Chicken Keeping
Chickens 101
Now, let me be the first to point out that I am no expert at this. I am still a newbie, still learning each day and still seeking advice. This site is going to change pretty often as I learn new things along the way. I can, however, learn with you and give you resources for your own journey.
Let me start by putting out some official websites that every chicken person should know:
American Poultry Association
British Poultry Council
The Poultry Club
There are a few things that are necessary for chicks to have before you bring them home. First, you need a safe cage or brooder for your chicks that you can keep a heat lamp or other heating device in without it setting fire. Many people use aluminum stock tanks that can be purchased at your local feed store. These are good because the metal is not a fire hazard and the material does not absorb droppings, making it easy to clean and sanitize. However, there are many other options out there, so do not feel obligated to buy something really expensive.
A choice for a lot of people (including myself sometimes!) is to use plastic storage totes. Yes, these are obviously flammable so you do need to find a way to fixture your heat lamps so they are in the center so as to not catch fire to the sides of the tote or melt the plastic. We have found different ways to do this, but most of the time my husband cuts out lids for the totes out of rolls of wire and then cuts a hole in the center so the light can fit through. I also like to set it below a large table we have and then use the lamp clamps to adhere the heat light so it cannot fall. There are also stands that you can buy (usually used for reptile enclosures) that will hold the lights over the tanks too. Just make sure you plan safely!
Another alternative are brooder heat plates which seem to be a safer alternative to the heat lamps, but they are more expensive to invest in (around $40-50+ each!). But if you only have one brooder going at a time and have a little extra money to spend, it is a great option.
As mentioned, a heat source is imperative to the life of little chicks. In the springtime or fall, it is too cold and the chicks will die if under 95 degrees during the first week. It goes down by five degrees each week until at around six to eight weeks they should no longer need heat. Some people use heat pads below the cage but I have seen this be a bad option and actually burn the little chicks feet!
Another important choice is bedding options vs. wire bottoms. For the first month or so, I keep my chicks in pine shavings that are cleaned out every other day. I then switch them to a wire bottom cage that was an old rabbit cage. This allows their droppings to get away from them and their feet, but younger chicks' feet are too small and don't fit well even on smaller wiring. Whenever I see newly hatched chicks on wire (like in some feed stores), I always feel bad for them because they look constantly uncomfortable and unable to lay down.
One thing that will really surprise you during your first few times getting chicks is the silly - and scary - way that they sleep! They will lay flat out, face down like they are dead! And when you run to them, worrying the worst and wake them, they look at you all startled like you are an idiot. Yes, chicks sleep in peculiar fashions, nothing like that of adult chickens. It takes a while before they learn to perch or even sit while sleeping. Therefore, I like giving them a soft bed with the shavings. You need to clean them and give them new shavings every other day or every two days at most to make sure they stay nice and clean!
The next things you will need is a proper feed and water dish for them. Unfortunately, household bowls usually are too high for young chicks to reach their food so actual chick feeders are best. With water dishes, it is vital to get actual chick waterers. This is because it is very easy for chicks to drown, even if it looks like they can stand in the water and it "should be" shallow enough. Trust me, it is not! Even with ducklings, you should not give them an open dish of water until they are older because they can also easily drown. Their baby feathers are too water absorbent and not resistant at all, making them weighed down in the water dish and quickly overwhelmed. There are different beginner's kits that you can buy at your larger feed stores like Tractor Supply or Coastal's which already have everything you need to start in the box. Many times, they will run a special where you will get the kit or the chicks for free with a purchase of the other. This is a good time to "stock up" and get a few sets!
Finally, you need your Chick Starter feed which is special feed made for chicks up to eight weeks of age. This feed has special amounts of amino acids, proteins, fibers, vitamins and more to make sure that your chicks get the best start in life! The major choice you will be presented with is whether to go Medicated or Non-Medicated, but there is also Organic options and more. Medicated is preferred by larger hatcheries and people that have many chickens to make sure that their little chicks have antibodies to protect them during their first few months of life when they start to be introduced to the outside world. However, many people choose to use Non-Medicated feed so that their chickens are not full of antibiotics, growth hormones, or more. This is a very personal choice and I encourage you to do lots of research in order to determine which feed you would like to use. It also seems to make a bigger difference with the chicks that you are raising for meat. If you plan on harvesting your chicks, you may not want the extra antibiotics in your food. Or, alternatively, you might believe that it is the safest way to go. Again, please do thorough research on this subject to decide which type of Started Feed to select for your chicks.
