OK I want to try raising a few laying hens for fresh eggs for my family.Can you all give me any links to sites that might give me insight as to what type hens I should get, some ideas for a coop, how much room they need? God I have soooo many questions. I have almost 3 acres and only use a small portion for a front yard and a small garden, mostly all full sun.I would like for them to be near my garden so I could combine work time and have water close to both. How close to the house do you keep yours?
OK I'm gonna slow down and catch a breath.
Too many questions
Boy, have you come to the right place! Just build everything for at least 10X the number you think you want--last year I was planning on 3 pullets--this year, on to infinity! There are some excellent books on selecting birds suitable for your needs, two I really like are "Choosing and Keeping Chickens" by Chris Graham (British) and "Storey's Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds" by Carol Ekarius. There is also a site called "Henderson's Guide to Poultry Breeds" or something, from Cornell, that is very helpful. Anyway here is the link and Good Luck!
http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html
yes, to infinity and beyond! let's say i am glad i got a good deal on my numbered leg bands, LOL
hmmm, i have tons of stuff saved to my favorites. about to shut down for thunderstorm, but right off hand i would say do some searches on
www.motherearthnews.com
www.grit.com
www.themodernhomestead.us
www.backyardpoultry.com
www.feathersite.com
www.self-sufficient-life.com
if any of those links don't work, just google, i might have it wrong...
btw, you really want the chickens at lesat 100 feet from your house, but no more than 150. south facing is a good idea for the henhouse door, and make sure they have shade nearby, or they will be coming up to the house for shade...
congrats! and ask all the questions you want, there are literally TONS of us here with some sort of answer or experience...
tf
thanks for the sites, Mother earth news is how I got this idea, and I think I saw the backyard poultry website earlier, I thought about checking at work to see if someone in one of the animal science dept.s might give me some insight, oh yeah I work at a large university .
I guess from what I've been able to read so far that I'll build my coop on a raised platform to keep predators from digging in under it.
Facing the coop south isn't a big problem, though I had originally thought about facing it west so I would have room on each side to build runs that I can alternate garden spots in every year.
I saw a post earlier about burying cinder blocks before putting up the wire , but I also read a post that said something had dug 2 ft to get under a fence so is it worth it to try and bury anything more than the bottom foot or so of the fencing?
i suppose that depends on your soil. we buried down 18 iunches, then as an afterthought, built a raised garden out of landscape timbers all around it... so the second pen, we are just building things around it, becasue our soil is so hard, dry and compacted... too much work.
we have ours in a pre existing building which is a conrete slab and cinderblock. all we lack badly is the fan on the roof for ventilation.
however you decide to venitilat, that is REALLY important for healthy happy comfortable birds that produce year round.
also, instead of burying your fencing, or in addtion to, you can dig down and out a little ways and lay wire on the ground, then cover it. so anything digging has to go through that wire and gets discouraged pretty wquickly.
a real good site for anti-predotr info is www.guineafowl.com
i have a lot of sites where i used to garden, and we use those for free ranging. rotating is very important. the two garden run is a great idea, stemming from old farming days. keep in mind that if you still live there in twenty years, do you really want your chickens still in those two pens?
food for thought,
tf
Thats why I came to you guys and asked. I didn't think that far ahead. Nor did I consider ventilation, there sure is a lot to consider when thinking about raising chickens.( I thought I could just turn them out and collect the eggs and a few broilers too.)
oh, dont' we wish that were true.
you also should decide HO you want to raise them. grass-fed=corn free? natural=without antibiotics or other meds? organic=strict diet? vegan? [not natural for the chickens i think]
this will determine what info and supplies you need to prevent and treat any health problems, and also how to market your eggs and broilers. you will likely end up selling ot others becasue you will end up with more birds than you intended!
;once you know what you want, consider you need to be raising replacements. do you want a "closed flock" to help prevent disease from coming in? will you order from a hatchery, a breeder, order eggs to hatch yourself, or raise hens that will make good mothers?
then will you raise purebreds or allow crosses? so one, two or three breeds? you could do as many as three and each would have a different colored shell, white, brown and blue/green.
these are things you have probably already considered, but i thought it would be good for anyone reading this to think these things through as well. when i decided i wanted chickens, i didn't have the resources right away, so i spent a lot of time studying and making these decisions. came down to raising purebreds, two breeds, one for eggs the other dual purpose, and hens raising chicks, with natural free range feeding and care.
well, all that went out the window when i was given nice stock for another breed. and then another.
[now i won't accept any more gift birds that aren't haelth tested]
and when someone loaned me an incubator since my hens had been too stressed to go broody, i thought, nope, i could never do this...
so now i have more chickens and breeds than i ever intended, and love them all!!!
so plan for what you think is best, and be prepared to get addicted and go overboard! cause those little peeps work their way into your heart! speaking of which, need to check on one that just hatched in yet another loaner incubator, from a crossbred egg of my original Buckey breed and a gifted Jersey Giant!
the best laid plans of mice and men...
methinks I should do ALOT more research and put more thought into how much eggs really cost compared to raising them myself.
Sounds like the two kids I raised were easier than them chicks
and i am raising both at the same time LOL... if you can limit yourself to only what you need, you will eat better, and have fertilzer for your garden, and have a wonderfully enjoyable hobby.,
yep, you need to decide what you will do with all that chicken poop! il like your idea of the two runs!
your eggs will be much healthier, don't let me talk you out of this ^_^ nobody could tear me away from my plans, even though they keep on changing!
tf
Thanks TF I just dont want to start something with illusions of grandeur and find out that it really isn't something I can follow up with, having any kind of animals is a serious responsibility and I need to know what is involved before I decide what to do.
A friend has offered 3 or 4 hens and a rooster if I want one, I have a feeling he is giving away hens that don't produce as well ( they're 2 or 3 years old) I don't think I'll harvest enough eggs to make the feed cost balance out. Not to mention the start up cost for the coop and the yard and of course the feed. Not to mention I work 40+ hours every week and don't get home in the winter some days till well after dark.
Hi fremar--don't let us scare you! Keeping chickens is not difficult. I started with four supposed pullets in the MotherEarth dog kennel run and it worked great--until my pullets all started crowing! I found non-food homes for all of them and started again....that's when things got a little out of contro:0). Three pullets for eggs is really all a family usually needs. In Britain they have a chicken rescue movement where people take in and rehabilitate two year old battery chickens--they still lay well, just not at a commercial level. If you know you just want a few eggs a week and can let them do a little free ranging, I think it makes sense. The eggs may not be a lot cheaper than the store, but they will be a lot better, and you can sell or give away extras to friends. The main concern is predator control--which if you use a movable pen with strong wire and small enough holes is probably not a worry during the day--just be able to shut them up safely at night. I am still using my MotherEarth Kennel Coop for the new batch until I can build more space. Just make sure what ever you get is a female!
i appreciate your seriousness in this matter. that is exactly why it took me so long to get some.
of you pass on your frienbds free offer, there will always be more. feed stores, freecycle, craigslist, and petfinder.com always have them, besides all your new-found-friends here on Dave's!
take your time, and you will have everything in order before you know it!
tf
Oh hell just jump off in the middle of it like I did. I was in the feed store a week before Easter and saw all these adorable chicks in big watering troughs, and I had always wanted to raise some chickens soooooooo I bought 25 of them, thinking that I would get 1/2 hens and 1/2 roosters, and we would just eat the roosters. All I knew was they were straight runs RIR's, PR's and something else that they forgot to write down. The man working there wasn't much help. Bought one of those little waterers and feeders you know the kind with the mason jar, 25# of chick starter Medicated, a bag of wood chips and a book Living With Chickens by Geoff Hansen. No plan at all as to what I was going to do with them....Well to my horror I found out I needed to keep them a 95* so I put them in a big cardboard box with the wood chips and got my husband's clamp light out of the garage with a 100w bulb and a thermometer. It was still cold outside so I put them in the upstairs guest room(that was a mistake I got this fine dust all over everything), only lost two of them in the first few days. THEY STARTED TO GROW, I could see a change every day, I then knew I was in trouble, so I told the hubby "we have to build a chicken coop NOW". My husband never does anything half-assed, so $1000.00 and 5 weeks later I have the most beautiful coop with running water, electricity, solar lighting in the coop and the yard, fans for the summer, and heat for the winter. The main yard is under big oak trees so its shady all the time, and the run gos out into the sun so they can decide sun or shade. By this time the chicks were huge and had been moved into bigger and bigger boxes even had to separate them to make more room. I ended up with 10 pullets and 8 cockerels and the ones that no one knew what they were, are Lakenvelders.----- So just a few hens to put in the back for some eggs turned into a major project, but if I had to do it all over again I would not hesitate. I fell in love with each and every one of them--------oh the 8 roosters I could NOT kill them, I found homes for 5 of them and kept my 3 favorite, they are 12 weeks old now. I don't know what I'm going to do when they start to fight, I'll cross that bridge when it gets here. My chickens are my pets they sit on my lap when I go to visit, and I go to visit many times a day, I don't know about all you other people but I cook for my chickens. I started giving them my scraps from the garden and the table, and now if I don't have any scraps I feel so guilty I make them something like pasta or rice. Do you think I'm nuts, my husband does.
Judy, if you are nuts then i am looney too!
that almost sounds like my storey, only it was planned and i kept running into problems. it was because of running out of space with four furniture boxes in the dining room in 2006 with 75 three week old chicks, and still didn't have the coop finished, and needed help with the henhouse door, that i FIANLLY accepted a nice quiet man-from-chruches offer to help. that was Easter 06. Easter 2008 we celebrated our one year old sons birthday!
more than fowl hatcehd around here LOL, i call him my "little turkey", becasue he IS one, and because my "plans" were to raise turkeys in 2007, not give birth to another son!
i don't have solar panels, YET, but i have light fixtures, a nice flood ligth, indoor and outdoor outlets, hooklocks, padlocks, insulated ceilings, hen havens, bantam townhouses, shade cloths, rian tarps, water barrels, and lots of kiddies pools for the waterfowl. and now three goats and three puppies to boot.
i dont' just cook for my fowl, i GROW food for them... and if i don't have enough i BUY it at the store... woe is my husband!
yep, i did all my years of research and planning, but once i fell in love with those first 75 chicks, it was all over for me ♥
currently we only have 11 new chicks in the dining room, DH built a brooder under the bar for me [there is a thread here somewher ewith pictures]. they will go out soon so we can clean up and remodel the dining room. [with what time and money i dont' know!] by next year i'll be hatching in the basement and have chick brooders in the heated outdoor poultry shed.
now you see what you could be getting yourself into, fremar? you don't seem easily scared LOL, but we are SURELY trying! ^_^
you wanna rename this thread "too many answers"? LOL
Hi
1 I started off with 25 Hybred layers, Sil-Go-Links, don't remember where I ordered them, it's been about 25 years! They always send 1 or 2 extra just in case. I ordered pullets, they always have 1 or 2 roosters in the mix. They lay HUGE brown eggs, lots of double yolks! The next year I ordered 50, and 50 more the next year. I worked, too. My hubby made automatic feeders for them out of 50 gal. buchets, plastic. Cut a hole on one side of the top. Fasten a flat, 2 in. zinc pan, available at Coop, to the upside bucket. He opened the bottom so I could pour in laying pellets in one, and other types of feed in another. Works splendidly!
Now, get a good flashlight to bring in the eggs so you can see in the nests! I brought eggs in in a 50 gal. plastic bucket!
The chickens would come to meet me when I got home before dark. They looked like a flock of geese in formation!
Beautiful!
The roosters were a different color than the hens. I loved every bit of it!
yep, where there is a will, there is a way! wow 50 gallon bucket of eggs!!!
Doe, did you mean a 5 gallon bucket? I have never seen a 50 gallon bucket. I do, however, have a 50 gallon barrel (metal) that is our burn barrel. I could easily fit into that one.
GG
I know it's been said before but it begs repeating "we are enablers"! You can't just have one. I couldn't pick just one breed, and now seem to have a chick in every breed, lol! Chickens are fun, but don't try to talk to non-chicken people about it, they just won't understand!
Of course I meant 5 gal!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was thinking 50lb lard stand!
Duh!!!! LOL LOL LOL :-)
Doe
Boy you sure can't miss a day on this forum, I worked yesterday and cleaned up around the garden so no time to check herre and there seemed like 10 post in one day.
Thanks for all the advice and encourage3ment and when I get a coop and run built I'll send some pics. I AM DOING THIS!!!!
My wife may want to divorce me after this but.... I'll still love her more than the chicks. I think anyway.
I really need to decide what breed I like now, I like the idea of double yolks Doe I may check on that.
congrats on your decision, you are not gonna regret it ^_^ may i recommend buckeyes? i got some double yokers when they were younger, and it also seems to depend on feed... it results from holding one egg in whil eproducing the other, so you will get eggs less often.
hey, raising "backyard poultry" sound like an honest and safe hobby to me.... getting you out of the house but keeping you home at the same time LOL she may get jealous or she may fall in love with them as well.
keep in touch,
tf
Yep, a 50 lard bucket would work. I use a 5 gallon ice cream bucket for ours. It can hold about 2 1/2 dozen eggs without breaking those on the bottom.
We are going to up our flock to about 50 hens, so might have to use a larger bucket soon. Or, maybe just use 2 ice cream buckets...easier to carry.
Hmmmmm, maybe make me a carrying pole to go across my shoulders with the buckets on the ends like they do in China. :))
GG
♥^_^♥
had to good advise here
yes full of good links and stufff
yer ther are a lot of beginners right now and this could help them a bit
wow this thread went to the bottom pretty quickly after tf's bump so i will do it again
Well thanks for all the support and info. I still can't come up with the money for this, but I'm hoping by spring enough side jobs will come up that I can get the coop and yards completed. I would prefer to get chicks that are 6-8 weeks old already any ideas or is this even possible
fremar, I don't know about your area, but when I started my flock, there were started pullets available from the hatchery where I bought my day-olds. When you are ready, check with your source and see if you can get the ones you want.
GG
just hag in there i dont have much money ether but i save up and eventualy i can get a new addition to my flock
i bet we can hlep you find some in the spring. kudos to you for wanting to be ready for them!
yea dont do what I did. I am here to tell you when we DO build the coop, it will be built better than fort knox. Not even a fly could get in.
LOL