Chickens for dummies?

[Deebo]

On some other site, I saw where a guy had ten hens, and a rooster.
I want to get away from store foods, and thought about having a chicken outfit.
Can someone shine any light on what space a pen 11 chickens would need, egg output? meat output?
I have a "egg seller" down the street, but havent stopped, I bet he would NOT wanna answer a thousand questions.
Somebody, break it down for me.
So many questions......
hell, ive even thought about trapping some city pigeons, and grain feeding them for a while? Am I crazy?

[Just Sayin']

Oh man, you are either gonna love them or hate them! Chickens that is...

We had (past tense) around 15 at any one time. They were the ultimate in free range chicken. Loved the eggs, when they didn't change their laying spot. We didn't eat the eggs that one hen was laying on when the temp was almost 100f outside. The roosters, decided that the ideal place to announce daylight was right outside our bedroom window. Our front porch was the perfect place to roost and poop.

The upside of it, foxes, hawks, and owls, actually like chicken. And Nitro, my lab. God I love that dog!

[Bigdogbuc]

Well, are you concentrating on Egg Layers, or Fryers? I had ten one time, with a very aggressive Leghorn Rooster. They were supposed to be all fryer chicks, I wound up with six laying hens, four fryers and that damn rooster. Their run was about 15' x 10' and my dad made me a chicken coop out of an old wooden shipping crate about 8' x 4' x 5'. I will say this right now, make your run high enough that you can stand upright in it. It makes feeding, watering and cleaning a hell of a lot easier.

Start here;

http://www.backyardchickens.com/

http://www.mypetchicken.com/default.aspx

http://www.mypetchicken.com/backyard-chickens/chicken-care/guide-toc.aspx

Figure out what you're ultimately trying to do, then pick a breed, then go from there. And remember, chickens make a lot of poop! Somewhere around 1 cubic foot every six months, per chicken. You can compost it, use it in a garden or bag it and sell it.

http://seattletilth.org/learn/resources-1/city-chickens/compostingchickenmanure

You can also preserve eggs, just look on YouTube...all kinds of videos.

I dig chickens, they're neat animals to raise and can be entertaining as well.

[Just Sayin']

They're fun as hell to hunt though!

[1moretoy]

and thought about having a chicken outfit.

Would you wear that to attract the chickens? I'm confused:biglaugh:

Seriously, I have a supplier at work so I just get my eggs from him. Maybe one day I'll have the room to have my own yard birds.

[rice paddy daddy]

The wife and I started keeping chickens almost twenty years ago. We have had as many as 60 at one time. Now we keep it down to a manageable 20 or less.
You do not need a rooster for hens to lay eggs, only if you want to hatch eggs to increase/restore your flock.
In addition to the sites BigDog listed, try www.chickenforum.com I'm a member over there as well.

[Montana Rancher]

I had to double take as I thought and confirmed that this was the SHTF spot on the site.

So with that being said, why not try and have a few laying hens if you have the space to do it?

My biggest problem is I live too far out of town and my hens get pecked (pun intented) off by the foxes and coyotes in the area, usually I get about a 50% survival rating as I like to have free range chickens in the summer.

When winter comes I coop them up and to save money I grind my own feed, cheaper and IMO a lot more nutrition in freshly ground grain rather than buying store processed grain that could be a year old.

So currently I have 6 hens and a duck (duck eggs rock) supplying me and the ms. with more eggs than we can eat, here in the north country I just put in a florescent bulb in the chicken coop and leave it on 24/7 and I get a LOT better egg production than trying to figure out some sort of timer around 14 hours.

P.S. if you live in the north, don't mess with white egg layers, they don't produce.

[Montana Rancher]

Ok, kinda fun since I posted the last reply in 2014 so here it is September of 2016 and here is what I have to add..

1. I realized that you should keep your hens fenced in and feed them even in the summer. Unless you have someone to watch them 24-7 and shoot the varmints that will come looking for a meal, keep them fenced in and your loses will be minimal.

2. Keep a rooster.... or Not
My rooster is a mean sumbitch and often attacks me when I am in the fenced off area (run) that my hens play in. It is a very generous area about 24 feet by 50 feet, a chain link fence out the back of my house. That being said I have seen the rooster run off hawks that have occasionally dropped in looking for an easy lunch. Fortunately the rooster has run them off in short order (even before I could get to a shot gun, bastard!!)

3. Keep grinding, store bought feed is easy but not as cheap as buying bulk grain and mixing a feed of your own.

4. Broody hens are a problem. Once a hen goes broody (sits on the eggs most of the time in the laying boxes) it is best to just cull them (ya, kill them and make a meal of them) as they tend to a. plug up the laying box and b. often eat eggs as they sit there.

5. They love table scraps, stuff gone wrong or bad in the refrigerator, almost anything... we are currently feeding wormy pears from one of our trees and they love them.

6. Turn on a light in the coop right NOW and leave it on 24-7 for maximum egg production in the winter. I use a very low watt LED light and it works against their natural instinct to go dormant in the fall.

7. When it gets colder out and REALLY cold I usually give them a "bowl full of love" about 3-4 times a week with fresh ground grain and a 1/4 cup of olive oil, a clove or 2 of fresh garlic crushed and a bit of apple vinegar. It seems to control bug problems year round, and the oil seems to help them battle the cold weather besides making them Omega 3 eggs.

8. Shoot every fox and coyote you see.