Are You Ready For Chickens? (Tips for the Beginner)

Chickens can be intimidating creatures. They certainly aren’t considered “pets” because the last thing they want is to be held by a child. However, my kids treat them like their pets. The girls check on them everyday, collect their eggs, and spend time with them.

With the prices of eggs everything going up, having our own, fresh, eggs everyday is very satisfying. We had a flock of hens when we lived in CA for almost three years, and when we moved here, we immediately got some chicks to start the process all over again. We learned a few things along the way, so my mistakes turned into learning experiences so that I could share my knowledge with you!

Here are some tips for raising chicks:

1. Babies need a warm, (you need a red 250 watt bulb with a lamp) insulated space that can get dirty while they grow. It also needs to be enclosed for when they start hopping and flying everywhere. They tend to scratch up everything from the ground and make a ton of dust that. will. get. everywhere. TRUST me on this. We put them in a downstairs bathroom in CA and it was a disaster. Here in CO, we put them in their own coop with an enclosed outdoor space, complete with bird netting over the top of everything. Worked like magic.
2. They need A LOT of food as they grow, (chicks need medicated feed that you find at the store for a least the first 10 weeks) which means they eat a lot, which means they poop a lot. Newspaper on the ground and then shavings on the top need to be changed out every week at minimum. They are incredibly messy with their eating and drinking, so just keep that in mind.
3. Play time! This was my kiddos favorite thing when the chicks were still small. They need to get outside of their little area to play and get to know you and your kiddos. PS-They poop at any given time, so be aware!

Feeding tips:

1. After they are done with their medicated food and no longer need their heating lamp, (unless it’s Winter) your bigger chickens can be moved outside. Chickens are not allowed to have bananas or avocados, (or the obvious, chocolate, junk food and alcohol) but most other organic type of scraps are a go! They love your scraps as treats, so remember to make, what we call, a “chicken bucket” where all the scraps go.
2. They occasionally crack open and eat their own raw eggs. This is ok, but it is not encouraged or it will become a habit. Learn the approximate times the hens lay, and try to immediately collect their eggs, so that if it starts to happen more often, you can put a stop to it.
3. After you use their eggs for cooking or whatever, keep the shells. Once we get a container full, we cook them in the oven for around 25-30 min at 220 degrees. You then grind them down to basically a powder and add it back into their commercial feed. This is good for their feathers and skin!

Miscellaneous tips:

1. When you get chicks, you won’t know if they are hens or not, until they are bigger. It is up to you if you want to keep the male(rooster), however, when you have a rooster in the flock, you will get eggs that have babies in them. In order to get the eggs you want to eat, you must have all hens together and keep the rooster separate.
2. You WILL have a hen that will establish herself as the leader, and the rest of the flock will fall into a pecking order. That is normal. There is always one who is at the bottom of that pecking order, so make sure that one isn’t going hungry or being pecked at too much. (You will notice if it runs away from the others or has an area of feathers missing). If you decide to introduce new hens (adults, not babies) to the group, be prepared for a few days of possible fighting and extra clucking while they establish a new pecking order.
3. It doesn’t matter what type of chickens you get, (Silkies, Bantam, Wyandottes and Rhode Island Reds, to name a few) because they can all be put together. The eggs they all lay are equally delicious, so it’s not important to choose one over the other.
4. Have fun! Give them some names! (my kids have used Juice Box, Elsa, Sunflower, and Wall-E to name a few) It’s awesome having the girls as pets, and we enjoy having our fresh eggs!

xoxo-Jenna