7 things nobody will tell you about keeping chickens
I had the hair-brained idea a few years ago to keep chickens in our backyard. My husband thought I was crazy but he played along. He’s probably used to my crazy ideas by now.
Or maybe not?
Either way, we got to work and built a simple chicken coop out of used fence boards and bought a couple of chickens. Here is a picture of my first two girls.
7 things nobody tells you about keeping chickens
1) All of the neighbor kids will be enthralled with the chickens! Just about every child who comes over to play with my kids LOVES the chickens. They love to watch them, feed them, and check for eggs. One little boy was here when a hen was attempting to laying an egg. He kept checking every 3 minutes to see if there was an egg…he was so excited! I love to send any eggs they find home with them so they can experience the joy of home grown food.
2) People will ask “Don’t you have to have a rooster to get eggs?” This is by far the question that I get asked the most. From adults and kids alike. The answer is “No, you do not need a rooster to get eggs, only to get fertilized eggs.” I usually explain it like this. In humans, women ovulate every month which is like the chicken laying an egg. You only need a rooster if you want to have fertilized eggs and hatch baby chicks. Although I have figured out a way to have baby chicks without a rooster too. Tricky!
3) They will become pets if you name them. Before we got our chickens I had done enough reading/researching to know that naming them would be a bad idea. My favorite concept came from “Animal Vegetable Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver. She says that most people know animals as either wild animals or as pets. But there is a third category that most people have never experienced and that is “livestock.” Livestock animals are not wild animals but they are definitely NOT pets. Keeping this distinction is very important.
My friend down the street let her kids name their chickens when they got them and it has been very hard on the kids when they die or get sick. And they WILL die or get sick. My goal when I got chickens was to keep only hens that are laying. This means we keep them for 3 years even though they can live for 8 years. Feeding them for 5 non-laying years? No thanks. But if you choose to have your hens as pets, I promise I won’t judge you…to each their own!
5) They will get out of their cage/run/coop. Just like any kind of livestock, they will occasionally get out of the confined area they are in (assuming they are not completely free-range, of course). The other thing to know is once they get out, they are VERY hard to catch. Usually we just open the door and chase/herd them back in. Another alternative is to leave them out and they will go home at dusk to roost where they feel safe. Sometimes, however, we actually need to catch them. A couple of videos on the internet showed us an ingenious way to catch a chicken easily. Brilliant!
6) They make the best compost. Everyone raves about fresh eggs, and yes they are really, really good. But the thing I have been most grateful for is the manure…oddly enough. Before the industrialization of food, people kept animals AND plants. The reason is because the plants feed the animals and the animal’s waste products feed the plants. A beautiful, complete, symbiotic relationship. I learned that part of the problem with our modern food system is that we have separated the plants from the animals. The plants become undernourished and need outrageous amounts of chemicals added to keep them growing. The animals don’t get enough fresh food to eat and they produce a lot of manure that becomes a huge pollution problem. The solution? Put them back together!
Our chickens live underneath our raspberry plants which provide shade and protection from overhead predators. They simultaneously fertilize the raspberries and keep them weed free. Their manure from the coop goes into the compost pile which feeds the rest of the garden. The chickens get any bugs, worms, weeds, and any food from the garden that we don’t need plus food leftovers from the kitchen and of course any used egg shells. Recycling doesn’t get much better than that!
7) They will bring a lot of joy. When the chickens come running whenever they see me, hoping for a treat, it makes my heart sing. I love watching them dig around in the dirt for worms and grubs, watching them steal food from each other then run away, and watching them raise their adopted babies. There is nothing quite like going out to the coop, collecting a still-warm egg, bringing it in the house and cooking it for breakfast.
It feeds more than your body…it feeds your soul.
I’m curious, what are YOUR favorite things about raising chickens? Tell me in the comments below!
May 11, 2018 @ 3:35 am
I have a buff brahma, and a dominique that when I sit down on the ground they come and roost on my lap and let me pet them like there dogs. That is one of my favorite things. The Brahma isn’t willing to sit around forever she will get off and start scratching at my pants with her feet.
May 11, 2018 @ 4:12 am
That’s awesome! I have never trained my chickens to be quite that friendly (although I know people who have). I can totally see how that would be one of your favorite things…I’m sure there’s nothing quite like petting a chicken like it’s a dog! 🙂 Thanks for sharing, Shauna!
July 5, 2018 @ 10:00 pm
I rescued a chicken one very cold ,snowy night about 5 years ago.we named her priscilla.silly for short. Our 3 dogs were her flock. We let her in at night (we live at the edge of a small town in missouri)she had a kennel.. She laid an egg a day until about 6 months before she died. She would holler around 2:30pm. We let her in she would go straight to her cage lay her egg then nap. Then she would go back outside until dusk. Now i have18 chickens. 2 3months old .3 11wks,and the 10wks for the rest. I am enjoying watching the differnt personalities develop. We use ours for layers. Its been a great experience and i just adore chickens now
July 6, 2018 @ 10:07 am
That’s awesome, Donna! I’ve never heard of a chicken having dogs for a flock…Wow, I’m sure that would have been a sight to see. I’m so glad to hear that you are enjoying your new flock of chickens. And yes, they definitely have different personalities. They sure are fun, aren’t they?
May 21, 2020 @ 1:59 am
I also had trouble with my chickens not wanting to go back into their coop for the night. They free range on about 2 acres of our 5 acre property. However, the reason they didn’t want to go back into the coop is because a raccoon got in & 1 of them got eaten. We got the coin but he’d already done his damage. So, I decided to not feed my chickens, 19 hen & 2 roosters, until evening. The 1st evening I got half in, the rest were in 2 trees. The second night they all came for dinner! Now, my flock had access to a variety of grasses, weeds & a huge selection of bugs, frogs & mice (yes, they’ll eat anything they can catch) while they free ranged EVERYWHERE so they never starved. They do LOVE their scratch grains & they all come to meet me in the evening as I come out the back door & head out to the coop. No more chasing hens into the coop or trying to snatch them out of trees!
April 5, 2020 @ 9:49 pm
I want to get some laying hens. I’m not interested in chicks but I do want a rooster as well. I have an infant grandson, whom I want to teach to farm, raise small livestock and be self sufficient. As this is my first year doing this myself. Which chickens would be best for laying and docile enough to reach children the proper way to raise and use our own food?
April 6, 2020 @ 5:23 pm
Hi Karla,
Great question! One of the most docile breeds that I know of is called Buff Orpington. I have not raised this breed myself but have heard that they are very sweet birds. My very favorite breed is called Rhode Island Red. They are great hens and very reliable egg layers. I also am not interested in raising chicks (unless a mama hen raises them for me!). I have had pretty decent success looking on Craigslist and other such sites for people local to me who have adult hens for sale. Roosters are almost always free. Raising chickens is something I HIGHLY recommend! I wish you the best of luck in your chicken adventures!!!
Laura
May 21, 2020 @ 2:11 am
Buff Orpingtons are my favorite for sweet dispositions, but I usually have mostly Rhode Island’s as they just seem to never stop laying, they free range well & they are dual purpose meat/egg birds. If you want a hen to go broody I’ve had banties in my over 10 yrs of hen keeping, & they are EXCELLENT mammas (they’ll sit on any egg they can fit under their little bodies) & they’re so very cute & sweet. They’ll take their babies all around the place talking to them & teaching them to forage & when danger is near; like hawks!!! I’ve always ordered my replacement hens from Murray McMurray & they have always done well in shipping -which is free, plus they give you a surprise chick also for free! I do order the grow gel pack so the chicks have the gel to eat & get electrolytes & liquid which helps their stress. I LOVE my chickens! I call them “Yard Art”.
May 21, 2020 @ 3:30 am
I love Rhode Island Reds too. This is my favorite breed that I have kept for all the reasons you described. They are egg laying champs! Love that you call your chickens “yard art.” Thank you so much for sharing!
