My brother tried, made his girls a beautiful house and raccoons wiped out his flock twice. Every bird decapitated. He couldn’t continue after that.
Do you have to feed chickens? I know someone who has free range chickens, I got the impression he got them more so they could eat up the ticks in his yard rather than for the eggs.
Aren’t chickens able to scrounge enough insects when allowed to roam free that you don’t need to feed them yourself?
Everything I know about chicken farming I got from The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald.
First of all you’d need weather that supports bug and worms and the like year round to go without feed. And from the first book I read about raising chickens when I a cub scout onward they all stress that healthy chickens require some feed even if they’re well fed free range.
It helps to have a dog around when you have chickens. Chickens are the fast food of small predators.
I lived next door to chickens most of my life, still do. I hate all sorts of sounds that wake me up in the morning but I grew immune to cock crows long ago. It’s almost comforting to hear one, it tells me it’s too damn early to wake up and then I’ll roll over and fall fast asleep.
A lot depends on what kind of chickens you end up with. When I was a teenager we had a set of Rhode Island Red hens, who were very nice birds. Unfortunately, my brother’s dog went on a rampage and killed all the hens and all 4 of our ducks.
After we gave the dog away to someone without birds we got what was supposed to be a set of Plymouth Rock hens. We ended up with 2 PR roosters, and inexplicably a leghorn rooster, as well as the hens. The only one who wasn’t a complete pain in the ass was the leghorn…who unfortunately ended up dying from a neck injury while trying to escape the other roosters’ torment one night. I honestly don’t remember what happened to the rest of the flock (possibly they were given to a family friend when we moved, I just know that they didn’t die horribly) but I didn’t miss them when they were gone.
If you don’t need chicks, do whatever you can to avoid bringing home a soon to be rooster. If we have fairs again any time soon you can often buy adult hens and avoid the uncertainty.
I’ve had backyard chickens for 6 or 7 years now. This site has almost too much information: https://www.backyardchickens.com/
some questions before making recommendations:
- Will these be pets?
- Do you have kids that will want to raise from chicks for the full experience or you just want some eggs?
- 4H and State Fairs often have chickens that have been really well taken care of, socialized, and ready for you. The pullets you get from commercial farms are a lot less people friendly (which means you don’t have to chase them around so much when they get out).
- How many eggs per day do you want?
- How many chickens are you zoned for?
- How much space do you have? For example, I have a useless downslope at the back of my lot, and I’ve fenced off pieces of it as the daytime chicken run with just some chicken wire.
Recommendations/my learnings:
- need a decent coop. Craig’s list is a good spot to find a chicken coop - don’t build your own unless you’re really handy. And decent coop means enough room to lock 'em in for a week if you go away. This one is too small but give you an idea of what a self contained all-in-one cooplooks like. It’s got a small hen house, covered roof, and a run. Again, craigslist got me a decent coop.
- You will want to put this on some kind of base (bricks work)
-my hen house has a door on both sides. One side opens to 5’x10’ area that is just a crude chicken wire enclosure with chicken wire zip tied to make a roof. I threw this together in an hour after a coon sighting, and it’s been up for a few years now. The other door opens to a much larger chicken run maybe 30 x 50’ that is just a simple chicken wire enclosure so the chickens don’t get out (where they will rip up a planter box in minutes) - to be safe from predators, you should dig down 6-12" with chicken wire or something around the perimeter of the coop
- coop itself can be pretty small. All you need is one laying box, and 1-2 roosting poles. I’ve got 2 roosting poles. the actual coop is only 3x4’ maybe. We have had as many as 11 chickens in there and they did fine as its only for sleeping and laying.
- those damn coons will find you sooner or later. We went about 2 years without bothering to shut the coop until a coon got a bunch of them.
- I forgot to lock up one night about 6 months ago. Middle child woke me in the middle of the night saying “I think something is killing the chickens.” Yep, a coon had killed one and was dragging it off. Usually those fucking racoons will kill a bunch for sport.
- dig 6-12 inches down with a barrier around your all in one coop area . I had a 2 month war with a bob cat. It got the chickens when we were on vacation via a really tiny tunnel (our coop is just set on bricks without a barrier. Then the bobcat came back every night and worked to dig under the bricks. I put a layer of logs around the perimeter. It pulled the logs away and started digging. I put more logs around. Pretty much every day that bobcat was partway to getting to my flock. Eventually, I put enough crap around the perimeter and under the gate it either gave up or more likely passed away.
- I want enough eggs so I don’t need to go to the store. For example, if you only have say 2 chickens, each one lays 2-3 per week, then you maybe have half a dozen a week.
- totally low maintenance. On a daily basis, I open the gate and throw them all the edible leftovers and maybe chicken scratch, and at night I shut the gate and collect the eggs.
– about once a week, I fill up their giant water container with a garden hose, and their big feeder
– about every 2 months, I throw in wood shavings
–about 3-4 times a year, I shovel out the poopy wood shavings and put them in a composter, which turns into fantastic fertilizer
– late fall, I run a power chord out to the coop and put in a light with a timer (otherwise they quit laying for the winter)
– spring, I put away the light and power chord.
– I have no problem leaving for 7-10 days. They have enough food, water, and safe completely fenced in enclosure (it’s small and I only leave them maybe 2x per year)
- Will these be pets?
I have kids. I don’t think they will allow the “freezer camp” option. Pets it is.
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Do you have kids that will want to raise from chicks for the full experience or you just want some eggs?
I’m leaning towards just hurry up and get to the eggs. I’m not opposed to chicks, but I don’t need the experience. -
4H and State Fairs often have chickens that have been really well taken care of, socialized, and ready for you. The pullets you get from commercial farms are a lot less people friendly (which means you don’t have to chase them around so much when they get out).
