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Keeping Chickens 101

Keeping Chickens 101

For many people, chickens make ideal pets. After all, they overflow with personality, their charming and comedic antics are fun to observe, they provide amazing fertilizer for your garden, they are relatively easy and inexpensive to maintain and hens lay fresh eggs that are great-tasting and nutritious.

If you’ve ever considered keeping chickens, here’s how to get started:

Plan on more than one chicken

While chickens vary in their levels of sociability, avoid keeping single chickens. Most chickens prefer companionship, so even keeping two or three will enable them to enjoy living in a flock and keep them happier.

Space can also be a factor when determining how many chickens to keep. Check your local ordinances and regulations before buying a chicken coop, and verify that chickens--especially roosters--aren’t prohibited in your neighborhood. Check for coop and flock size restrictions as well. Don’t keep more chickens than your coop can comfortably house; aim for at least 3 to 5 square feet of coop space per bird, although 10 square feet per bird is ideal. It’s better to have extra room for your chickens than to crowd them.

Pick the right types of chickens

There are a variety of chicken breeds to choose from—including standard and miniature sizes, which are called Bantam chickens. Popular egg-layers include Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks and White Leghorns. Exotic chickens like the Silver Phoenix have long tail feathers. Silkies have powder puff feathers and black skin. Egg varieties range from small to extra large in colors ranging from chalk white to chocolate brown and blue-green. You can purchase baby chicks at select Petco locations, local feed stores or online hatchery retailers.

Choosing a Chicken Breed

Design your chicken coop

Your chickens need plenty of roosting space for sleeping, nesting boxes for laying eggs and an expansive attached run for wandering and playing. You’ll also need a feeder, a waterer, appropriate bedding and nesting material.

Ventilation is essential, as is durability and safety. Your coop should be 100 percent predator-proof and placed in an area that protects it from rain and harsh winds.

You’ll need a light source, either from a window or a bulb, since chickens are photosensitive. This means they will slow down egg laying when there is less sunlight. Chickens usually lay their eggs between sunrise and approx. 2pm. They have extremely poor night vision, so they never lay eggs at night. If you live in an area that gets limited winter sun, like Alaska, you will want to add a light on a timer to trick their photosensitivity and encourage “night-laying.”

Bedding

Chickens don’t pee and poop like humans do; instead they excrete a mixture of crystalline urine and feces, which is a high-quality reusable manure. They produce this manure anywhere, anytime, so you’ll need a quality bedding that absorbs waste and odors. Chickens like to walk around, scratch and dig, so a few inches of bedding on the floor will help keep them occupied, and give them a soft place to walk on. There are several bedding options to choose from, but soft wood shavings are recommended, such as aspen or pine.

The roost

Your chickens prefer to sleep high off the ground on a perch that simulates a tree branch, just as they would in nature if they were trying to protect themselves from predators. Roosting bars or poles should be at least two inches thick by about four inches wide, preferably with rounded edges. The roost should be placed higher than the nesting boxes so that your chickens aren’t tempted to sleep in the same place they lay their eggs. Each chicken should have a width of about 10 inches to roost on. The roost should not be placed directly above the nesting boxes as chicken droppings may land on them.

Nesting boxes

Nesting boxes are small, private spaces where your chickens will lay their eggs. You can purchase them or build your own—there is an abundance of DIY information available online. Generally, you should have one nesting box for every 2 to 4 hens. They should be a few inches off the ground and should be placed in a dark, quiet corner area of the coop, as hens need a peaceful place to lay their eggs. A standard nesting box is usually about 16”x16”x16” but it will depend on how big your hens are. They should be able to stand up without touching the top of the nesting box.

Cleaning your coop

There are multiple methods for cleaning the droppings in your chicken coop. The deep litter method is a safe, simple, sustainable way to manage the waste. Using wood shavings, a compost pile of chicken waste is formed on the floor for your chickens to scratch at and naturally aerate. Add shavings to the pile and remove the compost as needed.

