Raising Chickens
As a kid there was a short time where my mom bought chickens and we raised them. She even allowed me to raise a rooster that I named "bok bok". I raised him from a little guy, he would go in the car with us, sleep inside on my bookshelf, and even eat from my hands. This rooster had a lot of personality and definitely ran the roost! During that time we had horses, goats, chickens, cats, and dogs. There was unlimited activities to do outside which my sister and I spent a lot of time out tending to the animals and probably messing with them a bit... I mean we were 8 and 10 years old! This is where my love for animals began. Some times we would even take the eggs inside and try to incubate them under heat lamps in hopes of bringing more chicks into the world!
Fast Forward 20 Years
For many years I dreamed of the day I would have chickens again. I think they are just the cutest little things, plus I enjoy feeding them and watching them peck around and not to mention the fresh eggs! Well, after college I eventually bought my first home. I was on a budget and didn't have a big price range since I needed to be able to still pay all my bills and have extra for savings and vacation. Smaller budgets means not much property. I ended up purchasing a 3/2 house in a subdivision and we did some updates and made this house our home! After being here a few years I realized on one side of our house, where no neighbors are, we don't use any of the space. Well, this started the idea of raising chickens! After some tactful "errands" to tractor supply with Austin when I knew baby chicks would be there we came home with 6 baby chicks!!! Well, after the gentleman helped us pick out our chicks he asked if we had all the supplies. Austin and I looked at each other and said "nope, this is our first time raising chickens".
The Starter Pack
The gentlemen started naming off the things we needed. Of course, I had done some research online prior, but I will never turn down advice or tips and tricks from someone! So we left there with what I would call the "starter pack".
Heat lamp
Bulb
Food
Food bin
Water holder
Electrolyte and probiotic packets
Wood chips
He rendered some advice on the electrolyte and probiotic packets. This advice was that sometimes as little chicks they may get some poop on the butt and if it gets stuck you need to wipe it clean because if it dries and isn't removed it could be enough to cause them to get so backed up that they can die. Well, if they start getting "dirty butts" then they need these packets to help balance their digestive systems and replace what nutrients they are lacking.
Once I got them home I used an old tote and placed the water and food storage bins in the tote with wood chips on the bottom. Next I added the chicks and clamped the heat lamp to the side of the tote for the chicks. They really don't need much room at this age and they tend to huddle together at night. With the smaller space I did have to change out their water bowl frequently due to them standing in it or pooping in it or scratching wood chips up into the water and clogging it.
This is the baby chick starter I got. I made sure to get the crumbles because that's what they need at this age. When I would add the probiotic and electrolyte mix I would just add a little of each (they are a powder) to the jug as I refilled it. A small packet would last many water refills.
Below is the electrolyte pack I used.
And this is the probiotic pack I used.
Now that we had the necessities it was time to enjoy watching them grow! Each day I would go and check in on them and hold each one. I wouldn't take them from the heating lamp for long but wanted them to get comfortable with me. There was one chick that seemed to take to me the most and that was Tini. It was the only complete black chick and she had such a sweet personality. I would change out the wood chips about every week. During that time I would place the chicks in a small box while I was cleaning it out and then get them right back in there. This part of their lives, where they are still small lasts about 4-6 weeks.
Toddler Phase
This next growth spurt in their lives is where I had to get creative. The chicks were growing and attempting to use their wings now and then trying to get out of my tote. At this point I had to change it up, they needed more space. So we found an oversized box and taped all the flaps up to make it even taller. Then placed the wood chips, food and water inside. This gave them more room to roam and since they were getting bigger I moved the heat lamp further away from them and rigged it up on one of our hunting tripods.
They started trying to perch and were much more active. When I purchased them the man said they were about 2 weeks old, so this would put them at about 5 weeks. You can already see the size difference, and their feathers were growing in.
My taller box was working but I knew not for long. On one of my next days off I purchased a small coop for them and assembled it!
I also painted all the wood white. Well most of it, it got a little time consuming and then I figured they wouldn't really care after all...
What do you know, about a week or two after I moved them into the bigger box they started flying out of it. I would come home and they would be on top of it hanging out. This was when I knew it was time. I introduced them to their new coop.
I set their food and water out there and allowed them to wonder around and explore their new home. Since they were still young I placed them upstairs in the coop every night with their heating lamp and then in the morning I would let them out to explore if it wasn't too cold. Luckily, we had a warm spring so they got plenty of roaming time. This is also when I changed their food from grower feed to feeder grower feed. Unfortunately I am unable to find a link at this time but when spring comes around again I will post it!
Here is a video of the chickens first experiencing the outside world!
Slowly, they started learning how to climb up the ladder and into the coop. They are started getting strong enough to fly up and perch on the beam.
Being that it was only about 4 weeks after I brought them home that they were already being transitioned outside makes me wonder if they weren't older than the man thought.
After about 3-4 more weeks of keeping the heat lamp on for the chickens it was time to wean them from that. Now we are almost to June and the summers here get hot. The outside temperature at night doesn't fall below 60-70 degrees at this point. The chickens were thriving and loving eating scraps from the garden or watermelons I would cut up.
