Are you considering raising chickens in your backyard? You are not alone! You will be joining millions of people that keep either a few chickens or a large flock of chickens, in their backyard.
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You are in the right place. Get your FREE report on the 10 things you must know BEFORE you buy a single chicken.
If you are new to the world of backyard chickens, you may have heard the term “chicken hatchery” and wondered what it meant.
A chicken hatchery is a company that hatches chicks in incubators in large numbers to sell to the public. 
Chicken hatcheries are big business in the United States. The hatch and ship millions of baby chicks to chicken batteries and backyard chicken enthusiasts every single year.
Why would you consider buying baby chicks from a chicken hatchery? Well, there are several reasons to consider.
But, there are several other things to consider as well.
There is no doubt that buying chicks from a chicken hatchery is the most popular way to buy baby chicks these days. But, what do you do if you don’t want to buy from a hatchery?
One of the best ways to find baby chicks in your area is to check out Craigs List. I have found that I can find a variety of chicken breeds this way. You can also check out towns or cities that are within driving range to find more selection.
One of the biggest problems you may have with buying chicks this way is that there is no way to know for sure that you are getting pure bred chicks. If this is important to you, then this is not the way to buy your chicks.
You can also check out local feed and tack stores in the spring. Many times they have chicks for sale. You can also check online forums and see if anyone in your area is offerring extra chicks for sale.
Remember, you don’t have to buy your chicks from a chicken hatchery. It may take a little more time and effort to find them locally, but you may find it more rewarding.
I have been asked how to introduce new chicks to your chicken flock a few times. If you look on the internet, anyone that has ever hand raised chicks will have a different opinion on how to introduce new chicks to an existing flock of chickens. I will tell you what has worked for me.
I personally start putting my hand raised chicks outside for a couple of hours each day in the afternoon when they are about four weeks old. They are very active and love having more room to run around. I made a 12’ x 15’ fenced area for this purpose with chicken wire. This is assuming the weather is warm. I put them in an enclosed area where the existing flock can see them but can’t get to them. The older chickens will watch them from a distance at first and will gradually gather to check the new chicks out.
I don’t actually allow the chicks loose in the same area with the adult chickens during the day until they are at least half their size. For the first few days, I keep a very close eye on everyone. Usually they just do their own thing and except for an occasional peck from an older bird, everyone tends gets along. I only step in if the chicks are really being harassed. The older roosters sometimes pick on any young roosters. The chicks tend to form their own flock and go off on their own and avoid the main flock. I still round the chicks up at night and separate them from the main flock at night.
I personally do not ever attempt to put them together at night until the chicks are about the same size as the older hens. I put up a partition using wire in my larger hen house and put the chicks on one side when it gets dark. That way none of the hens can get to them if they decide to object to them being there. I watch the situation over a week or two and when everyone seems to be getting along, I take the wire partition out. Make sure each side has food and water.
Every so often, one or two hens will not leave them alone so I move the objecting hens to a different hen house. (I have 3 hen houses. One large and two small). Assuming you only have one hen house, you may need to get rid of any hens that won’t accept the new chicks. But this doesn’t happen very often as they usually adjust pretty quickly.
Now, if your hen has raised the chicks on her own, that is a different situation. She should protect them from the other hens so you should be able to keep everyone together without any problems. At least, that has been my experience. I have had good luck slipping newly hatched chicks under a broody hen and getting her to raise them as her own.
Be aware that if you have roosters, there will probably be ongoing problems with any of the new chicks that are roosters also. I recently had an older rooster killed by one of my young roosters that I hatched last fall. The 3 older roosters had a pecking order and they all got along fine. I didn’t realize until it was too later that the young rooster had gotten so aggressive. So keep a close eye on the boys and get rid of any roosters that cause problems.
When I got my first batch of chicks, I never thought that I would be adding new chicks to an existing flock so quickly. My first attempt at raising chicks was a disaster to say the least.
I ended up having to get more chicks and they were a couple of months younger than my original chicks. It never occurred to me that there might be a problem trying to get both sets of chickens to get along.
Boy was I wrong! Much to my dismay, the older chickens immediately starting picking on the younger chickens. They chased them around mercilessly, pecked them whenever they got the chance and just generally made them miserable. I had to figure out how to get everyone to get along . . . fast!
Separate The New Chickens
I quickly separated everyone and had to figure out how to integrate them peacefully. The first thing I did was hop online and do some research. Luckily for my chickens, it was relatively easy to get them all to get along.
The first step was to keep them separated by a fence so that they could see each other and interact without actually being able to cause any harm. Over the course of a couple of weeks, they all settled in and got used to being next to one another.
