Having a few chickens in your backyard can be a great first step to creating a healthier lifestyle. Homegrown eggs laid by chickens who are free to eat insects, plants, and kitchen scraps (and supplemented with a non gmo feed when and if necessary) are so much better for you and your family than 90% of the eggs available at the store. Eggs of that quality will also cost you between 6 and 7 dollars a dozen, so there is much money to be saved by producing your own eggs.
Another benefit of keeping hens is that it is an excellent way to give a child a sense of stewardship and responsibility. Just try to stop them from running out to the coop in the morning to check for eggs! The hens you keep in your back yard will also most likely have a better existence than the birds who laid those store bought eggs. I don’t know about you, but this matters to me.
What Will I Need To Get Started?
It depends on what kind of set up you are going to have. Some people have stationary coops and they let their hens out to free range during the day and put them away at night. This is great if you can be sure your chickens are safe from predators. If animals like hawks are a problem then a chicken tractor may be a better bet. You would be able to move your chickens to fresh grass everyday while also keeping them safe. You could let them out while you are around supervising, but make sure they are protected when you are not at home. If you live in an area where raccoons and possums are a problem one of the best ways to protect your chickens may be a dog (who doesn’t want to chase them). Make sure they are in a very secure completely enclosed coop at night with a strong latch. Do not expect the pre-fab coops and chicken tractors to be of the highest quality or to last forever. I would suggest finding someone on Craigslist who is local to you and has a good reputation to build a coop or tractor if you want something that will last longer. It will probably cost significantly more. You could save money by building something yourself if you are handy that way. Also, most of the chicken tractors available from Amazon would be more functional with larger and sturdier wheels. The coops I suggested are among the higher rated available online.
At our farm we have a chicken trailer, also known as an egg-mobile (this term was coined by Joel Salatin, one of my farming heroes ). We have a coop built on top of a 14 foot trailer. We have nesting boxes inside and there is enough room for about 30 hens to roost. We move it once a week and run it behind our other livestock. The chickens will scratch all the animal manure into the ground and also eat the fly larvae that lives in it. When our hens are broody and hatching eggs we have another “nursery” coop we keep them in because the egg mobile is not great for brand new chicks. Also a note on chicks: They are super adorable, but also may be more trouble than they are worth if you are just getting started in this whole chicken thing. Very young children and chicks do not mix because the young child will want desperately to hold them and chicks are incredibly fragile. Also, it may seem as though chicks are much less expensive than point of lay hens, but you must take into account the caring for and feeding of birds for 6 months or longer until you get that first egg. It will also add to the overall expense of beginning the endeavor because you will need special brooding equipment. Essentially an enclosed space that is sheltered that they can not escape from (We have used kiddie pools or large metal animal troughs) inside a garage or barn. You will also need lights to keep them warm and special feeders.
Once you have decided what kind of home to get for your hens you must also get waterers, feeders, and feed. (Although feed may not be necessary if they are getting enough kitchen scraps and allowed to range.) You will want to get some kind of material for the nesting boxes that be easily changed (like hay). And that is about it! Make sure they have access to shade (if they are in a chicken tractor or run make sure part of it is shade). If you live in an extremely cold climate you may consider putting a warming light in their nesting box area in the very cold times. Stock pile a few egg cartons from the eggs you are currently buying, or if you want to be fancy you can buy some of these printed ones.
How Many Hens Should I Get?
It depends on how many eggs you would like a week. How many are you buying per week at the grocery store? You can expect a young laying hen to lay around 300 eggs her first year. After that it will decline to under 200 per year and it just goes down after that. To get a couple dozen per week you need between 4 and 5 hens. Introduce another hen or two into your flock every year to keep those egg numbers up.
Anything Else?
Hens can be flighty so you may need to clip their wing feathers to keep them from visiting your neighbors. Also, be sure that you and your children wash your hands after touching your birds and their feeders and waterers. You really should wash your hands after coming into contact with any animal and chickens are no different.
Good luck on your adventure with hens! You will never want to eat another store bought egg again!
