Chick’n Swappin’ Season– Risky Business

We are sooooo close to Spring now! And in Missouri, Spring means something very specific for many, many chicken keepers– swap season.

Chicken swaps are fun places to go to see lots of birds and chat with other poultry lovers.  If you are part of a network, swaps are major events where you get to meet up with friends that you might not see otherwise.  For many, swaps are a huge part of the chicken keeping experience.

Because a person can find many birds of many breeds on the cheap and because of the comaraderie, being surrounded by other poultry lovers, swaps are not going to go away.  I could yell and scream all day, “Stop swapping birds!!!” but that just isn’t going to happen.

We used to be swappers before we started our flock of Orpingtons.  Now the swap birds are just a memory, and all of our birds except a handful of chicks, came onto this farm as hatching eggs to help ensure that our flock is healthy when we start offering eggs and chicks to others.  We feel that offering others clean, healthy birds is the greatest responsibility.

Swaps are fun while they last, but it doesn’t take long for people to start reporting on sick birds, and the truth of the matter is that while some illnesses– such as mycoplasma– can be easily treated or cleaned up from one’s property, some illnesses are not so easy to handle.  Once some illnesses– such as Marek’s– is on your property, they can stay on your property for years.  There is no easy treatment besides an axe, there is no easy clean up.

But enough of my finger wagging and lecturing.  Instead, I’ll offer some tips to those who choose to swap.

• It is easy to get distracted or to miss little details when there are so many things going on around you.  Remember to inspect birds that you might be interested in very closely for any signs of illness.  Also inspect the other birds in the same cage as well as birds in cages in close proximity.
• Signs of illness include runny or snotty noses, sneezing, watering or bubbly eyes, swollen eyes, puffy sinuses, lethargy, or even just a bird who is puffing out its feathers
• Birds grabbed from a coop, stuck in a cage, hauled to an unknown location, surrounded by hundreds or even thousands of people, and other unknown birds will be stressed.  Stress brings out illness, but it may not bring it out right away.  Quarantine your new purchases for at least 30 days and 40 feet away from your existing flock.
• Whether you purchase at a swap or just go to sight see and visit, stop at a car wash on your way home and wash your vehicle, particularly the tires to avoid bringing anything onto your property.
• Shower, change your clothes and shoes before visiting your flock.  Disinfect the shoes you wore off the property.
• Care for your existing flock first each day, then any birds you have in quarantine.  Remember to change clothes and shoes before visiting your healthy flock again.

I absolutely do not recommend acquiring stock from poultry swaps, but I do understand why people do.  So, for those who choose to do so be careful, good luck, and be safe!

Breakfast for Babies

Happy Thanksgiving from Happy Chickens!

Simonetta and a photo bomber!

It’s cold here with temperatures falling into the teens at night now, but my  juvenile birds are doing well.  I just can’t say enough how much fun I’ve had raising these birds up.

Some mornings they seem a little cranky for the cold, but are otherwise as lively as ever.  A warm breakfast and some “coffee” doesn’t hurt either.

For breakfast, I’ve been preparing two servings of warm oatmeal and mixing in a little  special feed mix to warm their little bellies.

• 2/3 cup of scratch
• 1/3 cup of Boss
• 1/3 cup of calf manna

Oatmeal, Boss, Calf Manna, and Scratch

Coffee?  Just some warm water with a shot of apple cider vinegar and occasionally I throw in a smashed clove of garlic.  Voila! Chicken coffee.  😉

Whether it’s helping them cope with the frigid temperatures or not, they definitely enjoy it!

Finishing what stuck to the pot and spoon. Waste not … 🙂

 

 

 

Our Winter Coop

We have lots of chicks here at Happy Chickens now, and we are hopefully adding more!

Right now, we have LF Black English Orpingtons, bantam Orpingtons in blue, black, chocolate, and mauve, Langshan eggs in the incubator, and are hopefully adding Lavender Orpingtons and possibly others to the incubator in October.

As if the idea of keeping chickens snug through winter wasn’t just a little scary already, right??  But they can’t be kept in the house forever.  A shame though.  I’d love a few feathered friends to sit on the couch and watch T.V. with!  A hen at the dinner table! A rooster on the bedside table at about 6 a.m.  😉

It’s only the beginning of Fall, but now really is the time to start prepping the coop for winter.

