When starting out on our homesteading journey, one of the first things we did was to purchase some backyard chickens. Not only do chickens help start your self-sufficiency journey by providing you with eggs, they also help with eliminating scraps, providing you with an all natural fertiliser and make great companions. Though, before getting started with backyard chickens, there are a few things you need to take into consideration.
Keeping Backyard Chickens
If you haven’t kept backyard chickens before, you may have some concerns which are quite valid but, it is actually a lot easier than you may think. Compared to keeping other livestock, chickens will faithfully come home every night, lay wholesome eggs for you and are wonderful at eating a diverse range of foods.
Most of the hard work with chickens goes into the preparation. After securing a place for them to live, they will only need minimal care from then on.
Owning chickens is also a great way to teach children important and practical lessons about ownership and life. Children will learn responsibility when feeding chickens and providing water for them as well as when they are collecting eggs each day. When the help with cleaning the coop and keeping it sale, they are also improving their skills.
Before Getting Chickens
Before you head off to purchase some chickens, there is one important step you must do first. Check to make sure that you are legally allowed to keep chickens where you live. Here in Australia, all councils have regulations in regards to restrictions and limitations of keeping chickens. In many residential areas, there may be conditions on how many chickens you are allowed and restrictions on keeping roosters.
How many Chickens?
How many chickens you can keep depends on a few things.
Eggs
How many chickens you will need depends on your requirements. Most egg laying chickens lay around 300+ eggs a year, or 4-6 eggs a week. During the cooler months, chickens may take a couple of months off laying. They will also have a rest when they are moulting which is usually just before winter. Happy chickens lay more eggs as do chickens that have space to roam and scratch around.
To work out how many chickens you need, work out how many eggs you use in a week and divide that by seven. This should give you a good supply of eggs, especially during the warmer months.
Though, if you haven’t had chickens before, you may want to start small, with a flock of around four to six hens.
Space
Chickens do need space. If they are put up in cramped conditions, this can lead them to get stressed. Stressed chickens lay fewer eggs and they are also more prone to illness and injury. Chickens that are able to be pastured or have access to an outside area to roam, will only need a coop that is large enough for them to roost in and lay eggs.
If you don’t have a lot of room, you could try getting a few bantam chickens. These chickens are perfect for smaller spaces as they are around one-half to two-thirds the size of a regular chicken. The usual requirements for housing are the same, though can be slightly smaller due to their size.
Rooster
As mentioned previously, in some areas you may not be legally allowed to keep a rooster. If you are allowed, are you going to keep a rooster?
Not only do roosters allow you to breed your chickens, but they also protect their hens.
The one downside is the crowing. They can start crowing an hour or so before dawn, so the location of the coop may need to be some distance from your house.
To avoid over-breeding and stressing out hens, try having at least six, though preferably ten to twelve hens for each rooster.
Choosing Breeds
There are so many breeds available, but not all of them will be suitable to your circumstances. There are chickens specially bred to lay eggs, some hens are dual purpose and then there are meat chickens as well.
What are you hoping for with your chickens? Are you looking for pretty hens, colourful eggs, calm, peaceful hens that will interact with your family?
Good egg-laying hens include breeds such as Hy-Lines, Bond Layers or Isa Browns. These breeds are usually friendly and placid. These hens have been commercially bred to lay eggs and can only be purchased as chicks or point-of-lay hens from specific places. They are extremely good layers, though they can have a short life-span of around 3 – 4 years, with some health issues as they age. These breeds of chickens usually lay medium brown coloured eggs.
Heritage breeds such as Australorps, Leghorns, Rhode Island Red lay around 3 – 6 eggs a week, depending on the breed. They do have a longer life-span of up to 12 years as well.
With heritage breeds, you can get a range of coloured eggs. Marans lay dark brown or olive eggs, while leghorns lay white eggs. Cream legbars and araucanas lay blue eggs while welsummers can lay dark brown eggs sometimes with speckles.
Dual purpose chickens are ones that are raised for both meat and eggs. They are the best breeds to choose if you are looking at breeding your own chickens. The plan then is to use the excess roosters for meat.
Meat chickens are raised specially for their meat. They are usually larger breeds with more muscle content that grow fast. Even though they lay eggs, it is much less often than laying hen breeds. They are used while still young for meat.
Protecting Chickens
Depending on the area that you live in, you will have to watch out for unwanted guests. To protect your hens from predators such as foxes, a good quality coop with strong, galvanised wire mesh is needed. Wire mesh flooring, an auto door, and even predator sensor lights can help deter predators.
Chicken also need to be protected from the elements. A dry place to roost at night, and somewhere they can rest out of the heat, and rain is also needed. An area that they can use to dust bath in is almost beneficial. If not supplied, they will create a hole in the ground and use this as their dust bath.
Will Getting Chickens Cause Problems?
Chickens are peaceful animals that have the ability to get along with lots of other animals including dogs, ducks, cats and guinea fowl. As long as you are there to help with the negotiating their new housemates, most of the time the animals will work on becoming friends and resolving any issues that may arise.
If you can concerns about chickens causing problems in your garden, why not try having a chicken tractor that enables you to move your flock around without them destroying any of your crops.
We have the older model of this chicken tractor which is great for moving chickens around, and has a fox proof floor.
More Chicken Resources
- Fermented Chicken Feed
- Flock Block for Chickens
- Chicken Life Cycle Printables for Kids
- Bending a Chicken Bone Experiment for Kids
Daily Tasks when Keeping Chickens
Even though chickens are easy to keep, there are a few minimal jobs that will be needed to be checked on a daily basis.
- Ensure they have plenty of food and water, cleaning out the containers if needed
- Check the coop, spot clean if needed
- Collect the eggs
- If you are allowing them to free-range, let them out and then make sure they all are back in the coop at night
- Observe the flock for general health and wellbeing
Weekly Tasks when Keeping Chickens
- Thoroughly clean out the nesting boxes and make sure they are topped up ready for the week
- Check all perimeters such as fencing to make sure all is good
- Clean up any uneaten food scraps as they can attract unwanted vermin.
- Check litter, clean and top up if necessary
- Check and top up the supply of shell grit
- Other things that may be needed when necessary include: deep cleaning the coop, bathing chickens, attending to mite or lice infestations or things such as bumble foot.
Having backyard chickens is an easy way to create a healthy and sustainable backyard. These friendly creatures, with their unpredictable excitement will become part of the family before you know it!
Getting started with backyard chickens is a fun adventure that all the family is sure to enjoy!
Caramel Popcorn