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White-egg Layers

Anonymous — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:56:13 CDT

These breeds are white-egg layers:

All Leghorns - Single Comb, Rose Comb, Pearl White, Red
Minorcas - Black, Blue
Anconas
Silver Spangled Hamburg
Andalusians - Blue

Post pictures of your leghorns or anconas! Click EasyEdit, then the "image" button, to add them to this page!

Eggs! Eggs! Eggs!

Myakka_DAC — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:37:27 CDT

At around 20 weeks of age, your young ladies will begin laying their first eggs. Hurrah! This is the moment you’ve been waiting for!! Every day is like Christmas when you get to collect the eggs from the nest and proudly share them with friends and family.

You’ll notice that when cracked open into a pan, fresh eggs sit plumper than store-bought eggs, and the yolk is a bright sunny yellow or even orange if the chickens are eating grass. Most people say the taste is noticeably better than commercial eggs.

What's that noise?

Egg-laying is often accompanied by a lot of fuss and squawking coming from the coop. Apparently it’s a bit painful. Others say the hens are proudly announcing their accomplishment. Go check and you might find the egg still hot off the chicken.

Want to know how many eggs you'll get? What the average shelf-life is? Check out the Egg Q&A!

See also:

Recipes

Egg Q&A

Anonymous — Tue, 26 May 2009 12:56:45 CDT

How can you improve egg production in winter?

(Click EasyEdit to contribute to this page.)

candling of egg,how
Should I wash the eggs? Eggs are laid with a protective coating that resists bacteria. Brush off any dirt, but avoid washing the eggs unless necessary. Once washed, they should be used promptly.

Shelf-life. Eggs will easily last at least a couple or three weeks in the refrigerator. The eggs sold in supermarkets can be legally up to 100 days old. Pencil the date on each egg before you put it in the fridge so you know how old it is. As eggs age, they lose moisture and the air pocket at each end grows larger; that’s why fresh eggs will sink in water while an egg that floats is too old to eat.

How many eggs does a hen lay? Technically, about one every 30 hours. Realistically, that means an egg every day or two per hen. The first winter they may keep laying through the winter, but otherwise they tend to take the winter off unless you outfit their coop with extra lighting and heat during the winter months. Chickens are most productive their first couple years, egg-laying declines after that. Time of year, age, health, temperature, breed, and other factors affect productivity.

Will they hatch? Don’t be silly. No rooster means no chicks.

Broken eggs. Sometimes all you’ll find in the nest is broken eggshells. If your hens are getting enough calcium for strong eggs and a bed of straw is cushioning the nest, the problem might be that they’re eating their own eggs. Try collecting the eggs promptly to break them of this habit. Also, rats are known to eat eggs—another reason to collect eggs at least once a day.

Calm Breeds

Anonymous — Sat, 02 May 2009 00:04:55 CDT

Here are some popular breeds known for their calm personalities:

Buff Orpington
Black Australorp
Silkies
Rhode Island Red
Red Star
Barred Plymouth Rock

Know another kind? Add it to the list.

Share pictures of your pet silkie! Click EasyEdit, then the "image" button

Raising a Chicken In Tennesse

Anonymous — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:14:23 CDT

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

Chicks 101

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:28:20 CDT

One of your first steps will be learning how to buy, nurture, feed, and raise a chick. This section will show you the essentials of:

Food & Water
How to Pick a Chick
Watching them Grow
What You Need to Know

Pass along your expertise!

If you've raised chickens, pass along your advice on what makes a baby chick happy. Share a comment or add a new page to the Chickiwiki.

See also:
Got questions? Visit the FAQ.

Is it legal?

Anonymous — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 02:03:24 CST

Yes, most likely your municipality does permit chickens, just as it allows dogs and cats. The number will be limited (3 to 4, usually) and roosters are never welcome in the city because of their noise. You can go check your city’s Web site for the current land-use regulations. For example, here’s the law on Seattle’s books: Seattle Municipal Code 23.44.048 Keeping of Small Animals:“The keeping of small animals, farm animals, domestic fowl and bees is permitted outright… A. Small Animals. Up to three (3) small animals per single-family residential structure may be kept in single-family zones…”

Post questions or comments about city codes

Coop Basics

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:21:09 CST

Your chickens won’t care if their home is a prefab dog house on cinder blocks or a scale model of a Swiss chalet. The bottom line is, you can’t go wrong—as long as it meets the few very basic needs of your hens..

Shelter from weather. A standard approach is a coop (house) connected to a fenced run. The coop must provide dry shelter from rain and wind, and it should be ventilated without being drafty. In cold climates sturdier construction, a light bulb for heat, and a heated waterer are appropriate. The run can be at least partially exposed to the elements.

