Beginning with Chickens

One of the things we made the mistake of was not having our yard and house ready for them. We bought supplies for them when we bought them but beyond that nothing. We scrambled when we brought them home for a place to keep them. We didn't know what to do. So here is your first suggestion...
1. Make sure you know where your yard and house will be before you bring them home.
2. Also make sure you know where they will go while they are still little. More on this later

If you bring home babies you do have time before definately needing your yard and house. But have a general idea of where it will be and supplies you will need. Our chicks go from inside the house, to a large cage, to their yard in about a months time.

Right now we are using a metal storage shed for our house we purchased it at Home Depot. At the time it was alot cheaper than buying the wood etc for what we wanted. And we like it the door shuts and its real easy to clean.

Our yard is divided into 2 areas so that we can grow green grass, beans, cucumbers in one area and keep the chickens in the other till the "green yard" is ready for them to graze. They love this! Shade is a consideration as well our yard has shade and sun since they love to take sand baths in the sun.

We have in the past had just a house and let the chickens free range. This is where they are free to roam wherever they want. We had 40 acres and they roamed all over eating bugs, grass, dog food when they got near it. They are omnivores and will eat just about anything. This free ranging worked wonderful. But we have not lived in an area where that kind situation is easily done since.

Also consider your laws if you live in city limits you will want to call your Zoning Office and find out what laws pretain to your area. Sometimes you can keep chickens in city limits but are limited on the amount and if you can have a rooster or not.

When we bought our first we bought them from a feed store near us in the spring. Usaully they have a sign up that says Spring Chick Days! Around Easter time they start having chicks of all kinds come in. As well as turkeys, ducks, geese, etc.

You have hens only or straight run to choose from. Hens only is just that they are all hens straight run is hens and roosters and you don't know what your getting till a few weeks have passed.
Usually the hens will cost more straight run are cheaper but most of the time you get mostly roosters.

Our first flock we ate most of them because they were mostly roosters. When you buy chicks from a feed store sometimes they have a sale buy ten chicks get a 5lb sack of starter feed free. This works well and draws alot of people in.

Another choice is look in the paper and buy adult birds already laying. They are older hens that aren't laying as well as they did at first. But they are laying and grown ready to use. The problem is they don't last long for laying and aren't as much fun. You can also get chicks out of the paper as well. With older chickens you run the risk of them being past their egg laying prime.

Another way is to order them from a company that ships them. This is fun for the kids to go to the post office and pick up your new baby chicks. You get what you want and you pick the date you can have them shipped. You can read about the type of bird it is in the catalog or website and its uses. But sometimes one or two die in shipment and they cost a little more.

The choice is yours we have done it all but in the end you have to happy with what you do.

A rooster or not a rooster, this is up to you but the hens do not need a rooster to lay eggs. He can be helpful or a pain in the butt. When ours free ranged we had 2 and when a hawk came by they would screech and the hens would run for cover. They look for food and when they find it they call the hens over to eat. But they also attack you sometimes a good kicking has helped us with this problem it hasn't hurt them just told them who was boss. Our daughter has a scar on her nose she got when she was 3 from a rooster. The roosters are always fun to have their crowing is a joy for us. But you don't have to have one for eggs. Unless you want fertilized eggs.

Well now that you have them home where to keep them?
1. In the bathtub but it will smell after about an hour and the tub clogs up to. Oh and you might want a bath.
2. In a kiddie pool this works great if you have a big enough room to put it like your shed that isn't drafty. But they can jump out after about a week. It cleans out easily.This also is great for large amounts of chicks there are no corners for them to squish each other in.
3. A big rubbermaid container. This is our container of choice right now. Easily cleaned, they can't jump out, and when chicks aren't in it I store all the chick stuff feeders etc in it in the hayloft.

Items you will need for them. They are babies they need to be kept warm. So a lamp of some kind ours clamps in the edge of the container. Feeders for little birds stuff that they can't jump in and soil all the food and water to. And the thing I have to have pine shavings keeps the smell down from their droppings and keeps them dry. We clean this out twice a day with fresh. All this you can buy at the feed store or online. You can improvise to we have and it all worked fine. Mostly they need food, water, warmth,to be kept dry, and out of breezes.

They stay in the house for a week in the laundry room because of the cats. And then they go outside in a cage with a house and the heat lamp for about a month. From there they go in the chicken yard.

The feed is up to you organic or non organic. We buy from the feed store. First Chick Start after about 2 weeks or so we buy Chick Grower, and then at about 4 months maybe 5 I start them on Layin crumbles or Layin Pellets. Again this is all up to you. Crumbles is just like the chick start in consistency pellets is just that pellets.

We also feed them kitchen scraps, I have a compost bucket and chicken bucket what can't go into compost goes to the chickens they love it.I also in the winter give them cracked corn that is just me you can if you want but don't have to. In the summer we dump grass clippers in the yard for them they love them. They also love an old pile of hay to scratch around in to and garden produce.

As they grow older you will want to have feeders that they can dump over or jump and dig out all the food and waste it. They love to scratch around for their food. When you see a chicken scratching in the yard that is what they are doing. They will do this in their feeders.

We use an automatic waterer for ours they have fresh water all the time and we don't have to worry. We have used the automatic one for chickens but had a problem with them clogging up and so we replaced it with one for livestock and used a small tub for the water. This has worked great for the last three years. We dump the tub out a few times a week and the waterer fills it back up automatically. The chickens will drop food into it or leaves fall into it so that is why we clean it out.

They aren't hard I have never had a bad experience except dogs getting in, letting chicks get cold by accident, or the little things that we forget to do or not do. Those are the things that help you learn what to do different the next time.