I see questions posted a lot in the Fall from newer folks, worried and wondering if chickens are winter hardy and if there is anything they need to do or if they should plan on giving their flock supplemental heat.

Well, let me start by saying that some breeds are more cold hardy than others, but generally chickens are very well capable of handling the cold, and given proper care and a good coop, adults do not need supplemental heat.  People keep chickens in Alaska just fine, some only offering heat in minus degree temperatures.   In fact, you may actually do more harm than good giving your flock supplemental heat.

Adjusting from the warm, comfy confines of a heated coop to the frigid winter temperatures when a chicken ventures out is very stressful and can weaken their immune systems.  Furthermore, a bird accustomed to a warm coop may not survive if the worst happens and the electric goes out…..

So, rather than eating up your utilities budget by running electrical cords across the yard and risking the fire hazard of running heat lamps or space heaters all winter for adults perfectly capable of thriving right on through the long, cold winter your best bet is to just have a properly winterized coop that is sized correctly for the number of birds you are keeping.

In our case, we’re raising chicks, so offering heat when they go outside is a necessity.  They’ll be leaving a warm house and will have to be placed in the coop in November and January.  Outside of the supplemental heat, everything I’m doing right now to prepare the coop for winter is the same as I would do if I were preparing the coop for an adult flock.

First of all, though it may come as a surprise to people newer to chicken keeping, we are actually discussing ways to open up the coop for more ventilation.  We want plenty of air exchange in there to avoid a build up of ammonia that can seriously damage the respiratory system of our flock.  What we don’t want is a draft or air that blows directly on our birds.  Before we put our chickens in the coop we will seek out any possible drafts and seal them up.  However, we will keep our sources of ventilation wide open.

We have a very large coop.  I always want my birds to have more than enough space, but in winter, there can be such a thing as too much space particularly with bantams or chicks.  We never overcrowd, but we are sectioning off our coop to a size that is more winter friendly and will help chicks retain heat.  Next winter, when they are grown and supplemental heat is not needed, we will create a temporary dropped ceiling over the roost so that body heat doesn’t just rise and dissipate, but rather, is put to use where the birds are roosting.

We will also use wide roosts so that our chickens’ feathers will completely settle over their feet when they roost to protect those funny little chicken toes from frostbite.

Winter doesn’t mean the end of parasites and pests.  Lice and mites can seriously weaken a flock’s immune system– not something you want on top of their facing frigid temperatures.  The less they have to deal with, the better off they are. Fall is a good time to change out  bedding and treat the coop for bugs and mites in preparation for winter.

We have removed all the bedding and scraped it to earth and sprinkled Sevin Dust to kill bugs capable of carrying disease, sprayed the coop from the ceiling down to the ground, and so far, we’ve painted the walls where the chicks will spend the winter.

It’s a good idea to paint or use a sealant on any wood surfaces in the coop to help seal off the little nooks and crannies that tiny pests might hide in since not all parasites stay on a chicken all the time.

After speaking to a couple of very capable and experienced flock keepers, I’ve decided to combine the advice given to me before my chicks go into the coop to prevent parasites.  I’ll spray the walls with Permethrin spray and then place a good layer of DE on the coop floor before putting down a nice, thick layer of bedding for the chicks to snuggle down into.

As to the chickens themselves, a little cracked corn every day will help them put on weight and help keep them warm along with treats such as warm oatmeal, cream of wheat, or rice.   It’s also very important to make sure they always have access to water– the ultimate winter challenge.

Last winter I schlepped hot water several times a day.  This winter, I believe I’ll make a heated tin to keep the water from freezing.

We’re almost ready for winter!

Almost prepared section of the coop where our chicks will spend the winter

The 411 on Shipped Hatching Eggs

Is there anything more nerve wracking, yet joyful than actually incubating and hatching chicks?  I think not!

It’s bad enough when it is your own eggs.  Even plucked right from the nest box, there is still a nervous energy and a great deal of excitement in the waiting– watching for development, wondering how many will hatch, and in some cases, just what you’ll get from this or that cross, keeping a proper balance of temperature and humidity, and on top of it all, fear of the electric going out!

As if all those uncertainties weren’t enough, factor in getting them from another source, and even further! having them shipped to you! and it’s a whole new ball game.

There is at least one positive to having eggs shipped to you!  That is, you can get eggs for rare or hard to find breeds from anywhere, including breeds that are totally unavailable in your area!  But there are a lot of negatives too.  They are a gamble!  Whether the gamble of shipped eggs is worth it to you or not depends wholly on how badly you really want something!

