Wondering if raising 3 chickens for a few eggs is hard to do?

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Alliepaul

In the Brooder
Apr 22, 2021
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I have been thinking about having a few chickens for our own eggs, we live in town but can have 2 or 3 more if we pay a fee. I am just concerned about a few things.
We have 2 big dogs. Also, what about winters, and leaving for vacations etc?

I just don't want to take the plunge and find its more work than I want to have to do. Or the dogs hurt the chickens, etc.

Probably my biggest concern is wanting to let them roam the yard, so they aren't pinned in their whole life. I have flowers, and plantings, and have heard chickens will eat about any plants you have. ??

Just wanting to scope things out before actually taking the plunge. Thank you for any advice you can give me.
 
Depending on how much the fee is, I think it would be a good idea to get some chickens but honestly if you only get 2 or 3 it would just be cheaper to buy eggs from the store without going through all the trouble of feed monthly, finding someone to care for them during vacation, getting a coop, setting up feed and water daily, and there are no vacations when owning animals. But if your okay with doing that then you will truly enjoy have feathery friends in your backyard, also whether or not you have a fenced yard they should be fine to free range once they know the area.
 
Alliepaul said:
I have been thinking about having a few chickens for our own eggs, we live in town but can have 2 or 3 more if we pay a fee. I am just concerned about a few things.
We have 2 big dogs. Also, what about winters, and leaving for vacations etc?

I just don't want to take the plunge and find its more work than I want to have to do. Or the dogs hurt the chickens, etc.

Probably my biggest concern is wanting to let them roam the yard, so they aren't pinned in their whole life. I have flowers, and plantings, and have heard chickens will eat about any plants you have. ??

Just wanting to scope things out before actually taking the plunge. Thank you for any advice you can give me.
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:welcome Welcome to the BYC forum.

There are many reasons to have chickens, but we all live in different situations. You have mentioned a number of concerns, so it's good that you are thinking about those before you get your chickens.

Dogs and chickens don't always go together well. If you have chickens, you need to protect them from your dogs. This means a fenced in chicken run for most of us. One that keeps the dogs out and the chickens in. It is recommended to have 10 square feet per bird in the chicken run.

Chickens don't need to free range to be happy. They do just fine in a chicken run. I have my chickens confined to a chicken run that is covered with bird netting to protect them from hawks and eagles. I would love to just let them free range all over my yard, but I know that by the end of the summer they would probably all be gone from predator attacks.

Chickens don't require much care. I have 10 chickens and it takes me maybe 5 minutes per day to care for them. I have a 3 gallon waterer and a 5 gallon feeder (that I half fill) and those have to be refilled about once every 10 days. So, not very much work. But, it is a daily chore to check status of food and water, to collect eggs, and to let the chickens out of the coop in the morning and lock it up at night.

I would not plan on any days long vacations unless you have someone lined up to check on your flock while you are away.

Chickens will eat just about anything, but I don't free range my birds so I don't know if they would eat flowers and plantings in the garden. Maybe someone else can answer that for you.

With 3 laying hens, you will probably get 1-2 eggs per day on average. We all love those fresh eggs from our backyard flock, but is it worth your commitment when you can probably buy a dozen eggs at WalMart for less than $1.00? If you are keeping chickens only for eggs, then you will soon find that you have committed a lot of time and effort for a small return. Most people here will be honest with you and tell you that buying commercial eggs is a lot less expensive then keeping a backyard flock for eggs.

So why do I keep a small backyard flock?

I keep a small backyard flock of 10 chickens first and foremost for the entertainment value. I just like having them. Stress relief, if you will. Good for the soul. Second, I have them making compost for me for my gardens. Chicken compost is great for that. Third, we recycle as much "waste" into my chicken project as we can to save things from being sent to the landfill. All my organic yard waste gets thrown into the chicken run (grass clippings, leaves, chipped wood, etc...) and we also feed almost all our kitchen scraps and leftovers to the birds instead of throwing it out. I also shred all our papers, newspapers, and cardboard and use that as litter in the chicken coop. We used to have 3 or 4 bags of garbage thrown out every week, now we only have about 1 bag per week. Not all of that is due to recycling with the chickens, but when you shred all those paper products, you certainly reduce the bulk in the trash bags. Almost no food waste is ever thrown in the garbage. Finally, as a bonus, we get fresh eggs. I currently average about 6 eggs per day, but in the dead of winter, I was only getting 1 or 2 eggs per day. When it's -40F outside and you have to go check on the chickens 3 times per day for 1 egg that might be in a nest box, that is when you really know if you are committed or not. I never tried to fool myself into thinking that I needed chickens for fresh eggs.

