Backyard Chicken Ranching

[Snax]

Ok, first off, I would not classify keeping chickens as a money saver per se, but I think it clearly qualifies as an eco-mod. And frankly, after a year of having a flock of 5 layers, I think it's sad that we as a society have moved so far away from this practice over the last century. Regardless, there seems to be a fairly strong resurgence of interest in backyard chickens, so I thought I'd relate some of the things we have learned through our experiences with it.

#1 Don't expect to save money. You probably won't. Fortunately we were under no delusions to that fact going in. Factory farms know how to do this cheaper than most individuals ever can. The unfortunate reality however is that the factory farms are a disgusting abuse of obviously sentient animals with distinct personalities. All told, we have probably spent close to $200 on the initial coup construction and feed over the last year at $20/50lb bag.

#2 Plan well ahead of getting the pullets and get started building the coop and pen early. I had to rush our coop together after my wife brought home the fresh chicks. I got it together in time with a small pen, but the chickens really need more space to forage, so they ended up decimating our garden. They absolutely love seedlings and poking holes in tomatoes! Everything else that is not mature will get dug up by their scratching. We tried to use a 3' high plastic fencing to keep them out of the tomatoes, but they often flew over the top of it despite clipped wings. Chickens seem to be able to hop/fly at about a 45 degree angle up to 4 feet even with one wing clipped, so make sure they either don't have the horizontal space or your fencing is high enough to exceed that. They are also masters at perch hopping to get as high as they need. If you have pullets now, figure out your plan and START BUILDING!

#3 Chickens are social, but if you don't spend time with them, they won't want to spend any time with you! Our chickens will literally wait for us at the back door to come outside because we handled them allot as pullets and allow them to roam and interact with us in the garden, and occasionally even hand feed. One of them will even follow us around the neighborhood like a dog if we let her. Chickens that are not socialized however can be a pain in the ass! I watched one owner chase and fight for 15 minutes with getting her unsocialized chickens back in their pen. Any time she came within five feet of them, they were running away. Maybe she was just mean to them all of the time, but I'm guessing she never bothered to interact with them when they were small.

#4 One chicken = one egg per day, most days at first, if you do things right. In other words, egg laying is very dependent upon daylight, nutrition, and age. Shorter days during the winter tends to slow egg production. Use a photosensitive light timer to extend their daylight in the coop after sunset. A low power LED lamp is all it takes. But don't expect that kind of production for the life of the chicken. They supposedly start to slow down a little after their first year and don't lay as much as they age. Most layers supposedly live 5-6 years.

#5 Simple layer feed isn't enough. Laying chickens need more calcium for good shell quality. Plan on supplementing it with something like crushed oyster shell or other high calcium foods.

#6 Chickens are outstanding composters. Our oak tree used to just leave a flat layer of grass killing leaves in our backyard if we didn't rake them up. We gave up on the grass, and this last year we gave up on the raking too only to discover that we didn't need to rake. The chickens have been so busy back there scratching around through the leaves, thin layer of mulch, clay, and yeah even dog poo, that it is now a loose, relatively thick layer of dark rich soil that I would not hesitate to shovel around plants needing a fertilizer boost this spring. That's not to say that grass has much of a chance under their busy feet though. The soil from the pen area is a terrific source of compost for the garden.

Anyway, there's more to tell, but those are the highlights. I like having the chickens and we fortunately don't have any issue with our two bulldogs sharing the same space when they roam free. I consider them pets and I am happy to answer any questions I can about them.

Anybody serious about keeping chickens however should check out backyardchickens.com. There's no better source for real life information on the subject.

[Clev]

My parents raise chickens for eggs only now--turns out the chickens have too much personality to kill. :-)

[Snax]

I read an interesting article this spring about fryer breeds however which makes me think we could actually raise and kill them for the meat. Essentially it boils down to this:

The fryer breeds have been bred to put on weight very quickly, so quickly in fact that they will overeat themselves to incapacity to move. I think it was about 7-9 weeks being the practical limit for their active lives before they start to have such severe problems as breaking their own legs under their own weight. This lends itself well to the idea that slaughtering them around that time is actually the more humane thing to do.

In other words, layers remain long lived layers, and fryers have relatively short lives whether you choose to euthanize them or not, so one might as well give them the best quality of life for that time - then put them out of their misery so to speak.

[JasonG]

The egg factories I have been in send their layers off for processing into pet food at 18mos-2yrs due to the drop in production.
My early life taught me that 18 mos is roastable but by 2yrs its the stewpot or soup only.
Rotate out 1/4 of your layers every 6mos and you'll stay sustainable. Also the new ones will learn from the adults = less time spent training.
Recycled 5 gal paint / drywall buckets cut like a barrel seat make good free nests. That's ecco too!

[luvit]

i've raised chickens. i didn't know all this info. -- thanks.
i was just lucky to do so well. -- i plan to do chickens again after i sell my house and move to a new one.

[Scott Hightower]

Great info.
If you want to save a bunch of cash you can build your own chicken coop with these plans:
handymanplanstore.com/chicken-coop-plans/
Scott

[PaleMelanesian]

My 4 hens just started laying this month. I love it! Barring the setup costs (coop and fencing) I estimate that selling a few dozen here and there will offset the feed cost for a zero-expense egg supply.

A dropped-off stray dog adopted us the same month. I've spent days/hours/weeks now working on fences. She's a rowdy 3 month old puppy that I hope to train to tolerate (or even protect?) the hens.

I also fear the neighborhood dogs, whose owners let them wander everywhere.

[stevet47]

My question is... do they smell?
I know the large chicken farm are one of the foulest (pun intended) things on earth.

[Wonderboy]

They don't smell if you provide them with some nice dry material (like wood shavings or straw) to hang out on. They definitely don't smell as much if you're afforded the luxury of letting them run free and evenly distribute their daytime droppings. Cleaning the coop is eventually necessary, and it is indeed vile. Seek the best frequency. Don't clean so frequently as to waste the dry material you put down, but don't let over a foot of dung accumulate on the floor either. It's extremely difficult to clean out if it stays moist because it's very heavy and it's one of the worst things you've ever smelled in your life.Definitely choose, or make a high and dry area to place the coop.

Even if you're insensitive, or less than sensitive to animal or chicken rights, you still stand to benefit from keeping chickens, or at least buying organic free-range eggs: All conventionally produced chickens and eggs have salmonella. Smaller farms and individual chickens don't necessarily, and probably don't have salmonella. Do people honestly prefer cheaper eggs guaranteed to have salmonella? With all factory farm produced animal products in such a centralized manner, we are really playing with the proverbial fire of disease tolerance to antibiotics, which is the other thing you can choose guarantee yourself whether you have chickens for eggs or meat - no use of antibiotics. Eggs from my chickens and other chickens with a similar free-range living situation have a very obvious better taste and texture due to the diverse food sources the chickens are free to explore, which in turn also makes their eggs more nutritious. There is plenty more to talk about on this issue, but I'll leave it at that. No Salmonella, No antibiotics, and tastier/more nutritious.

[PaleMelanesian]

In and around the coop, within 5 feet or so, you can smell them a bit. Beyond that, no. I think the dog has a stronger smell, honestly.