Author: Andrea the Happy Wife

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Spring Time is Chick Time!  Are You Ready?

Is this the year you get chickens for the first time?  If so, then spring time is the right time for chicks.  Are you ready?  Buying chicks is the easy part.  Getting ready takes a lot of effort and money.  So here is a checklist to help you.  Follow them in order.

1.  Answer This Question:  Why Do I Want Chickens?  Before you buy ANYTHING, answer why you want chickens.  For most, it’s because they want fresh eggs.  Some want chickens as pets, and some want to sell eggs to earn money.  Hint:  There’s no serious money to be made selling eggs.  If you said you want fresh eggs, what is your plan when they lay half as many eggs in 3 to 4 years, while they continue to eat the same amount and live to 7 or more years?  Will they become pets?  Will you get more chickens to continue getting eggs?  Do you have room or twice as many chickens?  Does your municipality allow more chickens?  What will you do?  Have a plan before you start!

2.  Brooder.  When your chicks arrive, they’ll immediately need food, water, safety, and warmth.  A brooder gives them all of that.  A brooder can be any durable container.  We’ve used modified storage tubs, a deck box, and small home-built cages.  Water troughs are used at feed stores.  The brooder is their home until they are about a month old, and it needs to be ready first.

Until the chicks are 3 to 4 weeks old, they need heat.  Without heat, they will die.  After hatching, the chicks need to be 95 degrees F, and less each week thereafter.  Since there’s no mother hen, heat is typically supplied by a heat lamp or a heat plate that the chicks can get under.  Don’t worry about measuring the exact temperature inside the brooder.  The chicks will tell you if they are comfortable.  If they are huddled together and chirping loudly, they are cold.  If they are away from the heat and silent, they are hot.  And if they hang out under the edges of the heat lamp’s light and are quiet, they are just right.  The chicks will move around to eat and drink.  Just remember that loud chicks are your alarm telling you to see what is wrong.  They are cold!

Incandescent heat lamps are HOT!  Tell children to not touch them, and make sure they are secure so children or pets don’t knock them over.  Make sure the lamp isn’t close to something that will burn or melt.  And don’t place the bulb in the middle of the brooder.  Put it on the side so the chicks can have somewhere to get away if they are too warm.

The brooder can be located inside the house.  Don’t put the brooder in front of a window where the sun can make the temperature too warm, or under a vent where the draft can make the temperature too cold.  Chicks can be taken out and held for about 15 minutes at a time.  They are fragile, so handle with care.  Then return them to the brooder so they can warm up again.

After 3 weeks, you can turn of the heat lamp or heat plate during the day and watch how they react.  If they complain, turn the heat back on.  Keep doing this for longer periods of time.  By the end of 4 weeks, they should be fully covered in feathers (except for their neck and head), and won’t need heat at all.

In addition to the heat source, your new chicks will need a feeder, a waterer, and some bedding.  We recommend buying chick feeders and waterers, which are made to keep chicks safe and reduce waste and messes.  For bedding, we recommend medium pine flake.  It’s absorbent, inexpensive, and available at your farm store.  We use wood blocks to raise the feeder and waterer above the pine flake.  You’ll change out the bedding about once per week.  Your nose will tell you when it’s time.

Feed your chicks a mixture specifically made for chicks.  It is called Chick Starter, and is higher in protein than regular chicken feed.  Most Chick Starters are medicated, which means Amprolium is added.  The Amprolium helps prevent coccidiosis, a condition young chickens can get from ingesting an intestinal parasite commonly found in the soil.  Continue feeding chick starter until they are at least 2 months old, or until just before they lay their first egg, around 5 months old. 

3.  Coop.  The coop can be anything that keeps your chickens safe, dry, and out of the wind.  You’ll need to have this ready before your chicks are one month old.  You can convert an old shed, build them a coop yourself, or buy a pre-made coop, like the ones we have from Avituvin (https://aivituvin.com/).  The coop is your greatest expense.  You might find that you’ll spend between $500 and $2000 to get your coop ready. 

Your chicks are small at first, but they’ll soon grow large and will need AT LEAST 10 square feet per bird.  But that’s the minimum space.  Give your chickens a generous area to be chickens.  Plus, you’re going to get more chickens in the future, right?  Of course you will.  Overcrowding can result in irritated chickens, bullying, and fighting.  You can let them run the yard during the day.  Chickens love food, water, and safety, so they won’t run off. 

Make sure the coop is safe and sturdy.  Avoid using chicken wire, since it’s a poor defense from nighttime predators like raccoons.  Instead, use 1/2″ by 1/2″ hardware cloth.  And make sure your coop is convenient for you to clean and collect eggs.  If not, you’ll avoid these tasks and your chickens will suffer. 

