Raising Barred Rock Laying Hens

May 9, 2008 Six day-old chicks arrived.

The little yellow ones are pheasants, the big dark ones are chickens.

May 25, 2008 Chicks are now 18 days old, growing rapidly, and no longer need the heat lamp during the day (though they still need it at night). They've just about tripled in size.

Two and a half weeks old.

Chickens like all animals that spend most of their time outdoors can get themselves into trouble. Usually it's mild stuff, escaping their enclosure, eating stuff they shouldn't, cuts and scrapes, etc. but sometimes things can get serious. This happened to one of my chickens.

It's been a very rainy end of July and beginning of August. Generally wet and dreary. One of my chickens somehow got herself thoroughly stuck in mud, drenched with water, and nearly died. If my dad hadn't found her when he did I'm sure she would have died. He brought her inside, I washed her up, used a hair dryer to dry and warm her and put her in the chick pen indoors.

Lucky is now completely a pet chicken, very friendly and wants nothing to do with the other chickens. Actually when I tried to reintroduce her to the chicken pen they attacked her. I'm going to slowly try to reintroduce her by setting her pen down next to the large pen for a few hours a day and hope they get used to each other again. If not, when the new chicken pen is built she'll be put in a separate section that was being planned for either some bantams or ducks. She's not aggressive so I don't think she'll pick on smaller birds (not that bantams will usually put up with being picked on).

Update - September 27: Nothing is ever predictable when it comes to animals. When I order my chicks I was told that 9/10 chicks are female which isn't a bad ratio. However probability is just probability, individual result vary. I have 4 roosters! That only leaves 2 hens to lay eggs for me and 3 of the roosters are destined to be dinner because I can only keep one.

CorrectionI have 5 roosters, Lucky turns out to be a rooster as well. I'm not going to be getting many eggs. Next year I'm buying pullets (young grown hens) rather than chicks, this has been quite frustrating.

Chickens are very easy to raise, they don't require a lot of maintenance. With food prices going up raising a small flock for eggs, meat, or both can save you a lot of money.

When I raised chickens for meat last year it only cost about $0.26 a pound to raise 6 chickens for 10 weeks. I estimate that once my hens start laying it will cost less than a penny per egg.

If you don't live in a rural area, please check with local ordinances on raising poultry. Some cities completely bar residents from raising chickens, others require you to only raise hens because roosters are very loud.

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