherwise, keep in mind that eggs and chicken meat are cheap. Chickens are dirty and they are a pain. Roosters are worse. I thought chickens were fine until I was surrounded by them.

 

[jefrs]

Never name your chickens, they're not pets.

If you want to keep foxes out, train your dog to pee around their coop or barn every night.

 

[Buckocaster51]

Go to the library and look at the old issues of Mother Earth News.

Lots of information about raising chickens.

 

[jb12string]

Funny, my neighbor and I were just discussing this tonight, although our discussion was two pronged, eggs and hackles for tying flies.