Chickens - Words of Wisdom

[Aszerigan]

My girlfriend and I have done a lot of research on having chickens. I've worked on horse farms with chickens some years back, so we decided it was time to raise our own.

Bought a coop today, and building the accompanying wire run this week.

Like I said, I've tended chickens before, but I've never raised them. Anyone have any good advice for a beginning chicken farmer. We're going to raise them from chicks for egg production only. No roos.

Preferred egg breeds? Certain chicken feeds that you recommend? Other advice you have.... ?

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Loco179]

Backyardchickens.com

That is a very good site. Tons of great info.

I have Cali Whites and Rhode Island Reds atm. All good birds.

 

[Aszerigan]

Backyardchickens.com

Yes, great site. Spent a lot of time there over the past few days. Good suggestions on the birds too.

 

[SEIndSAM]

And keep an eye out for coyotes and raccoons, my Dad has an ongoing battle with them, they love the chickens.

 

[henktermaat]

I'm a member over there. I've had my Carmel chickens now for two months, already lost one to sour crop and had to perform surgery on another one. (she's doing fine.) The kids absolutely LOVE them, and all of the neighbor kids are interested too.

Chickens are fun and educational!

I built my coop as nicely and as cheaply as possible... still cost me $200. It'll last forever though.

 

[Kmcinnes]

Rhoda Islands are good birds,as for feed you will want to feed them the medicated chick feed that has antibiotics for approx 8 weeks. We have been using the purina band, You will need to check their water at least twice a day as we have 12 chicks and 2 ducks and I fill it in the morning and the evening. They get the water pretty dirty. Ours are 3 weeks old on Thursday, they grow fast lol, ours started getting their feathers last week and are trying to fly this week. I recommend handling them as much as you can so they get used to it, however we sanitize our hands before and after handling them. They are a blast and have fun.

 

[Aszerigan]

we have 12 chicks and 2 ducks

Can you keep ducks in a chicken coop too? I didn't know that.

 

[nmcampbe]

+1 for the rhode island reds, can't go wrong. We love ours and they are a pretty bird at that. We get a lot of our supplies from Rural king. Keep them under a heat lamp. If they are right under the light, too cold, if they are far away from the light, probably too hot, evenly scattered, just right. Our new chicks are about 7 weeks old now and we just moved them out to the coop. I used crushed corn cobs and pine shavings for bedding in the coop and it seems to work nice, just put it down thick. Gotta come get some powder this week!

 

[Kmcinnes]

We do, they get along great, however the ducks grow a lot faster and I think the chicks think they are momma.

Oh and you will need a heat lamp, They will need to be kept at about 90 degrees decreasing 5 degrees a week.

 

[jeremy]

Heat lamps, Hotdogs, and do not mix chicks with larger birds (unless you intended to feed the chicks to the larger birds).

 

[Kmcinnes]

Hotdogs

Do they like hotdogs, I have never heard that?

 

[jeremy]

Do they like hotdogs, I have never heard that?

Yup they love the cheap ones too!!!

If you notice your chickens starting to peck at each other feed them a couple of chopped up hotdogs...

 

[Kmcinnes]

Yup they love the cheap ones too!!!

If you notice your chickens starting to peck at each other feed them a couple of chopped up hotdogs...

Good to know! Thanks

 

[henktermaat]

Hotdogs?

 

[Loco179]

I made the mistake on spending money on all those prebuilt coops. Save your cash! Menards has 150 feet of chicken wire on sale for 40 bucks. That is a good start!

 

[Kmcinnes]

Chicken wire is good for keeping chickens in but not keeping racoons and foxes out. If you use it in cojunction with other fencing (Example Picket fence with chicken wire on the inside of that) it works great. I just have a picket fence around mine, but we have a 1 acher yard that is privacy fenced all the way around and the dogs keep the coons and foxes away.

 

[shibumiseeker]

Hey man, I know you're looking at raising some, but if you want a jump start we're going to be selling off 2-4 of our older (2 year this fall) hens when the new chicks are old enough start laying. I'd be happy to sell you a few if you want.

 

[Jason R. Bruce]

Buff Orphingtons... best all around bird I've ever raised.

I run 30-75 chickens of various breeds. Unless you're free ranging or consistantly selling eggs it's hard to break even on raising chickens but it can be a lot of fun.

 

[Johnson]

for feed you will want to feed them the medicated chick feed that has antibiotics for approx 8 weeks.

Don't automatically assume you need to load your chicks up with antibiotics. One of the (many) reasons to raise your own chickens is to have a better quality meat that is also healthier than what you get from the store and the chicken factories. Don't replicate the procedures the disgusting chicken factories use. They load their birds up with antibiotics because they NEED to. Raise them right and it's totally unnecessary in most circumstances.

 

[spencer rifle]

For eggs try ISA Browns