Preparing to bring your chicks home
Bringing Home Babies
After all of this has been decided and your brooder is set up, you are ready to bring your babies home! You can find them at your local feed store, from a local breeder, off of Craigslist or other classifieds, or you might choose to order them online and pick them up from your local post office. Whichever way you choose, when you get your little babies, make sure they look healthy and vibrant. Check your chicks for:
Clear, big eyes
Clean
Vibrant, lively and awake
Free from deformities (cross-beak, splayed legs, etc.)
Clean vents / Pasty butt
Clean feet that are free from sores
Warm, not too cold
Your chicks should be lively and talkative. You should hear quite a bit of "peeping" and tapping on your drive home. Some might doze off, which is perfectly fine. Just make sure that they do wake up when startled and react to you. Check their eyes to make sure they are wide and free from junk. Make sure that they are clean and their feet do not have any sores on them (they can get sores from being in dirty bedding). Look at their beaks to make sure they are straight and not crossed as well as their legs and feet. You do need to check and see if they have pasty butt which is not irregular but you will need to specially care for these chicks. A lot of chicks that have been shipped in the mail end up with pasty butt simply from the stress of the journey or possibly lack of access to water, so it is a normal thing to deal with and is not necessarily from uncared for chicks. Many feed stores will actually give you a discount on your chicks if they have pasty butt!
Remember, chicks need to be kept warm! Therefore, you should try to make your journey home quick and not make a lot of stops. Once you get them home, put them right into the brooder with food and water. They will usually run right over to the water and will begin chirping and checking out their new home. Make sure their heater is on so they stay nice and toasty! Then sit back and enjoy the antics of your new babies.
Like all pets, try not to hold them too much for the first day or two. After a few days though, make sure you hold those babies often if they are not destined for the freezer. This will help to ensure their attachment and relationship with you, forming trust so that they trust you to check their eggs, their bodies if they are hurt or just be around them in general. Chickens that are not handled much will definitely show it and will act afraid of you which is not very much fun. We like to hold our babies a lot so that they bond with us! Many people even keep chickens as pets and give them baths, keep them in special indoor cages, and even dress them up!
If you plan to show your chickens, handling them a lot is imperative. You need to be able to check their legs, feet, wings, mouth and face and judges will twist and turn them in all kinds of ways! Your chicken will need to be comfortable with this so you need to spend a lot of extra time preparing them for this.
Make sure to clean their shavings every one to two days to ensure their health. They do tend to dirty their water and feed dishes very quickly, so you will find yourself changing them often. I make sure to give them fresh water and clean out their food dish at least twice a day - morning and night. You also need to check them every so often to make sure they are not too hot, especially once they start getting older. They will open their mouths and look like they are "panting" if they are too hot. If so, you need to adjust how close the heat lamp is to them and move it further away. On the flip side, if they are too cold, they will cry, not "chirp" without stopping.
You will come to know their different cries and the way they talk to you. In one tone, they cry like a "baby bird" to get your attention for food, water, or temperature. In another, they happily chatter to each other while they are eating. In still another tone, they will talk to you while you're holding them and they are happy, or they will "cry" with a different tone to be returned to the brooder. Once they grow up, they get all new tones and cries!
As your chicks grow up, they will learn to take treats from you, let you pick them up and some even come to their names! Did you know that chickens can recognize over 100 different faces? That's right! Which means that although they are dumb in some regards, they are actually quite intelligent in others.
Once your chicks hit six to eight weeks, if your weather is decent, this is a good time to start putting them out in a secure coop in the yard during the day time. If it is summer and your temperatures stay high at night time, they could potentially be moved into a separate coop from your adult chicks permanently and will not need the heat lamps anymore. If it is winter or fall, I do not recommend putting them outside at night until they are fully feathered and weigh a bit more. I have lost many chicks to the cold simply because the temperatures dropped down too low overnight and I thought they were old enough to make it through. So be careful to wait until the weather is warm enough or your chicks are truly old enough before putting them in the coop at night.