What if they aren’t fertile?  How do you know how the eggs were stored before they were even shipped?  What if the eggs get lost in transit?? What about temperature extremes along their journey?  What if someone along the route from the seller’s post office to yours was….well….  a butt hole?

All the jostling along the journey, bouncing about in a truck, possible X-rays, changes in temperature, pressure, the possibility of a postal worker in a particularly bad mood….. the odds are against those fragile little eggs!

In other words, don’t expect great hatch rates from shipped eggs, even if they are fertile, even if the seller packages them well, because it doesn’t take a great deal to destroy the viability of those tiny cells you are hoping will produce a chick for you.  And after all the variables those tiny cells must face on their journey to you, they then must face the variables related to your particular environment and incubating practices.

Your rate of success will vary! It may be great one time and poor the next.  You may have generally good luck, but you may have generally bad luck and decide shipped eggs aren’t the route to go.  Whatever the case may be, a seller should be judged on their competence and how well they package their eggs, not your hatch rate.

Gawd, Lanette! Why are you being so negative!!! How discouraging!

It’s just fair warning!  You should be fully aware of the gamble you are taking and not expect that the 90% hatch rate you get from the eggs you pluck from your own nest or that you get when you buy eggs from Bob down the street is going to be the same.  Overly high expectations are unfair to sellers who get blamed when few to none hatch despite fertility and their efforts to get them to you safely.  Consider yourself lucky if you get 50%!

That said, I have done a little reading on recommendations for helping you get a higher hatch rate out of shipped eggs so I thought I would pass them along!

• It’s always best to get your hatching eggs locally, but if you can’t, shop around even for your shipped eggs.  The closer the seller is to your location, the better.
• Get to know the seller.  Look for recommendations and good feedback from others!
• When you receive your eggs, candle to check for detached or destroyed air sacks.  (Candling is using a high power light in a darkened room, placing it against the egg, to get a look at what is going on inside.  Just an FYI, you cannot use it to determine fertility.)  Those eggs that have been absolutely scrambled, get rid of.  The rest, including those with detached air cells, set pointy end down in an egg carton and allow them to settle and warm to room temperature.
• If air cells are intact, they should sit for at least 6 hours before you put them in the incubator.
• If air cells are detached, give them 24 hours to settle.  Even if the cell doesn’t reattach, it may still hatch, but they require special attention.  Instead of waiting 24 hours to begin turning, wait 2-3 days.  Instead of using an auto turner, keep the eggs in the bottom portion of a paper egg carton and place the entire thing in the incubator.  Tilt the carton ever so slightly by propping it up with whatever is handy.  When it’s time to turn the eggs again, remove the prop from one side, and simply prop the other side.  And instead of stopping turning on day 18, stop turning on day 16.
• Do not jostle your shipped eggs or over handle them, particularly those with detached air cells.  If you’re someone who candles a lot, you’ll want to avoid doing so if the eggs are shipped and the air cell is detached!  It is recommended that you keep candling down to two times, and that is it.
• Do not lay eggs with detached air cells on their sides!  They should stay in a more or less upright position!

Good luck on your egg hatching endeavors, local or otherwise!

 

Basic White Bread

There are some recipes I think everyone should know.  How to make a couple loaves of white bread is one of them.  We make all of our own bread at home.

It is a basic food, a simple recipe, very easy to do.

I’ve had a couple requests from others asking that I teach them how to make it.  People have the idea that making bread is a difficult thing.  It isn’t!  The only hard part about making bread is waiting to eat it!

Gather your supplies! Bread flour, yeast, sugar, salt, oil, bowl, tbsp, tsp

Ingredients:

• 5 cups bread flour
• 2 cups warm water
• 2 tbsp yeast
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1-2 tsp salt

That’s it! That’s all you need!

Instructions:

• Combine 2 cups of bread flour with two cups warm water, sugar, yeast, oil, and salt. (I always do it in that order.  I don’t know if it makes a difference or not.)
• Let this set for 8 minutes to create a sponge.

Why is the first stage called a sponge? ‘Cause it looks all…ya know…spongy….and stuff.

• Add the remaining 3 cups of flour
• You can use a fork starting out until the dough is a little drier, then use your hands, then drop it onto the counter to knead it.  Use a little flour on the counter if it is sticky.
• Knead it well and form a ball and place the ball back in the bowl.