Show off your coop! Post a photo on the photo page.

Got blueprints? Share your best coop design.

Size. Figure on a minimum of 3 square feet per bird, but they’ll be happier with more room.

Roosts. Chickens like to perch up high at night, usually side by side. Provide them with 2-inches diameter roosting bars inside and outside the coop and up off the floor—the higher the better. Don’t place one roost above another, or else the bottom hen will get pooped on. Figure on at least 8 inches of perch space per bird; more is nicer. Try to train your chicks to use them while still young; it’s tough to teach an old hen new tricks.

Nesting box. Hens will take turns laying eggs in the nesting box, so they can share just one. It should be a box at least 1 foot square, elevated off the floor of the coop, and cloth flap for privacy. A 3-inch “porch” in front of the entrance makes it easier for them to hop in and keeps eggs from rolling out. Place straw in the box for padding to protect eggs from breakage. An outside hatch to the nesting box makes it easy to collect eggs!

Protection from predators. The coop and the run must be fenced on the top and sides to keep out raccoons and dogs. Bury the fencing around the coop at least six inches below ground to keep critters from digging under the fence. Doors on the coop and the run must latch securely; raccoons in particular are very creative.

Protection for your garden. Your chickens will scratch and dig up all parts of their fenced run leaving no living plants in their wake, so consider how you’ll keep them out of your garden.

Design the coop for YOU, too. Make it easy on yourself; for example, the coop and run (and their doors) should be tall enough for you to walk in. A nesting box that you can access from outside the coop is particularly handy, so you can just lift the hatch to collect eggs, rather than having to walk into the coop and reach back into their nest. Outfit your coop with a feeder and a waterer big enough that you can load them up with everything they need and then take off for a three-day weekend assured that they’re self-sustaining while you’re gone.

Consider how you’ll keep the coop reasonably clean. Droppings accumulate under the roosts, so a removable tray there might be an option. Or, spread a deep layer of wood shavings on the floor, which you can rake out and occasionally replace with fresh litter. Another option is a solid cleanable floor that can be hosed off.

Feeder. Hang the feeder at the height of your chicken’s back to help keep the food clean of debris and discourage the birds from perching on it or scratching in it.

Waterer. Get a waterer that’s big enough for your long weekend away, but small enough that it’s easy to carry back to the coop when full.

Lighting. Some owners outfit their coop with a 40- to 60-watt bulb on a timer, to extend the “daylight” hours in the wintertime and keep them laying all year long.

Location, location, location. Where should you locate the chicken coop on your lot? Some considerations: Check your city regulations, which may require that any structure is set 5 feet back from your property line; but regardless, consider your neighbors and put the coop where it won’t offend anyone. While a chicken coop isn’t necessarily terribly smelly—especially if you rake it out occasionally—you still don’t want it right under the bedroom window since chickens kick up a lot of dust and sometimes make noise clucking and squawking. A convenient location near to a storage shed (where you can keep their feed) and near a compost pile (to let the manure mellow before it goes on your garden) is ideal. Under a porch or alongside a house or garage could be perfect. While they enjoy basking in the sun, chickens must have access to shade during the hot days of summer.

The view (yours, not theirs). It’s fun to be able to see your chickens from your house. Or, you might prefer to tuck the coop out of view behind a shed or in the back corner.

Designer homes. You can design a coop yourself, buy a kit online, or download plans for coop and build it yourself. Basic requirements aside, the design of the coop is your choice. Some owners choose a “chicken tractor” design of a portable coop and pen that can be moved around the yard for the chickens to scratch around and fertilize one section of the yard at a time. Some people really get into designing their coops. For example, dozens of hen houses are showcased every year in self-guided tours of urban chicken coops such as Portland's Tour de Coops and Seattle’s Chicken Coop Tour. The 2002 write-up in a Seattle paper includes great photos: “Custom Coops: From penthouse perches to covered porches, city chickens are sitting pretty.”

Do-it-yourself plans online:

The Garden Coop

Some other hen house options:

Henspa
Egglu

Coop Photos

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:13:08 CST

This secure, fully-enclosed coop and run provides a bright, airy home for up to 8 large hens. Translucent roof. Great ventilation. Cozy henhouse.

Featured in Portland, Oregon's annual Tour de Coops. This thoughtful design is easy to build with the plan. Preview it and learn more at TheGardenCoop.com.

Post photos of your coop here!

(Click EasyEdit, then the "image" button.)

What You Need to Know

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:18:25 CST

Brooder basics. When raising baby chicks, you’ll need a cage or pen to keep them warm, dry, away from drafts, and safely out of reach of the family cat or dog. Figure on a minimum size of 1 square foot per chick for their first 6 weeks.

Location and light. The location needs to be warm, bright, and away from drafts. Inside the house near a window is a good choice; if you opt for the basement or garage, make sure you provide at least 10 hours of light (up to 18 hours is recommended for the first week of life). Chicks generate a surprising amount of dust, so place them in an area that’s easy to keep clean.

Ask a question about raising chicks! Click on the "comments" tab.

Heat. For warmth, a heat lamp works fine—you can buy just the bulb at a hardware store. Suspend it about 2 feet above the floor of the cage. Keep a thermometer in the cage at chick level and check it often. Have the cage preheated and the lamp and temperature adjusted and fine-tuned before your chicks come home—try it out ahead of time. The temperature should be 90°F for the first week, then reduced by 5 degrees per week by moving the lamp higher. It’s best to have the lamp situated such that the chicks can move closer to get warmer or further away if it’s too hot.

Bedding. Cover the floor of the cage or pen with a litter that you can keep clean and dry. Several inches of wood shavings or straw are good options. Old towels work well for when they’re very young (change it out every day). Newspaper can be layered underneath the litter, but don’t use just newspaper alone: There have been reports that paper is too slippery for chicks and can cause knee and leg injuries. Why risk it?

Got advice about raising chicks? Click EasyEdit to add more tips to this page.

Food and water. The first thing to do when you introduce the chicks to their new home is to teach each chick to eat and drink by dipping its beak in the water and in the feed. You’ll need a small feeder and waterer for chicks; later, when they’re older and in your backyard you’ll want a larger feeder and waterer.

Chickens have different nutritional needs at different phases of their life. For example, while laying hens need calcium for strong eggshells, calcium can actually be harmful to chicks. Give chicks “starter” feed that you can buy at the farm supply store. Keep their feeder and waterer full and clean. It’s a good idea to secure the feeder and waterer to the side of the cage, or suspend them at the height of the birds’ backs, in order to keep chicks from tipping them over, spilling the contents, getting wet, or perching on the equipment and leaving droppings in the food and water.

Care of chicks. You may need to wipe their little butts with a wet washcloth occasionally if droppings stick to their behinds; vents on chicks can become blocked with dried droppings, causing the chicks to die.

How to Pick a Chick

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:59:01 CST

It’s a fun and rewarding journey to start with baby chicks and watch them grow up into adult laying hens.

Where to find them

It will require venturing out into the suburbs to a farm supply store that carries baby chicks. Look in the phone book for feed stores; they’re often remarkably close to urban centers, serving the suburban horsy clientele. Call around first to inquire what breeds they carry and when they’re available.

It’s also possible to buy day-old chicks online from commercial hatcheries and have them shipped to you. While hatcheries carry all types of breeds, they typically have a minimum shipping order of about two dozen—not practical for a small backyard operation.

Recommend a reliable hatchery--online, or in your neighborhood

When to buy them

Spring and early summer is the usual season for getting chicks.

What do they cost?

Chicks are cheap (“cheep cheep!”): expect to pay a couple dollars apiece. Chicken feed, too, is proverbially inexpensive. (Your biggest costs will be the materials for building the coop and fenced run.)

Got questions about buying chicks? Post it by clicking the "comments" tab.

Look for females

Newly hatched chicks are sexed at the hatchery—examined and grouped as boys or girls —and sold at feed stores as males, females, or “straight run,” which means chicks that haven’t been sexed so are about a 50/50 mix.

Do yourself a favor: only buy females. Taking a gamble by buying a straight-run chick means you stand an excellent chance of finding out 4 months later that your dear pet is a rooster not a hen, and you’ll have to face the task of finding him a new home. (For tips, see When You Need to Give Them Away). Buy any other supplies you need while you’re at the feed store. When you take your little darlings home in a paper bag or cardboard box, be sure to keep them warm until they reach your awaiting brood cage. Darkness may keep them calmer on the car ride.

Food & Water

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:57:27 CST

Add a comment, tip, or question about feeding chickens

What's the strangest thing your chicken has eaten?

Feed. Chicks can stay on starter feed for 6 to 8 weeks, and then go to a chick-grower feed until they’re ready to lay, at 20 weeks of age. At that point you’ll switch them over to layer feed. Feed is available (back at the feed store, or at some pet stores) as crumble or pellets, and it’s designed to meet their balanced nutritional needs. A chicken eats approximately 100 pounds of feed per year.

Going organic. Organic chicken feed is often available for an additional expense. Word on the street is that rats love it. Rats are already a problem in many urban areas, even before your chicken feeder becomes their all-you-can-eat buffet. Reduce rat problems by feeding chickens in the morning, so that they have all day to eat then leave the feeder empty at night when the rodents roam. Or use commercial (non-organic) chicken feed, which rats seem to leave alone.

