Food and Drink
You will need a feeder, waterer, and grit feeder. If you are raising the chickens as chicks, or hatching out eggs, you will need a smaller feeder and waterer for baby chicks than what you need for adult chickens. The baby feeders and waterers are smaller, and the good news is that they are cheap. You can also use small bowls or lids or whatever, but I hate having to refill them and like how much the legit baby feeders and waterers hold. I buy two of the feeders, using one for food and the other for grit. Grit is basically a bunch of tiny rocks that the chickens have to eat because they don't have stomachs like ours that digest food. Here's a peek at the inners of a chicken:
When a chicken eats, the food goes down into the crop, where it needs something to help grind it up. If your chickens are totally free range, chances are they will find most of these tiny rocks laying about in the yard. (Mine used to hang out on the gravel driveway eating up small pieces of gravel.) If your chickens are cooped, you definitely need to offer grit. Some people say you can mix in right into the feed, others say you shouldn't, and I'm not sure who is right. I don't see why it would matter, since it's all going to the same place. Regardless of how you do it, without these little pebbles, they can get all "crop-stipated," which is potentially fatal. (That is my non-scientific term...don't try Googling that one.)
As for what to feed your chickens, it shouldn't be a shocker that I would recommend choosing the best quality feed you can afford. The health of your chickens, and therefore your eggs, depends on it. In fact, you can tell the quality of a chicken's diet by the color of the yolk and strength of the eggshell. Healthy eggs have bright orange yolks as opposed to the muted yellow you find in a grocery store. Greens, and lots of them, especially kelp, are partly responsible for this lovely orange color, and it means your eggs will be higher in all those wonderful things like CLAs and Omega 3's. So, don't skimp on the feed. And don't forget to give the chickens your kitchen scraps---watermelon rinds, mushy strawberries, spinach leaves, kale, etc. They will eat almost anything! Baby chicks go crazy for a spoonful of plain yogurt, which supposedly gives them an immunity boost! They love fresh pasture, of course, and when stinkbug season comes, they will eat your stinkbugs! Be warned, though, that eventually they get sick of them! It took me weeks of reconditioning myself after we were chicken-less to remember that I couldn't walk outside the back door and throw my garden scraps to the hungry, eager ladies. I'm looking forward to spoiling them again with treats! (There are TONS of "chicken treats" for sale these days on all the chicken websites. I think it's kinda funny, since they are so happy to get your leftovers. I am curious about the dried mealworms, but that's probably the only pre-made chicken treat I'd bother spending money on, since we don't exactly have those to offer from our own plates!) It's common sense, but always have fresh, clean water available. Especially in the summer!
As for what to feed your chickens, it shouldn't be a shocker that I would recommend choosing the best quality feed you can afford. The health of your chickens, and therefore your eggs, depends on it. In fact, you can tell the quality of a chicken's diet by the color of the yolk and strength of the eggshell. Healthy eggs have bright orange yolks as opposed to the muted yellow you find in a grocery store. Greens, and lots of them, especially kelp, are partly responsible for this lovely orange color, and it means your eggs will be higher in all those wonderful things like CLAs and Omega 3's. So, don't skimp on the feed. And don't forget to give the chickens your kitchen scraps---watermelon rinds, mushy strawberries, spinach leaves, kale, etc. They will eat almost anything! Baby chicks go crazy for a spoonful of plain yogurt, which supposedly gives them an immunity boost! They love fresh pasture, of course, and when stinkbug season comes, they will eat your stinkbugs! Be warned, though, that eventually they get sick of them! It took me weeks of reconditioning myself after we were chicken-less to remember that I couldn't walk outside the back door and throw my garden scraps to the hungry, eager ladies. I'm looking forward to spoiling them again with treats! (There are TONS of "chicken treats" for sale these days on all the chicken websites. I think it's kinda funny, since they are so happy to get your leftovers. I am curious about the dried mealworms, but that's probably the only pre-made chicken treat I'd bother spending money on, since we don't exactly have those to offer from our own plates!) It's common sense, but always have fresh, clean water available. Especially in the summer!