Your dough should not be sticky when you’re done with it. Add a little flour to the counter as needed while you knead.

• Wet a towel with warm water and ring it out to just damp and cover your bowl with it loosely.
• Place it in a warm place and leave it set to rise an hour.

Dough should double in size. Mine was a little higher, but there was a dry spot on the towel and the dough stuck to it when I pulled it off. No worries though!

• Punch the dough down, pull it out of the bowl, and beat on it some more– flour the counter if neccessary.
• Knead it back into a ball as best you can and cut it in half.

The cut will become the bottom of each loaf

• Place each half into non-stick or greased bread pans
• Cover them again with a damp towel and leave them to rise 45 minutes to an hour.

Oven ready! I always leave them to set 45 minutes and then preheat the oven and pop them in when the oven is ready.

• At the 45 minute mark, or toward the end of an hour, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
• Bake for 20- 25 minutes
• Dump the bread from the pans onto a heat resistance surface to cool.

I had some technical difficulties that caused the bread to fall flat, but that’s o.k.  Trust me, it will eat just the same!

Salt controls the rate of rise, so if you find that your dough is rising too fast, growing too large, increase the salt from 1 tsp to 2.  If you use 2 tsp and find that your dough isn’t rising as well as you’d like, try 1 tsp or somewhere in between.

If your sponge doesn’t look so spongy I wouldn’t worry about it much.  I’ve had very spongy sponges and not so spongy sponges and at the end of the day the dough still rose, still smelled as good in the oven, and still tasted the same!

Because homemade bread doesn’t have a bunch of preservatives, it doesn’t keep that fresh chewy texture for long, unlike store bought that can sit on a counter for two weeks and still seem “fresh”.  It will only retain that freshness for a day or two.  It is edible for around a week, but not as enjoyable so you have a couple options IF you even have any bread left after 24 hours!  We do because homemade bread is the norm here so we are used to it and take it for granted.

You can toast it before eating OR you can cut it up into cubes and leave it spread on the counter to dry to make homemade stuffing which, by the way, is incredible!

Drying Herbs in my First Dehyrdator!

Well… O.k.  technically it’s my second dehydrator.  My first, I purchased for $5 at a yard sale, brought it home, plugged it in to test it out, and it overheated in minutes, and melted the bottom tray.  I was rather disappointed.

This time, I purchased one from the farm supply store in town.  There were a few choices.  One sold strictly as a jerky maker.  One was plastic meant to look like metal (at least that’s what I think they were going for) and had digital controls which I was quite attracted to, and a third similar in price to the second called “Garden Master”.

I chose the Garden Master.

It doesn’t look as neat, has a simple dial and off and on switch, but it’s made in the U.S.A.  … or mostly at least.  Close is better than not at all I suppose!

We’re big on that, by the way.  We always try to  either buy used from yard sales, antique stores, flea markets etc so that items get a second chance and our money goes to other regular people, or we check tags and purchase U.S.A. made products.

So this morning, the first thing I did was set the dehydrator up on the counter, then grabbed my basket to go harvest some of my herbs!

What’s growing out there, you ask?

Lemon Balm, Wild Mint, Horehound, Peppermint, Catnip, (yeah, heavy on the mint family I know!) Dill, Calendula, Yarrow, and some plant that I know I seeded, sprouted, and planted but have long since lost track of what in the world it is!  NO one that I have asked has been able to identify it either.

I’ve given up my wild mint and part of the horehound to the butterflies and bumblebees.

On a side note, I have only seen two or three honey bees….hm….

Once everything has dried (I harvested WAY more than would fit)  I am storing them in old bread making yeast jars for later use.  They are glass, moisture tight, and dark brown in color so the herbs will not be degraded by sunlight. Perfect!  I knew there was a reason I’ve been keeping them!

Making Pickles, Important Note on the End!

Last year was my first year canning and my first attempt at making pickles.  I didn’t get to do much experimenting, unfortunately.

Last year was also my first garden, and I didn’t take pest control very seriously so I had no preventative measures in place.  Not to mention I had not bothered to study up on pest identification until it was already too late.

It took no time at all before plant after plant succumbed to the hungry cucumber beetles and squash bugs.  I got zero pumpkins last year, and only a little over a canner load of cucumbers.

