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[Caroline9991999]

Advice? Hmmm... now that's tricky! Mainly because the last time I kept backyard chickens was at the tender age of six! My six year old self would have probably said chatting to your chickens on a daily basis, as my chickens were constantly told of my woes at school or introduced to my latest Barbie. I have a sunny day nostalgia of the smell of new straw, the excitement of collecting eggs and the sense that I had a bigger family than just my annoying three year old brother.

You may wonder where I am going with this reminiscing, well as you may be able to tell from my grammatically correct post, I am no longer six years old! And very sadly, I also no longer have chickens. I am getting married on April 4th of this year and have just moved in with my fiance to a beautiful Mill conversion with a garden crying out for a coop. Babies certainly are not part of the foreseeable agenda, but chickens are!

Please please help us start our new 'family' and re-create the happy fuzzy feeling that keeping chickens gave me all those years ago. It would be the best wedding present EVER!

 

[nirvana4me2]

If you are into raising chickens- experienced or new, young and old, commercial or for fun, the best advice for almost any topic is: drumroll please... DON'T BE AFRAID TO ASK QUESTIONS and that NO question is too silly! As a new chicken "enthusiast", I read about raising chickens (I get mine March 4th!) on a daily basis and I ask my friends who are more experienced questions that may seem silly but have helped me make critical choices on almost any topic from breeds of chickens, to coop construction, to raising chickens. One can never stop learning new things and leaving a question unanswered could lead to a dire mistake!

 

[MrsMoonCat]

In order to raise happy, healthy birds that are thriving under your care - do some research. Find out the needs and requirements for the breeds you are considering. Take the time to learn if the breed is aggressive, delicate or hard to find. How much and what kind of food will they consume? Be sure you choose a breed or breeds that will fulfil your desire or need for chickens. Do you want lots of eggs? Are you looking for meat birds? If both, find a dual-purpose breed. Ornamental breeds are fun if you want to show or just be amused by their appearance and antics. By determining your initial reasons for getting chickens, it can help you narrow down the list of choices and possibly save some heartache down the road.

One of the things that I think is really important is to determine what breeds will thrive in your area/climate. With a lot of extra work and care, even delicate birds will be able to exist just about anywhere, but you have to be willing to go the extra mile and possible expense. There are many breeds that are happy in both hot and cold weather, but some will suffer in the extreme temps some of us deal with. After narrowing down many, many choices, I chose to focus on Mediterrean birds that can tolerate the +105 degree temps we get here much of the summer.

Talk to people who already have chickens and don't be afraid to ask questions. This forum is a goldmine of information for newbies and old-timers alike. If someone doesn't have the answer, they can most likely direct you to a person who does.

The best advice is to ENJOY YOUR CHICKENS and learn from your own experiences - both the successes AND the failures.

 

[epeloquin]

My advice in raising chickens is to learn all you can ahead of time. There is an abundance of great infrmation on BackYardChickens.com. We first checked with our local health department for our city ordinance. I decided to order day old chicks because this gives you a 90% chance of getting the sex you want. Many communities like mine don't allow roosters nor did I want any. I decided on Rhode Island Reds and Barred Plymouth Rocks because, living in New England, I knew we needed a hearty breed that could endure our harsh winters. My sons and I built a coop and run that is plenty big for the number of hens we have which is very important. We were able to recycle lots of building materials and do it all on the skinny. We had a sick pullet and everything i had learned enabled us to handle the crisis and nurse our girl back to health. The more you learn the better of you'll be. Beyond that my best advice is have fun! Raising chickens is a wonderful family affair!

 

[LisaP24]

We've had chickens for less than a year but by far the best thing I've learned was to change from the traditional way to give water in a store-bought container or bucket to the chicken nipple waterer in a re-purposed milk jug. No more dirty water for our chickens! The one I use is a push in-style from QC Supply (less than $1.50 each). We tried fancy contraptions with pipes connected to a 5-gallon bucket but in the end the easiest, no leak and easy to refill solution was to use a gallon size milk jug, drill a hole with a 11/32" bit in the bottom, push the grommet and nipple in, keep the lid slightly loose and simply hang on a rope with an "S" hook on the handle. The chickens took right to it, learning from each other. For our chicks I use a smaller container in their brooder and they all take to it within minutes. It's so much cleaner and the water lasts for a while, so I can leave town and not have to worry about them having to drink out of a messy water container. Thanks to BYC and all those who share their ideas...I've learned it all from here!

 

[artistictalon]

I don't have chickens right now, but want some really badly. Looking forward to all of the benefits of having my own coop. The crowing rooster and singing hens! And the wonderful home grown eggs!

