Hi from northern wisconsin! Help welcome!

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dpears28

dpears28

In the Brooder
6 Years
Mar 27, 2013
50
0
39
Superior, Wi
Hi!!! I'm very new to this chicken thing. Very new as in still thinking about starting chickens this year. :) my boyfriend and I are looking to do chickens in our backyard but don't have a clue how to go about it. We want to raise 4-6 chickens and would love to have fresh eggs and use them for meat chickens as well. Any tips and pointers and help is so welcome! I have so many questions. Is 4-6 chickens ideal? Do you only keep them for a season or can they make it through the winter? Can we have hens that lay eggs and also eventually eat them? We will not let them be free range. We love out of town but still have neighbors I can just pop my head over the fence and say hi as well as living on a highway. I'm very excited to be apart of the community and to learn all I can! :) thank you in advance by the way!!
 
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Hello and Welcome, I am new to this site but not new to keeping chickens. I will try to answer as many questions as I can. OK first and foremost, you can absolutely keep chickens through the winter, you just need to research the breeds you are looking into getting and definitely have a coop where they can get in out of the cold, which you are going to need anyway to provide a safe place for your birds to lay their eggs and roost at night safe from predators. I live in Ohio and keep Black Austrolorps, Rhode Island Reds, Barred rocks, Tetra tints, an Easter egger and a couple bantam breeds. I have also kept hybrids such as Cornish rocks. They all have done very well in the cold here. On the subject of the number of chickens, keep what you are comfortable keeping and what you have the room to keep. Yes you can keep hens for eggs and also to butcher and eat, the common practice is to keep hens and when they stop laying consistently to "cull" them and replace them. The Austrolorps and Rhode Island's are commonly known as a dual purpose breed, meaning they are very good egg layers and get to a good size for meat also. There are many, many, many breeds out there. Do your research on them, go to different hatchery's web sites and order their catalogs they are usually free and they can give you a really good idea of whats out there. Find a breed you like and then research them further. This site also has a good section that can give you GREAT information on different breeds. All that being said you have taken the right first step in educating yourself before you get the birds
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Happy chickening, Ryan.
 

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