The Ultimate Guide to Raising Chickens for Eggs
Reduced egg production, deformed eggs, feather picking, and other unwanted behaviors can happen if you don’t feed your chickens enough.
So in this post, I’ll teach you how much to feed your backyard chickens.
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We’ll also look at some potential problems that can happen with your chickens’ diet, and what you can do so to make sure your chickens are happy and healthy.
Many people think you’ll get infested with rats and mice if you raise backyard chickens. It’s even one of the primary reasons, given by some communities, for not allowing people to raise chickens.
But backyard chickens don’t attract rats and mice! It’s the feed and treats you give your chickens that attract rodents.
So in this post, we’re going look at easy things most backyard keepers can do to keep these pesky rodents away from their chickens and yard.
Awwwww… Raccoons are soooo cute.
UNTIL THEY EAT YOUR CHICKENS!!!
*sigh* Freakin’ wild animals.
Obviously, predator proofing your coop and run is very important. But protecting your chickens from raccoons is a little more difficult than protecting them from other predators.
They’re so damn SMART.
They’re also extra challenging because they can climb and dig very well, and their front paws are a lot like human hands, which is both creepy and cute.
So in this post, I talk about the ins and outs of how to protect chickens from raccoons.
In this post, I’m going to briefly talk about how old backyard chickens are when they stop laying eggs.
And then (just in case your chickens stop laying eggs) I’m going to briefly touch on other reasons why your hens might stop producing eggs that are not age-related.
Did you just crack an egg and find blood? Then this post is for you.
As a big consumer of farm fresh eggs, I’ve found blood spots many times. Sometimes, there might be multiple blood spots, or the egg white can be tinged with blood as well.
So why does this happen and can you still eat the egg? And if you actually own the hen that laid the egg, is her health still o.k.?
In this post, I briefly answer these questions and more.
In this very short post, I’m going to talk about the different factors you should think about before feeding onions to your chickens.
A lot of people think that grit and oyster shell are the same things (they’re not). So in this post, I’ll briefly talk about what grit and oyster shells are, and if your chickens really need them.
Getting more and more chickens can be addicting, but we really need to pay close attention to the space needed for a run. Most people unknowingly don’t give enough space to their chickens.
So, in this post, let’s take a look at the minimum space requirements chickens need for a run.
Many factors are going to come into play when deciding how many chickens you should get for eggs. So, this post will help you decide how many chickens to get and which breeds are right for you.
Chickens need specific diets at different stages of life. High-quality commercial feeds make sure that chickens get all the nutrients they need every day.
At six weeks of age, when your chicks (now becoming “pullets”) are done with their chick starter feed, a grower feed should be introduced. The grower feed I like to use, and my chickens seem to love more, is the Prairie’s Choice Non-GMO Backyard Chicken Feed from Amazon. This type of feed is meant to support growth until they reach adulthood.
Hands down, my favorite way of keeping animals from digging under my chicken coop and run is definitely the coop apron. It’s so simple and cheap to make!
The answer to this question is, “it depends”.
Chickens usually sleep on roosts, not their nesting boxes. Yet, chickens will sleep in the highest place they can get to. So if the nesting boxes are higher than the roosts, then the chickens might choose the nests to sleep in.
This is a problem!
When they roost at night, chickens poop a lot!
Chickens will usually only poop in their nesting boxes when they’re sleeping in them at night. And it gets really dirty in there, very quickly!
This is really not great for the chickens’ health. And who wants dirt and pooped covered eggs? Yuck!
In this post, I’m going to tell you a little more about why chickens sometimes sleep in their nest boxes, and what to do about it.
In general, ducks and chickens get along with each other very well without too many problems. This is especially true if they grow up together.
Even the meanest of roosters can get along with a male duck (a drake). Yet, sometimes, ducks and chickens will just tolerate each other and prefer the company of their own species.
But there are some things you want to think about before you mix ducks and chickens together. So make sure to keep reading!
