Getting Started in Chickens:

This page is brand-new and I hope to add to soon. Feel free to email me if you have questions you'd like to see added.

WHY are you interested in raising chickens?
How much room do you have for your chickens?
But I live in town??
Where do I get chickens?
What do chickens eat?
Do they need any supplements or vitamins?
What equipment do I need?

WHY are you interested in raising chickens?

....and WHY am I asking this question? Before you start to build a pen, buy or construct nest boxes, etc. we must take a good look at WHY you are interested in keeping a flock of chickens. Are you interested in fresh, home EGGS? Would you prefer a good MEAT bird? Chickens that will give you BOTH? Do you want to see a beautiful chicken FORAGING in your back yard? Are you interested in waking up to lovely sound of a rooster CROWING? Would you like a bird who will help clean up ticks and other BUGS from your yard without using harmful chemicals? Are you interested in a GUARD animal to let you know when visitors come that isn't as frightening as a dog?

EGGS
If all you are interested in is eggs (and this alone is a perfectly good reason to keep some chickens around!) then let's look at some other factors: How many people are in your household? Do you like white eggs, brown eggs, or something a little more unusual? Would you like large eggs, or small eggs? Depending on how often or how many eggs you and/or your family like to eat, you may want to end up with one to three hens per family member if you crave fresh eggs. If you like white eggs, you may want to investigate a breed like any of the color varieties of Leghorns, Blue Andalusians, Buff or Black Minorcas. If you prefer brown egg-layers, then naturally I would steer you towards my favorite Jersey Giant Chickens in Blue, Black or Splash (or a combination of colors). Other good brown egg-layers include Australorps, Rhode Island Reds, Orpingtons (Buff, White, etc.) or Wyandottes. If you are interested in something totally different in eggs, look at Marans whose eggs are dark maroon-chocolate in color or Ameraucanas with blue-green eggs, Sam I Am...

MEAT
You may prefer looking at Cornish Game Hens or Cornish Rocks, although any of the heavy breeds are great for putting farm-fresh chicken on the table.

BOTH
Again, your heavy breeds like Jersey Giants, Australorps, Rhode Island Reds, Orpingtons, etc. do a great job of providing you with both eggs and meat.

FORAGING
If you have plenty of yard or property, you may wish to turn your chickens out during the day and let them forage for themselves. This will help cut the cost of your feed and you get to watch your chickens....being chickens! Some breeds are good foragers, others are NOT. Again, the Jersey Giants fit into the forager category well. I highly recommend looking at Rare Heritage Breeds that are usually good foragers - you can raise something different than all of your friends and neighbors, AND know that you are helping to preserve our country's more traditional and endangered poultry! If you plan to let your chickens roam free with no coop or other protective building, a variety of bantams might be just what you'd enjoy - they are great foragers and can be less susceptible to predator loss, and have loads of personality.

CROWING
Some breeds/sizes of roosters have different sounding crows. Personally, I dislike the sound of most bantam-sized roosters' crow. You can visit birds in person at a county fair, poultry show, or possibly at a farm if you make arrangements for a visit to hear what you might like. You may also be able to choose a specific rooster whose crow is music to your ears! They all have different voices, I can often tell which rooster is crowing because he sounds different from his brothers or room-mates. It is often entertaining to hear a young rooster starting to learn how to crow.

BUGS
Your good foragers will be most apt to eat bugs from your yard with glee! You may also want to consider pheasants, guineas, or turkeys for the same purpose.

GUARD
In my opinion, the best guardians of the poultry are, same with the bugs, the guineas, turkeys or pheasants (in that order for guarding and sounding-off the alarm...) although chickens will also do this if allowed to roam or if they can SEE the front yard or drive or your children's play-area. They can snitch on dogs, cattle, horses, goats, etc. that may have gotten loose or children who are out-of-bounds! Bantam chickens are sometimes fussier and thus make good guardians of the yard. And, no one sues you for biting problems! LOL

Feel free to visit our game bird site at www.cbfsuperquail.com to learn more about guineas, turkeys and/or pheasant!

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How much room do you have for your chickens?

The smallest varieties of chickens are bantams, the average ones are standard and the exceptionally large are referred to as giants. If you don't have a lot of room, you may want to consider bantams. You can do a Google search for chicken coops and find a "tractor" style coop that moves around in your yard easily that will totally contain about six hens for a small laying flock and provide space for their feed and water, and you can gather eggs easily without fear of letting the birds out, or getting anything gross on your shoes. This is great for small-scale eggs for the family or even just one person, when you move the coop you leave behind fertilizer and never kill off a section of your yard, and these are very efficient. You can build your own or purchase one ready-made - it's a little costly, but if you aren't the do-it-yourself type or if you don't have the time or knowledge in building, this can be a great alternative for you!

You can build or buy coops that are raised and your chickens are never on the ground. These too, are fairly small but would handle a fair number of birds.