Storage. Keep chicken feed dry in an airtight container; otherwise it gets moldy, which can make your birds sick. Don’t buy more than a couple month’s worth at a time to ensure they’re getting fresh feed.

Calcium. To help make strong eggshells, supplement the diet of laying hens by providing a dish of crushed oyster shells for added calcium. Hens will eat as much as they need. Some people also save old eggshells, toast them, crush them up finely, and give those back to their hens.

Grit. If your birds have an outdoor run area, they won’t need grit. Otherwise, provide a pan of grit (crushed rock, also sold in feed stores) which helps birds grind up the feed inside their gizzard (stomach).

Scratch. You’ll see “scratch grain” sold at feed stores. Scratch is OK as a treat, but it’s not a balanced diet, and uneaten grains can sprout weeds.

Water. Chickens must have access to clean fresh water at all times. Each chicken can drink about a pint of water a day, even more in very hot weather. It’s a basic necessity; besides, they’ll quit laying if they get thirsty.

Kitchen scraps. Your chickens will be delighted to devour kitchen scraps—vegetable trimmings, over-ripe fruit, stale bread, and almost anything else you can think of. Leftover rice and leftover plain spaghetti are always a favorite, as are bananas and cantaloupe. Your household may play the game “What WON’T the chickens eat?” Transform leftovers into fresh eggs—how efficient! Just avoid feeding meat to chickens so that they don’t develop a taste for it, since excessive pecking and cannibalism can become a problem in a flock. Also, give the chickens only as much as they’ll consume during that day so that food scraps don’t attract rodents and other pests to your yard at night.

Treats. Cracked corn is a favored treat. It’s not a complete food (being high in fat and low in protein), but do keep some around. Corn is an excellent bribe for when you need to lure an escaped chicken home from a neighbor’s yard or coax them back in to the coop before dusk. Get them used to coming for a handful of corn when you call them. Training them to come this way is a whole lot easier than trying to chase and catch them!

Medications. Chicks are vaccinated at the hatchery, and starter chick feed contains some medications. Some owners recommend feeding them pumpkin seeds a couple times a year to cure any worms they might have; others give them vitamin C in their water once in a while.

Chicks!!!!!!

ixlovexmaxxgreenx — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 16:34:48 CDT

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cutting of wings

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 04:07:43 CDT

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feral chickens

Anonymous — Tue, 13 May 2008 01:50:25 CDT

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Meat

VanTucky — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 21:57:01 CDT

1. Cornish
2. Cornish Rock
3. Delaware
4. New Hampshire
5. Brahma

Websites

jasfrtas — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 05:38:12 CST

excellent poultry health site

General information

Backyard Chickens
Enthusiasts’ site for owners of pet chickens. Has an active message board where people can get answers from one another.

McMurray Hatchery
This hatchery’s site has lots of pictures and info about various breeds, as well as excellent info on chick care.

Breeds of Chickens
Oklahoma State University’s site discusses the dispositions of various breeds.

Mad City Chickens
When the city of Madison, Wisconsin, made backyard chicken-keeping legal, folks there flocked together and assembled these resources to help beginning chicken owners.

The Easy Chicken for Beginners – General tips.

Know another website? Click EasyEdit to add it to this list!

Mail-order coops

The Henspa

The Egglu : Check out the urban coop!.

Just for fun

Mike the Headless Chicken
The story of Mike, who survived his 1945 decapitation to live another 1.5 years, earning fame and fortune for his owners.

The Natural History of the Chicken
This highly entertaining PBS documentary focuses as much on the nutty people who keep chickens as on the birds themselves.

Chicken Stories
Including answers to the famous question, “Why did the chicken cross the road?”

Custom Coops: From penthouse perches to covered porches, city chickens are sitting pretty.
Highlights from the annual coop tour show off owner’s coop designs.

The Chicken: Its Biological, Social, Cultural, and Industrial History from Neolithic Middens to McNuggets. This 2002 Yale conference site has an overview and papers tracing the complex history of the relationship between humans and hens.

Photo Gallery

jasfrtas — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 04:30:12 CST

Show off those baby chicks, those fuzzy Silkies, your first batch of colored eggs!
(Click EasyEdit, place your cursor on this page, then hit the 'image' button)

I hate chicks

Anonymous — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:26:10 CST

Potential Problems

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 20:17:20 CST

but10 to 12 years. A better question is, How would anyone know that? Chickens seldom die of natural causes; something nearly always gets them before they’ll reach a ripe old age.

Here are some issues you might encounter:

Avian Flu
Cannibalism
Flight Risk
Moulting
Neighbors
Predators
Rats
When You Need to Give Them Away