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Reasonings
With
the questionable safety of the meat products available at the grocery
store, my wife and I decided that we should try to create a supply for
ourselves. We had four acres of property and minimal cash to spend, so
large animals like pigs or cows would be out of the question. We
decided that something like rabbits or chickens would work out well. We
ruled out rabbits (for the time being) for several reasons including
higher maintenance, higher initial costs, and the fact that I had
already raised rabbits as a kid.
We settled on chickens for the following reasons:
- There is a lot of information available on the web
- They are cheap to purchase
- They can provide both meat and eggs
- You can let them roam around so their poop isn't concentrated in one place
We were surprised by a few unexpected benefits:
- Insect control - our small flocks of chickens eliminated most of the pest insects around the house.
- Greener
grass - the chickens' scratching removed the dead undergrowth and mixed
in their poop. They also liked to eat small weed seedlings and
dandelions.
- Entertainment - chickens are just goofy and amusing to watch.
Acquisition
Our
plan was to pick up a small flock of chicks in the spring, raise them
to egg producing age, collect the eggs, and then butcher them when it
starts to get cold.
You can
purchase chickens through the mail order or through a local feed mill.
Other less desirable options include county fairs or a local farm. I
prefer a local feed mill.
When
buying through a feed mill, you can look at the chicks to get an idea
of their health. Often, you will get one or two chicks that will die
through mail order. A fair will get you good chicks, but they usually
are scheduled for the summer. You won't get eggs until well into the
next spring.
Farms
that have chicks are few and far between nowadays. Most hens have had
the brooding instinct bred out of them. You might have good luck if you
can find a farm that keeps antique breeds.
You can
buy sexed chicks or straight run. Buy sexed hens. You probably do not
want any roosters - they are loud, and if you have more than one, they
will fight to the death once mature. Some folks buy twice as many
straight run chicks and butcher the roosters once they start crowing or
fighting. I just buy hens. Some people will try to tell you that you
won't get eggs without a rooster. This is a myth. An egg is produced by
the chicken's menstruation cycle. You only need a rooster to help
produce chicks.
We buy
our chicks on St. Patrick's day. That way, we can calculate how old
they are (usually they are already 2-3 days old). This will put egg
production starting around the beginning of August. Hens start
producing eggs at 18-20 weeks.
To get started (assuming 12 chickens) you will need the following:
- Chicks - $15/dozen
- Water fountain - $3
- Starter feed - $10/25 lbs
- Feeder - $3
- A small pen - an old laundry basket works well, cardboard box will work until it gets wet
- Heater light - $15
- Wood shavings - $5/bale (no sawdust - it can cause respiratory problems)
- Possibly
two clean 1-quart glass canning jars for the water fountain and the
feeder - one of your relatives is bound to have these laying around.
In
all, you are looking at about $50ish dollars to get started. These
supplies will last for about a month. The food shouldn't run out and
the equipment shouldn't wear out. Your chickens will outgrow it.
During that month, you will need to buy/make the following:
- Full size feeder - $7-10
- Full size water fountain - $7-10
- More food - $10/25 lbs
- 5 bales of wood shavings - $25
- 3 5-gallon buckets - free or $5-8 at a home center
- A 4'x8' chicken coop - as much as you want to spend
The
coop is probably the biggest sticking point. Our first year, I just
caged off a part of our garage. We only had four chickens. The next
year, I built a coop out of scrap lumber and some corrugated roofing
purchased at the home center. You can google for plans. The following
are some suggestions based on my experience.
Make the
coop 4'x8'. Chickens need 2 square feet each and plywood comes in 4'x8'
sheets. This will minimize cutting and waste. Create a post and beam
structure. Basically 4 upright posts with a rim of wood around it.
Create a shed roof. A shed roof is easy. Do not use treated lumber or
anything you wouldn't want to eat yourself. I had the great idea of
using rigid foam insulation. 12 chickens had a 4'x8' sheet picked to
nothing in three days. Find a nice 4'x1" thick branch to use as a roost
on the high end of your shed.
You
probably also want to use some leftover plywood to create a ramp up to
the roost. Make sure you have some footholds on the ramp so your
chickens don't slip (basically, some thin strips of wood spaced
approximately 3"-4" apart).
Make
sure that the coop can be closed securely at night. Do some research
online, get some construction books at the library. This is an easy
project that a beginner can tackle in a weekend or two.
Care
So you have the initial supplies and a bunch of peeping chicks - now what?
Once you
get everything home, find a quiet place away from dogs/cats/small
children/whatever for your new chicks to reside. The area should be
free from drafts and readily cleanable. These guys are messy. Make sure
that there is nothing that the chicks can get hurt on if they get out.
Once they start escaping, it is time for the coop.
Set your
pen on the floor, place 1-2 inches of wood shavings down, and fill
their food and water. Go ahead and put the chicks in while you set up
your heat lamp. Chicks tend to be self-regulating as far as the heat
lamp is concerned. Place it so that they can get totally under it but
also be able to back away entirely. You shouldn't have to bother with a
thermometer with this type of setup.