As they got more comfortable with each other, allowed them to start mingling for a couple of hours during the day for about a week.
Distract Them
I used several methods to keep them distracted including hanging a head of cabbage, broccoli and some large pieces of melon strategically around the chicken run and the yard. Soon, they were all busy trying to grab their treats and didn’t pay any attention to anything else. All of this activity also wore them out so they were just too tired to start trouble.
I have horses and the chickens love to dig through the manure. Sounds disgusting, I know, but they were in heaven. My flower beds were pretty much done for the year so I piled manure in the beds and the chickens happily scratched it up and churned up my beds for me. It kept them occupied and they actually helped me out!
Surprise – You Have Chicks!
Over the years, I have added new chicks without much trouble at all. One trick that I love is to get several of my hens sitting on fake eggs and then when the new chicks arrive, stick them under the hens in the middle of the night. Believe it or not, this trick works very well. The hens think their eggs have hatched and the chicks are just naturally accepted. The hens typically keep the chicks away from the other birds at first anyway.
If I don’t have any broody hens, I put up a temporary pen and allow the chicks outside for a couple of hours during the day. The older chickens can see them and hear them but can’t harm them. That way, when the chicks are old enough to join the older chickens, they are used to them being around.
Any time you add new birds to an existing flock, there will be some minor skirmishes, but they usually manage to work it out. Keep in mind that the new birds will have to figure out the pecking order and some squabbles are normal.
Keeping chickens in your backyard is an adventure. Your flock is unique so you need to keep in mind that you may need to get creative and modify these suggestions to keep your flock happy.
What is a chicken tractor you might ask? A chicken tractor is a portable chicken coop and run for your chickens. The reason it is portable is so that your chickens can always have a fresh area to scratch around in. This way one area of your yard isn’t completely ruin. As long as you move it around every day or so, a different patch of your yard will be fertilized every day.
Chicken tractors come in almost any shape and size. Just be sure and not build a chicken tractor that is too large or you will never move it which is the whole purpose of having a chicken tractor. You can find some free chicken tractor plans online that are easy to build.
Why do you need a chicken tractor? There are several reasons why you might need a chicken tractor.
Chicken safety. If predators are a problem in your area, a chicken tractor will keep your flock alive while still allowing them some freedom.
Containment. Chickens tend to roam when they are not contained. Even if predators are not a problem in your area, your chickens could get hit by cars if they run onto roads. Your neighbors may also not appreciate their flower beds and vegetable gardens being dug up by your chicken flock.
Controlling chicken poop. This is a big one for some people. When chickens free range, they aren’t concerned with where they make deposits. I routinely find chicken poop in my garage, on my car and on the kids swing set. Keeping them locked up will keep your yard and belongings a lot cleaner.
Chicken tractors are not very complicated to build and there are a few free chicken tractor plans on line. You can build a small one for a few chickens or a larger one that will house more chickens.
Just remember, the bigger the chicken tractor is, the harder it will be to move. If it is hard to move, you will not move it which will defeat the purpose of having one in the first place.
Chicken coops come in a variety of shapes, sizes and prices. Whether you have a small chicken flock with just a few hens or a large chicken flock with dozens of hens, you can find a chicken coop that will fit your needs.
Chicken coops can be one story or two. They can be fixed in place or can be moveable.
Not handy at all? You can find kits online that you can have shipped to your home and then have a handyman construct them for you.
Below are 5 popular examples of chicken coops that are available to purchase. Click on each slide to view pictures of the chicken coops and their prices. Even if they don’t meet your needs, you can get an idea of what type of design you like best.
Price: $199.95
Price: $467.56
Price: $237.36
Price: $639.99
Price: $534.97
I was surfing the internet this morning and ran across a great article on how to start raising backyard chickens. This article provides some excellent tips for anyone that is thinking about raising backyard chickens. Check it out below.
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by guest blogger Jean Nick, author and sustainability expert
When I was perhaps 10 years old, a lone Rhode Island Red hen wandered out of the woods and into the yard. We figured, given that she was a long way from anywhere, she must have fallen off a passing truck. My mother never turned away a needy animal, so Henny Penny joined the menagerie, spending her nights snug in an old rabbit hutch given to us by a neighbor.
Come spring, her mind turned–as hen’s minds are wont to do–to motherhood and she went broody, sitting glassy-eyed and inert on her nest eggs (which were in fact, milk-glass eggs my mother unearthed and tucked in so Henny Penny wouldn’t notice we were taking her egg each day and hide a nest somewhere else). Lacking a rooster on the place, she wasn’t going to get anywhere even sitting on her own eggs, so after a few weeks my mother couldn’t stand such hopeful and doomed devotion any longer. She had my Dad stop at a local hatchery and bring home a pair of lovely fluffy New Hampshire Red hen chicks, which she tucked under Henny Penny that night–much to the delight of everyone involved the next morning. And that was the start of my first brood of chickens.
==> CLICK HERE to read the full article.
I was online and ran across this interesting article making a connection between urinary tract infections and chickens.
Chickens are a huge part of the diets of Americans and this is something I had never heard of before.
Check out the article below:
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Chickens may be ultimately to blame for the majority of urinary tract infections in the U.S., according to new research conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Researchers have long believed that urinary tract infections (UTI) were caused by E. coli bacteria in a person’s own gastrointestinal tract.
But after analyzing genomes of the bacteria in women with UTIs, the study’s authors found that the strains of E. coli in the women matched strains of E. coli found in retail chicken meat. According to the researchers, the bacteria did not come from any contamination during the preparation process, but from the chicken itself.
The CDC also analyzed strains of E. coli from other types of meat, including beef and pork, but those retail meats were significantly less likely to have the same strand of E. coli found in those with UTIs.
A major concern listed in the research revolved around the recent emergence of antibiotic-resistant E. coli in the last decade, which the researchers found in some of the samples they tested.
“The management of UTIs, which was previously straightforward, has become more complicated,” the CDC said on its website. “The risks for treatment failure are higher, and the cost of UTI treatment is increasing.”
The scientists have proposed a possible intervention into modern farming methods to help reduce the risk for contamination.
Spring is around the corner and now is the best time of year to consider either start raising a backyard chicken flock or add to an existing backyard chicken flock.
So, where is the best place to buy chicks? My answer is “It depends on why you want to buy chicks”.
There are obviously more reasons than the ones I listed about but they are a good place to start a discussion on where is the best place to buy chicks.
The best place to buy chicks in large numbers or in pre-sexed groups is online. There are chicken hatcheries like California Hatchery that you can get catalogues from or go online and place an order. If you are starting a brand new flock of chickens, you first need to know how many you have the room to keep. The California Hatchery will let you order as few as 3 chicks which is unusual because you usually have to order at least 24 chics from most places.
Advantages and disadvantages of buying chicks online are:
If you are only looking to buy a small number of chicks, one of the best places to do that is to look locally. I have found a number of people online on Craigs List where I can go to get a few chicks.
Advantages and disadvantages of buying chicks locally:
The best place to buy chicks is something you will have to do some research on. There are a lot of options out there for buying birds and you have to know what you want before you begin this process.
I have purchased birds locally and online through a hatchery and have not had any problems with either. The biggest problem that I had was when the birds were shipped to my local post office and someone forgot to call me. This was disastrous for the chicks.
I would strongly recommend that if you order chicks via mail, be sure and warn your local post office that they are coming. Make sure they have all of your contact information and make sure that you know exactly where to go to pick them up.
Most people that have backyards chickens have issues and they are are looking for answers to problems related to raising backyard chickens.
Raising backyard chickens is not that complicated but the majority of people don’t stop and think about the pests that you might draw when you acquire your new chicken flock. You might ask, “What are you talking about?” I am talking about RATS!
Think about it. Your chickens need food and you have to store that food somewhere. Given that chicken feed comes in 50 pound bags, most people opt to keep their chicken feed close to the chicken coop for convenience. Rats can become a huge problem without proper planning. Rats are ugly to look at and gross most people out. But the biggest problem is that they carry diseases that can be transmitted to your flock and you.
Securing your food storage:
You should ensure that all your chicken feed are secured in a container that pests such as rats, other vermin, or even insects would not be able to go to. You can do this by purchasing an airtight container that you should always try to close when not in use. I personally like to use large aluminum garbage cans. They cannot be chewed through light plastic or rubber garbage can and you can use a rope or bungee cord to help secure the lid to the handles on the sides.
Cleaning:
Chicken are messy animals and it seems like I am always cleaning up their messes. They are not neat eaters and tend to fling food everywhere. I rake up the old feed once a week and throw it away so that it doesn’t attract mice and rats.
Be sure to properly secure the entire coop to help stop rats from setting up house and raising a family. Make sure your fencing is buried at least a foot underground to help discourage rats from digging underneath and building a nest under the chicken coop. Rats are usually big enough that they are a little easier to keep out than mice.
Rats and chickens seem to go hand in hand but they don’t have to. You know what they say, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. Don’t create a hospitable environments for rats and they will not set up house with your chickens.
