There's a growing trend among city dwellers wanting to raise their own chickens. They are discovering the benefits of owning a small flock. This article will discuss the basic steps needed to successfully raise and keep a few chickens in an urban environment.
What are the benefits of raising hens? For one, they provide a natural method for controlling weeds and bugs. They eat many potentially damaging pests like grasshoppers, fire ants, ticks, and termites. They've even been known to kill and eat scorpions. Other pests like fleas, flies, and lawn grubs are also eliminated by chickens. You can stop using those dangerous chemicals in your yard when you have chickens.
Do you own a garden? Chicken manure, when combined with other organic materials, makes an excellent garden fertilizer. It even outperforms ow or steer manure! Just make sure you mix it with wood chips, sawdust, or some other composting material. Chicken manure is too potent by itself.
Another benefit of raising hens is it provides your children a hands-on learning experience. Chickens are gentle enough to be considered a family pet.
Of course, the main and obvious benefit of raising chickens is the steady flow of quality, fresh eggs. Each hen will lay one egg approximately every 24 hours. Home grown eggs are better than eggs purchased in your local grocer market. Store bought eggs come from farms that might not care what they feed their hens or how they're treated. Don't make the mistake of raising too many hens. Determine how many eggs your family needs plus how many you can give away or sell and limit your flock to that amount.
The first step in starting a small chicken farm is to call your local city hall or go to their website to find what their rules and regulations are regarding raising chickens in the city limits. They will tell you how many hens you're allowed to keep. Most cities ban roosters because they're annoying. You don't need a rooster anyway, so that's no problem.
Once you find out the legalities of having hens, it's time to buy some chicks. Your local feed store should have day-old chicks for sale in the spring. Make sure they have been vaccinated against Marek's disease and Coccidiosis and come from a samonella-tested breeding flock. This will ensure you have a healthy flock.
Chicks are too small to just be tossed out into a chicken coop right off the bat. You may want to keep them in a small pen or box with wood shavings and a heat lamp. It's good to gently handle the chicks periodically to get them used to being around humans. Feed them whatever chick feed the store recommends.
After about 30 days, your chicks will start to become "feathered". You can now move them their permanent home - their coop. Your coop needs nesting boxes where they lay eggs, and roosts, where they sleep. Chickens need about 8-10 square feet each. The coop should be waterproof, have a door large enough for a human to enter, and windows that can be opened for ventilation or closed when the weather turns nasty. You can find a source for good, cheap chicken coops in the author's bio at the end of this article.
A fenced in "yard" connected to the coop is also a necessity. This give the hens an outdoor space that's safe from would-be predators like cats, dogs, or raccoons. Chickens like to run, so give them a place to do this.
You can expect to start collecting eggs about 4-5 months after you buy your chicks. Once you get to this stage, about the only thing left for you to do is collect eggs, feed the chickens, and clean the coop. Except for these few tasks, chickens are pretty low maintenance.
What are the benefits of raising hens? For one, they provide a natural method for controlling weeds and bugs. They eat many potentially damaging pests like grasshoppers, fire ants, ticks, and termites. They've even been known to kill and eat scorpions. Other pests like fleas, flies, and lawn grubs are also eliminated by chickens. You can stop using those dangerous chemicals in your yard when you have chickens.
Do you own a garden? Chicken manure, when combined with other organic materials, makes an excellent garden fertilizer. It even outperforms ow or steer manure! Just make sure you mix it with wood chips, sawdust, or some other composting material. Chicken manure is too potent by itself.
Another benefit of raising hens is it provides your children a hands-on learning experience. Chickens are gentle enough to be considered a family pet.
Of course, the main and obvious benefit of raising chickens is the steady flow of quality, fresh eggs. Each hen will lay one egg approximately every 24 hours. Home grown eggs are better than eggs purchased in your local grocer market. Store bought eggs come from farms that might not care what they feed their hens or how they're treated. Don't make the mistake of raising too many hens. Determine how many eggs your family needs plus how many you can give away or sell and limit your flock to that amount.
The first step in starting a small chicken farm is to call your local city hall or go to their website to find what their rules and regulations are regarding raising chickens in the city limits. They will tell you how many hens you're allowed to keep. Most cities ban roosters because they're annoying. You don't need a rooster anyway, so that's no problem.
Once you find out the legalities of having hens, it's time to buy some chicks. Your local feed store should have day-old chicks for sale in the spring. Make sure they have been vaccinated against Marek's disease and Coccidiosis and come from a samonella-tested breeding flock. This will ensure you have a healthy flock.
Chicks are too small to just be tossed out into a chicken coop right off the bat. You may want to keep them in a small pen or box with wood shavings and a heat lamp. It's good to gently handle the chicks periodically to get them used to being around humans. Feed them whatever chick feed the store recommends.
After about 30 days, your chicks will start to become "feathered". You can now move them their permanent home - their coop. Your coop needs nesting boxes where they lay eggs, and roosts, where they sleep. Chickens need about 8-10 square feet each. The coop should be waterproof, have a door large enough for a human to enter, and windows that can be opened for ventilation or closed when the weather turns nasty. You can find a source for good, cheap chicken coops in the author's bio at the end of this article.
A fenced in "yard" connected to the coop is also a necessity. This give the hens an outdoor space that's safe from would-be predators like cats, dogs, or raccoons. Chickens like to run, so give them a place to do this.
You can expect to start collecting eggs about 4-5 months after you buy your chicks. Once you get to this stage, about the only thing left for you to do is collect eggs, feed the chickens, and clean the coop. Except for these few tasks, chickens are pretty low maintenance.
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