I made my one and only batch of pickles, and found them less than desirable, but had no more to experiment with.  We kept that semi sweet, very vinegary batch all the same though for the sake of “waste not, want not” and slowly but surely ate every jar.

This year, I was more prepared, and I planted various herbs known to draw predatory insects, used beer to attract slugs on other plants, and scattered Diatomaceous Earth over my various squash plants when I first noticed squash bugs and their eggs on the leaves of my precious butternut squash.

I have lost some squash plants, but not like last year.  I’ve had multiple canner loads of cucumbers, and they are still producing! Plenty to experiment with! 🙂

I used a very basic recipe last year that I found online for garlic dill pickles.

http://www.simplebites.net/pickles-101-recipe-garlic-dill-pickles/

You may want to try this before turning all mad scientist on your cucumbers.  I am, after all, quite flighty, and there is no telling if I forgot some simple, but important step.  I am the same person who made homemade pumpkin pie filling last year for Thanksgiving and forgot to put the sugar in one of the pumpkin mixtures.  Luckily, I was the first– and only– person who took a bite out of that pie!

So anyway, this was the recipe I used last year and the base I used for making my pickles this year.  I did a few things differently from this year and last though.  I used fresh dill, directly out of my garden, instead of buying dried dill at the store.  I upped the vinegar content and the salt content.

Also, last year I put the jars in a cabinet to pickle.  This year I put them in the refrigerator as soon as they were just warm to the touch.  If you’ll recall, the temperatures across the midwest were scorching last year, and since I am not a big fan of air conditioning, temperatures in the house weren’t exactly the best for pickling cucumbers.

Oh…and I added an ingredient. 😉

So far, so good this time around!  I did a taste test on my first jar of pickles yesterday!  It appears that whatever I didn’t get right last year, I did get right this year!

Making Pickles, Day One

You will need:

• 1 cup CANNING salt
• 8 lbs cucumbers
• Water
• 14 heads of dill, with stem

Instructions:

• Gather up as many cucumbers as you can.  The recipe I linked to recommends about 8 pounds.
• Wash the cucumbers, then poke them all over with a fork.
• Place a layer of cucumbers in a bowl, layer over with salt, then another layer of cucumbers, then salt.
• Fill the bowl with water until the water is about an inch over the cucumbers, and weight them down with a small plate.
• In another bowl, place your dill heads head down and fill with water overnight if you’re concerned with creepy crawlies being in or on them.  If you’re not, pick them and rinse them off on day two.  You should at least rinse them to get rid of any dust.

Soak dill heads and cucumbers overnight

Canning is not hard.  The hardest part, or what is hard for me personally, is any kind of multi-tasking.  If you’re A.D.D. this may be a small, but easy to overcome hurdle for you as well.  I’ve had to learn to multi-task!

Day 2:

Your canning supplies

• Gather your canning supplies– jars, seals, lids, canner, and all your utensils
• Wash your jars in warm soapy water, check for cracks and chips along the rims
• Rinse your seals and rings
• Set everything up, nice and neat, and easily accessible.

• Place your jars in the canner and fill the canner to one inch over the top of the jars (fill the jars too to hold them in place) with water.  This will also get, and keep, the jars hot while you work.
• Turn the burner on high
• Place your seals and rings in a small saucepan with enough water to cover them.  Heat them on high til the water is hot and then turn it down to a simmer.

Ingredients

• 21 cloves of garlic, each split in half
• 35 peppercorns
• 1/4 cup canning salt
• 6 cups water
• 6 cups vinegar
• 1 or 2 Jalapenos
• Dill heads
• Brined cucumbers

Instructions:

• Combine water, vinegar, and salt in a pot.
• Heat to boiling, until salt is dissolved, and boil for 1 minute.
• Turn the heat down to a simmer and cover the pot to avoid loss by evaporation

Your canner with jars, seals and rings, and vinegar solution should all be heating up at once.

• While you’re waiting for everything to heat up, start preparing your other ingredients.
• Rinse your cucumbers of the brine and slice them in quarters.
• Peel and slice your garlic cloves in half.
• Slice your Jalapeno(s) in half, clean out the seeds, and slice them up.
• Ready your peppercorns

Brined cucumbers, peppercorns, jalapenos, and garlic all ready to go!

By now your pickling solution is good and hot, has been turned down to a simmer, and is covered.  Your seals and rings are simmering, and your canner is at least close to boiling!