A Caution About Chicks During the Winter
The caveat to this is bantam breeds, like Silkies, grow much slower so they should not be put out in the cold until they are much older than the others, more like four to six months, depending on the size and growth rate of the actual chicken itself. Again, if it's warm outside, you won't have this problem.
I have seen Pros and Cons of raising chicks in the Fall and Winter. We currently live in the Pacific Northwest where it can get quite cold in the winter and is generally in the 40s-50s in the daytime and for our first year, we got late summer/early fall chicks. I did not think much of it other than that we would keep them inside longer. However, I didn't realize how MUCH longer this would mean! We had Lavender Orpingtons, Cream Legbars, ISA Brows, a Sapphire Gem, Rhode Island Reds, a Black Sex Link Maran and a Novogen Brown, which were the bottom of the barrel chicks left at a discount and most are very different breeds. A lot of these breeds are supposedly "cold hardy."
I started trying to put them in the coop during the night in November when they were about 2 months old. I lost my first one, the only Novogen Brown of the group, within the first few days so I brought them all back inside. I kept them in for about two more weeks and then tried putting them back out. Nope - there went one of my Cream Legbars! So back into the house they went until the end of December. Yup. There went an Orpington. January came and again, I put them back out and one was dead within the first couple days, this time one of my Rhode Island Reds which I love so much! Dang it. Back in they went. The end of January came, making them what? Four months old now? They can SURELY make it!
There went my only Maran and my other Rhode Island Red after about a week. It was weird because it was the largest one of the flock, so I really did not expect it! Back into the house they went. February now has come and the new spring chicks are about to be in the stores so out they went. The last losses - and the last Cream Legbar and Lavender Orpington. The Cream Legbar was the smallest, so I could see her loss a bit more and it was not until we had that weird cold snap at the end of February that no one predicted.
All in all, we started in September with eleven and by spring only had three left - both of the ISA Browns and the Sapphire Gem. Thankfully, these girls have been putting in the overtime producing eggs, but losing eight was a huge, huge loss and emotionally really hard since we spent virtually the entire winter with these chicks in the house just to lose most of them anyway. But, sometimes you have to learn the hard way and unfortunately, this was so for us in this case. We now know we will not be doing chicks during the fall/winter again while living in this region.
Adult Chicken Keeping
Adult chickens are pretty easy to keep (unless you have Silkies or other feather-footed breeds and expect them to stay clean). As long as they have their feed, access to fresh water, a warm, clean coop and a run during the day, they are generally pretty happy! You do need to give them oyster shells, chicken grit or another alternative to boost their calcium and to make sure they can clean out their crop. You also need to offer them a chicken dust bath area where they can bathe in different types of dust to prevent mites and other bugs and keep them healthy. There are different types you can use including actual dust baths you can buy or make or you can use Diatomaceous earth which can be found at your local hardware supply store, feed store or even nurseries. They also need to have a few nest boxes for them to lay their eggs in or sleep in at night. These can be purchased or you can make your own pretty simply by finding plans online.
Around six months old, you can expect to see your first eggs from your hens. However, a little known fact about chicken keeping is that your average, backyard chickens are notorious for free loading! Some breeds lay 1-2 eggs a day while others might only give you a couple a week... and during winter months?! Forget it! Unless you have breeds that are known to lay during the cold months or you live somewhere warm, expect your egg production to be little to none. That's right! There will be many months that go by that you are feeding your yard birds with nothing in return. They will be nothing more than lawn ornaments that you have to feed, clean and look after. But those spring and summer months, be prepared to have a plethora of eggs!
Spring and summer months are better for eggs not just because the weather warms up, but also because daylight lasts longer. Hens are triggered by the light to begin laying eggs again. If you keep a light in your coop, it is supposed to help them lay eggs longer. This did not seem to help us either of the last winters with our Wyandottes, but maybe our lights are not strong enough. Generally, if a hen has 16 hours of daylight and 8 hours of dark, they will lay.
