SUPER NEWBIE thinking about raising my own chickens for eggs and meat but I'm SO Confused!!!

[JT_KROL]

Yeah I am waiting for the folks at the township to cal me back. I know of several people doing it but that does not make it legal.

Thank you for all your help!!!

 

[Wishing4Wings]

The Australorps and Rocks are quite docile. I think the Australorps are the most docile. And because they are such good foragers, it will cut down on your feed bill (they're not the type of birds that will just hang out around the chicken feeder).

After reading your suggestion I have decided to go with either the Australorps or the Rocks (maybe a couple of each and one Buff Orpington because I like the way they look). I have read that they like to eat grass...can I throw a few hand fulls of grass clippings into their run for them to eat? Free ranging is not an option for me.

Once the birds are 6 weeks and older, they will not need any additional heat or light. During the winter you want your birds to grow their thick down feathers, so you will not want to provide any artificial heat.

Thank goodness... I am very strongly considering bypassing the whole chick raising portion and getting the birds as pullets. My thinking (I mentioned this in another post) is that I won't need any of the start up stuff to brood the chicks, my concerns of weather and temperature are no longer as much of an issue, sex of the bird is probably 99% accurate and they will be laying much sooner. Considering all of these things and from what I have read you can go through 60 - 100lbs of feed per bird before they start laying it may actually be more cost effective to spend more on the older bird. Your Thoughts?

Sorry, forgot to address this in previous post.

After reading your suggestion I have decided to go with either the Australorps or the Rocks (maybe a couple of each and one Buff Orpington because I like the way they look). I have read that they like to eat grass...can I throw a few hand fulls of grass clippings into their run for them to eat? Free ranging is not an option for me.

Chickens will crave greens, and they will be healthier for it. Grass clippings and weeds (free from fertilizers and pesticides), kale, chard, cabbage, and broccoli are all good for them. Green grass in particular is supposed to lower the cholesterol in the eggs. Yellow veggies like pumpkin and winter squash are good and, along with the greens, give the egg yolks a lovely deep orangey-yellow color. There are lists for toxic plants to avoid. Most free rangers avoid them naturally, but chickens kept cooped up will not be so choosey, and may eat something deadly like Oleander if offered. We have crunchy-dry summers here, no green grass until the winter rains, so we keep lots of kale in the garden just for the girls.


Raiding what's left of the garden! BR in front. BO way up in back examining tomatoes. New Hamp is on far left (she is lighter than pic shows).


The BAs are so beautiful. A definite favorite!

Free ranged birds will spend much of the day hunting grubs and insects so your chickens will also enjoy a bit of extra protein -- left over fish or meat scraps. They will pick bones clean! (I remove old bones so not to attract predators, or even worse, rats.) Some folks buy meal worms, too pricey for me, but I am (sort of

) considering raising some myself.

Hope I am not causing information overload! The truth is they will do fine on a good quality feed, but the better the diet the better the bird. (And feeding them goodies is fun!)

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

My day: get up some time after dawn - sometimes it is quite a bit after dawn, closer to noon as i have fibromyalgia and getting going is frequently a struggle - and go open the people door to the coop. The pop door for the chickens is an automatic door and it opens and closes by itself on a timer. This model requires electricity, although I have also used battery operated chicken doors with light sensors to open and close after dawn and as it gets darker but not full dark. I really prefer the battery operated door but the company was out of stock when I moved and had a new coop built.

Anyway, the chickens go in and out by themselves. I open the people door so *I* can get in, and to let my turkeys out. They don't fit through the chicken auto door, but my ducks and geese do... As well as the chickens, of course. I fill all the feeders once a day and check on the automatic waterer because I had another model fail on me in the past and THAT was a mess when the float didn't shut off the water flow...

This takes maybe 10 minutes. I do park my car right next to the coop people door when I have bags o' feed to unload. Dragging or lugging a fifty pound bag over too far a distance wears me out.

I gather eggs. Two minutes, unless a hen is in the nest box; I won't gather from there until she gets up, so I usually wait for the afternoon/evening gather to get into formerly occupied nest boxes.

I sit out in the yard to watch my flock for a while; this I do several times a day.

I give the flock BOSS (black oil sunflower seed) as hand-fed treats nearly every day. Sometimes I hand feed them old fashioned, dry oatmeal. This takes at least 20 minutes because I talk to each bird.....

Once a week I freshen the pine shavings in the nests. 10 minutes.

Twice a year I shovel the used bedding out of the coop and put it on the compost heap; I use one of the variations of the Deep Litter Method, so there is no daily or weekly coop cleaning. This takes me a few hours and the last time I was lucky to have a friend who brought his 13 year old son with him to shovel it for me, because he wanted the fertilizer. Cool beans - I wasn't up to the work myself, so that was great.

I think that's about it for routine daily tasks.

You've had a lot of good info about your set-up. Ridgerunner is an old hand at this and gives good advice.

Thought I'd chime in on the time factor. I routinely tell people that having chickens is less work than having a dog. We have 50+ hens, and it basically takes me no time at all to care for them. Here's my routine:

Daily--20 minutes or less, TOTAL
--8:00am, Let the chickens out and gather morning eggs, less than 10 minutes
--At Dusk, shut the chicken's door. Gather any eggs that have been laid since I was there in the morning.
--no daily feeding, because I have a large auto-feeder. You can use a 10 pound feeder--it will hold feed for 5 chickens for several days.
--no daily watering except in winter, because I have a 50 gallon pasture waterer
--in winter, I carry water down 2-3 times a day depending on whether the water is freezing or not. Those few months of not being able to use the pasture waterer are the worst! 5 minutes per trip.

Weekly:
--Stir the shavings around with a pitchfork to keep them from getting matted down. Add shavings if necessary. I use a modified deep-litter method like gryeyes. 10 minutes.
--Pull poo out of nest boxes, add clean straw. 5 minutes

Every two weeks:
--Dump 200 pounds of chicken feed in the hopper. This is for the winter--in summer, my hens will go at least a month on 200 lbs. of feed since they are foraging outside so much.
--Fill the pasture waterer with a hose. Doesn't really take time at all, since it fills while I'm doing other things.

Maybe three times a year:
--Thorough clean-out of the hen house, removal of all old bedding and putting in fresh shavings. Takes me maybe an hour and a half.

It actually takes me MUCH longer to clean and pack my eggs for sale than it does to take care of the chickens themselves.

Oh, and I say definitely get Barred Rocks if you're going for meat and eggs. I've had the Buff Orpingtons, and they didn't lay well and weren't very meaty. I didn't like them at all, actually, and have decided never to get more. My hatchery Barred Rocks were very solid and meaty, and were sweet birds that I liked a lot.

eta: If you can drive to pick them up, definitely consider started pullets from Meyer. Their basic price for a started pullet is FAR less than you can raise one for yourself--it's the shipping that kills you. And they will have started Barred Rocks this year, according to their catalog. If you don't mind a less-meaty bird, I LOVE Meyer's Golden Buff pullets, and actually ordered some for April. Not great for meat, but you simply can't beat the temperament and egg production. Most of my Golden Buffs lay eggs for 15 straight days, take a day off, then get right back to laying.

 

[HennyPennyCrazy]

Why the electric fence? I was just going to use half inch square fence roll.

Joe

The electric fence keeps out the big predators - coyotes, raccoons, dogs - and you can move the fence around so they have new pasture to scratch up, and forage for grass and bugs. You will be surprised at how fast chickens can dig up a stationary run and turn it into a mudhole.

 

[HennyPennyCrazy]

Watering chickens in the winter - you can keep 2 waterers - one in garage or some heated area where the water won't freeze and one in the coop. You must then haul the frozen waterer out of the coop and replace it with the other waterer from the heated area so the poor thirsty chickens aren't pecking at ice..

I use a heated watering base. http://www.fleetfarm.com/detail/far...oduct search&gclid=COKXy7D_7bQCFdKd4AodJiwAnw

It's expensive but worth every penny to me and my back!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Just wondering if you heard back fron your township, Wishing the best for you,.

 

[JT_KROL]

Just wondering if you heard back fron your township, Wishing the best for you,.

Yes they called me and there are no regulations at all. They are perfectly legal to own so long as I can care for the number of birds I have properly. As far as the coop goes as long as it does not exceed 100 sqr ft. I don't need a permit either.

Now its up to the misses...

 

[Ridgerunner]

Great news! Good luck!!