A good way
to get started is to buy baby chicks. They are usually available
from feed stores in early Spring. You can also start by getting
fertilized eggs and keeping them in an incubator until they hatch.
Either way, you will need to get a brooder and keep it in the house
or put it out in the garage where cats and other predators can't
get at the chicks. For heat, be aware that chick need 95 degrees
for the first week.
You can
drop this by 5 degrees every week until they're 6 weeks old.
Then they are fairly feathered out and unless you live in a
very cold area, they are able to withstand normal temperatures.
If you don't have a formal brooder, your heat source is usually
a light bulb or heat-lamp. Be careful with these not to leave
them low enough for the chicks to burn themselves. Also, especially
with heat-lamps, be careful that the bedding can't catch fire.
Fresh water should be available to the chicks at all times.
As an energy supplement, I add one tablespoon of sugar per quart
the first time I water newly hatched chicks. A chick starter
feed should be fed to all chicks until they are 6 weeks of age.
You can get this at your local feed store. After this time,
feed them a pullet grower feed until about 20 weeks. Then they
can be switched to a laying feed.
Bedding for Your Chicks
Never start
young chicks on a slippery surface such as newspaper. If you are
using newspaper as bedding, for the first 4 days spread paper towels
over it. Be careful using wood shavings on young chicks until they
learn what their food is. They may start eating them which will
block them up and kill them. My favorite surface is wire! I take
a piece of hardware cloth or an old window screen and cut it to
the dimensions of the brooder. Then I put down a layer of newspaper
and lay the wire on it. At cleaning time I just lift out the wire
and hose it down, replacing a clean layer of newspaper beneath it.
Be careful to make sure there are no sharp wires to hurt their feet.
Either bend the edges under or tape them up.
Inside the Coop
As the chickens
mature, you will need to provide them with a shelter that meets
their basic needs. The ideal chicken coop will protect chickens
from rain, wind, and temperature extremes. There should be perches
adequately spaced and arranged so that the chickens can perch comfortably.
Chickens do better when they roost at night up off the ground. And
they're happier, also. It is the natural way for a bird to sleep.
It helps prevent external parasites and keeps them from lying in
their own droppings. You also don't want them to start sleeping
in the nest boxes. These are for egg-laying, and we really don't
want to collect our eggs out of a nest that's been slept in by a
chicken, do we? (Chickens aren't house trainable!) Some kind of
litter such as straw or wood shavings should be spread underneath
the perches and needs to be changed when it becomes wet or soiled.
A mixture of straw and chicken manure is ideal for garden compost.
Special Accommodations For Egg Layers
Hens for laying
will be benefited by special nesting boxes. These should be constructed
so that they don't serve well as perches but will appeal to the
natural instincts of a hen when she becomes "broody" especially
if you want your hen to incubate a batch of fertilized eggs. The
nesting boxes need to be somewhat enclosed and nest like. Hens are
known to lay eggs and establish a brood wherever they feel conditions
are best. Sometimes they have to be coaxed into using the nesting
boxes by using artificial eggs. Clever arrangements such as a rear
trap door can facilitate the gathering of eggs for eating. A laying
hen will produce an egg every one to two days. Frequent gathering
will assure freshness, keep eggs clean and minimize breakage. All
chickens lay eggs in a series - never more than one or two per day.
If the eggs are not collected, and a sufficient number of eggs are
allowed to remain in the nest, the hen may stop laying eggs and
start brooding. When the hen leaves the nest after laying an egg,
it cools which suspends the development of the embryo inside. If
the ambient temperature remains between 45F and 65F, the embryos
will remain viable for as long as two weeks. When the hen becomes
broody and sits on her eggs for three weeks, all of the eggs will
hatch at about the same time. The hen does not start to incubate
the eggs until the whole clutch is laid. The physiology of a hen
changes after she's laid her clutch. She will remain on them, with
her wings slightly spread to help keep them warm, for 21 days. She
will make muttering, growling sounds if disturbed, and may even
peck or otherwise try to defend her nest. She will only leave the
nest once a day to eat, drink and defecate. You should make sure
the hen does do this at least every other day so she will not either
starve or get the eggs dirty with her droppings. (Broody droppings
usually come out in one large, very bad-smelling glob.) Once the
chicks start to hatch she will remain on the nest with them for
24-48 hours. Any eggs that have not hatched by then will be left
behind when she takes the chicks for their first walk. At this time
water and chick feed should be available for the chicks. A hen is
also called broody when she is raising her chicks, protecting them,
teaching them to find food, and hovering over them to keep them
warm.