Check
their water and food at least twice daily. Fresh, cool, clean water is
the most important thing for chickens. Keep their litter clean. I
usually will dump it on the compost bin every other day. One bale of
shavings should last until they are ready to go outside.
Once the
chicks get most of their feathers in or are consistently escaping from
their pen, it's time to go outside. You got that coop done, right?
Use several bags of wood shavings and fill the floor to 6"-8". This
litter will need to be raked to mix in the poop once a week (or when it
starts to smell) and replaced around once a month (or when mixing
doesn't fix the smell any more). Get the chickens out early in the
morning and you may be able to last longer. The used litter makes a
great mulch for your garden. Once it gets out in the open, it won't
smell anymore. I use it under shrubs and raspberry bushes.
You will
probably still have most of your bag of food left from the indoor days.
Use it until they eat it all. Once it is gone, you will want to buy
"grower" food. It has less protein than the chick food. After one bag,
move on to "finisher".
One note on food: Keep it sealed airtight always.
The first year I simply rolled up the bag and kept it in the garage. I
had a huge infestation of moths that lasted for over a year. Since
then, I buy 1-gallon ziploc freezer bags and divide the entire bag into
these. One bag will usually fill the adult feeder, so this works well.
Keep the heat lamp in the coop until you see that the chicks don't use it any more.
Once
outside, check their water and food levels. I find that I need to
fill/change them both every other day as they grow to adult size. A 25
lb bag of food will last around two weeks once they get to adolescent
size. Let them run outside as much as possible. Bugs are free food!
Chickens
like to be let out early and will come home to roost around dusk. Once
they are all inside, you will want to secure them for the night. This
should keep them safe from raccoons, dogs, foxes, and other animals.
We have
had some trouble with raccoons. People will trap them in the city and
release them by our house. These animals can be very aggressive. I have
had one growl at me through the screen door. We had a pack of three
raccoons that I ended up having to trap and euthanize.
With any
luck, August should roll around and you should have a dozen healthy,
amusing animals running around. One morning while checking food and
water, you will find a little egg in a small depression. The egg will
be really small - it's called a pullet egg. It is fine to eat and will
be followed by larger eggs. Our Rhode Island Reds consistently gave us
double-yolked eggs and some triples!
Once you
see the first egg, take your three 5-gallon buckets and fill them to
the top with clean wood shavings and place them upright and out of the
way (not under the roost) in the coop. They will use them for nesting
boxes. You will need one bucket for four chickens. My chickens
preferred buckets over the nesting boxes I built. The birds will kick
out what they don't want. If they don't seem to be too interested, you
can scoop out a couple of inches and make a small depression (like a
nest). You will sometimes find three full size chickens squeezed into
one bucket.
Check
for eggs a little after you let them out in the morning and before you
put them in for the night. At full production, you should get around 10
eggs/day. The eggs will keep in the refrigerator for 6 months - no
joke. We put a basket in the fridge, and collected enough eggs to last
until February. We also gave a lot away.
I find
fresh eggs to be really strong so I let them sit in the fridge around 1
month and they start tasting like store bought eggs.
Final Disposition
Eggs are
real nice to have, but with the cooler weather and shorter days that
autumn brings, egg production will start waning. Once spring comes and
the days get longer, they will molt their feathers and will not produce
eggs until well into the summer.
Because
we don't want to take care of chickens in the freezing winter as well
as pay for heating and food when they aren't producing eggs, we butcher
the entire flock around the beginning of November.
We have
found a small farm that specializes in butchering poultry and rabbits.
They charge about $1 per bird. I have done butchering in the past, but
the mess is worth a dollar a bird. We drop the birds off Sunday night
and pick up the meat Monday night.
The meat
is very flavorful. It is, however, very easy to overcook as water (and
who knows what else) is not injected into the meat. I recommend doing a
slow-cook casserole-type dish.
Euthanasia
One of
the more difficult things to deal with is what to do with a sick or
injured bird. Usually the most humane thing to do is quick
euthanization. Often, if chicks are sick, they will succumb before you
can do anything. Other times they will pop back and be fine. I don't
usually euthanize a chick unless they have a broken leg or wing. The
quickest solution is to wrap the body in a towel and decapitate quickly
with a sharp knife. That is really the worst case scenario and I hate
putting down chicks.
Decapitation
is usually best for adult birds, too. Last year I had a rooster
(sometimes you will get one even though you buy all hens) who broke his
leg. He was limping around when I found him and you could see the bone
trying to work it's way out of the skin. I quickly placed him in a
paper grocery bag, dug a hole in the back lot and placed the bag in it.
When I had summoned up enough guts, I opened the bag enough to let his
head through. When he popped his head through, I popped it off with my
.22 rifle (garden branch shears work well, too). He flopped around for
a little while (hence the bag). Once he was done, I filled in the hole,
went inside and cried.
Conclusions
Chickens
are a very enjoyable animal to have around. The gentle clucking is very
comforting to listen to and their antics are enjoyable to watch.
If you can stomach some of the unpleasantries involved, the chicken can provide a good source of healthy food for your family.
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