yeah it would make a great guest house. Or a playhouse.
I see a hammock in your future....

I will name my chickens!! Since I am doing the egg thing. If we have meat chickens, I will put them in a separate area...with their rooster.... omg.
I love the old names for chickens... let's see I had an aunt Lola, and Lucille, and Esther, and I like Mable... Gertrude and Ida...
I think I would name a rooster Mac. Like Old MacDonald had a farm yo!!

What's cool is that the chickens almost name themselves when you watch them and see their personalities. Takes a keen eye though. Some hens like to mosey out in the yard and walk around "gypsy" others hang around the house "lucy" some are aggressive and stupid "rocky" and some hens never shut up "Patty" that was my exwife.

Hey, Patricia, if your reading this....just having a little fun. I still love you, babe!!

Lmao. Patty. I have a Patty in my life.. not a good name.. either is Pam.. No offense to the nice ones... it's just been statistically significant in my experience.

well if you buy chickens locally you can get them really cheap, I mean really cheap, they mostly sell assorted were you can get the red ones and all the other ones mixed altogether. but your gonna need roosters and hens if you want eggs.

Originally posted by dgtempe
I am trying to get as much info as possible. I already know on the Internet i have to buy 25 or more chickens to start. As you will see i know nothing about chickens!

For example, how many males and females do i get?
Will chicken feed and water do?
Would a home made chicken coup do?
do they mate? Is my ignorance showing yet?
Will they hatch their own i dont want to get an incubator.
They will come with shots if i buy them* good for me.

Does anyone here raise chickens?

I live in a rural area, farming area, so this wont be a problem and besides i just want to try my hand at a few!

Anyone out there doing this?

I'm serious about this but i really dont know where to start.

Female chickens lay eggs all the time. They are natures bread basket literally. You need one rooster that's it. Feed them wheat grass and grain. The wheat grass will make the females more fertile, they will lay more eggs. If you have about six chickens you will have tons of eggs enough for the family for the week. 20 chickens is a lot. So if you want more eggs than you can handle go for it ! Also you don't have to refrigerate the eggs. They will last longer if you do though. They last three months if you refrigerate and about thirty if you don't. Enjoy your omletes! Just build an enclosure with shelves and load it up with straw for bedding. Make sure it has a fence or a really big dog nearby to keep predators out. Those foxes do love chickens!

Do you have time to talk to the little chickens? Some of them like it if you sing nice songs to them while they are sitting on nest or preparing to go to sleep. They need love and in turn the quality of eggs will increase.

Op I really hope you take your time and do lots of research. You need to learn about their diet, signs of illness, ideal temperatures for chicks and adults, habitat, possible social conflicts, etc...

Since you had to ask whether or not chickens mate, well, the more reading you do the better. Hate to think of the little critters getting sick and dying because something was overlooked.

When you get your chicks, you will need to feed them chick food. It's ground up grain, minerals, and vitamins. A lot of chick food, (chick starter) has antibiotics in it, and that can cause resistant microorganisms. The antibiotics apparently make the chicks grow faster, but you aren't doing this for money, so it won't matter. Get the chick food without antibiotics. This may be difficult as feed stores seem to really push the antibiotic feed.

When my young chickens were old enough to start going out, I just switched to laying crumbles which didn't have antibiotics, and let them get extra nutrition from the plants and bugs. They seemed to do fine.

If you let fairly small babies out for just a few minutes, watch them carefully! I let some out and I was just a few yards away when, I am guessing, a rat snatched one. It was gone, without a trace.

Hawks are something to be worried about. Every year I would get chicks, raise them, finally get eggs, and in the fall the hawks would come and eat my hens. I can't blame them since humans put houses all over their hunting grounds.

If you want meat, your hens may not sit on their eggs. This instinct has been bred out of a lot of breeds of chickens. You may have to get another breed of chicken to sit on the eggs or get an incubator. Most bantams will sit on eggs and are cute, miniature chickens.

For eggs, I recommend Production Reds. They lay big, brown eggs, and have nice personalities. Barred Rocks are good dual purpose chickens.

Good luck with your chickens! After you get your first eggs, you'll never want those pale yoked things from the grocery store again!

Originally posted by whaaa
Hey sea, why don't you rent that chicken house to me. It's nicer than where I live now.

How much? I'm quiet and well behaved and have good references.

Ahhhh,
but...
Can you lay eggs? THAT is the question.



[edit on 11/16/2008 by Rusty P. Shackleford]

You can have trouble when you start growing the chicks.
Make sure you don't plant them too deep or too close together.

We have chickens too. Whatever you do, DO NOT buy white egg layers such as Leghorns. White eggs have a very thin shell. If the birds aren't constantly fed calcium supplements they will develop eggs without a shell and merely have a membrane. Also these birds aren't as hardy and very nervous and flighty.
Ideally you want a brown egg layer. Thicker egg shells, a hardier and calmer bird. Good varieties are Rhode Island Reds, Barred Plymouth Rock, Columbian Rock or any crossing thereof.
Brown layers will need oyster shell supplements (calcium) from time to time as well, especially during winter. It's available at the feed stores.
Make sure the chickens are protected from attacks by skunks, raccoons, foxes and weasels. Especially during night hours.
Lastly, but not least important: DON'T GET RIPPED OFF by the feed stores. If you know a farmer with his own small grain mill, ask him to custom mill the feed for you. Although the feed mill's bags have an "analysis" attached to them they will stretch the feed's weight by adding sand. The sand is what the chickens leave behind in their feeding troughs. This will usually tend to be about a 1/4 - 1/3 of the chicken feed's net weight per bag.
Good luck...

PS: Yes, you'll likely want ONE rooster. Two or more and there'll - sooner rather than later - eventually be only one single survivor anyway.
I find mine don't like formulated chicken feed at all and they don't do well on it. I hear that a lot as well. Let them forage grass, legumes etc.
Chicken's absolute favourite food: Kitchen leftovers. Anything at all. The sound of those goodies being emptied onto the floor makes them bee line it for the feeding area. FAST...

BTW, I sell my surplus eggs to friends at work. According to them the supermarket eggs taste pretty gross when compared to my free rangers. And they only have 1/3 of the cholesterol. It's a win-win situation. Bon appetit...

I wish you luck.

I have wanted to keep chickens for a few years now, I just don't have the space.

I would also like to have a pond with ducks some day. I hear their eggs are good too, although they don't lay anywhere near the same capacity as chickens. If i had a whole bunch of land I wouldn' tmind having some kind of raised platform I could lay meat on in order to attract vultures.

I actually have quite a bit of experience raising chickens! Sorry I saw this little thread a tad bit late. Dg, I do hope you didn’t run out and buy 25 chickens to start with. If you want a few eggs for you and your hubby, 4 or 5 fresh hens should do the trick. With 10 hens, trust me, you’ll be giving tons of eggs away to the neighbors so I couldn’t even imagine how you’d get rid of all the eggs you’ll get with 25 hens.

Roosters, no you don’t need any roosters to have eggs. Yes…chickens do mate; well at least the rooster has the constant needs to pass off his seed, while the hens don’t really give much thought to mating. Really, it’s more like forced sex! One thing roosters are good for though is that they are very protective to their harem of girls. They are constantly looking in the skies overhead for danger for flying predators such as hawks and what not. Sometimes they even have a panic attack if a butterfly catches their eye at the last second & will run screaming… sounding a mega sized alarm that sends the girls running for cover. They also keep hen house fighting down to a minimum, and give strong verbal support when the hens cackle after laying an egg.

Chickens:

They all have a pecking order, and that will soon fall in to place…some rise up, some fall in the ever-constant world of higher archy! Even some head strong hens will set out to take on the roosters and quickly learn, that he won’t put up with any such bologna...he is the king of the palace & rightfully so! He has first pick of where he wants to sleep at night & you should see the funny noises he makes when he sees the hen house has been cleaned and new pine chips put into place. Why he’s gets so happy, sometimes I think he might try to lay an eggs.

Yes, I like to name my chickens…I don’t care what whaaa says, there will always be an offender in the group (even with names) that you don’t mind if they die! Names, let’s see, there was Big Momma that consistently laid double yoker’s...hugest eggs I ever saw. She was one of my favorites until one of the neighbor’s dogs killed her in her prime. That was a sad day for me, & an even-sadder day for the offending dog. Now Gimpy, she got her name because she injured her foot somehow and to this day walks with a limp. I call her all kinds of goofy names Gimper, Gimpy, Gimper Pimper Poopy. She’s also one of my favorite girls & the queen of the chick house. She loves to sit in my lap and take a leisurely nap. Not one hen will dare take on Gimpy or she’ll give them a lesson in manners they’ll never forget. She reins supreme!!

I won’t bore you by telling you the names of all my chickens, but I will mention a couple more. Agatha, well that’s how she started out, as Agatha. I quickly learned that she was quite the HAG! She now sports her other name proudly…I soon started calling her Hagatha! Jackie: now this is one of those cases where there is an offender in the group that you don’t mind killing. Sweet little Jackie quickly rose up through the chain of command and was vicious to the other hens. I changed her name to Jackie The Ripper & might I say that she was also the roosters favorite love interest. You can imagine how much he freaked out when he saw his most beloved flopping around on the ground beheaded. Yes, he flew over the fence and made a huge spectacle of himself, and didn’t settle down until we chased him off threatening him with the axe “also” if he didn’t straighten up.

Chickens have been a lot of fun for me, and they have a wide range of personalities. Do get some chickens Dg! Enjoy them, as they are never boring.


[edit on 1/5/2009 by jensouth31]

What an awesome idea! I may look into this, I love eggs and I love chickens! Great combo!