So, only you can decide what is best for you. I hope you get lots of responses to consider your options. Best wishes.
 
On the concerns of dealing with situations of having chickens, I would advise against having them.

They will eat all or most plants and flowers, and when they lay there eggs there very loud. And if your dog has never interacted with chicken before it's not going to be easy to get them use to them. These are some of the reality of chicken keeping.
 
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Our city allows four hens, so I got four hens. My vegan husband decided he wanted to eat eggs again, and I, his (now former) vegan wife, wasn't having store bought eggs in our house.

So, we did the research, bought a coop, feeders, waterers, heat lamp for the chicks, put together a brooder. The works! Then we got our girls. Adorable, fluffy, lovely babies. And they grew and grew and as pullets outgrew the "fits four hens comfortably coop" that I had bought from a online chicken website.

So, I built a real coop. It took time and money and effort, but 100% worth it because know they have a proper coop and run.

My best advice regarding the dogs, be careful. We have a fully fenced yard. The neighbor dogs to our right, constantly bark at the girls. The little dog to the left just stares, the big dog barks and runs the fence line. The two dogs behind, just stare.

Depending on how cold your area is, they should be fine. Mine disapprove of the snow that we get one or two days a year, but they are always able to stay warm even though we hit freezing temperatures for months in the fall and winter.

I am glad that I did my traveling in my 20s and 30s, 'cause I ain't goin' nowhere now. They need to be let out in the morning to eat and start the day, and put to bed at night. Chickens keep tough hours - up with the sun. If I were to go on vacation, it would be winter. Anyone who was going to have to get up to let them out, should not have to get up at 5:00 am.

Our girls free range all day in our yard. They keep the grass nice and short.. and bald in places. They leave my daffodils, mint, hydrangeas, and day lilies alone; everything else is fair game. My vegetable gardens are all surrounded by chicken wire which works well. The one surprise with free ranging chickens is that 70% of their day is spent pooping. An exaggeration but seriously, A LOT of poop. I spend 10-15 minutes daily picking up the yard. Invest in rubber gloves, easiest way to pick it up.

One last bit of advice if you get some hens, get heritage breeds, avoid hybrids. We have heritage birds and looked at the hybrids for various reasons, but they tend to have short lives and reproductive health problems that are painful to witness.

I love my girls, but I miss traveling for weeks on end.
 
hope you take the plunge, chickens are great fun.
I would highly recommend you start with bantam chickens first. Ie something small that won't take up as much space. They eat less, they make less noise, less mess, easier to handle but they do lay smaller eggs and might lay a few less of them but having bantams now I really regret having gotten a dual breed a few years back. They ate so much!

Going on holiday should not be a problem as long as you have a feeder and waterer that can hold 2 weeks worth for them. You will be able to assess what size you will need but they are available all over and not an issue.

You should fence chickens in, Save your plants, keep the chickens safe, don't worry about them freeranging, worry about giving them a big enough fenced run so they won't need to. Again smaller breeds do better with less space than bigger birds.

Things to consider are that the initial investment can be quite substantial.

A coop costs about $150-200
a fenced run is about $100-$150
Feed for a year will be $60
Depending how much hay you use that adds cost.
The chickens will be about $50

Expect to spend a good $500 as initial investment and expect extras like feeders, medication, coop door openers and treats and then another $100 of yearly cost for 3 birds. They should be treated as a long term project where the initial investment should last and spread out over 10 years so the yearly cost should average out at $150 for 600-900 eggs per year from 3 birds.

Like someone said if you are only doing it for the eggs, it won't work out for the effort and cost involved. They add so much life into a back yard that they are a brilliant pet and can be fairly low maintenance if you want them to be but they are a mass produced animal and you just cannot produce eggs cheaper yourself. They will however most likely taste better and be healthier.
 

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