Novice from Arizona

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MerryRobin

MerryRobin

Hatching
7 Years
Aug 30, 2012
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I just started gardening this season and I have been wanting fresh eggs too. I'm not big on the idea of butching, boiling and plucking, so having a few hens just for eggs would be a nice start. I don't know how to garden or care for chickens so I have been doing my research online. Our zoning allows for 24 hens and no roosters (unless that chances after Aug 7th, 2012). We also have two dogs and five cats, so keeping them safe from our pets/neighborhood pets is a concern but creating a cool place when the summer heat goes over 100* degrees is my biggest concern right now. I have a spot picked out on the North side of the house. I plan to keep them in a coop about 3 feet x 5 feet and let them out about an hour before sunset in the front yard. The garden is in the front yard and I hear chickens keeps the insects down, but only allow them a short time before sunset so they don't destroy your garden.

Any advice would be welcomed.
 
How many hens were you considering having?

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Thank you Kevin and RedBarn. There are just two adults in our family and we like to eat eggs a few times a week. I was thinking between four and six hens. I saw that portable A shaped coop here that holds 3 to 5 hens. I think thats a good start.


BTW, What do other BYC members do with their male chicks? Can you allow them to reach a certain age and eat them? How soon do they start acting like roosters?
 
I think 5 good laying breeds should give you more than enough eggs for your need. Many people raise them to eat. I personally just rehome males but then again I don't raise chickens.
 
Hi and welcome to BYC from northern Michigan :D

I understand Basque chickens (Euskal Oiloa) are very heat tolerant, good layers, and the boys get nice and big. Mine are still young but already very nice birds. I usually raise my spare roosters up to about 18 to 20 weeks old, then take them to a processor.
 
Thank you for dropping in and saying Hi! I will check out Basque chickens. Looks like I have all winter to plan this out.

I checked out Skylinepoultry in Tennessee. Her chickens look so happy and healthy. I wonder how they will do in the desert with less room to roam. I will have to babysit them while they are in the yard to make sure they cats won't bother them.


Another thought, would it be better to get a full grown hen and hope she will foster some chicks? Whats the best way to buy them?
 
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Hello and welcome to BYC
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A full grown hen will only look after chicks if she's broody. Why don't you get some young chicks and raise them? Once they're about 4-5 weeks old they are easy to look after.
 
Hi MerryRobin and welcome!

We're new to chickens too...well I am...DH has had them before :) We're in Colorado so we don't get quite the heat you do, but it gets plenty warm. I did quite a bit of research on breeds before we took the plunge and we decided on sexlinks. These are a hybrid, so named because the chicks are differently colored at hatching so you can tell which are hens and which are roos right away. My reason for wanting chickens was to have fresh eggs, DH likes brown ones so I took that into account, I also wanted hardy birds that aren't excessively noisy or flighty, and I wanted a medium to small sized bird that would deal well with cold and heat. Sexlinks are egg laying machines! They're not cuddlers but don't squawk a lot, weigh about 4 to 6 lbs and produce large brown eggs.

I was a bit leery of ordering little chicks and then having to raise them, just because I've never done that. We got really lucky...we're allowed 6 hens where I live, no roosters. I kept an eye on Craig's List and lo and behold...there was a post for 6 red sexlinks that were about 8 months old and had already been laying for 3 months. We didn't have a coop so I asked the lady selling them if she'd keep them for us for a couple weeks while we got one built. She was willing but in the end let us borrow a good sized rabbit cage to use till the coop was ready. It worked out great! Since we got them, we average 4 to 5 eggs a day...today was our first 6 egg day. The eggs are lovely...nice and big and healthy and they taste so good! We've given away over 3 dozen since we got them a month ago and the egg bin in the fridge is full again. We don't breed them, obviously we can't since we can't have a roo, LOL. At some later point, if we were more in the country where we could have more, I might go that route but at present, everything's about perfect as is.

We didn't want to raise the for meat, either. I'm a bit too soft hearted for that :) If you only have a few you get to know them too well. As ours get older and stop laying, we'll likely cull them because personally I think it's kinder to end it quickly than to let them just get decrepit and die. At that point, we'll eat them because it would be a waste otherwise, but their purpose is to lay eggs and entertain us!

I'm sure you'll enjoy them; they hilarious to watch and just make you have to smile. I would recommend starting with about 4 or 5...see how it goes and you can add to your flock if you like later on. The heat will be a challenge but there is a ton of info here in the forum and in the heads of the members that can help you out with that. Shade, ventilation, water and good food will go a long way toward keeping them healthy.
 

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