Considering Backyard Chickens?

Backyard chickens have been showing up in the mainstream news quite a bit recently. More and more cities are reviewing their poultry laws and approving or denying ownership of backyard chickens as many families are looking into alternatives for local food and taking an interest in green living.

How logical is it to keep chickens in your backyard? What are the pros and the cons? How much on average does it cost? How many chickens are reasonable? Where should we purchase our chickens? How do we know if our chickens are healthy?

These are some of the most common questions prospective backyard chicken owners ask when they begin considering owning their own small flock. Some of the answers can be difficult to find, since they only come with experience. Many of these answers our family learned the hard way.

Our family decided to get backyard chickens on a whim. Interested in eating locally grown eggs and raising our children to know where their food comes from, we decided to grow a small garden and have a flock of chickens in our suburban backyard.

The first consideration we had was what our city laws had to say. We were able to locate the ordinances online and found that the only restrictions were that chickens must be contained on the owner's property at all times. Knowing our city ordinances well proved to be useful when an anonymous neighbor later filed multiple false complaints with the city officials regarding our birds!

If you live in a suburb with an HOA, be sure to check those guidelines as well! Luckily our suburb did not have an additional set of rules, so this wasn't a concern for us. Even if you have a tall privacy fence, your neighbors still might notice you have chickens. Hens like to sing a little when they lay an egg, and if they site a predator threat everyone nearby will know it!

After we were assured that we could legally own our chickens, we began to research housing. All chickens need a predator proof coop to be locked in at night and take shelter inside of during bad weather. We decided to go with something simple--a $75 wooden playhouse measuring 4x4 feet on clearance at the big chain hardware store.

A little research told us that a raised floor was best. Mud is a breeding ground for diseases and bacteria, and chickens appreciate dry bedding, especially during cold weather. We placed the playhouse on a platform with legs, raising it several feet off the ground. Originally, we left the floor of the coop as plain wood, but we soon discovered this made it difficult to clean out. Chicken poop adheres to the wood, and any accidental moisture can quickly cause rotting. Laying down a cheap piece of linoleum quickly solved this problem!

For the bedding on the floor of the coop we chose low-dust pine shavings. These are sold in large bags for $3-$4 per bag at the local big chain feed store. Straw is another possible choice, but there is a slight risk of chickens eating the straw and becoming impacted. Shavings absorb odor and can easily be mixed to hide droppings on a daily basis between full cleanings. Be sure to not use cedar shavings. There is some debate about the exact risk, but many people believe cedar is toxic to chickens. Be safe and choose 100% pine shavings!

We added a roost pole a three feet off of the floor of the coop using a 2x4 foot board. The board can be nailed with the thinner side upwards, or with the wider side upwards so that it is flat like a shelf. If you live in a colder climate it's better to put the roost pole board up with the wider side making a chicken shelf. This way the chickens can sit on their feet when roosting on freezing winter nights to help retain warmth and reduce the risk of frostbite.

What kind of pen to build around the coop was a source of much debate for our family. For the best quality eggs and the happiest chickens, it would be best to allow the birds to free range in the grass. They eat weeds, bugs, and soak up as much sunshine as possible this way. It sounds ideal, but then we considered the chicken poop all over the yard and the worry over predators. We also were unsure if a chicken could escape from our chain link fencing surrounding our backyard. (It turns out that they can hop over a 4 foot high chain link fence, even with one wing clipped so that they can't fly!)

Finally we decided to build a small chicken run. We had a limited budget to work with, so it couldn't be too large. We built an 8 foot long rectangle out of 2x4 foot boards and lined it with hardwire cloth on all sides except the bottom. Research warned us that plain chicken wire has gaps too large and can allow raccoons and other predators to reach through and harm chickens, but hardwire cloth has very narrow holes and is recommended for chicken pens.

The chicken run was pushed up against one side of the coop, and we cut a small rectangle out of the coop's wall to make a hole leading into the run. We then hinged the top of the cut out piece back to the wall of the coop and attached a string to the bottom of the cut piece to create a pop door that could be pulled up and tied open from the outside. This allowed us to let the chickens out of the coop and into the run, and then to close the pop door at night.

