So You Think You Want Chickens?
So You Think You Want Chickens?
A Guide for Raising Chicks & Some Considerations
If you decide you want chickens, bringing them home for the first time is an exciting and rewarding experience. Simultaneously, it is a task that requires careful consideration and prep work. Baby chicks are needy, helpless creatures, and grown chickens bring big changes for you and your local ecosystem. There is plenty of conflicting information for first-time chicken owners out there, so I want to provide you with a concise and straightforward guide to help you decide if chickens are right for you and how to care for them should you decide to raise them. Before bringing home chicks, I urge you to consider a few important questions.
How will they affect my local ecosystem?
Which breeds are well suited for my area and my needs?
Where should I buy them?
What tools do I need and how do I keep them healthy?
How will I procure a coop and prevent predators?
How Will They Affect the Ecosystem?
Free range chickens can wreak havoc on soil. Scratching and pecking all day long, they spend their time searching for food to keep themselves fed and entertained. If you keep them in a pen directly on the dirt, or only provide a thin layer of bedding, they will quickly diminish the integrity of the ground. This causes erosion, which leads to a whole host of issues including overall degradation of the land by way of flooding issues, soil compaction, loss of biodiversity in the soil, topsoil loss, and increased nitrogen, causing an overgrowth of algae, which blocks waterways and deprives underwater organisms of sunlight.
Your birds will not hesitate to munch on garden vegetables and herbs and will also eat beneficial pollinators in and around the garden if given the opportunity. Proper management of livestock, such as practicing rotational grazing, can help to increase soil fertility, while overgrazing can cause a host of problems. Using movable fencing to keep moving them around to different areas continuously, gives each spot a chance to recover from their foraging. These issues can also be avoided by keeping them in a run, providing them with good forage such as piles of leaves to pick through, fresh hay, food scraps, oats, herbs, etc. as well as several inches of bedding. It is important to consider these possible issues before bringing home chickens so that you can maintain a healthy local ecosystem and preserve the land.
Breed Matters
There are hundreds of breeds of chickens. When deciding which one(s) you want in your flock, consider their ideal climate, how many eggs they typically produce, their potential health issues (some have more than others), temperament, and even what color eggs they lay. Some birds are better suited to tolerate hot summers, while others can’t take the heat but can handle frigid winters. Some lay bright blue eggs, some lay green, and some lay chocolate brown eggs. Hens can lay anywhere from 150 to over 300 eggs per year, depending on breed. Some breeds are classified as “heritage” breeds, meaning that they are from the same genetic line as their ancestors 100-200 years ago. These breeds tend to be “dual purpose” which means they can be raised for eggs or meat. They also tend to be better adapted to free ranging, lay eggs for 5-7 years instead of 2-3, and gain weight at a healthy rate instead of packing on the pounds in 8 weeks like some meat birds. Some heritage breeds include Orpingtons, Australorps, Barred Rocks, Rhode Island Reds, and Dominiques to name just a few.
As a general rule, chickens with large combs and wattles (the red fleshy bits on their heads and faces) are better suited for warm climates. In frigid temperatures, large combs can easily become frostbitten. Chickens with a thick undercoat or very large breeds are better suited to tolerate colder climates. It goes without saying that the more body mass a bird has, the better it will be able to maintain its body heat. If you live in an area that has four seasons, it is best to find a breed that is best suited for a mixed climate.
In regard to personality and temperament, there is some research involved to find breeds that fit best with what you’re looking for. Some breeds tend to be more docile and don’t mind smaller spaces, while others are more active and prefer to forage. The personality of a bird also depends on its environment, so make sure to give your birds plenty of space, good food, water, and keep them entertained with foraging or other things to pass the time.
Finding a Reputable Hatchery
Once you’ve determined what kind of chickens you’re going to get, prepare to be flexible based on what’s available. Of course, you can order from an online hatchery and have chicks shipped to you. However, having them shipped via mail comes with risks. It is very common to lose several birds in shipping as baby chicks are extremely fragile and the shipping process puts a tremendous amount of stress on the chicks’ bodies. A day or two after being born, chicks are packed into a dark box in which they only have their own bodies to keep themselves warm. They typically are not provided with food or water and are handled however the mail services sees fit. Essentially, there are many uncontrollable variables in shipping, regardless of how carefully they are packaged by the hatchery or breeder.
A better option, in my opinion, is to find a local hatchery or breeder. In many places, local farmer’s co-ops hold “chick days” where baby chicks from a local source are available on, say, a Saturday morning or afternoon each week or so. As a quick guide for chick buying vocabulary:
Pullet = hen younger than laying age
Cockerel = rooster younger than breeding age
Straight run = mix of male and female, expect at least ½ to be roosters, but it varies
Sex link = a chicken that’s bred to be able to differentiate male vs female at birth
You may want to ask a few important clarifying questions before purchasing chicks, such as whether or not the chicks are vaccinated, if they are pullets, cockerels, or straight run, how old they are, and what their expected laying age might be.
Essential Tools for Chick Rearing
You will need a few essential items to safely and comfortably raise your chicks. It’s important to have these ready to go before you bring them home.
Brooder box: This could be a hand-built wooden box, a large plastic tub, a kiddie swimming pool with mesh wire around it, or any number of containers. As chicks grow, they quickly begin to figure out ways to jump or fly out of the brooder, so make sure it’s secure. Other than that, it needs to be large enough to house a heat plate, feeder, waterer, and the babies will need some space to explore.
Heat source: Of course, sitting tucked under the wing of a mama hen would be ideal for baby chicks, but that isn’t possible if you’re a first time chick-rearer or if you don’t have a broody hen. If you don’t have a real mama hen, I highly suggest a brooder/heat plate. These run around $50 dollars (there are more expensive ones too), and they have a very minimal fire risk. They also more closely mimic a mama hen to sit under for the babies, putting them in an environment that’s closer to what they’d have naturally.
This is the brooder heat plate I use. It’s height and temperature are adjustable. Another option is a heat lamp. These usually clip onto or hang from something. They have a pretty significant fire risk, especially if you are using straw or pine shavings as bedding, and it is not recommended that you leave them on unattended. You’ll have to sleep or leave your house eventually, which is why I think a brooder/heat plate is the right choice. It is also more difficult to control the temperature of heat lamps, but if you give the chicks enough area to get away from the heat, they can find a comfortable temperature for themselves.
Day old chicks need to be kept at a temperature of about 95 degrees (F), and each week that temperature can go down by 5 degrees until they are four weeks old, at which point they’ll need to be kept at around 80 degrees until they go outside.
Bedding: Chicks have very tiny legs that take a while to become strong. Until they do, they will need something with grip in order to stand up and walk around well. Paper towels are great for the first few days since they are easy to clean up and replace, and the chicks are less likely to ingest them compared to bits of pine shavings, another popular option. You’ll quickly discover that if you use pine shavings as bedding, the chicks will find every way to get them into their water, creating a filthy, smelly mess.
Nourishment: Chicks need a steady supply of food and water. There are plenty of “chick starter” mixes out there that will do just fine. You’ll also need a container to hold their food. Some people like to add “chick grit” which is essentially ground up rocks and minerals that older chickens need to help digest their food. Many sources claim that if your chicks are eating solely chick starter, they don’t need grit. They only need access to grit when they are introduced to treats like fresh veggies or mealworms. Grit can also be a clump of dirt with rocks and things in it, just make sure there aren’t pesticides or other harmful chemicals on it before giving it to your animals.
Water is another essential, obviously. There are several types of waterers out there, but I have found the “nipple drinkers” to be the best since they keep things cleaner than any other kind I've tried for chicks. I recommend adding electrolyte powder or apple cider vinegar to their water (in small amounts) for the first week or two to help them build up their strength after transportation and adjusting to a new environment. You can find chick electrolytes at any feed store.
Chicks are susceptible to many health issues in the first couple weeks of life, such as spraddle/splay leg or pasty butt. Unfortunately, pasty butt is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a very common digestive illness in which poop gets stuck on a chick’s vent, aka butt, and it can kill them in a very short amount of time. It’s important to check on the chicks regularly to keep an eye on issues like these.
As they grow, chickens are at risk of other issues like respiratory illness, bumblefoot, and illnesses from wild birds. It’s a good idea to do some basic research about how to care for common health issues in chickens before you get them, just to make sure you’re willing to do the not so fun work to take care of them.
Coop Building & Predator Prevention
Eventually, after about 6 weeks, your baby chicks will have grown significantly. Like, from this…
to this:
to this…
At this point, you’ll probably be more than ready to get them out of your garage or whatever indoor space they’ve been occupying. Since almost every predator wants to eat chickens, you’ll need to have a protected outdoors space prepared for them by this time. There are endless ways to build or buy a coop, but I suggest using recycled or refurbished materials to build your own exactly as you want it (or at least close to it). There are a few things to know about protecting chickens from predators:
Use hardware cloth for the coop where they sleep, not chicken wire. Chicken wire is thinner and animals like raccoons can pry it apart pretty easily. Hardware cloth is thicker and has smaller holes, making it much more difficult for even the most determined predator to break in. In my opinion, chicken wire is okay for a run (where the chickens roam during the daylight hours), but not for where they sleep at their most vulnerable.
Ensure your coop has adequate ventilation. Don’t put your birds into a stuffy wooden box, make sure they have some airflow. At the same time, they need to have some protection from rain and wind.
Animals like racoons, possums, and dogs will dig under your coop if they want in badly enough. To prevent this, you can put a barrier of some kind around the bottom of your coop. For instance:
We have a garden bed around ours to do the same job Don’t keep food and water in the coop if you can help it, keep it in the run instead. That way, if an animal is interested in stealing food, it will be chicken feed, not chickens.
Provide enough space. Chickens require adequate space to be happy and healthy. Giving your birds enough room also helps prevent bullying. Average sized birds need at least 8-10 square feet of space per bird. The more space, the better!
For added security, some people like to add motion sensing lights, blinking red “eye” lights, or something similar outside their coops. Bright lights, especially all of a sudden, are said to deter most predators.
A Note on Keeping Chickens in a Run
Most days, my chickens have free reign of their run, but they do not free range. They only free range when we can be home for most of the day to keep an eye on them, due to the number of predators in our area. To prevent issues like erosion and soil degradation, we use the “deep litter” method. It’s not complicated, we just keep several inches of bedding material covering the floor of the coop. The bedding, which is a mixture of cut field grasses and leaves, composts over time. A couple of times a year, we take out the under layer of the bedding and use it in our garden as a soil amendment. Unless it’s been quite rainy or hot, our coop doesn’t smell bad, and it makes it to where we don’t have to clean it out too often since the poop is composting.
If you don’t want to keep your chickens in a run, it’s a good idea to rotate where they forage. Chickens can decimate an area of land pretty quickly, so moving them around in something like a chicken tractor or movable fencing during the day is important for the land. Moving them around gives each area time to recover and the chickens’ time spent on that area will
Why I Love Having Chickens
Growing food in a more sustainable way that doesn’t require bringing in material from another location is one of our biggest pursuits. Our chickens contribute to that by providing us with constant access to nitrogen-rich manure that we can use for soil amendment in our garden. Not only that, but our chickens also ensure a steady supply of valuable protein in the form of eggs. We can control what we feed our chickens and what their lifestyles are like, which directly affects the quality and nutrition of their eggs. Besides the practical reasons, I enjoy having chickens because they are entertaining to watch, they all have distinct personalities, and it’s fun to sit with them, pet them, and feed them snacks. Overall, I recommend that anyone who can, should get a few chickens, as long as you make a few important considerations and preparations first.
I hope this guide helps you feel ready to get yourself some chickens. They’re tiny compost machines, protein-producing babes, and entertaining, feathered friends. Did this help you decide to (or not to) get spring birds? Still have doubts? Let’s talk in the comments.
‘Til next time,
Allyson