Raising Backyard Chickens

Backyard chickens are becoming popular among city folks. My family decided to raise chickens in the backyard because we wanted fresh eggs. We also considered the hens to be an investment; if our income suddenly plummeted in today's bad economy, we would at least have a source of protein in our backyard.

I am not sure I could eat any of my hens, but some people do. It would probably be easier to eat them if I had not named them, or if I had bought all the same breed so that I could not identify individual birds.

In addiition to providing us with plenty of nutritious eggs to eat, sell, trade or give away, the hens will help keep weeds and insects down, and produce nitrogen-rich manure to compost and put on the garden.

We got our baby chicks at Metzger's Country Store the first week of April 2011. We started with just four. We bought two Australorps, Blanche and Maud, because they are excellent layers, friendly and calm, and bear confinement well. I also chose two Aracaunas on a bit of a whim, because they lay colorful eggs and were remarkably cute! The Aracauna chicks themselves are colorful, so these two girls are named Goldie and Hazel.

Our city allows five hens plus one rooster. All of our chicks are female. Roosters are a liability in the city. They make a lot of noise and disturb the neighbors. We got all females and decided to substitute an extra hen for the rooster. We will not be able to hatch more baby chicks, but we will have plenty of eggs from our rooster-free flock of hens.

After we had had our pullets for one week, I realized I wanted to go ahead and fill out the flock. I learned it might be difficult to add more birds to the existing flock once the girls were adults. When chickens are babies they accept new individuals into the flock, but adults will often reject and fight newcomers. So we returned to the feed store and bought another Australorp, Alma, and a Columbia Rock, Hilda, who immediately began ruling the roost.

Our chickens are now just over a month old and almost fully feathered. They still have down on their heads. They have been living in a plastic tote in the bathroom, and we are very ready to move them outside to their chicken tractor. They are also eager to move to bigger quarters. They are getting quite crowded in their bathroom tote.

We got our chicken tractor last year through Freecycle. It needed some repairs, and ill needs a secure roof, which I hope to have completed this weekend. It will be too small when the hens are grown, but for now it is fine for my pullets. I am working on ideas for a chicken coop and run. I think the girls are going to need a chicken house by fall.

It is probably a better idea to build or buy your chicken house before you get your baby chicks. I did it backwards, so now I have a problem to solve. I have some money, but not enough to buy a ready-made chicken coop for six hens. I do not have a lot of carpentry skills, so I am not confident in my ability to build one. I am hoping I can find a nice coop on Craigslist that I can move to my backyard.

The girls and I are glad you could join us in our backyard chicken adventure!