Chickens for Eggs - Anyone Here With Experience?

In My Humble Opinion
41

They have feathers. Keep them pretty warm. Their body temp is around 102-103 degrees, so the bigger problem becomes keeping them cool in the summer. In the winter, it’s a matter of keeping them dry, watching their combs for frostbite, and making sure their water doesn’t freeze for too long (more than overnight).

Mine (3 hens) are in a shed with really, really good ventilation (lots of drafts and full access to a secure outside run). They don’t seem to mind the cold temps at all.

Keeping chickens is fairly simple. They’re pretty low maintenance and they lay really good eggs. The entertainment value is awesome.

42

Another vote for keeping them. They’re so easy. I’ve kept them for 10 years, and the worst problem I’ve ever experienced is the one I’m enduring now – which was entirely self-imposed through complacence and carelessness. I have a skunk living in my hen house. I’ll get her out tonight.

Rhode Island Reds are ok, good layers but a little temperamental. Aracaunas or Ameraucanas are considered the “Easter-eggers,” but I am not personally a fan. The eggs are pretty sometimes (not always, sometimes they’re muddy-colored), but the hens are not good, reliable layers. I’ve also kept Australorpes, California Leghorns, Barred Rocks and Buff Orpingtons. INHO, the Buffs are the best. They’re excellent layers, calm and sweet chickens. When they go broody, you can lift them off their eggs and they’re the only breed that won’t peck at you for doing it. They’re a heavy breed, so they’re good meat chickens as well. I won’t keep any other sort of rooster but a Buff. It’s the only breed I get anymore.

I let them free range in the winter, early spring and fall, after harvest. Saves on feed costs and cleans up a lot of pest larvae and bugs, plus some extra fertilizer in the garden. I keep them out of the garden during the growing season. They’ll peck every tomato and you can’t keep their beaks off your greens (lettuce, spinach, kale, and most especially Swiss chard). I grow extra Swiss chard just for them.

If you let them moult, you will lose egg production for 6-8 weeks – but when they come back, they’ll continue to lay like machines for a much longer period of time. I’ve used lights to keep 'em laying and I don’t do it anymore, because over time, I think their production is better and more steady when they go through a natural moulting period. Just my experience; no citations to back it up.

Older chickens can sometimes have thinner egg shells even with adequate access to calcium. The eggs do change as they get older both inside and out. For that reason, I try to rotate my flocks every two years.

Whatever way you keep them, make sure their housing is secure. Every predator in the world loves a chicken dinner.

Chickens are wonderful. :slight_smile:

43

We go apple picking at a farm about half an hour from my house in suburban NJ. The farm has at least five kinds of chickens running around as you pull up there. I didn’t want one before but after reading this thread I sure wouldn’t mind a few running around my own yard.

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Anyone else misread the topic title as “WE HAVE CHICKEN EGGS!!!” or just me?

45

We always had chickens when I was growing up, several times a day someone would come by and holler to my mom that the chickens were in the front yard. She would run out and heard them back to the back. One day she was hearding them back and a shepard mix dog ran over and helped her chase the chickens back to the back. He layed down by the gate and spent about the next 10 years hearding the chickens. She could show him to keep them out of the garden and away from the missing gate and thats what he would do. The dog was always careful not to upset the chickens and they were very comfortable around him.

46

Had chickens- RIR and Barred Rocks- in RI for 18 years- never cooped, which meant we didn’t always find all the eggs soon enough :wink: as they had free run of the barns. Out here in the far far West my neighbor does the honors- chickens, ducks and turkeys. Also free range, though he coops them at night due to predators. Even then the occasional mink wreaks havoc. Their huge LGD, a Kangal/Boerboel cross, keeps the coyotes and bears away. I suspect he discourages the cougar as well. There’s just no comparison in taste, well worth the price.

47

Now that my interest is piqued again, I thought I’d share this comprehensive backyard chickensite I bookmarked a while back.
Some of the coop designs are really creative.

I’d love free range again but I’m not rural enough. The township allows backyard chickens as long as you adhere to their rules.

48

I’ve always wanted some backyard chickens. A friend of mine has some and I’m super jealous! However I would note that although chickenkeeping appeals to me greatly, I’ve bought eggs from neighbors’ backyard chickens and cant tell any difference in taste compared to factory farmed eggs. None whatsoever. They taste like egg. Maybe I’m just a phillistine for egg flavor.

