I want to raise chickens ... what are the most important things to attend to first?

[GOLDENSEABRIGHT]

I say either buff orpingtons or black australorps

 

[6of6chicks]

I say either buff orpingtons or black australorps

I second the Buff Orpingtons. I picked them because they tolerate heat and are supposed to be easy for beginners. So far I've found that completely true. My birds are super friendly, both with me and with each other. They are active, quirky, and also seem pretty smart - at least as far as doing what I want them to do (like automatically going into the coop when it gets dark). Maybe I just got lucky, but so far I have been really happy with this breed.


Scruffy but pretty! (6 weeks old)

 

[brau]

They're so cute! How do they fair in the wintertime?

 

[Mountain Peeps]

They're so cute! How do they fair in the wintertime?

Buff orps are very cold hardy and do great in cold climates.

 

[dretd]

I've been researching and reading a lot about raising chickens. There is tons of information out there and it's actually a little daunting. What should be the first things on my to do list?

Hi brau and

I wish you loads of luck with your chicken adventure. What type of space do you have available for your chickens and are you going to keep them cooped up or will they be pastured?

So far everyone's advice has been great. For me, I built a 4x6 ft coop for 6 chickens and a small run. I ended up enlarging the run immediately to give them more space. I would build as large of a hen house as you have space for as it will minimize squabbling later on and give you the flexibility of adding new flock members as time goes on. I wish I had built mine bigger from the start.

On the same topic, you need to be warned of a phenomenon called chicken math. For some reason, chickens seem to multiply and you always end up with more than you expect. Like when one of my chickens passed. The hubby said we needed another so of course I had to get 2 chicks because one would be lonely. I started with 6 and I think I have 35, but the chicks don;t count so I really only have 11. Chicken math. You have been warned.

As for breeds. If you only have a small flock, I would consider getting several different breeds. Its fun to have different colors and sizes of eggs in the nest box and its much easier to tell them apart if you name them. Since you need cold hardy birds, you might want to look at breeds that are rose combed like the Wyandotte (I haven't had them so I can't comment on personality) or a pea comb like a Brahma. I have both a Light and Dark Brahma and they are very cold hardy and sweet-natured birds. My Dark one is the friendliest bird I have in my flock and I would highly recommend at least one in your flock. Another breed I have had and would highly recommend if you want a friendly, hardy and productive breed are Barred Rocks. I love my Speckled Sussex and she is very friendly, but she only lays a medium egg and she was one of the first to drop off in her production as she aged. Very heft bird, thought, so a true dual purpose if you are interested in that. I love my Welsummers. They are excellent free rangers but can adapt to a run. Folks really like the spotty terra cotta eggs. My last Welsummer reliably gave me 5-7 extra large eggs a wek as a 2 year old until she got eaten by a coyote. She free-ranged a bit too far, sadly.

Good luck!

 

[QueenBubbles]

Someone mentioned Brahmas and I second that for their cold-hardiness. They have feathered feet and are heat machines. It probably wasn't the best choice for me in CA, but my little Easter Egger snuggles up to the Brahma at night. He is a huge guy at 8 weeks now:

I also have an Australop and they have the cutest chick faces. They are highly recommended for laying year long, even in the winter, and have big brown eggs.
You are lucky to be allowed a rooster - that makes getting chicks a better risk. It is pretty awesome to bond with the little ones.
I got the chicks before I had the coop built. If you start with a run, you can take longer than the 8 or so weeks it takes them to feather out and be ready to be outside full time. If they go out during the day and come in at night, it doesn't feel so much like you live in a chicken coop. And once you give them a taste of the outside, they will demand it daily.
You didn't specify your time line, but I have read is that it isn't worth the risk of ordering chicks in the winter as they often arrive DOA. You might have enough time this year before winter, but you might want to start looking for breeders in your area. There are tons of people hatching eggs all the on BYC, so hopefully there is a thread of people in your area.
Good luck and have fun!
Colleen, an Idahoan in CA

 

[blucoondawg]