I would like well socialized chickens to be my egg pets.
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How many eggs per day do you want?
3 dozen a week would be great. I could go higher. Less is fine too.
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How many chickens are you zoned for?
10 to start with. If I want more than 10, I need to notify the neighbors. -
How much space do you have? For example, I have a useless downslope at the back of my lot, and I’ve fenced off pieces of it as the daytime chicken run with just some chicken wire.
This is an interesting point. I’ve got a steep hill on one end of my property. I’ll have ponder this.
To answer other questions about predators: I’ve got them all. Eagles, hawks, owls, corvids, mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, raccoons. I don’t have wolves or bears (I think), so I don’t really have everything.
I am interested in learning more about breeds. Sweet and docile sounds good to me.
I don’t free-range. Too many predators.
Rats and snakes are hell on chickens as well.
In fact there’s some who theorize that a chicken coop attracts snakes and other predators.
It’s like what comes first?: The chicken or the egg?. 
I thought that you shouldn’t do that because the chickens may start eating their own eggs, which is a habit that is almost impossible to break.
Someone asked about that upthread. Not something I encountered but** Beck **offered a solution to that problem.
Oh, free roaming chickens can and will fly from the yard.
They also will roost in very inconvenient places. Like the little ledge on the window over your nice clean car. Or your aircondtioning unit. Covering them with poop.
Chicken poop is a big mess even contained but it’s worse spread all over your deck or yard. Keep them in a roomy but escape proof coop. You’ll thank me.
And some hens crow.
Hmmm, we didn’t have pets. Middle child was smitten with one of the chickens “egghead”, would do stupid pet tricks, have it clutch the bicycle handle bars and go for a ride, etc.
The kids were 13 and 8 years old. They picked out the chicks. The loved seeing chicks grow up. Downside is chicks are stinky and messy, and take 6-12 months before they start laying. We just had 'em in a cardboard box with a heat lamp and shavings. You have to change the water dish every day because they get shavings in it almost instantly.
IIRC it’s getting toward the end of chick season. Our local feed store had chicks and a published schedule.
WE like ameraucunas, sex links, buff orfingtons and a couple of others I forget the name of. We have or had most of the 10 best. Do a web search or backyardchickens.com for comparisontables.
10 chickens could should get you ~15-25 eggs per week depending on the species (rule of thumb 2-4 eggs per week per chicken). I’ve found our chickens go in cycles with high laying mode and low laying modes.
10 is a lot of chickens. We are zoned for 6 and maxed out at 11 for a while.
Given your predators, IMHO you need a decent sized coop with at least a small completely fenced in with ceiling additional run. To size the coop area, just consider how roost is needed for 10 chickens (and it’s a lot less than you probably think. They literally flock together. Your steep hill might work perfectly for an extended run that is simply a chicken wire fence. Be warned, the chickens will denude that runs of any living thing less than the size of a mature redwood in about 72 hours.
If you have too many eggs, just give 'em away. I have yet to find someone that doesn’t want backyard chicken eggs.
One more thought is that some coops have automated closeable doors. Chickens will naturally head back to the coop when it starts getting to dusk. I’ve heard of coop doors that can be automatically shut at a preset time. These days with IoT, I’m sure someone will sell you a door you can shut with a mobile phone app. 
True dat! As well as rip up a garden in a heartbeat.
Q: Why did the chicken cross the road?
A: That’s long been a mystery.
Q: Why did the punk rocker cross the road?
A: He was stapled to the chicken.
Q: Why did the egg cross the road?
A: To get laid.
I lived my first few years next door to Grampa’s little poultry farm. I later joined a chicken-raising commune. I don’t recall the breeds. Sturdy coops were mandatory. In my experience, chickens are so mean and stupid that they deserve to be eaten.
Here’s a trick for the slightly sadistic: The birds are rooting for bugs and grubs in an enclosed yard. Throw in a few hot Fresno chili peppers. Watch their facial expressions.
We get our chicks newly hatched, keeping them in the house initially with supplemental heat. Interacting with them from the start creates bonded pet birds. Buy some mealworms at a pet store and feed them to the chicks by hand as treats.
When they reach a “too big for in the house” size, move them outside. Feed them any kitchen scraps; cucumber peels, watermelon rinds, apple cores, etc.
Beware of raccoons and raptors.
Save your eggshells, let them dry out, then pulverize them in your mortar-pestle. Feed the crushed shells as a calcium source.
We’ve got five older chickens, two roosters, and [del]ten[/del] nine little girl chicks.
At least, I hope we do!
Anyway, we don’t know a whole lot about livestock but the chickens thrive anyway. When our first batch was younger, we were getting totally overwhelmed with eggs for a while!
We also have goats, and they say goats will eat anything…tin cans, shirts off the line, etc. But it’s not so. Chickens will eat anything.
Our hens were going crazy on something in the yard, I thought gf had given them something yummy. Nope, it was a fairly big garter snake. They’d killed it and were gradually ripping it up.
Gotta call bullshit. Birds can’t “taste” capsaicin. Any bird will happily eat hot peppers. That’s why the plants evolved it - to prevent mammals from eating the fruits & seeds. (We over digest them, while birds pass the seeds through so they can germinate.) They even sell capsaicin laced suet cakes, for people with squirrel problems. The birds continue eating the suet with no hesitation.
One thing I suggest to a friend, who was building an aviary, for other type birds, was to build a basic cheap shelter and put some chicken (food) in it, and set up some cameras to see what comes by.
She lived in an urban environment and got, raccoons, skunks, rats, opossums, owls, hawks and even a fox. So she learned before she built anything that she would have to contain it very well, even if she brought the birds in every night.
Why did the chicken cross the road? To find a place where his motivations wouldn’t be questioned.