" Breaking Up" A Broody Hen
When we remove
the eggs, the hen supposes: "There are not yet enough,"
and continues to lay. We don't always want to have our hens hatching
eggs. When we want to stop one, this is called "breaking up"
a broody. Sometimes just putting her in a pen where she can't see
her old nest and keeping her there for 4 days will do the job. She
should, of course, have feed and water. Some strong broodies will
just continue to set even in a pen with no eggs. For the more stubborn
hen, a wire-bottomed cage is necessary. The airflow up through the
wire keeps her underside cool and after a few days she will usually
give up. Again, she should have feed and water available at all
times. Some commercial people and old-time chicken raisers deprive
a hen of feed and water when trying to break her up, but this is
cruel and also not good for the bird. Lack of feed weakens an already
weak bird (since they don't eat much when broody anyway) and lack
of water for several days can damage the liver.
The Hen's Cackle
Wild chickens
are forest animals. They live in small groups called flocks. They
scratch in the dirt and forage for things to eat. While one hen
sits on the nest to lay, the group may wander away through the undergrowth
searching for food. The hen's cackle serves to renew the contact
with the group as if to yell "where are you?". The cock
(with the other hens) answers "here we are!".
The Yard
Various arrangements
are possible for the poultry yard. The basic requirement is a good
fence to keep predators (sometimes including family pets) from getting
in. Sometimes a yard will be split into two halves with a gate connecting
the two. The chickens are kept in the first half while a green cover
crop grows in the second half. When the crop matures, the chickens
are moved into the second half where they can nibble on the greens.
In the mean time a new crop is started in the first half. If you're
going to introduce chicks over 6 weeks old to an older flock of
birds, here is a good way to make sure they can get enough feed.
In your chicken yard or coop, construct an area that you can keep
a supply of grower feed and water in. It should have entrance holes
that are too small for the older birds to get in. Confine the young
birds in there for a few days (at least during the day-- you could
return them to the brooder at night). They'll learn where the food
is and when you open the entrances they will soon start going out.
The older birds will pick on them, but it should be fine as the
chicks will have a safe refuge to retreat to.
Feed
Feeds are available
to suit the changing needs of the chickens. Chicks can be fed a
starter mix until they are feathered out. Then they can be fed maintenance
feed until they start laying. Layers can be fed egg booster and
scratch. Feed comes in 3 forms: mash, crumbles and pellets. Mash
is powdery, just as it sounds. Pellets are made of compressed mash,
and crumbles of broken up pellets. I find mash wasteful and never
use it. I use crumbles for my chicks and pellets for the older birds.
Then when they kick it out of the feeders they can still pick it
up. Some feeds are medicated. Coccidiosis is a disease that can
kill chicks that have not built up a resistance to it. They can
pick it up outside from the droppings of other birds. If your chicks
go outside you may want to give them a feed medicated with Amprolium,
which controls the coccidiosis while allowing the birds to build
up a resistance. Some medicated chick feeds are sold with antibiotics
in them. There is no need to waste money on these. Note: Don't feed
medicated feeds to ducklings. They eat much more than chicks and
can overdose and die. Adequate storage is needed for the feed to
keep it dry and keep rodents out. The galvanized dust bin is ideal.
Chickens like other birds need a supply of grit for digestion.
Grit
What is grit?
It is small stones that the bird stores in its gizzard, where they
act like teeth and are used to grind up food. For chicks, grit is
only necessary if the chicks have access to grain or other foodstuffs.
Chicks on mash or crumbles don't need it. You can get a chick-sized
granite grit through your feed store. I sometimes use old aquarium
gravel if it's small enough. Warning: Do NOT give chicks oyster
shell. It is not grit, it is used to give laying hens extra calcium
for egg shell production. This extra calcium will cause bone development
problems in young birds.
Conclusion: Self-Sufficiency
There's much
more to learn. You will need to know how to prevent diseases, eradicate
parasites, and deal with chicken idiosyncrasies like egg eating
and cannibalism. But, with good advice to get you started and time
to learn, raising chickens can become a rewarding experience. Unless
you are a true vegetarian, you will want meat and eggs in your diet.
A flock of chickens is probably the best conventional protein source
available to the self-sufficient gardener with the side benefit
of nitrogen rich manure. It is possible to find a butcher to slaughter
and prepare your chickens for you.
/
Set As Homepage 
/ Copyright
/ Disclaimer / Top 
Glossary: 
The Brood