4.  Buy Chicks!  Now you’re ready for chicks!  Buying the chicks is the easy part.  Selecting the breed(s) is much harder.  Are you buying chicks for lots of big fresh eggs?  In general, prettier hens lay less and/or smaller eggs.  So stay focused on why you are getting chickens and do you research.  Breeds like ISA Browns, Golden Comets, Rhode Island Reds, and White Leghorns lay lots of large eggs.

If you live in an incorporated city, make sure you know if chickens are allowed, how many you can have, and other rules that may apply.  If your area allows only hens, know that hatcheries are only 90% accurate when determining males and females.  But there are breeds that are auto-sexed at hatch, meaning their sex is determined by their coloration.  These breeds include ISA Browns, Red Sexlinks, and Black Sexlinks.  Look for these when you order or are at the farm store.  Other terms to know:

  – Straight Run:  Unsexed chicks.  Half will grow to be roosters.

  – Pullets:  Females that grow to be hens.

  – Cockerels:  Males that grow to be roosters.

You may ask “Why can’t I skip the baby phase and just buy adult hens?”.  That sounds nice, but very few people raise chickens to be sold as young adults, so your availability, quantity, and choice of breeds will be extremely limited.  If you find them, they will be very expensive.  Plus, people often lie about the age of a hen.  And you might be bringing home birds with communicable diseases that will be with you for a long time.

With your brooder, coop, and an understanding of why you want chickens, you’re ready to begin your chicken raising journey.  Buy them in early spring and you’ll be enjoying farm fresh eggs by late summer!

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SETTING UP YOUR CHICKEN COOP

If you’re new to raising chickens, shortly after you get your coop you’ll start wondering how to set up house for your new feathered friends.  Here are some ideas.  There are rarely “one size fits all” solutions, so review the info, research more options, and choose what you think is best for you and your birds.

If you purchased a pre-made commercial coop, you may not have much choice about how to organize the accommodations.  But if you are building your own coop, or using a shed or part of a barn, keep in mind two things: 

    1. The coop should be convenient for YOU!  If it’s difficult to collect eggs or clean out, you won’t enjoy it, and you won’t do it as often as you should. 

    2. The coop should have three distance areas, or zones.  Those are Nesting, Eating, and Sleeping.  It’s important to keep the areas separated in the coop, similar to the way your house keeps the bedroom separate from the kitchen.

Let’s look at each one of those areas.

– Nesting.  Nesting is where your hens lay eggs.  Think of a nest box like a toilet:  you want it to be private, quiet, and peaceful.  Hens don’t usually poop in the nest box, but they still want some private time to get that giant orb out of their back end.  The typical nest box is 12″x12″x12″, although 10″x10″x10″ works well also.  Some people even put curtains over the opening, split down the middle, for added privacy.  Each box should be separated from the others by wood or metal.  You’ll only need one nest box for every 6-8 hens, and even then, they may only use a few since they’ll all have their favorite box, and complain when another hen is sitting, even though the box nest door is open!  The boxes can be painted or left bare wood, and should be off the ground.  The hens will appreciate the elevated boxes, and gathering eggs will be easier on your back.  Line the box with nesting material, such as pine shavings, straw, or even dried grass.  The hens will arrange it like they want.  Parasites like to occupy nest boxes, so if you notice mites or lice, treat with a commercial insecticide such as permethrin, or prevent an infestation by adding Diatomaceous Earth (DE) powder to the nesting material and even on the hens.  Giving your birds a dust bathing area will also prevent parasites from making their way into the nest boxes. 

– Eating.  Your chickens’ eating and drinking area should be separate from where they nest and sleep.  There are a wide range of feeders and waterers.  Chickens are messy, and will spread their food around.  Their natural instinct is to scratch the ground, looking for bugs to eat.  So commercial feeders will have small holes to access feed, or rotating bars to prevent feet from scratching and roosting.  We’ve made feeders out of storage tubs and PVC elbows (https://youtu.be/yaRm1W2Eb84).  The tubs can hold 100 lbs of feed, and the elbows prevent the chickens from flicking feed with their beaks.  It will also store several days of feed!  There are many ways to get feed to your birds, so research them to make sure it will work for the chickens and you. 

