Wilson - Raising Chickens: Beginners Guide to Raising Healthy and Happy Backyard Chickens

Raising Chickens

Beginners Guide to Raising Healthy and Happy Backyard Chickens

By: Janet Wilson

Copyright 2020 by Janet Wilson

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ISBN: 978-1-951791-59-9

Table of Contents

Part One: Introduction

Backyard chickens have taken off in popularity. Many people in suburban and some urban areas are raising chickens, and the numbers are on the rise in 2018, over 10 million households had backyard chickens. You can purchase or build a coop that is limited only by your needs and imagination and fill it with the right number of chickens for your space.

Why is it worth considering whether chickens are for you?

1) They give you food. Really. Good. Food.

Have you ever had an egg for breakfast that was laid that morning? They are shockingly different from store-bought eggs. You may already know the difference in quality between free-range pastured chickens and those that were factory-farmed, but having your own chicken just butchered, takes the quality to another level.

The best eggs youve ever tasted? Worth all the effort.

Your child coming inside, wide-eyed, with an egg they can eat for breakfast? Priceless.

2) Chickens are great gardening partners!

When your vegetable garden is complete for the year, let your chickens out on the space, and they will clean up any weeds, old roots, and any leftovers of vegetables. They will also aerate the soil with their scratching and pecking, fertilizing the garden bed as they go. If you have a portable enclosure (called a chicken tractor), you can fertilize and aerate an entire flat landscape.

3) Chickens keep down flies, beetles, and other insects. Ive had personal experience with this.

4) If you have kids, they will learn to care for animals and know where their food originates.

There is a natural joy for a child when they can take part in caring for and gathering the eggs from the chickens. There are also the realities of a little hard work but small enough to be manageable (unlike larger livestock). They will learn a lot, and the entire experience can be a way to strengthen the bond of the family.

5) Chickens are entertaining, relational, and beautiful.

We will talk more about the details of breeds that are gentler and more interactive. What we can say here is that generally, they are relaxing and enjoyable to watch. One author called it a zen experience watching chicken television with his kids. They have personalities and dynamics. You can watch them like an ongoing TV series.

6) Chicken manure will compost well and is an excellent organic fertilizer.

There are a lot of common questions that people have when considering whether backyard chickens are the right choice for them. Weve collected the most relevant FAQs to help you decide.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much time and work will it take to keep backyard chickens?

There is a fair amount of work to do when you set up. You are researching, learning, making a lot of decisions about placement, breeds, the number of chickens to have, getting the coop, and the feed set up.

After the setup, youve got the chickens and can go into maintenance mode.

Ive found out that having six chickens in my backyard took less time and care than caring for my dog.

Heres a sample schedule for maintaining your chickens once they are set up:

Another coop cleaning method is called the deep litter method. Deep litter minimizes cleaning the coop to every six months. The idea is that instead of removing the chicken manure regularly and composting it separately, you let it compost in the coop, and then clean it out and start over. 4- of dry wood shavings lasts six months. Instead of cleaning the coop, all you have to do is add more bedding along with some treats to encourage the chickens to peck, scratch, and aerate the compost. The compost from this process is fantastic, and it can go straight to your garden beds. There are pros and cons; we will discuss the details of this later.