(And before someone accuses them of selling me grocery store eggs, their chickens were Araucauna, and thus the eggs were blue).

49

Chicken keeper with 25 years experience. A few comments:

There are no advantages to keeping chickens yourself if they are in confinement and fed only commercial food – the eggs will taste just like commercial eggs. If you want deep orange yolks and real farm taste, you need to feed them table scraps, fruit, vegetables, bugs of all kinds, etc. Let them run about in the sunshine and scratch.

Shell hardness is a function of the amount of calcium the chicken has access to. Free choice oyster shell is the standard. Occasionally you’ll get a hen whose shells are weak no matter what.

Chicken poop smell is due to confinement. Let them run around, and deep-bed the coop (add a layer of bedding on top of the poop regularly, so you are making a compost pile, essentially).

By far the biggest reason people give up on home chickens is predation. Chickens are absolutely helpless at night (they go kind of comatose), and are dang easy to catch during the day. A system which will keep your hens safe from (skunks raccoons dogs hawks bobcats foxes owls weasels etc) should be planned and built before you ever bring a chick home. Raccoons have small grabby hands that can get through any wire netting save aviary netting and half inch hardware cloth. Many predators dig very well. I poured a concrete pad for my chicken house long ago and never regretted it. Chickens MUST be safely confined at night, when most predation occurs. If you think there is maybe a little chance a determined predator can get at them, you have not built strongly enough.

The other big challenge with chickens is that they attract rodents. Or rather, their feed does. Keep your feed stored in metal, and don’t leave feed out at night.

Chickens can ruin a planted veg garden in minutes. Only let them roam where you have nothing planted that can’t tolerate vigorous scratching by large clawed feet.

Breeds: since what I prefer are a lot of large eggs and a calm friendly temperament, I stick to the few breeds that have these traits – Black Australorps, Speckled Sussex. Other, more common breeds with these traits are Barred Plymouth Rocks and Rhode Island Reds (although I don’t really like the temperament on the last, they can be too pushy and aggressive). Sexlinks are a great choice for almost anyone who doesn’t want to breed their own replacement hens. These are first-generation crosses of two breeds with certain complementary color genetics, such that the male and female chicks are different colors. This makes chick sexing a breeze (in pure breeds, even a skilled sexer will make a few mistakes). They also partake of hybrid vigor. Some of my best layers have been sexlinks.

Even if I could keep no other livestock I would have chickens. Not only that they turn kitchen waste into wonderful eggs and useful manure, but they are personable creatures which make surprisingly good pets, one of the better pets for children in my view, being cheap to buy and keep, quite sturdy and easily tamed and trained.

I would never recommend buying “rescue” hens unless you intend them for soup, which is probably all they are good for. The cheap and fun way to buy chickens is feedstore chicks in spring, they’re only a couple bucks or so. They will have to have a heat lamp until they grow feathers. They will lay some that fall and then start in earnest the following spring. Point-of-lay pullets or 1st year layers will cost about $20. Don’t bother with any other age of chicken, it’s a waste of time, space, and money.

Chickens lay best the first year of lay, good the second, sort of okay the third, and thereafter usually poorly. Most people who don’t want to end up running a chicken retirement home cull after one or else two years. I don’t butcher my hens for soup, I just put them on freecycle or free craigslist and off they go.

If you are a novice, get a chicken book. I recommend Rick and Gail Luttmann’s Chickens In Your Backyard, but the Storey series books are also good.

50

Still cheaper (no pun intended) to buy eggs at the store. I know. I pay the bills and do the shopping around here.

I remember the day I went shopping, had to buy a dozen eggs (bastards quit laying), then, had to stop on the way home to buy a bag of chicken feed. That was fucked up!

51

LOL, I’ve lived that indignity, too. On the bright side, only twice in a decade.

52

Cheaper? Debatable
Cleaner? Depends on your housing conditions, my flock’s eggs are completely clean
Quieter? Depends on the type of hen, my Buff Orpingtons are nearly silent, even when laying, one laid an egg this morning as I watched her, not a single sound, my partridge Plymouth rocks are chatty when laying
Less hassle? Debatable, I open the barn in the morning, check their food and water, collect any eggs, open the gate to the run, they free range all day, at the end of the day, they put themselves back in the barn, I go out, count them up, check food and water, collect any eggs, then close up the barn

53

Yeah.
If you spent five minutes in a commercial layer building, you would feel differently about those “clean” “cheap” store eggs.

54

This topic always irritates me. Where there are chickens, there are - ipso facto - rats.**
I don’t know why city councils do not have the …s to stand up and tell the population so anxious to introduce those dang cute feathered things my kids jes love so much, to the neighbourhood.

You may not see them, but if you are attentive, you will notice that you are going through much more feed than your chicks could consume. And it ever increases as your rat-raising efforts continue.

You have fresh eggs at little cost as close as any grocery and are not raising rats for the whole neighbourhood to deal with.

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double post

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Our girls were lost to a fox a few weeks ago. We thought they were safe, but we underestimated our cunning nemesis. After a couple of fruitless digging attempts at the end of the pen, he leaped up into a nearby fence post and on to the roof of the run. A hole in the netting that covered the roof gave him access, and our four sleeping ladies would have been dispatched quite quickly after that. Despite myself, I’m quite impressed that the wily predator managed to scramble back up the six foot run wall carrying a dead chook to get out and run home with chicken for dinner. That would have been no easy feat.

We’ve now replaced the roof of the run with wire, and this weekend we brought home six new little ladies. Our previous girls were purchased at the point of lay, but these girls are only 8 or 9 weeks old, and they seem like such little babies. There’s a black Australorp, a red Australorp, a Barred Plymouth Rock, a bantam Silkie, a Rhode Island Red, and the cutest little Pekin bantam who is a light buff sort of colour that seems to be called Lemon.

We’re pretty sure they will be safe now, but we did think that before and clearly we were wrong. The pen has been there three years, and the fence post has been in for two. Either that hole in the netting only just formed recently to give the fox access or its just never been sufficiently motivated until now. We’ll certainly be keeping a better eye on the condition of the run roof from here on out.

It does baffle me that the fox went to so much risk and trouble to get the chickens when there are rabbits EVERYWHERE out there. I see half a dozen every time I leave the house. Lately many are hopping around blind from myxomatosis, so they’d be an easy catch, yet we’re seeing them as often as we ever have so it doesn’t seem to be hurting their numbers too much. I guess the fox was in the mood for something different that night.

57

Hmm, let’s see here…
Food in a galvanized metal trash can with metal lid bungied down? Check
Cat who is capable of taking down squirrels as well as rats? Check
Feeders suspended off the floor by cabling? Check
Chicken wire doubled over and stapled down at the wall/floor junction? Check
Entrance to the barn too high for rats to walk up? Check

Nope, no rats here

And these are the happy hens;
http://i1319.photobucket.com/albums/t663/Kadargo/de5b3db8a330c5606208bdb90b55e5b5_zps9cf09b24.jpg
http://i1319.photobucket.com/albums/t663/Kadargo/685a1945c46c099bdd80fb0aa78699ce_zpsa324691d.jpg

These are the roosters, they were hatched from the same clutch of eggs, and have no agression issues, in fact, the hens bully them around! Equal poultry rights! :slight_smile:

And these are the eggs as of tonight, the dark brown eggs are from the Plymouth rocks, and the lighter eggs are from the Buff Orpingtons

58

Oh, and another thing, good luck finding anything other than the typical brown and white shelled eggs in a grocery store…

This is Chiana, she’s an Easter Egger

These are her eggs;

The shells are a mint green, the actual egg is no different than a brown or white shelled egg, only the shell color is different

59

Americunas? We have three of those and 4 sex links. The sex links are better layers. Both are really good with kids.

I have to admit, we have/had some rats. I think they are eradicated as the trap has been rat free for a while now. I’ll leave the trap out permanently baited just to be safe.

60

I have chickens. Chickens are GREAT. They are a lot of fun to watch, they’re easy to maintain (with a little reading…I’ll post a link), and they give you eggs.

Eggs, so what, I can buy those at the store… Ya, you can. The consistency of the eggs in the store is inferior to fresh eggs. The whites tend to run more in store eggs. The eggs are a product of chickens who eat God only knows what (antibiotics, etc).

My suggestion for chickens would be a “production red”. Think Rhode Island Red chickens. Buy them “sexed”, which means they’re checked so that you aren’t getting roosters.

Link: