Straight Poop on Keeping Backyard Chickens

Raising backyard chickens can be an enjoyable hobby or a lucrative business, but make sure you're committed to the project before eyeing the cute chicks at the feed store this spring. Chicken farming isn't hard, but it's also not for the faint of heart.

How many chickens should I get? Before deciding how many chickens to bring home to roost, several factors should be considered. How much space do you have? Are there any city ordinances that dictate how many chickens you can have on your property (or if you can have chickens at all)? Do you want eggs just for breakfast or will you be sharing with neighbors or selling them?

Some breeds of laying hens can give you an egg almost every day, or an average of 5-6 a week. If your only interest is fresh eggs for the family table, estimate how many eggs you consume weekly to come up with the number of chickens needed to produce them. Egg production slows down in winter when there's less daylight, so keep that in mind when calculating how large your flock should be. In winter months, my nine hens will produce an average of 3-4 eggs daily between them, but as the days get longer, that'll bump up to 7-8 eggs per day through summer and fall.

If you see eggs as a cash crop, have customers already lined up to purchase them before you invest in dozens of pullets - the novelty will wear off quickly if you're scooping chicken poop daily for a flock that isn't earning its keep.

On the subject of chicken poop. Chickens poop. A lot. There are ways to arrange bedding in the coop to keep odor down, but you can't train a chicken to poop in a particular area of the yard. While chicken poop is great for the garden, when you're out tending to chickens, you will step in chicken poop and you will track it on your freshly shampooed carpet. Leave a pair of slip-on shoes or muck boots by the back door to keep that problem to a minimum.

Too chicken to play doctor? Like any other creature, chickens get sick, but unlike Fido, they don't routinely see a veterinarian. I've had to deal with an impacted crop, bumblefoot (complete with chicken foot surgery) and other assorted maladies with my flock. If you're going to raise chickens, you'll eventually have to doctor one. Is your black bag handy?

Chicken farming can be a lot of work, but it's not without rewards. No sitcom can hold a candle to watching chicken TV in the backyard.