We house our chickens in a larger fenced and enclosed yard (fencing on sides and poultry netting on the top) that is high enough to walk in without stooping, and each individual area has a small building or shelter so the feed stays dry, the birds have a place to roost out of the weather, and the waterer is sheltered in most of the "condos" as well. There are advantages to being able to lock the birds up, out of the weather or out of harm's reach.

You can get by with smaller housing if you turn the birds out during the day to forage or free-range. I highly recommend a coop or poultry yard for protection at night or when you are away to prevent predators from eating your birds or from your chickens roosting over your car (you know what they'll leave behind on it), laying eggs in inconvenient places (on your roof, or under your house, for example) or otherwise making pests of themselves. They are curious and will get into anything they possibly can. Picture a clothesline in the warm spring with my best linens out getting that spring-fresh natural scent....then I look again, and there are bantam hens out there roosting on my best sheets....ugh, it happened.

Overall if your chickens will stay in their coop or yard, they should have 6 square feet per bird for heavy or giant breeds, about 4 square feet per bird for standard size and 3 square feet per bird for bantams as a minimum guideline. The more space you give them, the happier they (and you) will be with the results. The more space, the less maintenance work you will have to do (scooping droppings, etc.) NOTE: this is clear floor space requirements, not nest boxes or where feed or water stations are, etc. These are the smallest possible area you could put the birds in. To conserve space, external feeding system and/or automatic watering can be used to make the most out of a small area.

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But I live in town???

Yeah, so? Many cities will allow you to keep at least one hen per person in your household, but you may not have a crowing rooster. You can check with your city, county, or township government to find out what the regulations are in your area but in many places you can still keep chickens!!

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Where do I get chickens?

Okay, let's take a teensy backstep from this question and ponder if you are most interested in buying HATCHING EGGS, day-old CHICKS, STARTED or partially-grown chicks, or laying HENS?

HATCHING EGGS can be shipped through the mail safely and if you like the miracle of watching the cute babies burst from their shell, this is the best route for you! If you do not yet have an incubator, you can start with a basic styrofoam model like the Little Giant or GQF styrofoam types, I highly recommend getting one set up with a turner and fan. You will also want to purchase an additional thermometer that is meant for use in incubators, as the ones that come with the styrofoam incubators are notorious for being incorrect, and you could cook your babies!! These aren't especially hard incubators to use, and a properly equipped one will cost you about $100. If you are crafty, you can build your own or look at bigger and more expensive models if the styrofoam ones do not suit you. We hope to add some links to this section on building your own incubator, and where to buy manufactured ones soon. Some terminology for you: There are differences between fertility, and hatchability or viability. A hatchable or viable egg is one that is more likely to hatch. A fertilized egg may not necessarily hatch for whatever reason - eggs are susceptible to bacteria, the egg may have gotten too hot or too cold which would affect its hatchability. You can find breeders through internet searches, poultry fanciers' clubs, advertisements in poultry magazines, or sometimes in your local newspaper or at the feed mill or store.

CHICKS can also be shipped through the mail as day-olds for a fairly economical price. Because they do not need to eat for up to 72 hours after they are hatched, they can be safely shipped but we strongly recommend buying from a breeder instead of a hatchery and buying from someone who only ships Express Mail. This will deliver your chicks in the quickest manner and will be less stressful to them (and you!) to give you both the best start of a human/avian relationship. Some terminology for you: straight run means unsexed chicks - you will most likely get some hens and some roosters, about 50/50. Pullets will be young hens. Cockerels are young males or roosters. Again, I strongly encourage everyone to purchase from breeders verses hatcheries - where quality or quantity prevails. You are most likely to have healthy birds that are free from genetic flaws or problems and that are more likely to be show quality if you would ever like to get into that type of thing....and most often, the birds will have better personality than hatchery-bought ones.

STARTED or partially-grown chicks can be obtained from livestock sales or auctions, or a local breeder or chicken fancier. The birds usually do not need heat lights at this point, and are less likely to die due to temperature changes or other environmental problems. You may be able to easily determine roosters from hens at this point.

HENS that are already laying may fit the bill nicely if you'd like to have eggs immediately. A hen will lay eggs most productively at under three years of age, and a chicken can live up to 10 years if it is cared for properly and hens may certainly lay eggs longer than three years, but the quantity and possibly quality will slack off. We prefer to replace PART of our hens every year so that we have younger ones always coming up. You can find ads in your local newspaper, at the feed mill or store, or you can go to a livestock auction or sale or directly to a breeder who might be interested in selling you some hens or adult birds.

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What do chickens eat?