The fox is an easy predator to protect against, even though they’re really smart and fast.
But it only takes one careless mistake on your part, like forgetting to lock up the coop, for the fox to have a tasty chicken dinner.
A fox will sneakily watch the coop, run, and yard until they have the opportunity for a quick attack. You might not even see the attack. But all of a sudden, you’ll notice that one or two of your chickens have disappeared mysteriously.
So here’s how to prevent this from happening to your chickens.
Getting more and more chickens can be addicting, but we really need to pay close attention to the space needed for a chicken coop, a run, and a yard (for free-ranging birds).
The space you have in your yard for a chicken coop, a run, and free-ranging (optional) is going to influence the maximum chickens you can have before they become unhappy and unhealthy.
But most people unknowingly don’t give enough space to their chickens. So, in this post, let’s take a look at the minimum space requirements chickens need.
I HATE snakes! Let’s get that out of the way.
EW! GROSS! YUCK!
But most snakes are too small to be predators of adult chickens. But deaths and injuries still do happen, like when a snake tries to swallow the chicken by the head and gives up because the chicken is too big for it. Again… GROSS!!!
Instead, snakes tend to be predators of young chicks and they’ll eat the eggs.
If I’m going to spend time and money to raise chickens, I’m definitely not going to be willing to feed my chicks and eggs to snakes!
So here are some QUICK TIPS on what to do if you spot snakes around your backyard chickens.
Wild chickens, which are actually called junglefowl, are amazing egg-laying birds. Of the four types of junglefowl, the red junglefowl (native to Southern Asia) is the main ancestor of the domestic chicken.
The breeding season of the red junglefowl is spring and summer. During those two months, the junglefowl will lay an egg almost every day (Resource: University of Michigan, Museum of Zoology).
Red junglefowl will only lay eggs during these two seasons because chicks have more of a chance to survive when they start their lives in warm weather.
The short answer to this question is that the Rhode Island Red can lay three to five large brown eggs per week.
But that’s only when it’s laying season and they’re in their prime!
Even though Rhode Island Reds are known to lay about 250 large, brown eggs per year, their age, season (how much light they’re exposed to), health, and living conditions will all have an effect on how often Rhode Island Reds will lay eggs.
But, overall, the Rhode Island Reds lay eggs very well. In production and continuity, it’s almost impossible to find a better breed.
Looking to protect your chickens from hawks? Then you definitely want to read this post!
Of all the predators that will go after your free-ranging chickens, hawks are one of the most challenging to deal with. So, I put together my favorite 9 TIPS for keeping your chickens safe from hawks.
Just keep in mind that some of these tips might or might not work to scare off the hawks, so it’s best to use multiple defense methods.
Activities that involve handling and restraint of chickens are likely to happen during animal health emergencies. Having a basic understanding of chicken behavior and humane restraint methods will help keep the chicken safe and secure.
By holding chickens poorly, you can stress or injure them. Beaks and claws can also cause you some injuries. So follow these tips to keep your chickens from panicking and getting hurt.
The method of retraining a chicken below leaves one hand free for examination.
During the winter months, one of the biggest problems faced by backyard chicken owners is a drop in egg production. Maybe not all of your hens will stop laying, but the daily yield will be significantly less.
There is no simple answer to this question because all chickens and conditions are different.
But if you’re looking for the simplest of answers, here goes:
It’s only possible for a hen to lay one egg in a day. Yet she won’t lay an egg every single day.
Are you waiting… and waiting… for your hens to start laying eggs? Do you want to know when it’s normal for them to start producing eggs? Then this post is for you!
Depending on which breeds you have, it will determine how quickly your hens lay. And many small steps need to be taken before your hens start laying too.
So, in this post, let’s look at each step.
Wondering what are the best egg laying chickens? Then this post is for you!
Many people raise backyard chickens to get fresh eggs. But one thing most beginners don’t realize is that each breed lays a different amount of eggs per year.
So in this post, I’m going to discuss: