If you want to begin raising chickens in your backyard, it will be important that you have prepared everything beforehand. As animals are live creatures, having to improvise or create on the fly would really make it difficult for you to take care of them. Jumping into this hobby or activity is also quite tricky if you don’t have prior knowledge as the chickens can act quite erratically than what you have expected of them.

To be able to help you out, here is a short beginner’s guide to raising backyard chickens. While it would not give you everything that you need to know, it would provide you with enough information so that you can start off a simple chicken flock in your backyard:

Check with Local Authorities:

Before purchasing anything related to your chickens or your coop, your first step must be to consult with local officials regarding city laws about raising backyard chickens. You must know that there are various laws regarding this activity that vary from city to city.

These laws can range from having restrictions, a limit to the number of chickens you own, the types that you can own, whether you can keep a rooster, to that of outright bans for having them in your backyard.

This is the reason why you have to check whether your city allows it first before doing any purchases. You would not want to waste money buying something that is actually outlawed in your city.

Choosing the right breed according to your need:

After verifying if it is allowed in your place of residence, the next step would be to consider what kind of breed of chicken you would want to purchase. Your three options are usually for egg laying, for meat, or for pets.

For egg-laying, you may want to get chickens from Leghorns, Rhode Island Reds, or the Black Star breeds. These breeds are known to consistently produce good quality eggs. For meat production, you may want to look into breeds such as the the Orpingtons, Cornish, or Giants. These chickens are usually great for all kinds of cooking.

If you are going for chickens as nothing more than new pets, you may want breeds that are very nice to look at such as the silkies.  Generally speaking, chickens as pets are much easier to handle than trying to groom them to either be egg layers or meat sources.

Check Available Space and Supplies:

After determining your need and breed of chicken that you want, the final step would be to check the available space that you have, as well as the supplies that are readily accessible to you.

You would need to have adequate space for your coop to be built on so that your chickens would not be too constricted. If you think your space is a tad small, you may want to lessen the number of chickens that you are planning to get.

Also, you need to ensure that you actually have access to the supplies necessary to build the coop, maintain your chickens and care for their needs. You should check if chicken related items are available at your pet supply store and purchase them accordingly.

While these will get you through the initial stages of caring for your backyard chickens, there are still plenty more things for you to learn.  However, these are better understood when you are actually experiencing them for yourselves.

Perhaps you have seen the benefits that it could give you financially or just truly enjoy having some new pets around, but whatever the reason is, there are really many people like you who want to start raising chickens in their backyard.

However, one of the things hindering them is the fact that they know very little about it. They would have many questions about raising backyard chickens but can find very little answers to them.  Because of this, they are scared that they may commit plenty of mistakes and would just stop the plan of having chickens in their backyards.

To be able to help you and all the other people who have questions about raising backyard chickens, here are some answers to the commonly asked questions about chickens.

What do I feed the chickens?

Usually the primary question for beginners would be about feeding the chickens in their backyards. They usually do not know what kind of food to give to their new pets.

Actually feeding chickens is not that difficult. There are available “scratch mixes” (a dry mash of cracked corn with other grains such as wheat, oats, and rye) and feeds at the local pet supply store, which you can then purchase and add on to the feeder.

You should of course purchase those feeds that match the type of your chickens as there are different feeds usually varying depending on the age of the chickens.

Are raising chickens in my backyard legal?

Legality of having backyard chickens actually depends on the local city laws. There are some cities which are open to it but would have some restrictions such as having coops not being within a certain distance from the residence, the property line, and the neighbors.

On the other hand, there are also some cities which would not allow these chickens. You could try to talk to your local officials and lobby for them to allow having them in your backyard.

Thus, it would be best to check first with the local officials before you start raising your own flock!

Do I need roosters in my coop to have eggs?

Actually, many are surprised that the answer to this question is no. You actually do not need to have roosters so that your hens can lay eggs. The hens would automatically lay eggs once they reach a certain age.

However, you would need roosters if you want to see chicks. Without roosters, the eggs that the hens would lay are not fertilized and would not hatch into chickens no matter how much you incubate them.

Now that you have the answer to some of the questions that are commonly asked about raising backyard chickens, you should now check if you would be able to handle having them in your own backyard.

A chicken coop is one of the most important things to get when you decide to raise backyard chickens. A chicken coop is the building where the chickens are kept. They usually try to accommodate the different functions that a chicken would usually do.

The chicken coops would usually have nest boxes for egg laying, perches for sleeping, and even some feeding areas. As they try to lodge your chickens, you should ensure that the chicken coop that you build is really suitable for them.

Here are some of the considerations that you should make when making a chicken coop:

You should consider the Area:

One of the first considerations for building a chicken coop would be the area that you have in your backyard. If you are willing to use an expansive area then you may be able to get a chicken coop that has plenty of rooms or compartments for the various chickens that you have.

On the other hand, a limited area would mean a much more compressed space. Perhaps one could have a workaround for this by making the chicken coop larger vertically. The extra “upward” space could be used to have additional rooms for the chickens (multi-levels).

Prefab or Build your own?

Another thing to consider about the chicken coop would be to determine if you would rather have a prefabricated one or if you are willing to just build your own.