Waterers also come in a variety of sizes and styles.  Make sure your waterers will supply clean water for at least a day and a half.  A hen that goes a day without water will stop laying for a week or two.  Waterers come in common sizes up to 5 gallons, which weighs over 40 lbs.   Can you lift and carry 40 lbs?  If not, opt for a smaller 3-gallon size.  Some people install self-watering water cups or nipple drinkers.  These can be very convenient, although there are two things to be aware of.  First, chickens are messy drinkers, so water tends to accumulate under the drinker.  Self-watering drinkers are fixed, so if you have a lot of birds, you may have a continuous mud puddle where they drink.  By the way, it’s not mud!  Second, the self-watering drinkers are often supplied by a hose connected to a bucket placed up high.  If you can’t easily see the water level in the bucket, or easily refill the bucket, it may run dry without you noticing.  Design your coop to work for you without causing extra work for you (or endangering your flock). 

– Sleeping.  Chickens naturally want to sleep, or roost, off the ground.  Their night vision is worse than humans, so they want to be up high, away from predators.  We use chicken ladders, which are 4 ft wide structures made of 2″x4″ and 2″x2″ pine that leans against the wall, but any sturdy structure will do. 

Some people use branches from trees.  Just make sure that the roost is strong enough to support the weight of all the chickens that roost there, and that it doesn’t roll or fall apart.  Chicks are rough on their accommodations, so make it sturdy!

Bedding.  Chickens poop about every 30 minutes and make one half pound per day.  It adds up.  They poop whenever and wherever they want, so you’ll want bedding, also called litter, to absorb the moisture and smells.  Bedding can also make for easier cleanup.  What you choose will be dependent on the size of your coop, whether or not your coop is mobile, your access to certain types of bedding, and your budget.  Here are some of the most common bedding materials.

– Wood Shavings.  Medium Pine Flake is the most common.  It is available at your local farm store.  Wood shavings are very absorbent and they control odors.  Avoid cedar or walnut shavings due to sensitive lungs in chickens.

– Sand.   Sand distributes moisture, and the poop can be rakes out similar to a cat litter box.  However, consider the weight and how much you’ll have to buy.

– Sawdust.  If you have access to a sawmill, sawdust can be a great solution.  But it does create a lot of dust, so beware. 

– Straw.  Straw isn’t the best for absorbing moisture, but it can be used to cover damp areas in the coop.  And it’s fairly inexpensive.  But straw mixed with poop can create heavy thatch, making future cleanup a back breaker. 

– Natural Materials.  You can use grass and leaves from the yard.  After mowing, let the grass dry.  Chickens like to eat fresh grass, which can cause blockage in their crop.   Also, avoid grass that’s been recently treated with pesticides and herbicides.  It might not kill your birds, but it’s not healthy for them.  Chopped (mowed) leaves are better than whole leaves.  Use in moderation so the leaves don’t create a slippery and moldy mess. 

Avoid these materials for bedding:

– Kitty Litter.  Chickens may eat clay litter, causing crop blockage.  Also, added chemicals and scents may be harmful to them.

– Pine Needles.  They aren’t absorbent, but they are slippery!

– Treated Mulch.  Natural mulch works OK, but avoid commercial mulch treated with dyes and pesticides.

If you have a mobile coop, you may not need any bedding at all.  But move the coop often to let the ground recover.  Otherwise, the chickens will turn your lush green grass into a dirt lot!

Cleaning.  Cleaning your coop can be a controversial subject.  Never cleaning the coop isn’t healthy for your flock, and cleaning every day will wear you out, so find your happy medium.  Your coop will never be as clean as the day the chickens moved in, so don’t stress about making is squeaky clean again.  Chickens will never be potty trained, nor will they clean up after themselves.  So focus on the major cleanup jobs.  For instance, we use a deep litter method, where we start with a thick layer of litter, and add if necessary.  The chickens scratch the litter, mixing their poop which composts and keeps the smell down.  Then 2 or 3 times per year, we clean it all out with a small tractor and start over.  Your approach will be different, so find what works for you.  When cleaning, at a minimum you’ll want to scrape roosts, clean out nest boxes, remove dirty litter, and knock down cobwebs and dusty areas.  Dirty litter can be composted further for use in the garden later, spread about the yard, buried, or thrown out.  As a general rule, if the coop smells, it’s time to clean.

Feed and Supplies.  Finally, remember to have a convenient way to store your feed, treats, supplies, and tools.  Keep feed and treats in metal bins to prevent feeding the mice.  Keep supplies and tools near the coop to they’re easy to get.  You may find you need a separate storage shed just as much as you need the coop.

These are simply helpful suggestions that we hope will save you time, money, and aggravation.  Do what works for you, not because you read it somewhere else.  Farming IS experimentation.  Don’t be upset if yo