Alternatively, you can remove the waste daily—but don’t discard it. Chicken droppings make one of the world’s best chemical-free fertilizers thanks to their high nitrogen and phosphate content. If you don’t regularly remove the waste, flies and parasites will be attracted to your coop and it will develop an unhealthy smell. Feces can also contain bacteria such as salmonella, so practice proper hygiene when cleaning up after your chickens.

Inspect your coop at least once a week. Look for any signs of parasites or rodents, check the bedding and nesting boxes and examine the feeders and waterers as they can get damaged with regular use. Periodically clean and disinfect your coop to ensure your chickens are living in a clean environment. Use natural cleaning products, especially for cleaning feeders and waterers, as fumes from cleaning agents can be harmful to chickens.

Feeding chickens

Provide a high-quality, well-balanced diet for your chickens in the form pellets or crumbles and a seed mix called scratch. Choose a mix that’s fortified with vitamins and minerals and is specifically formulated for laying hens. Spreading the scratch around in the chicken run will keep your chickens occupied in the morning, but they should have access to their food at all times. Supplement the feed with a selection of fresh vegetables, fruits, grains and seeds. Chickens have personal preferences, but they might enjoy sunflower seeds, watermelon or muskmelon rinds and seeds, lettuce, cooked rice, blueberries, pumpkins, crickets or mealworms—all in moderation. You can provide access to grass as long as it hasn’t been treated with pesticides or chemicals.

Chickens will eat just about anything, but never feed them citrus fruits or peels, bones, onions, garlic, dried beans, avocado skins or pits, chocolate or raw potato skins. Morning glories and daffodils are poisonous to chickens.

Chickens also need grit. Chickens don’t have teeth, so they depend upon ingesting grit to help grind the seeds in their stomachs. Provide a type of insoluble calcium grit, also known as flint, or natural lime sand or oyster shells, which boosts calcium intake and helps aid in the formation of the hens’ eggshells.

Hydration is essential; have fresh, clean, chlorine-free water available to your chickens at all times.

Healthy chickens

Chickens are active birds, interested in their surroundings and always busy in a calm and methodical way. A healthy chicken has bright eyes and smooth and well-groomed feathers, is active and alert, is free of parasites, has a good appetite and produces normal droppings. Any deviation from these characteristics can be indicative of a potential medical issue.

Like any other pet, chickens should get wellness checks; choose a board-certified avian veterinarian. Your veterinarian can make recommendations if you think your chickens have lice, mites or other parasites.

It’s possible for infected chickens to spread E. coli and salmonella to people. Chickens will not show any signs of disease when they are infected with salmonella. To protect yourself, wear gloves when cleaning the chicken coop, and thoroughly wash your hands with running water and soap after contact with chickens, eggs or their droppings. Supervise children around chickens and make sure they wash their hands. Never allow chickens in the house, especially in areas where food is prepared.

Depending on the breed, many chickens have a lifespan of anywhere between 5 to 11 years with proper care and a nutritious diet.

Egg collection

Hens will lay eggs once they’ve reached maturity. It’s not necessary to have a rooster for your hens to lay eggs. The average hen will start laying eggs at around six months of age, but it can depend on breed, time of year and diet. The number of eggs will vary depending on the individual hen and other factors, including breed, age, health, lighting and temperature. A good rule of thumb is to figure that a single hen will lay approximately five eggs per week, or 260 eggs per year. Collect the eggs from your coop every day.

The first two years of a hen’s life tend to be her most productive. By the time she is about five years old, her egg production may decrease by about 50 percent, and ultimately she’ll stop laying eggs altogether. If your hen is still young, but she’s stopped laying eggs, consult with your veterinarian. Besides aging, there are several reasons this can occur—including stress, improper nutrition, extreme temperatures and molting.

Keeping chickens can be fun and rewarding. Once you have your coop set up and you’ve gotten your chickens, consider joining an online forum with other chicken keepers so that you can learn more about your new pets.

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