The chicken run was filled with sand. This worked out very well since it prevented terrible mud. Every few days we raked the droppings out of the sand and tossed them into our compost bin. The chickens also enjoyed dust bathing in the sand!

To reduce flies, we purchased food grade diatomaceous earth from the local feed store and mixed it into the chicken feed and into the sand. The diatomaceous earth remains undigested, and as flies try to leave maggots in the chicken droppings, the maggots and flies are killed. Diatomaceous earth works by dehydrating the bodies of insects, but the food grade quality is not harmful to people or animals when ingested.

Side note: Making your coop predator proof is very important, even in a suburb. During our first few months of chicken ownership we learned the sad way that predators still kill birds even if you aren't living out in the country. We have faced raccoons, possums, hawks, and stray cats and dogs. There's nothing worse than forgetting to close your coop door, thinking nothing will get your birds, then coming out to find your favorite hen beheaded on the ground!

Another side note: Don't forget to buy the supplies for food and water! We picked out a chicken feeder from the feed store, and then debated over what kind of watering system to use. The first type we tried was a metal 5 gallon waterer. We quickly discovered that not only is it difficult to refill, it also rusted and spilled. The chickens kept jumping on top if it and pooping in their water. We next tried rabbit or hamster style waterers that hung on the side of the chicken run. The chickens enjoyed pecking the shiny metal ball and getting water in return, the water stayed clean, and it was very simple to refill!

Once we had our chicken coop fully set up, we looked into purchasing chickens.

We decided to start with six hens, since that was all our 4x4 foot coop and small run could handle.

There are several options to consider when you plan on purchasing your birds. We were eager to own chickens who were laying eggs, so we decided to purchase hens from a local farm we found advertised on Craigslist.

This turned out to be a terrible mistake for several reasons. We had researched breeds of chickens minimally before going to purchase them. The man selling the chickens not only over charged us, but gave us chickens that were not pure bred like he claimed.

Once we got the chickens home, everything was fine for a few days. Then one morning we found one of our hens dead. Soon all of the chickens were ill with runny noses and swollen eyes. They slowly died one by one. Much anguish and research, with the help of our Agriculture extension office and the local university's animal diagnostic center, revealed that we had purchased diseased birds. We should have taken the time to research bird diseases more carefully before making our purchase!

Apparently, bird diseases do not work like mammal diseases. Once a bird catches a virus, it will either die or form immunity. After the chicken forms immunity, with most fowl diseases the chicken continues to shed the live virus. In other words, a perfectly healthy looking adult chicken could make another chicken sick without warning. Many chickens who have previously suffered from disease lay a reduced amount of eggs afterward. For these reasons, we will never purchase adult chickens again.

When visiting a farm to buy chicks, there is a small risk your chicks could also have been exposed to diseases. Chicken diseases can be passed through feces or through the egg--meaning the chicken could hatch with the disease. While there are quite a few common chicken diseases circulating, the egg to chick transmission is fairly low. Since chicks are mostly isolated in an incubator with a heat light (with the exception of those being raised by a broody hen), it is safer to purchase them than it is to buy adult birds. Chicks usually cost $1-$3 each, which is much less than a laying hen, so if they do turn out to be ill you haven't wasted too much money.

When visiting a farm to look at prospective chicks or chickens look carefully at the birds. If you see any birds sitting down with their heads drooping, they could be ill. No chickens should be fluffed up and hunched over. No chickens should be standing with their eyes closed in the middle of the day. Look carefully for any signs of a "cold". Since chickens are not mammals, they do not get passing colds. Any cold symptoms are actually diseases.

Signs may include:

-Swollen eye(s)
-Watering or bubbling from the eye(s)
-Eye(s) crusted shut or not open wide
-Crusted nostrils
-Mucus running from nostrils
-Mucus or bubbles coming from the mouth, or a chicken gaping with beak open (usually due to congestion, but can also happen to healthy chickens in very hot weather.)
-Ragged feathers, especially tail feathers
-Watery white poop, bloody poop, or watery green poop
-Listen closely to the chicken's chest for sound of a rattle when it breathes

If you find just one of these symptoms in only one chicken, do not buy any birds from the farm. If one chicken is sick, they have all been exposed. Clean the bottom of your shoes well with bleach water so that you do not spread disease to other farms you visit, or take the disease back home to your own chickens.