You need to be careful about everyone's breed recommendations, you will get a ton of them and I have found them mostly to be nonsense. I have raised many different kinds of chickens over the years from multiple "pure breeds" ordered through hatcheries to mutt chickens I have hatched myself and all I can tell you is, when talking your run of the mill dual purpose breeds, a chicken is a chicken when it comes to their "attitudes" I have had some breeds which are supposed to be oh so friendly be very aloof, as a matter of fact right now I have a couple barred roc hens and a couple light brahmas in my flock that want absolutely nothing to do with people and will run like the dickens if you try to grab them, yet these are supposedly very friendly pet-like chickens if you listen to the breed descriptions on the internet. The only breed description I find accurate is that of the Buff Orpington, they have always been a friendly chicken to have around in my experience, maybe because they get too fat to want to bother running away from you all the time, lol, however they generally aren't going to produce as many eggs as some of the other breeds.

Your best bet is deciding what you want, you said you wanted eggs, how many eggs do you use in your household? 5 or 6 good laying hens should give you more eggs than you can handle unless you have a large family eating eggs daily for breakfast or you are doing a lot of baking, by good laying hens I mean the higher production layers, your red or black sex links, productions reds, black australorps etc. Most hatcheries have fairly informative websites as far as what to expect from their breeds as far as amount of eggs. If you go to other breeds like brahmas and orpingtons you may get a few less eggs but still probably more than you need in your household with 5 or 6 hens. Also some heritage type chickens raised for show by breeders to the visual standard may not produce as well as the commercial hatchery birds depending on how they were bred.

As far as good breeds for a beginner, again I have found a chicken is a chicken when talking the normal dual purpose breeds, they all pretty much act the same and really I don't think there is a chicken that really requires any extra difficult care due to it's breed, you have the game types and the smaller birds like leghorns, these will be flightier and can fly quite well so a 6 foot high fence may not contain them well, and game roosters are not recommended to be kept with other roosters due to fighting, though any breed of rooster will fight in close quarters without enough hens amongst them. My recommendation is to stick with any of the breeds considered dual purpose and you should not have issues.

Where climate is concerned chickens do quite well in very cold weather, the only concerns are the areas without feathers, the comb/wattles, tips of toes can be an issue for frost bite. Wattles of roosters are larger and tend to have the problem of water dripping on them when they drink which freezes causing frost bite, large combs can also get frozen, the only issue I had with that was with one of the roosters who was always fighting the other, he is a NH, his comb was bloody a lot from fighting and it frostbite due to being wet, the other one has a huge crown type comb, he is a buttercup and he didn't frost bite at all in last year's very harsh cold temps. Big thing is coop design, be sure to provide plenty of ventilation to cut down moisture this is what causes frost bite. If you are concerned about it you can stick with the small comb breeds, easter eggers, brahmas, wyandottes would be my recommendations that way. You can provide some sort of heat but it is hard to do if you have good ventilation and it gets very expensive. I put on a heat lamp when it got very bitter cold last year overnight but other than that they were fine and I live in northern WI, a lot of below zero temps last year was down to -30 a lot of nights.

 

[calichicken]

Personally, I'd start with deciding what breeds you're going to get. Depending on the breeds, you may design your coop/run differently.

So decide: Are you raising them for show, meat, eggs, or some combination of the three? Once you've decided that, do you want bantams or standard breeds? (Size will make a difference when designing their housing.) From there, look into the breeds that meet your criteria, decide what you want, then build housing to suit.

That is, in my opinion, the first step. Setting up proper housing for the birds you want.

ETA: Also decide if you want to buy the birds when they are already grown and laying (which will save you some money in feed and care costs) or do you want to purchase them as chicks and raise them yourself (which will cost you more in feed and care, but you'll get the joyous experience of watching the little balls of fluff turn into full grown chickens).

If you can, I would recommend raising your chickens from chicks.It is so much fun...and work! But I think when you get them as chicks and handle them a lot, they have a greater chance of being people friendly! Not that you can't end up with a sassy bird that doesn't want to be approached, but I think it is less likely when raised from a chick. Not scientific at all,,,just my experience

 

[christine9]

I would recommend getting chicks. The feed expense is not that much for a few chicks and completely worth the experience and the time to bond. Whatever you do, plan your coop and run in a way that can house more birds later or be expanded easily. It truly is addicting!