I’m not going to pretend I’m an expert by any means. Instead, I’m going to share with you my experience with raising chicks for the past 5 months. I did years of research to determine what chickens I was going to buy when I finally had a yard to put them in. A lot of problems I ran into when reading was the amount of chickens that were talked about. Most homesteading books are about large flocks. I have 7 birds in my smallish backyard. Here’s a breakdown of the process I went through to raise my very own (tiny) flock of birds!
What breed to get?
The first thing I researched was what breed I was interested in getting for my flock. I knew I wanted friendly and social birds who were good layers, but I also wanted pretty eggs. I decided on the cross-breed of Easter Eggers who lay anywhere from white to pink to green to blue eggs. At this point, I have 3 laying hens and I have two pink layers and one blue layer. The eggs are gorgeous. More importantly, the hens are great with the rough hands of children. While we accidentally ended up with a rooster, and he does protect his hens around the kids, he isn’t randomly vicious or mean. He does his job which is protecting his hens. However, he knows his place with me and he isn’t allowed to roam around the kids without supervision.
I also ended up with one Bielefelder hen thanks to a friend. She is a large hen who will lay large brown eggs. She’s pictured below on the left. Her name is Eggnes and she is the sweetest girl. I’ve read her breed is quite a friendly and social breed and they lay well.
Where to keep the chicks?
We ended up keeping our chicks originally in a big tote (which they quickly outgrew) to a large dog crate until they were mature enough to regulate their temperatures. While it worked well for us, the biggest problem I didn’t know I’d face was all. the. dust. Chickens are very dirty. The bedding creates so much dust and it flies everywhere. We ended up moving them to our basement bathroom that no one uses so they had their own room, it was kept warm with their heating light, and the mess was contained. We started working on their coop around 9/10 weeks of age. By 8 weeks you’re in the clear as long as it’s decent outside. We got to a point where the outside temps were sitting in the 70s consistently enough for me to let them outside. They got a coop with a run and were finally enjoying outside life.
For awhile while we were building the coop, I’d go to them every morning and bring them outside to free-range. They had their feathers in so I wasn’t worried about temp regulation. They never wandered far and got to eat a lot of bugs. Every night I’d put them back in the crate and bring them inside. It was a little more time-intensive than I anticipated, and I’m not sure everyone brings their chicks outside, but mine were much happier with sunlight and fresh air each day.
Are they difficult to raise?
Of course I asked myself this question. I have two young kids, a cat, a dog, and a house. Would taking on seven chickens be too much? I think there are two ways to look at this. The first is, yes, of course, taking on seven animals is time-intensive and a little difficult. Especially at the beginning making sure to keep the chicks warm and safe. But once we put them outside, the biggest obstacle we faced was really just learning how we wanted to build the coop and the run, what was best for the bedding choice, making sure the chickens were happy and not bored, and giving them plenty of free-range time.
While we haven’t invested in the automatic coop door (yet), I go out every morning to let them out of the coop and every night to lock them in. Did you know chickens put themselves to bed? That was one of the coolest things to watch them do at first. But birds poop and eat…and poop some more. Everywhere. They don’t care. On each other, in their water, in their food. It’s gross. It’s also extremely important to make sure they have clean food and water so they stay healthy.
But as far as raising backyard chickens? They’re relatively easy pets.
The best part? They give back. I think that’s the most rewarding of it all so far. I’ve cared for them for the past five months, making sure they were warm and fed and healthy and happy. The first day I saw an egg I actually shouted. All my neighbors knew we got our first egg. It was a magical moment.
What does the coop need?
This was something we wondered when we were looking at small coops that were near $1000. What in the world do chickens need that’s so expensive? The answer is this: not much. We used some scrap wood to build our coop with no plan, added two perches initially (a third later when they got bigger), and got nice finishing wood for the outside. We have 6 hens so we built 3 nesting boxes (yet they all use the same one). I got little plastic baskets from Target really cheap, filled them with bedding, and placed a ceramic egg in each one. The ceramic eggs encourage chickens to lay in certain places and also deter poor behavior like eating their own eggs.
We chose to put a tarp at the bottom of the coop floor and put a layer of sand. I got a cheap little box scooper from the store and I use that to clean out their coop every day. It’s amazing how much they poop in there when they’re only in there at night. We felt this was the easiest way to keep it clean for the chickens and it honestly works well. Since the girls only sit in the nesting boxes to lay, they don’t get dirty and I clean those a lot less than scooping the coop.
Free range or run?
I do a mix of both with my chickens. They don’t wander far from their run/coop, but we also have a partially fenced yard. We do not live in the country, so it makes it a little more challenging. Also, a big worry with free-range chickens are hawks. We have woods along our backyard, so the girls are pretty safe in terms of air predators. Don’t get me started on my raccoon-saving adventure. It was wild.
Anyway, since I knew we’d be using the run, we wanted one we could walk into without ducking. We wanted to be able to go inside to open the coop, fill the food and water, and clean it out. Just recently we chose to use sand as the floor bedding in the run as well. Naturally, the chickens ate all the grass within days. The sand is nice for the same scooping aspect as the coop, but the chickens also like to lay in it. We are working on putting a roof over the run so it will remain relatively dry for them. We have perches and a swing for the chickens to jump on and my favorite thing is the little bird mirror I bought them. Did you know chickens like looking at themselves? #conceited
Another thing chickens love in their run is a dust bath. We have a section under their coop that is a mix of dirt, sand, and sometimes fire ash. I love watching the chickens “bathe” in this mixture and clean themselves. (In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I spend a lot of my time watching them). We spend nearly all day outside, so our chickens have a lot of free-range time. They eat a lot of bugs and grass and weeds. They love finding places to lay in dry dirt around the yard. We put a lot of time an effort into their coop and run, but they certainly get a lot of freedom outside of it.
I could probably write on my chickens forever. I think the best way to wrap it up is, yes, they are so worth it. I have enjoyed raising them, watching them (quickly) grow, develop personalities, bond with us, and, now, lay eggs for us. I can’t imagine not hearing them talk to one another or chitter when we come up to them. If you’re up for an adventure and willing to put in the effort, backyard chickens can be part of your daily routine too.
View comments
+ Leave a comment