Helpful Books
There are so many books out there about raising chickens, especially since Martha made it all fashionable. To be honest, I'm not sure how necessary they are, now that there's so much information for small-flock raisers on the Internet. That said, the one book I really frequent is Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens. There's a lot of information in it that doesn't apply to me at this time (showing and butchering chickens, for example) but I do love the book for what I use. I had forgotten how much I also like Living With Chickens. It's geared more specifically toward the backyard flock owner. It is rather brief, though, with gorgeous pictures, so it's more like a book you'd stick on the back of the toilet than something you'd reference in dire need. I did like it, though, especially as a "non-overwhelming" introductory read. And for raising baby chicks, I thought Success With Baby Chicks was good, although it, too, is meant for larger scale chick-rearing. And speaking of baby chicks...
Raising Chicks
I know I just mentioned using a book for raising chicks, but I have to say that I really shouldn't have bothered. I was PARANOID about my chicks last time. I had read too much information about all the crazy stuff: disease, cannibalism, pasty vents, etc. Most of these things pertain to large-scale chick-rearing operations. Here's what you need to raise chicks:
1. A heat lamp. (Babies have to stay warm!)
2. Some sort of brooder box, bathtub, or large bin to keep them contained.
3. Pine shavings to line their box with.
4. Chick feeder(s) and waterer.
5. Chick feed and grit.
And here's what you need to know about how to do it:
1. Keep them warm, dry, and away from the elements until they get their feathers, usually about 8 weeks. (Placing their brooder box in a barn, garden shed, or garage with an outlet are possible options.) 2. Keep their bedding clean, scooping out the poop individually when you can, doing a total overhaul of bedding when it gets really nasty. If water spills, get all the wet bedding out ASAP.
3. Keep them fed and watered. (Don't let them drown in any open trays or dishes of water!)
3. Make sure that poop doesn't get stuck to their vents because then they'll get all constipated and that's bad.
4. If you want them to be nice chickens, you have to cuddle and hold them frequently.
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| Our 8 Welsummers from our first flock lounging in the extra tub under their lamp. 5. Control the temperature. The chickens will tell you how to do it: If they are scattering out from under the heat lamp and huddling on the fringes of the brooder, they are too hot. Raise the heat lamp up! If they are huddled together shivering in a ball directly under the heat, they need more warmth. Lower the heat lamp down! Ideally, they should be either resting peacefully, or walking about happily under the heat. |
***The common-sense rule of thumb is this: if they look peppy, alert, and are peeping and growing nicely, things are good. If one of them gets droopy, lethargic, and stops eating and drinking, you might need to consult a book or the Internet. If one is getting picked on and pecked at by the others, you might need to intervene. All the other scary stuff you read about in chick books just doesn't happen too often to people that are caring for a small flock and doing so diligently.
Chickens on the Internet
I love the Internet. You can really find just about any fact you'd ever want to know there. I think it's especially useful when taking up a random, non-mainstream hobby like chickening. I ended up using the Internet for most of my chicken questions. When Meara came screaming down the hill from the coop covered in red, microscopic bugs, I threw her in the shower and after both of us were bug free, I was hitting Google for answers. "Red bugs on chickens" provided me with the answer I needed. It's free, it takes up no shelf space, and 99.9 percent of the time, you'll find more information than you need for all chicken-raising questions. I know I've already mentioned some of them, but here are my favorite chicken websites. Some are hatcheries, some are places to buy chicken supplies, and some are informative chicken websites. I hope they prove useful to you as well.
Randall Burkey Company (Rhymes with turkey? That's too funny...)
It's still a month until our ten little ladies arrive. Can I go that long without a chicken post? I think I will have to turn my attentions over to the "Catholic" part of this blog, since it seems we have the "Country" part well represented thus far. :-)
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