April 15, 2020 @ 6:24 am
I have 3 laying eggs chicken I call my kids I haven’t named them but I did name my rooster (red) n the other one is mean butt he not very friendly.. I have a question my children has been laying eggs in a box I do want babies is it going to hatch.. From Carson ms.
April 15, 2020 @ 5:03 pm
Hi Ms. Carson, Great question! A hen laying eggs will not automatically give you chicks, although that is a good start. In order to hatch chicks, you need a hen to lay eggs, those eggs need to be fertilized (you have a rooster, so they will most definitely be fertilized eggs!), and the hen needs to sit on the eggs for around 3 weeks to hatch them. This last one is what you are missing. You will just have to wait until a hen “goes broody” and decides that she is ready to sit on a nest of eggs to hatch them. Here is a blog post I wrote to help you understand the process (yours will obviously have fertilized eggs instead of day-old chicks). https://www.carrotgal.com/giving-a-day-old-chick-to-a-broody-hen/
Hope this helps!!
Laura
July 19, 2021 @ 2:00 pm
I have five hens and 7 guineas that share a coop. They have been raised together and get along fine. They are 4 months old and the hens just started laying. I am so proud!!! I don’t plan on increasing my group as I think I have all females. Going to build a bigger coop this fall. Some nights when we herd them in, and they seem to forget where the door to the coop is– I’d like to get rid of them–but come morning, I’m back to loving them!!! Lol Everyone needs some chicks!!!
March 18, 2022 @ 9:06 pm
My girls are my babies. So spoiled! They are about a year old now and I just picked five more from a straight run. Excited to see if I get a rooster. This is my first flock and have done quite well. Excited to see what the future holds
September 13, 2022 @ 6:04 pm
Welcome to the exciting world of chicken ownership! Did you end up getting a rooster?
September 3, 2022 @ 4:46 am
I live in San Diego County, CA. in a rural area… we have 7 dogs (rescues) and 5 hens, they do not “house” together, but they seem to be okay co-existing in the same backyard, albeit separately. We have 2 fairly large coops, (we bought medium sized coops on Offer Up, dismantled them and then added on wood and rooms, roosting bars and climbing ladders, making them much more studier, higher off the ground (on pallet platforms… good for keeping coops dry during rain season). We began our hen adventure w/ a buff Orpington (Goldie) and a Delaware White (Cotton)… they are the sweetest girls, good layers and love to be talked to & petted. Then a friend had a friend who was moving and giving away her 3 hens to a good home, our friend suggested us, so we took in 2 Blue Orpington hens and 1 Lavender Orpington… again, all good layers ( we call them “the sisters”… respectively Stella & Bella Blue and Louise Lavender 🙂 all 3 are great laying hens, fun personalities and wonderful to watch. We give them an organic layer feed, scratch and flock party dried grubs, along with a daily helping of fresh fruits & veggies from the garden plus their freshly ground eggshells. We have them in an area w/ dirt ground that we cover in pine shavings and large pine branches w/ pine cones, and we installed “misters” for when the heat gets to triple digits. They just love sitting beneath the water misters scratching the ground pecking at bugs… so far this year (really our first year having hens) we have had all wonderful results, spectacular egg production & no bad incidents. There is a pecking order, but we observe this kinda close so no girl gets bullied…. it seems a large enough area, food games on ropes, climbing bars etc… they don’t seem to peck one another… too busy with other things I think 🙂
No need to herd at night, the sisters go in their coop at dusk & line up on their roosting bar while Cotton & Goldie go in their coop and line up on their bar for the night, then we hang their feeders in the coops & close them in for the night.
Homesteading is a lot of work but the benefit of having a garden, hens & fruit trees are so worth every bit of effort… now I want a milking cow or goats.. 🙂
September 13, 2022 @ 6:04 pm
Wow! It sounds like your chickens are living the good life!! I love hearing about the joy they bring you. They sure are entertaining creatures! 🙂 I agree, it’s a lot of work but so worth the effort. Keep us posted if you end up getting a cow or goats!