A lot of folks have asked about backyard chickens recently. There are a few projects that you can start today that will yield food and satisfaction for years to come. If this is something you are going to do, order your birds now, then you’ll have about 4-6 weeks to build your coop.
The first question to answer is what and where to get chicks or more mature birds. We have always purchased our birds through the mail. You read that right: we have had up to 180 birds shipped to our post office! You will likely need a smaller quantity, so your order will be no sweat for the hatchery and the US Postal Service. There are several hatcheries you can choose from, but we have found Murray McMurray hatchery to be reliable.
You can order chicks (about $3-$4 each) or more mature pullets ($25 each). While chicks are less expensive, they are very fragile and can die very easily in cold weather, even with heat lamps. More mature birds will cost you more upfront, but have a lower mortality rate as the temperatures fluctuate this time of year. Pullets also have a head start over chicks, and will begin producing eggs sooner. If you are willing to wait and have a space to keep them warm, chicks are the most economical option.
The next step is selecting your birds, mainly deciding on white, brown and or easter egg layers. Breed determines what color eggs your hens will lay. Our favorite birds are New Hampshire Reds, hearty brown egg layers who will lay, on average, an egg a day. Most hens will lay as often as every 26 hours; it’s part of their lady process and they do not require a rooster. Unless you (and your neighbors) want a solar powered alarm clock that is often known for a foul (no pun intended) attitude, you can get by with females only.
Photo Credit: Bekah Oldham
How many!? One egg every 26 hours, means about 4-5 eggs a day from 6 birds – every. single. day. (Your girls will start reliably laying at around 22-26 weeks old). Get a few extra in case they don’t make it all the way to maturity. If you have 12 birds you can make gifts of your eggs or sell them to help buy feed. Kentucky’s laws make it pretty easy to sell your backyard eggs, so long as you keep it to less than 720 eggs a week.
The post office will call you on the day your chicks arrive. Here, they call at about 5:55am and ask (please hurry) when we’re planning on retrieving our box of constantly peeping chicks from their offices (usually you can hear them in the background).
When you receive that box you are officially in the chicken farming business! What you’ll need for the first few weeks:
- A baby pool or other type of high sided enclosure, and make sure it is plastic and easily cleaned.
- Speaking of cleaning, you’ll need some shavings to help absorb the waste.
- Get a waterer and a feeder. Often times you will find a miniature versions of these for chicks, we have not found them to be necessary. We will typically feed chicks out of the base tray of a large feeder (google hanging feeder). We finally got tired of spilling water and bought plasson bell broiler drinkers – they make life a breeze to refill using gravity and a 5 gallon bucket.
- Chick starter feed. We buy Brumley Non-GMO crumbles from Bagdad Roller Mills in Bagdad, Kentucky. There are several distributors in the Louisville area. You will want to have this on hand before the chicks arrive. After the chicks are mature, you can switch to a pellet feed and also supplement with kitchen scraps.
- The last thing is a heat lamp, which needs to be high enough not to fry the chicks and low enough to provide heat. Typically our lamps are off center so they can get away from heat or get under it if they are too cold. Unless it is full summer, you should brood inside, even in full summer we use lamps at night for the chicks. After the first week your cute yellow fluff balls will turn into teenagers and go through an awkward phase which doesn’t end until they start laying, trust me. They are extremely sensitive to cold until they put their adult feathers fully on. Once matured they can handle sub-zero temps as long as they can get out of the wind and can stay dry.
Whew – ok now the chicken coop.
I drove by a house everyday in the Smoketown neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky while I was at work and finally it occurred to me that the shape of this house was the perfect shape for a chicken coop. As a back story, I have built several coops, the first when I was 14 years old. At this point we have raised a few thousand chickens and I have learned a LOT of hard lessons on the design flaws inherent in backyard coops. This Smoketown coop is the best coop I have built and while we no longer use a coop (keep scrolling, we have dogs and mobile coops), this was the most effective all while backing up to acres of woods right behind the coop where many of our woodland friends also have a taste for chicken.
I drew these Chicken Coop Plans for a friend, and while they are totally not to scale, they can give you an idea of what you need to build a coop and have a run. For 6-12 birds, I would recommend having an area with at least 20 feet of a run, by the 8 foot width of the coop. The run needs to be surrounded by chicken wire. You can free range your birds if your neighbors don’t mind but I would build a run as if they do (hens eat what they want from vegetable and botanical gardens, and one needs to poop by your door everyday just to remind you that they love and appreciate you). Around the perimeter of the run, dig a trench of at least 12” and bury the attached chicken wire – this will give predators (neighborhood dogs, foxes, coyotes, possums, raccoons, etc) trouble when trying to raid your coop. Remember that many predators will kill everything that moves in the coop at night when your are sleeping and then eat a small amount of the chicken – ask me how I know. Inside your coop you’ll want laying boxes (for 12 birds you can get by with 4 boxes, about the size of a milk crate) and some roosting poles (chickens are happy to sleep perched on a 1”x1” or broom stick sized pole mounted horizontally 3/4 of the way to the top of your coop).
Your girls will lay for about 3 years. After that is up to you and is part of another lesson! Just remember that layers are not great for meat. Your grocery store bird is a specific breed (Cornish X) that was about 6 weeks old when butchered. To eat a yardbird that has laid eggs for several years takes patience and strong jaw muscles unless you have an instant pot and know-how. If you want to raise birds for meat it can be done in a coop but best results come from fields – you make your own eggs and we are happy to keep you in our processed and packaged chicken from our farm.
Take a look at the Chicken Coop Plans. I made this as simply as possible and while the plans are not complete they are a good starting place. The most important thing to remember is that you can do this. Chickens are further proof that God loves us and a great opportunity to stay busy, stay full and help keep the garden.
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