Growing up with chickens, I remember my parents had lots to learn about chickens. Being a member of 4-H helped to give us a source for poultry health and production information. I would like to share one of my family's chicken stories. I'm sure that technology has improved since then. So please bear with me.

We had a large garden one year with a bumper crop of cucumbers. Being the sort of folks who tried not to waste anything, we fed our chickens any of our left over assorted peelings and veggie scraps. As you know, they loved them and ate them right up. Happy chickens and happy us, win win, right? Well that was until we started not having as many eggs. Started feeding them laying mash, still no increase in egg production. Still feeding them our leftover cucumber peelings. Couldn't figure out why our hens had stopped laying. Mom complained to a local farmer who laughed and asked if we were feeding them our cucumber peelings? Everyone had a bumper crop of cucumbers that year! Yes we were, why? He had had the same problem. Cucumber peelings cause the hens to stop laying. He told mom to go home and fix them a mixture of cornmeal, eggs, water and crushed red pepper flakes into a mush or baked into cornbread. This will fix your egg problem. She did like the farmer said, fed it to the hens and before long we had just as many eggs as before. Sounds crazy, but it worked for us. From then on, anytime our hens stopped laying, we would supplement their diet with red pepper flakes! Wacky, but true!

Thank you for bearing with me.
Hope this information is helpful.

 

[chickensman98]

I started raising chickens in 2010 and bought nine chickens. When I got the baby chicks, I put them in a tub for better protection on the cold nights.The heat stays better in the tub, especially with a heat lamp.In addition, it is good for the chicks to have heat and warmth to survive better. Having more than one chicks is important,they keep each other warm and entertains each other, the chicks become less stressed. All chicks and chickens needs love. All chickens young or old love to scratch for bugs, food, and other yummy things. Therefore, I would put shavings in the tub so can have something to do. When the chicks started to fly out of the tub, I put them in a chicken coop. I put the tub in the chicken coop on its side with the heat lamp and the shavings and they loved their new home. A chicken coop does not have to be bought at a store, it could be anything all you have to do is to put a effort into it and believe it is a good chicken coop. If you have a backyard with grass and different kinds of plants I would fence in a area so the chickens can eat the grass and look for bugs but this is optional and would make the chickens more healthy and the eggs would be more healthy. Another thing is the chickens would look for a area and make a dust bath. A dust bath is important because when the chicken takes a dust bath, the dirt or dust goes into bugs pores,and suffocates the bug and the bugs fall off the chicken. If you get chickens you also have to take the responsibility to clean the chicken coop, I would recommend you clean it weekly and the more you clean it the shorter time it takes to clean the coop the next time. If you are going to vaccinate the chickens for Mareks disease, I think you should vaccinate all your chickens because some people say that the chickens not vaccinated could would have a higher chance of getting the disease. I do not know if this is true or not, so I would look at more articles on the disease in books or on the Internet. If you are considering free ranging your chickens and do not know how to keep them on your property. Chickens usually wonder off in your area but will stay close to home, at night they would come back to the chicken coop. In addition, to free ranging chickens there would be a higher chance of a predator getting the chicken. The chicken would be healthier being free ranged but may run off and never come back. This may happen but I have heard many people say they usually stay close to home. Another thing is that you can give the chickens treats like in the summer, I would give them corn kernels and watermelon because they love this treat and in the winter I give them some warm cooked oatmeal to warm them up. The recipe for the oat meal is simple all you have to do is put some plain oatmeal in a bowl and add some water them heat it up in the microwave. I would let the oatmeal cool down so it is not hot or too warm for the chickens. I would give the warm oatmeal to the chickens and they love it. Another treat I give to the chickens is plants usually grass or clover. In the winter if they are locked up until the spring comes, there favorite treat usually green plants and oatmeal. This is not the only treats you can give the because there are many different treats you can give them.
I hope this helps!

 

[ashkyns]

My best advice for raising a backyard flock is be prepared. Know what your getting into, ask for advice, learn about your breed, and chickens in general. Check your local ordinances. All this makes things much easier once you actually have the chicks in hand.

 

[tommyhanson]

The best advice I can think of is to hatch your own eggs. I don't care if you order fertilized eggs and build an incubator or raise a hen up to brood her own chicks, but either way it is an experience that you cannot miss out on, especially if you have kids. Watching a chick hatch is the best part of raising chickens.

 

[ngil]

My advice for anyone who is about to start raising chickens and wants to collect eggs: Keep your chickens in the coop until they lay their eggs, if you are going to let them free range wait until you have eggs in hand. Or the little varmints will go next door and rob you of them.. yes, even expropriate them to their own selves. Then one day you won't find one of your hens and you'll search and search and find her in some tall grass under some brush trying to hatch all these eggs that they dispossessed you of.