Chickens who free-range will not require as much feed as those kept in smaller, more confined quarters. For chicks, a chick starter (non-medicated) or game bird starter (non-medicated) with high protein (20-30%) is best. When they get old enough to start laying eggs, or around 4 - 6 months, you can switch them to a layer mash, usually around 16% protein. Usually, you buy chicken feed from a mill or feed store in 50 lb. bags. It is best to buy no more feed than your birds will consume in two weeks, as it can get stale and buggy. You can store your chicken feed in a plastic or metal trash can with a lid, or if you have an old refrigerator, it can be used laid on its back and will be fairly rodent-proof. Make sure you clean it well, before using it for feed, and let it dry completely.

As we've covered earlier, chickens do enjoy eating bugs and if you want to spoil your chickens or get them very accustomed to you, you can give them treats such as mealworms and you will become their best friend.

Fruit and vegetable scraps may be given to your chickens in small quantities, but do avoid avacados as they are poisonous! Chickens would enjoy stale bread, crackers, cake, etc. Favorites: watermelon (or any melon) you have to cut or break it open for them, apple core, citrus hulls, unpopped, stale or burnt popcorn.

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Do they need any supplements or vitamins?

Especially if the birds do not have access to the ground (like in a raised pen), a bird who is about four weeks old or older will need grit to aid in digestion. When hens reach about 4 months, they should also be given access to oyster shell for calcium to help them produce hard-shelled eggs. You can buy pet bird grit for your chickens if you need to provide them with grit (the package will sometimes say "gravel and grit"). Oyster shell can be purchased from a mill or feed store.

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What equipment do I need?

Your chickens will need some sort of waterer. If you plan to raise the babies, I recommend the mason-jar type waterer bases that you add your own jar to complete. This will work well for young birds. They should have enough water to last them about a day without needing a refill, and you should be in the habit of cleaning the waterer and disinfecting it every time it is refilled. Other equipment for a brooder, or the nursery for chicks, would include something to give them firm footing, such as the rubbery shelf-liner that is best if used at least the first 3-5 days. It can be discarded or washed (you could even throw it in the washing machine if you want!) Baby chicks need extra heat for a while - this is easiest to accomplish with the use of heat lamps. Some say that the red infrared bulbs help prevent picking problems, but we always use the white lights. Be cautious if the heat lamp you are using has a plastic base where the light bulb screws in, these are only rated for 100 Watt bulbs and CAN CAUSE A FIRE if you put a higher wattage bulb in it. An average heat lamp bulb is 250 Watts, and you want to make sure not to rely on the clamp as the only way to hold the lamp away from your babies and their brooder - a cable tie to secure the cord so that the lamp cannot fall is a good way to accomplish this. Always keep extra bulbs on hand. It is also a good idea to have two or more lamps over a brooder so that if one bulb burns out, you can have a spare and the babies don't get too cold, they can rapidly die. You can purchase a commercially made chick feeder, whatever style looks good to you. You could also put feed out in a dish that is low to the ground, like a cut-down butter tub container. We like the long, trough feeders with a cover that has small oval holes that the birds feed from (the metal kind are better than the plastic kind, just our opinion.)

For older birds, or larger groups of birds, you will need larger watering and feeding equipment. I prefer the 30 lb. red plastic Kuhl brand ever-feeder that can be hung. It is best to have the food/water at the level of your birds' backs. This will help keep the water clean and is better for the birds. For waterers, we like the 7 gallon plastic Little Giant brand waterers, if you have a small number of chickens you may prefer the 5 or even 3 gallon size in the same style. They are pretty reliable and it is easy to see, even at a distance, how low the water might be. If you need to save space, look into an automatic watering system and external feed system where only the feeding trough is accessible to your birds, the feed bin is external to their pen. You can also feed without going in the pen this way.

If at all possible, have a duplex outlet accessible to your chicken coop, with GFI protection. This way, you can add a heat lamp or flourescent bulb, or if you need to run an electric heater for a waterer you can do this easily. Some of the old-timers, our grandparents or great-granparents, swore by heating the hen house with a candle - NEVER, EVER, EVER do this!!! You can easily cause a fire and burn up all your birds! (And more, depending on the location of the chicken coop.)

Laying hens will need nest boxes - about 10x10 for bantams, 12x12 for standard or 18x18 for giant breeds. Line them with straw or hay, some people use nest box pads that are AstroTurf or even carpet. How many do you need? It really depends on your birds. I have 20 birds that use two boxes (they have more, but they use two) and I have three hens that use two boxes. (Go figure!) I think that the standard rule is one nest box for about 4 or 5 hens. Nest boxes can be made at home or purchased already-made.

Other equipment that is handy that you might need for daily care/maintenance: 5 gallon buckets become a real godsend, a basket to gather eggs into can be nice although you can use a gallon ice-cream bucket or like container if you like, a poultry net is a good thing to have on hand if you have escapees or need to move the birds or catch one for any reason. If bending down is troublesome for you, a "grabber" to get the eggs if the nest boxes are low is also a wonderful thing. It takes a little practice, but it sure can make life easier.

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