Other important things to check your chickens for include signs of lice or mites, and cocci. Frequently check between the feathers of chickens to check for lice and mites. If a chicken is infested, which can easily be spread from wild birds, you will see tiny white or off white specks crawling on their skin. Scaly leg mites are not easily seen, but you will see obvious raising of the scales on the legs and feet of your chickens.

Mites and lice suck the blood of chickens. When an infestation grows too heavy, the chicken can become weak and anemic from the parasites.

Mites and lice in the feathers and on the skin can be treated by dusting the birds heavily with Sevin dust initially then again after two weeks. Sevin dust is a pesticide found in the garden section of stores. There is some debate to the safety of Sevin dust, and of course it would not go with an organic flock. You can also try using diatomaceous earth first, but we have had trouble ridding our birds of mites without resorting to chemical treatment.

Scaly leg mites are treated by smothering the mites. Coat the chickens' legs with something thick. We used the petroleum-free version of Vaseline. Coat the legs heavily every night for a week, and the leg mites should be gone. We coated the legs again for a few nights in a row after two weeks just to be sure there weren't any surviving hatching eggs.

After treating for any kind of mites or lice it is important to clean out the coop, roost pole, and nest boxes well with a disinfectant like bleach water or a strong vinegar mixture. Be sure to clean out the coop again in the same manner two weeks later to kill any hatching eggs.

After our bad experience with chicken diseases, we disinfected everything, waited over the winter, and decided to start over with a new flock. We chose to order chicks from a hatchery instead of trusting a farmer. Hatchery birds are of pet quality, but pure bred. We ordered from Ideal Hatchery and were very satisfied with our new chicks! Raising the birds from day old chicks had a bonus over buying adult chickens--they were very tame!

Once we were able to establish a healthy, disease free chicken flock we began to enjoy our birds. They all had different personalities and names. Some liked to be carried around, and most of them loved to eat from our hands.

It took us awhile to figure out the best type of feed for our birds. We learned that laying hens need to have a sufficient amount of calcium in order to lay regularly. Otherwise their eggs would have thin shells and their bodies take the calcium from their bones, reducing their quality of life and their life span.

You can either purchase pre-made layer feed in the form of crumbles or pellets from a feed store, or you can buy freshly ground feed mixes from a local feed mill. Ask around to find out all the options your area has. After six months of owning chickens we discovered a very affordable local feed mill that provides high quality ground feed (mash) for a fraction of the cost of a bag of layer crumbles from the big chain feed store. To be sure the hens are getting enough calcium we give them broken up oyster shell, which can also be purchased from a feed store or feed mill.

Feed prices depend on your local area and where you shop. We pay $15 for 50 pounds of layer feed from a big chain store, or $15 for 100 pounds of fresh ground mash from the local feed mill. Oyster shell costs $6 for 5 pounds from the big chain feed store, or $8 for 50 pounds from the local feed mill. The 100 pounds of mash from the feed mill feeds our flock of 30 chickens for an entire month. The 50 pounds of layer feed from the big chain store feeds the same 30 chickens for a little more than a week. The difference is the shape of the feed (mash isn't eaten as fast as the crumbles or pellets, and is wasted less) and the quality of the feed. The fresh ground mash seems to be healthier and more filling. Their droppings are considerably less in amount and less in stink with the fresh feed.

Chickens also enjoy eating a wide variety of food scraps, lawn clippings, pulled weeds, and bugs. We feed our chickens all of our kitchen scraps, aside from meat. They enjoy attacking left over spaghetti! Raw potatoes and their peel, and onions are both unsafe for chickens to eat.

You can purchase "treats" for your chickens to eat called scratch. Scratch is made up of various seeds and cracked corn. Scratch is like chicken candy and should only be fed in moderation, never as the staple of a chicken's diet! Scratch doesn't contain enough protein to sustain a chicken for a long term diet. The scratch from our local feed mill is 9% protein. The mash we feed our flock is 18% protein. Beware if you mix the scratch into their regular feed the chickens will kick out all the food and waste it in order to pick out the treats!

Owning chickens was overwhelming for us at first, but once we figured out what worked and what didn't chickens have been so much fun for our family! They are fairly simple to care for, and the rich fresh eggs are completely worth the effort!