• Pull out a jar, dump the water from the jar in the sink and place 5 to 6 pieces of garlic,  4 or 5 peppercorns, and several pieces of Jalapenos in the bottom of the jar.
• You can place the pieces of garlic in whole or dice them up.  If you dice, do it before you pull the jar out of the canner.
• Grab a head of Dill, quickly cut off the seed heads and several small pieces of the stem, and throw them in the jar.  They fit better cut than if you throw it in whole.
• Fill the jar with as many cucumber slices as you can.
• Place your funnel on the jar, and ladle enough pickling solution to fill the jar to a 1/4 of an inch headspace.
• Take your little plastic spatula and run it along the sides of the jar to work out air bubbles.
• Place a seal on the jar and a ring.  Make the ring snug, but not tight.  It’s not a strong man contest.
• Place the jar back in the canner and repeat these steps until you’re out of supplies/ your jars are full.
• Let your canner come to a boil, cover, and boil 15 minutes.
• Remove the jars, listen for the ping of sealing lids, and let them cool for 12 to 24 hours and store in a cool place for at least a week.

My next batch of pickles, after the first as instructed above, is an even greater experiment.  I used a different recipe for the pickling solution, added a more generous amount of Jalapenos to the jar, and also added a ring of Aurora pepper to each, as well as a Bay leaf.  Hopefully they will be just as good and pickled as the others have turned out to be, but will be just a little on the hot side!  I’ll let you know how they turn out, and if they’re good, I’ll post the recipe!

NOTE:

• If you’re using a pressure canner as a water bath canner, you will need to remove the over pressure plug from the canner lid before placing it on the canner.
• I asked, and was advised, that after you’ve allowed your jars to pickle, you can move them from the refrigerator to a dark cabinet so they are not taking up space

Let’s Talk Chicken… and Why You SHOULDN’T Get Them.

 In January of 2012, my family and I moved out of our little Southeast Missouri town and into an old farmhouse on 5 acres.   Once here, we made the decision to go self sufficient-ish.  So, in March of last year, I decided the first step toward independence from our country’s dangerous and unnatural, just in time food supply was to get some chickens!

I had no idea at the time that I would very quickly spiral into chicken fever!

What’s chicken fever?  Well, your math changes for one.  Here’s a couple lessons….

If you lose or sell one chicken, it must be replaced.  Therefore, you must purchase two or more as replacement for one.  All chickens count in this case when chicken math is applied– that includes chicks, cockerels,  pullets, and roosters.

In counting the number of chickens you have in your possession, only fully mature hens count.  You don’t count chicks, roosters, or pullets that haven’t started to lay, thus keeping your “official” flock numbers low and avoiding any suspicion by others that you might have chicken fever to begin with.

Chicken fever means you eat, sleep, and dream chickens.  And I really do.  I read the word “chicken” in place of other words.  “Google Chicken” instead of  “Google Chrome” for example.  I dream about them.  I’ve spent hours and hours in research on breeds, disease, genetics, you name it.  I belong to poultry groups on Facebook, where I spend waaay more time than I should, and act as an administrator on one.  I now travel 4 hours one way, three times a year, JUST to go to Missouri’s biggest chicken swap where we camp for two or three days.  And here at home? The birds rule all.  Everything revolves around them.

BUT….

Chickens aren’t for everyone.

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/backyard-chickens-dumped-shelters-when-hipsters-cant-cope-critics-say-6C10533508

It’s true.  When you start researching about getting chickens, you’ll see adorable coops, chickens on green grass, and all the benefits that go with keeping chickens– fresh eggs, organic eggs, insect and rodent control, and chickens are oh so easy to keep! Or mostly true….

Here’s what isn’t talked about or is only glossed over.

Ease of Care

One, chickens ARE easy…. unless you happen to get a carrier illness in your flock.  That changes everything.  Your cost of operation skyrockets as you’re forced to medicate birds one or more times a year which also makes your eggs inedible for a period of time.  That’s if you choose to keep them.  Depending on the illness, the state you live in may advise that you put all of your birds down and start over again.

But even if you don’t get a carrier illness, chickens DO get sick sometimes, and finding out the cause and treatment can still be expensive.

While chickens are relatively easy to care for, they DO still require upkeep!  You can’t just throw them into a coop and run, feed them, and think that’s all there is to it.  They have to be wormed once or twice a year, checked regularly and treated for parasites such as mites and lice.  Their roosts have to be scraped, their litter cleaned out and changed one or more times a year.

They have to be let out every morning and cooped at night.  I realize that sounds like a pretty obvious given, but I have read from people before who were considering getting chickens and didn’t want to be bothered to step out twice a day to open and shut a door.

Costs

Chickens are fairly cheap compared to other livestock, but not even counting the cost of the coop, fencing for the run, and the chickens themselves,  feed and litter and what you put in your chicken medicine cabinet, dewormer and external parasite treatment, brooding equipment, electric to run heat lamps or light a coop in winter all cost money!

Aging Hens/ Roosters

Hens don’t lay forever.  Most lay consistently for a couple years before the number of eggs you’ll get drops off to where keeping a hen and feeding her is no longer financially justifiable.  Eventually, many hens stop laying altogether.  If you are considering getting chickens, you need to consider this.  What is your plan of action when a hen no longer produces eggs if you are the type of person who is unable to drop them in a soup pot?  Will you keep the hen until she passes naturally two, three, four years or more after she stops laying and still purchase a replacement, or will you wait?  Will you put her up for sale, knowing she will likely become someone else’s dinner?

If you live in a city that doesn’t allow roosters, and you purchase straight run chicks what will you do if you come out with one or more roosters?  Roosters can be VERY difficult to get rid of, even when you just give them away!  Do you have a plan?

Your Run/ Free Ranging & Landscaping

All those photos of chickens picking through green grass?  Ha!

First of all, if you keep your chickens in a run of the recommended size for your number of birds, you can forget the pretty green grass.  Chicken poop is HOT.  Meaning it is high in nitrogen, and it burns plant life.  That pretty green grass will be done and gone in the first year, replaced by dirt and, when it rains, MUD.

My chickens free range on five acres, spend little time in their run, and yet they’ve still managed to leave a patch of dirt in front of their coop and a trail leading to the gate of the run!

Other issues involved with free ranging?  You can kiss your well manicured landscaping good-bye unless you go to great lengths to protect it.  Mulch?  They’ll scratch it up into the yard and all over your pathway.  Plants?  Uh huh.  Finding plants your chickens won’t eat may turn into a major battle.  Nearly every plant I have so far must be caged and screened to protect it until the time comes when the plant is too big for the chickens to pick to death.  They also like to scratch up the roots when you plant something new!

Our vegetable garden had to be fenced.  Despite the effort, an occasional chicken still gets in.  Chickens happen to love the color red.  Kiss any developing tomatoes goodbye if they find their way into your garden!

My chickens like to hang out on the front porch, and wait for me to come out with treats.  That means?

Poop.  All over my porch and all over the sidewalks, and the need to constantly spray everything down.

You do have the option of a movable run, called a chicken tractor, but if you’re someone who doesn’t want to be bothered changing water everyday or even opening and closing a door, this would not be an option for you either as you have to move the tractor every day.

Oh, and if you have young children like I do,  and one of them likes to let the chickens in the house, you may occasionally walk into your kitchen to find a bird or two helping themselves to the cat food or just generally inspecting your living quarters, and if you ask them nicely to please leave, they will not be agreeable.  Rude!

I want to see a garden and chickens in every yard!!…. of those well informed and prepared and capable of taking care of their birds.

Some of us LIKE seeing chickens peeking through and crowing at open windows.  Some of us look at chicken poop and think, “This is going to be GREAT fertilizer for my garden.”  Some of us coo and baby talk our birds as we grunt and scrape and shovel  feces and bedding from our coops, and smile in adoration as our birds scratch up and kick the new bedding we just put down right back out of the coop.  We sternly chastise, then chuckle, when we find that our flocks have flung mulch or rocks everywhere, we’ve stepped in poop on our front porch, and they’ve picked every single petal off the rose bushes or eaten all the ripening tomatoes in our garden.

There are a lot of us who happily spend, scrape, grunt, shovel, growl and chastise.  You may be one of us too!  But if any of this sounds intolerable to you, and you cannot make a surefire plan in dealing with aging hens and unwanted roosters, raising chickens may not be for you.

Chickens belong in a person’s chicken run or yard, and to some, on our plates! Whether you agree with that or not, where they DON’T belong is in animal shelters dependent on people’s donations to care for them! If you purchase them, they are YOUR responsibility! If you’re considering raising a backyard flock, please think carefully and have a plan first.