Chickens! — Planning, Set-Up, and Buying–

Let me start off by saying that I am in love with my chickens. They are a constant barrel of laughs, they’re fun to take care of, and they really don’t require a whole lot of work. I would go so far as to say that everyone in the world could successfully take care of chickens. I preface this post with my love for chickens because there will be some work involved and I really don’t want to get people turned off by just talking about all the work. Even though it is work, it’s not a lot of work. And, as with anything else in backyard farming, what you learn through this work is really priceless. Having your own flocks of chickens is ideal for a better house and garden.

However, it’s also true that if you’re interested in things like homesteading and backyard farming, then you’re probably not the type of shrinking violet that would shy away from a little hands-on work. With this in mind, I want to go over the planning, set-up, and purchasing stages of getting your own chickens.

Planning

I listed the stages in that order for a reason, and you should really be completely set up and ready to go before you ever get your chickens. A big part of this whole thing is the planning stage– where you are not only figuring out what you need and how to get it, but whether your lifestyle is supportive of chickens in the first place. After all, you will need to be around for your chicks fairly regularly while they develop, and you’ll need to be there to close the hen-house door behind them every night when they’re older.

First and foremost, make sure you know how many chickens you’re allowed to have. This may be a surprise to you, but there are actually very few cities that have outlawed chicken ownership (Trenton, NJ being one of them last time I checked). Most cities will let you keep chickens, and none that I know of have the number of chickens at less than two. This is probably because it’s simply inhumane to keep only one chicken, since they are such social creatures and can honestly die from loneliness. Also, no city that I’ve ever heard of will let you keep a rooster in a city lot, so keep that in mind. This is a great resource (http://home.centurytel.net/thecitychicken/chickenlaws.html) that gives an overview of different chicken laws from state to state. Check that out before you move on, then… move on!

In terms of time, well that really depends. I mean, you don’t need to glom onto them and coo over their every move all day. You can leave them for hours at a time and they’ll more or less take care of themselves as long as you provide the food and water. However, you do need to check on them regularly to make sure they’re not too cold, too hot, and make sure that everything is in order in chicky land. If you plan on having them ranging around freely when they’re older, then you’ll need to be around to close the hen-house door behind them every night, but that can be avoided in certain ways and I’ll go over that in a later post. Take all of these time considerations into account before you even consider getting chickens.

If you have decided to dive in and get some chicks, then good for you! It’s time to start thinking about where you’re going to keep them and what stage of chick you’re looking for. Some people decide to start off with fertilized eggs and use chicken incubators to hatch them. Since chicken incubators can often be costly, this option is more reserved for people with small children whom they want to teach about birth. I don’t personally have a whole lot of experience with chicken incubators, so I can’t really speak about the best brands to buy or how to make one. However, I do remember using chicken incubators to hatch chicks in my fourth grade science class and it was awesome! If you have kids, you may want to try it out. If you do, let me know how it went.

In my house, we get newborn chicks and put them in a chicken brooder until they’re old enough to go out into the yard. A chicken brooder is a very simple contraption to build, and you can buy specialty ones if you aren’t prepared to take on the project of building your own. However, I will say that this is a very simple construction project and it’s a perfect way to “get your feet wet” if you don’t have a whole lot of experience with building things. I’m going to post my plans for a very simple chicken brooder that you can make at home in about 10-15 minutes in another post. I just want to get some basic info out there before I get into projects.

Chicken Supplies

In terms of supplies, there are only a few different chicken supplies you need to get before you bring the chicks home, and they’re really not all that expensive. For chicken feeders, I recommend buying a circular trough-feeder for the chicks. This part is not very “DIY”, but you only want to look at chicken feeders that provide your chicks with adequate access to food while helping to keep out their poop (they’re not very picky poopers or… eaters).

You’ll need dedicated chick feed for the first month or so of their development, and hold off on throwing them scraps for a while until they develop more. After about two weeks, you’ll need to start putting grit in their food (about 1 lb per 20 lbs of food). For water, I really like using the old water bottle method. With this method, you simply turn an old water bottle into a waterer for your chicks that will be hung up and out of the way– accessible to your chickens mouths but not their butts. With anything having to do with chicks, you need to take into account the fact that they will poop all over everything, so take steps to keep their food and water out of the way.

You’ll need some sort of bedding for your chicks as well. I use shredded newspaper since I get it delivered every day, but some people like using pine shavings as bedding. Whatever you do, don’t use a flat surface and don’t use cedar mulch. When chicks spend all day standing on unshredded newspaper or a plastic tub bottom, they develop something called “splay leg” which will really mess them up later in life. Cedar shavings are way too aromatic for young chickens, and it will turn into an unhealthy environment very fast.

Also, you need to have something for them to perch on. I use an old dowel and a couple pieces of scrap wood for this, and I’ll show you how to do all this in the next couple posts.

Aside from this, you need a 250 watt, red heat lamp and a nice place to keep the brooder during the development of your chicks. Once all of this is in order, you can start deciding on where to get your chicks from.

Buying from a Chicken Hatcheries vs. from a Local Farm Store

Buying your chicks from a chicken hatchery has its pros and it’s cons, the same as when you buy from a local farm store. One of the major pros of buying your chicks through a chicken hatchery is the sheer amount of breed choices you’ll have. Local farm stores will only have a few breeds on hand at any given time, but chick hatcheries have a huge assortment to select from. If you’re looking for a specific breed, chicken hatcheries may be your best bet. However, you should also keep in mind that most chicken hatcheries will require you to buy at least 25 chicks at a time. This is not only to make the purchase worth their time, but also because the chicks will keep each other warm during shipping. Since 25 chicks is way more than ANY city will let you keep in your backyard without a permit, you should consider finding other people to share in the chicks with you once they arrive.

Due to the whole “buying in bulk” thing, my family and I generally buy our chicks from our local farm store. The Eugene Backyard farmer here in Eugene has a ton of great information and supplies, and I like the fact that I can inspect each chick before I buy it. I generally only buy two at a time, so this is convenient for me. Keep in mind that you should probably buy one more chick than you think you’ll need, since you may lose one to disease or predators, and you may even find out that one of your chicks is a rooster. Even though they’re sexed at the hatchery, it’s only about 95% accurate and there’s still a chance you could get a rooster. If it turns out you have a rooster or all your chicks turn into producing hens, it’s not difficult to unload the extra one either through an online ad or through a tasty soup.

Overview and Costs

Owning chickens is amazing and I love it. It’s really not a whole lot of work and it’s really not that expensive to get started. While you will never really end up “saving” money from owning chickens, this project really isn’t about saving money. It’s about food independence, food security, and knowing that your food is consistent and coming from healthy animals that live good lives.

Expect to spend at least 70-75 bucks your first time around if you buy everything new, but this is all stuff you can re-use next time you get chicks (except the food and bedding!) so it’s more of an investment than anything. If you repurpose a bunch of stuff then you can end up bringing that down a bunch more, but if you buy a bunch of high-tech stuff it can definitely go way up. Remember, this is just the beginning stage and I haven’t gone over the coop construction costs yet. Mine cost me 9 bucks to build out of free/cheap wood and stuff I found lying around, but yours may cost more depending on how you go about it.