They would eat from my hand and even let me pick them up. All except the yellow one I named peep. She is a scared chicken and often startles everyone around her. This is them eating a cucumber from my hand!
All Grown Up
The next transition is moving them to layer feed to help them produce eggs. A lot of people say they should transition to this around 20 weeks or when they start laying eggs. However, I got my first egg around week 17!! I transitioned them a week or so prior because I felt like their routine and noises were different. I had a feeling they were starting to want to lay eggs. At this point I hated them having to be locked into their coop all day and felt as they were getting bigger then needed more room. I convinced my husband into helping me build a small fence and locking off that side of the house all for them! He was on board and spent a day making the fence for me with my assistance. Next thing you knew we made them a shade canopy and put misters out for them!
Here are my first eggs!! This was a very exciting moment watching them grow until they were able to lay their first eggs! Two of these are actually porcelain eggs. A friend who also raises lots of chickens told me she uses these so the chickens get used to seeing them. Also, so then if they attempt to peck the egg it would hurt their beak so they won't do it to their own eggs and break them. I am a believer because none of my eggs have ever been broken!
For the next month or so while they started learning to lay and make their routines they would still sleep inside during the night. Which is why it would have to be changed out with fresh wood chips due to them pooping and loosing feathers in here. However, after a month or so of them laying eggs and once they got more feathers grown in, they stopped using this area except to lay eggs and now they keep this area completely clean!
Heartbreak
After raising these chicks from the start I have become a bit attached... After going out of town for one of our elk hunts we came home to find Tini (my favorite) had passed away. There was no telling what caused her death. No signs of struggle or being attacked, plus they were checked on the day prior and were all running about and accounted for. She had intermittently had a little limp so I wonder if that had anything to do with it. I was worried how the other chicks would deal with the loss but they all seemed to move on faster than I did.
This was prior to loosing Tini. From left to right we have Joey, Peep, Margaret, Milly, Tony, and Tini the one right in the middle of the food pile. She would always let me hold her and came running to me when I opened the door. I will miss her!
My Learned Lessons
One thing I learned right away was that they needed a water bowl that I did not have to constantly refill. With our hot summers I couldn't chance them getting really thirsty or running out of water while I was at work for 12+ hours. Austin found these neat things on amazon
Then we bought a standard 5 gallon bucket from Lowes with a lid and drilled holes near the bottom and placed these in as instructed. Next we ran a drip line into the bucket that was already on a timer for our redwoods. After it was all connected I took each chicken and placed their beaks onto the metal spout and when their beak hits the metal it pushes it in and allows water to come out. Also, chickens are attracted to the color red which makes them more interested in it. I would randomly go out their and watch them and witness them using it. Once I knew they all felt comfortable with it I took their old water dispenser away since it was much more work keeping clean and refilling daily.
My next learned lesson was definitely the shade area with misters. With how hot it gets here I knew they needed shade and water to keep them from overheating. Here is a picture of my end project! We used the shade material from Lowes and had the poles in the backyard. Then I got the misting kit from our local Ace Hardware. It was all very easy to put together!
Next tip is getting water proof bins to store their wood chips and food in! I hated having to store the food and such in a different area and wanted to keep it all from the elements. I found these metal bins on one of my stops at Tractor Supply. I bought one smaller metal can with a lid for my feed and one bigger metal can for my wood chips. I also bought a feed scooper and I keep it in with their feed to scoop into their feeder.
My last tip I almost forgot.... When the chicks started learning to fly I would find them flying over the fence and one day a couple even escaped out of our backyard and onto the street! I got awoken by a scared chicken in my backyard and then had received a message from my neighbor letting me know she saw chickens running around! My heart dropped as I thought that I may have lost a chicken. However, I was able to retrieve them all since they really didn't go far from my home, thank goodness. Anyways, this is when I learned about clipping their wings. It is actually very easy and doesn't cause them any pain. About every 4 or 5 months you may need to do it again. Some grow them back faster than others or enjoy flying more than others. Here is a good tutorial I used. There are lots of resources out there and usually a local feed store where people are always willing to help!
All Grown Up
Now that they are consistently laying about 4 eggs a day out of the 5 chickens, eggs have been in abundance. However, with how many eggs we eat and homemade foods we make, its about enough for our family with some weeks giving us extra to share with friends and family! However, in the last couple weeks it has been getting colder outside especially at night down into the 30's. These chickens are able to stay warm on their own but they tend to not lay as many eggs due to using their energy for warmth and due to less sun outside. With this in mind their production has slowed way down to about 2 eggs per day. That doesn't bother me much and we are trialing using their heat lamp again to see if that helps them possibly lay more eggs just during this colder time with less sunlight per day. These chicks are fun and honestly some of the easiest farm animals you will ever have! Our decision to start raising chickens has been a lot of fun and I have learned so much! We plan on raising another batch of chicks this spring so that we have a younger set of producers when these ones start slowing down in a few years.
Please feel free to ask any questions since I may not have addressed everything and if you are considering raising chickens I bet you will love it!
Thanks for reading!
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