Newbie with questions

[dis go chikens]

My personal opinion is if you want friendly chickens, get babies. That way they will get used to you and u will be closer to them.
Also 4 hens is plenty enough for two people, but it depends on what type of breed you get. Here are some good laying breeds.

sexlinks: have three of them and lay almost every day. brown eggs
barred rocks: look cool dont have any but I am planning on getting some. brown eggs
rode island reds: very good layers. brown eggs
Leghorns: have one that isnt laying cant wait to get white eggs.
Easter eggers: Have three, if you want to add some color to your egg basket consider these. blue and green eggs

They will not eat your whole lawn. I used to keep my chickens out in the lawn for the whole day and I didnt really notice any difference if anything my lawn looked better. However if you keep them confined in say a run on one small space of lawn, the grass will probably go away. I hope this helps.

 

[Patoot]

Totally helps! Thanks!

Bree

 

[Mrs. Feathers]

Hi Patoot...

I currently have a flock of 22. We raise Black Australorps, Ameraucanas and EE`s for brown, green and blue eggs (my role) and meat (DH`s role). We love our birds and chickens are great to have around the home. I completely recommend it!

-Minimal time I could spend would be 10 min per day and an added 30 minutes one day for extra clean up (I scrape their pooh boards and give the coop a quick rake daily on top of changing water and filling feeders)...we spend more that this because they are better than TV.
-They do eat and scratch up the grass. You could put them in a tractor (a mobile run) and move that around your lawn to vary the area they are using. We have a large run off our coop so don`t free range them in the yard although they do come in the yard with us when we are out there.
-They eat pretty much whatever they see and have favorites. If mine ever got near my strawberries they would strip them clean in minutes. It depends on how much you want to share with them

-Babies or adults is a personal preference. We hatch our own. I love the incubating and hatching phase as well as the first two weeks. After that I would gladly give the noisey, messy little guys up until they are about 8 weeks and can be in with the general flock....but that is just my opinion. I love my adults and I think that after a week of loving and treats if you did get adults they would love you like you had them forever. The quickest way to a chicken`s heart...black oil sunflower seeds.
-Poop is good for your lawn and excellent for your gardens. We compost the bedding.
-you should have lots of eggs for 2 people with 4 hens
-I find them to be very easy care...but it would depend on the friend. For a couple days....as long as it is not hot....we can fill up extra waterers...give extra food and leave ours in the coop and get away. Longer than 2 days I get someone to take care of them.
Good luck and let us know what you decide!

 

[3chimama]

Welcome to BYC. I would like to put in my 2 cents regarding getting them as chicks or older. I have gotten both. When I was given laying hens, they were not tame at all. All of the chicks that I have gotten and handled a lot are so easy to take care of and round up if I need to. They enjoy being held and love to "talk" with me..just sayin...;D Have fun whatever you decide.

 

[DTOWNGIRL]

You say you don't have any predators but I'm sure you have hawks.....my chicken coop area is TOTALLY covered with mesh bird netting so everyone can be out all day...I let them out to forage in the yard (3 acres)when I am around so we don't have any unwelcome company! Make sure there are no entry points at all into the coop...we actually had a RAT get into our coop through an eensy weensy opening!!! We completely went over the coop area after that, filling in with caulk any hole bigger than a dime!!! The mesh flooring sounds good but it could allow tiny predators in...chickens are really not that messy...you'd be better off using straw or the like on the floor of your building and just replacing the straw every once in awhile...

 

[mika4me]

Chickens can really mess up flower gardens, vegetable beds, etc. Our neighbor's birds get over onto our property sometimes, and they scratch all the bark out of my flower beds and will trample down little seedlings. If you have landscaping you'll probably want to keep the chickens away from it. Their poop is GREAT in a compost bin, however, and once it's composted (not before or it's too strong) it is a very good addition to vegetable beds. I actually buy bags of composted chicken manure to add to my vegetable beds in the spring. I am looking forward to adding my own chicken poop to my composter. It does seem kind of silly to pay good money for chicken poop...

 

[theFox]

Quote:
What about if they are free range in the whole yard? Or are you saying I have to confine them and then move them? I was hoping they could have the whole yard as their "run". I do know that the area around the coop will be lost. I just don't want an entire yard of dirt/dead grass.

Bree

How many chickens and how big is your yard?

It is simply a matter of the chickens not spending all their time in one spot, the more chickens the less time it takes to do in the grass etc, the less space the fewer number of chickens it takes to do in the grass etc...

A lot of people can't really free range their birds so they tractor them it provides a bit of predator protection and the birds can't run away, there are also people who have multiple large runs that are accessed by separate chicken doors on their coops that allow the birds rotating access to pasture.

If you can truly free range them then the area that will get destroyed will be the run and close to where you let them out.

If you do a bit of reading you'll quickly discover that anything that looks like food to a chicken becomes a target of their beaks and also that chickens love to scratch, between those two traits you have lots of potential issues with things that grow surviving.

 

[Patoot]

Okay, I think I'm going to do it.

I have researched for hours and hours, talked with hubby, and measured things in the backyard. I have a little more info, but more questions too.

The coop will be 5.5 x 5.5 feet and is 3.5 feet tall. I was thinking 1 pole (like a rod I can buy at Lowes), but maybe I need 2? What do you think...just for 4 chickens. I was going to do one nest box so they have more room in there since I read 1 box per 4-5 chickens, but I can do 2 if you think that is better.

The grassy part of the backyard measures about 40 ft long by 8-10 ft wide (depending on where you measure) so about 350-400sq ft which is about 80-100sq ft per chicken. In the non-growing months, they can also roam in the gardens which adds another 200sq ft. The fence along the yard is over 8 ft in most places, but only 5 in a couple spots. I can extend the height if you think Rhode Island Reds are inclined to jump it. I will clip their wings. If I find they are destroying the lawn or their poop doesn't wash off the porch easily, I can make them a run and then just let them out for a few hours a day, but I'm hoping the free range will work.

There are options of birds to get, but since I'm not sure how this will go and I'm new to this, I was thinking Rhode Island Reds would be a good choice. I read they are good layers, quiet, tolerant of cold, and relatively docile. I would be getting babies that are 3 months old. I'm hoping that's young enough for them to be tame, but I'm not looking to hold and cuddle them really. I just want them to be happy and healthy and give lots of yummy eggs.

So questions:

1. How likely is a heavier breed like RIR to jump a fence (privacy fence so they can't see through)? If they are prone to that, how high will I need to make the fence to keep them contained assuming I clip one or both wings (whichever you recommend)?
2. I will fence off my veggie garden. How high do I need to make the fence to deter them from trying really hard to get in there?
3. I have English Ivy growing on some of the fence/back wall. I read these are poisonous to chickens, but also ready they don't seem to try to eat them. Will I need to keep them away from it or rip it all out? I hope not as we have a concrete wall as our back fence and the ivy helps make it less ugly.

4. What do I need to look for when getting the birds? Should I go pick them out or just let the rancher deliver them to me in town?
5. How likely is it that they can be relatively tame given I'm not getting them as chicks?

Thanks for the help.

Bree