Nowadays, you can purchase a prefabricated one that you would just have to assemble. These are usually very easy to connect and use and could provide you with an instant solution for the chicken coop that you need.

The problem with it is that they are usually made from materials that are not as durable as those that you would have used if you had decided to just build your own. Another issue with prefabricated chicken coops is that they are not as customizable as building your own. You would have to follow the plans and they might not necessarily fit into the design that you want.

On the other hand, building your own would require time and of course some carpentry skills. The advantage is that if you decide to build your own, you would be able to adapt and customize it according to your liking. However, it could become more expensive depending on the materials that you use, as well as if you would opt to hire some help in building the chicken coop.

Different types equal to different needs:

You should be aware that the different breeds or ages of chickens would have different needs. As such, you should adjust your chicken coop if you plan on putting all of them in there.

For example, if you would want to have bantam chickens (chickens that are generally much smaller than the other breeds) then you must ensure that the chicken coop would be able to cater to their reduced size. You may want to just put a special area wherein all the equipment and rooms have a slightly lower frame.

This is also similar to chicken coops and chicks. The chick needs a different cell altogether as the adult chickens can get too aggressive and cause some harm to them.

One of the additional benefits of raising your chickens would be the additional profit that you can gain because of them. Of course, one of the most common ways for you to be able to profit from raising chickens in your backyard would be through selling the chicken eggs that the hens in your coop would produce

However, many hobbyists and backyard chicken owners are not very aware of the good methods that they could use in order to sell the eggs of their chickens. This makes it difficult for them to gain their profits as they are not really able to sell their eggs well.

Here then are some tips that you could use in order to sell the eggs gotten from raising chickens in your backyard:

Ensure Freshness:

When selling your eggs, one of your advantages that you have over large egg producing farms or factories is that the eggs that you are selling very fresh. In fact, you can sell them immediately after your hens are done laying them.

You should try to hype up the benefits of fresh eggs to the people that you are selling them too. Tell them benefits such as better taste and filled with more vitamins and nutrients so that they would be enticed to purchase it.

Sell it at a Cheaper Price:

You may want to offer the eggs at a cheaper price than those at the supermarkets if you are selling them to your neighbors. This is because you would have to give them a better alternative, and if you sell it at the same price or at a more expensive price, then your neighbors may be turned off, and would just purchase their eggs at the stores.

Of course, you should not price it too cheaply as well, since you did have to spend some money in order to maintain the chickens and your chicken coop.

Target local “mom and pop” stores:

Aside from providing the daily supply of fresh eggs to your friends and neighbors, you may also want to be the supplier of eggs to the local mom and pop stores in your area. The mom and pop stores are those small groceries that would sell a variety of items that are run by some people on your neighborhood. You should target them as they would increase your client base and you would always have someone who would purchase your eggs.

You may be wondering why it should be the smaller stores instead of the bigger chains. Well you may want to target them, but your chances are quite slim to be their provider. Your small scale operations of raising chickens in your backyard may not be able to supply the large number of eggs that a bigger chain may need.

By following these tips, you may be able to sell your eggs more, and gain much more profit from raising chickens in your backyard.

One of the main concerns of people who would want to raise chickens in their backyards would be weather issues, specifically during the winter. Some people are scared that the weather in their cold places would not be conducive to raising backyard chickens. They are scared that they would not be able to maintain a year round operation because of the winter.

This fear, while true, is actually not as bad as people may think. This is because there are a lot of ways for you to be able to solve your weather issues about raising chickens during this winter time. You would just have to do additional actions to ensure the well being of the chicken despite the cold temperatures

Here are some of the things that people should do so that they would be able to continue raising backyard chickens in the winter:

Very Cold Temperatures:

There are actually two ways for you to work around the issue of having very cold weather.

The first is to select breeds that are able to withstand the coldness of the winter. These are usually chickens that have a thicker lining of skin and feathers than their counterparts. Breeds that do well in the winter would include Giants. Chickens from the Giants breed would usually have very little problems in laying eggs even with the drop in temperature.

The other thing that you could do would be to simply place additional heat insulating materials in the coop. You could even just put a vinyl wrap around it so as to increase heat flow during the winter months.  You can just remove them after the winter has passed.

Frostbites:

When it is too cold, the crown or the wattle of your chicken may become frostbitten. This could lead to issues regarding infection and its spread through the other parts of the chicken’s body.

To be able to avoid this from happening, you may want to rub some form of moisturizer (petroleum jelly would do in a pinch) to the areas that you would want to protect. Simply dab some on the crown and wattle and spread it around.

Frozen Water Sources:

One thing that you should be wary of during the winter months would be the water supply of your chickens. Sometimes, owners forget about the water station inside the chicken coop and are surprised to see that the water has frozen.

You should try to ensure that the water has not frozen and is a bit warm so that the chickens would be able to drink it. You could probably use a water heater to heat it before placing it in their water supply. Of course you should make sure that it is not too hot that it would scald your chickens!

Yes, it would take some extra effort, but by doing the things mentioned above, you would be able to maintain your chickens even during the cold winter months!