Most people set out to "just have a few birds" (see my blog, Welcome to the World of Poultry - and to this site!") and end up with far more. Let me tell ya, chicken math will get you quick! But even if you have your limit of five chickens, that could potentially be eight to ten eggs a day on a really good day, which you might have a few of during the summer. With breeds like ISA Browns and other hybrids, they have been specifically bred and cross bred to make a maximum amount of eggs each day. Our ISA Browns are under a year old and are producing an average of two eggs a day right now, so they are really outdoing themselves! However, the downside to this is that they produce their maximum amount of eggs much quicker and subsequently actually have shorter life expectancies.
What I am trying to get at, is that even with just four or five chickens and a family of four, you are labile to have a lot of extra eggs at one point or another. You should have a little plan for what you want to do with your extra eggs or you can keep them on the shelves and alternate them out for winter time when your chickens aren't laying as much. There are also several methods to store eggs and different ideas on how to save them for later usage. I will probably write a blog about this later on after I have explored a few of these, personally, but you can do a quick google search online. One method is to store them in lime water (I know, this sounds scary!) which is supposed to make them last a long time.
If you do not want to do extra storage methods, that is okay! Unwashed eggs have a shelf life of up to seven months (supposedly! but I have had some spoil within a couple months so again research this!). Notice my usage of - yes - unwashed? Poo and all, plop those suckers pointy side down in a container and keep them until you are ready to use them! If you wash them, they do need to go into the refrigerator. That is because of a protective coat that is on the egg called it's bloom. This layer keeps the germs, microbes and other things out of the egg because eggs actually have pores like our skin for the egg to "breathe" in a way. Once you wash off this bloom, the protective layer goes away and the eggs can spoil quicker.
If you do not have a rooster, you do not have to collect your eggs every day. If you do have a rooster, don't leave them for too long, especially during the summer, or you will have chicks peeping in your barn! I leave some of our eggs out with the hens all the time so that they do not think that I "stole" all of their eggs. I tend to leave them the dirtier ones and take the cleaner and prettier ones for eating or incubating. Sometimes, if they think you have stolen all of their eggs, they will not lay them where you can find them so easily anymore. Then it becomes a scavenger hunt!
I should mention that in certain areas of the country, you may need to vaccinate your chicks. Please do your research on this and check with your county to see what vaccinations are recommended for poultry in your area. The most common chick vaccine that is given by some hatcheries before they are shipped is for Marek's disease. It is a common chicken infection that can decimate your flock very quickly. Many of the big name hatcheries will offer to vaccinate the chicks for an additional, very reasonable cost if you purchase them directly through the hatcheries. However, I have found that in our area in the Pacific Northwest, many of the feed stores that buy from the hatcheries choose to not purchase this option because they state that it is "not necessary" in the PNW. Again, your specific area could be different though so check with your local feed stores also.
A small problem I have found with purchasing your own vaccines and doing it yourself is that most of the vaccines are only available in large bulk of 500+ doses each. The cost is not too terrible (around $35 a bottle), so even if you do not need the whole bottle, like us, it still isn't too unreasonable to buy it and save some for later. I have thought about asking local Poultry groups on social media if anyone would be willing to go in half with me on some vaccinations, but I have not yet done so honestly. Also, many of the vaccines are given at different ages or are for similar illnesses, so it makes it kind of confusing, but Marek's and Coccidiosis are probably the most commonly given or needed. There are a few other kinds like Fowl Pox disease, New Castle disease, Infectious Bronchitis,
Infectious Laryngotracheitis, and more. Again, do your own research.
A Final Word...
Whether you are looking at getting a few chickens as pets, as a backyard supply of eggs or to process for meat, you will undoubtedly become hooked. Whether it is their whimsical charm, pretty colors, diverse breeds, fun personalities or you just like food, chickens are a lot of fun! Some of them decide that they like you and want you to hold them, while others might run from you and scream like you are the devil every time you try to give them a treat. A few breeds have mohawks and funny hairdos (check out our Polish!) while others lay blue or pink eggs. Some might rarely give you an egg at all! But in all cases, they will find a way to get into that heart of yours and make a place for their feathery butts for your foreseeable future.
Hey, at least they pay you back with eggs! (Sometimes)
