New chicken owner

[Keith1186]

Hi, I'm going to start breading chickens for both eggs and meat. I'm British and live in Southern Germany. I have my own pellet machine for making bio-fuel pellets, but I feel it may be more difficult to make pellet feed, as all the additives required. Can anyone throw any light on the subject.

My coop is 16.5 sq ft and a covered run of 100 sq ft is that enough space for 6 chickens? Do you recommend me having a cockerel?

 

[cpegram]

that is plenty of room for 6 chickens and a rooster you figure 10sq ft per bird for the run. If you are wanting to breed then yes you will need a rooster. I don't know anything about making your own pellets though. A rooster will also take care of and protect the hens a very good investment

ETA
sorry missed the coop def needs to be bigger

 

[fried green eggs]

Hi &

,
Your post caught my attention because you wrote you were going to start "breading" chickens. I'm guessing you mean you will be starting to breed chickens? A coop that is just 16.5 sq ft is small for 6 birds. A good size is 4 square feet per bird in the coop and 10 sq ft per bird in the run. And more room than that is even better. Crowding in the coop or run causes stress in the birds and can cause feather pecking behavior. With higher maintenance and much more work to keep things clean so birds don't get sick. If you can make the coop bigger - you will not regret doing so. You will also need a brooder for chicks and a area for roos and pullets to grow to become meat birds or more layers for your flock..

 

[TwoCrows]

Welcome to BYC and enjoy all your poultry adventures!

 

[Kelsie2290]

Hello and Welcome To BYC! General rule of thumb seems to be 4 sq feet inside and 10 outside for chickens, but it will vary depending on a number of things, great BYC article on figuring out how much space you want https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/how-much-room-do-chickens-need With the feed, there are quite a few threads on homemade feed recipes, I don't know about turning them into pellets, but there are vitamin premixes and poultry concentrates available at most big feed mills that you can add your own grains etc to. Nice thread on feed recipes https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/4477/everyone-post-your-best-homemade-chicken-feed-recipes and this site has gathered quite a few recipes, and says where a lot of them came from ...http://www.birdfarm.bravepages.com/eggsx.html and http://www.poultryhub.org/nutrition/feed-ingredients/ and http://www2.ca.uky.edu/smallflocks/feed_ingredients/grains.html Good websites about ingredients.
With only six hens, and especially if you are short on space, I wouldn't bother with a rooster unless you plan on hatching a lot of your own eggs... you might figure out if you are better off to have an extra hen and no rooster and buy chicks occasionally.

 

[drumstick diva]

 

[sourland]

Welcome to BYC - unless you intend to raise chicks from your eggs, a cockerel is not necessary.

 

[gander007]

 

[Ren2014]

Hello and welcome.

 

[Keith1186]

Thank you for all your help, I'll go with 4 hans to start if I want more I'll extend the coop, should I keep food and water in the coop as well as in the run?