Raising backyard cickens!

Chickens are very exiting pets! In this instructable, I will be giving tips on how to rase chickens.

Step 1 Ordering!

Chicks are about $1.25 to $2.00. Before you buy one from a store, make sure that they were'nt Shipped by airplane! If they were shipped by airplane, the chickens might be very scared, there eggs will not be as yummy and they will be smaller. Plus the compony might throw in a rooster because they have to many!

Comments

[lcruizer]

So much knowledge, I couldnt sleep lastnight as I am planning to raise chickens in my back yard, (so exciting)...I live in New Zealand Wellington and we have just had snow...I will take my time in purchasing all my chickens till I know as much as I can...
Question...How often do you have to immunise your chickens and does it cost alot...
Can you buy chicken feed from the supermarket? Or only pet stores

[popscott3]

Hello!

When it snows make sure NOT to let them outside. Wait untill they are older. (Little chickens can get hypothermia and frostbite really easily.) And for some extra fun in the future, handle the chickens when they are young, they will like it when they are hens. I assume you mean immunise as in shots and you CAN but I dont so I dont know anything about it. I have only had one sick chicken, her face was red and she was sneezeing. She recovered in 2 days. Chickens cant get the same viruses as humans so you need not to worry about that. As for the chicken feed, you can buy bags at farm or ranch stores for about 14 Us dollers $

Somthing you should know when you get them is that the chickens will lay eggs a lot when they are younger. But they will stop compleately (dont worry its only temporeary) when they molt. (When their feathers fall out and they grow new ones) But when they get older they will not lay as much eggs. You now have a choice to kill them for meat or keep them as pets. I keep them as pets because they are very entertaining.

If you have any questions feel free to ask!

[Chicken Spit]

Oh, so they're pets to you. At our house we butcher roosters when they start crowing and hens when they become inefficient layers.

[popscott3]

Yes they are my pets! Actually I have tought them their names, They will curl up and sleep in your lap/ sholder. And best of all, I trained them not to crap on you! I wish we had a rooster, but it is illegal to have one. We also get lots of monye selling their eggs! Their eggs taste a whole ton better when they are happy!
-Cheers

[Chicken Spit]

It is very sad that basic rights such as being able to produce your own food have been taken away. In the city I live in it is illegal to have roosters, there is a limit of only 3 hens, and to have the hens you need a 50 dollar permit! Luckily I live just outside the city limits so that law doesn't apply to me!

[popscott3]

Absolutely! I think that compainies are scared that people are getting self sufficent! Where I live, there is a limit of 4 hens (but we have 6) ;) And you need a $100 permit. (which we dont have eather) And if you think about it, why would a cop be snooping around your yard to see how many chickens you have?

[yoshi1]

http://www.omlet.co.uk/guide/
For more information you can visit this site.
It also tells you how to take care of you ducks,quails,bees, guinea pigs and rabbits.

[7629]

omlet.co.uk?
dosent that sound wrong for chicken care?

[popscott3]

Thanks much!

[popscott3]

Yup and the shells are usually thin.

[joshblease]

talking about canabalism we bought 8 chickens at £12 each with vaccinations at 10 weeks old and they go mad for their own eggs !

[yoshi1]

The reason for this is because you might not be feeding them enough or you don't collect the eggs everyday.
Also don't give them egg or egg shell because this will give them a taste of there own eggs.

I found this on the internet:
There is very little a chicken cannot eat.
Free range hens are seldom found dead after ingesting poisonous plants around the farmyard. They are quite good at recognizing plants that do them harm.
Kitchen scraps other than raw potato peel, rhubarb and tomato leaves are all fine to be given to the hens.
Chickens will eat meat, pasta, fruit of all sorts. Do not feed the hens spoiled food with mold.

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_food_is_harmful_to_chickens#ixzz1BXwgOjqT

[yoshi1]

First eggs are usually small.

[Very Adorkable]

I saw one of my young cockerels catch and eat a frog! The frog was about 4 inches long... pretty cool eh?

[popscott3]

Very cool! That just reanforses my thery that birds are omnivores!

[popscott3]

I know! Isent that Weard?!? Also I live in the USA so we use the $ sighn We got our chickens for $2.50!

[Sithen]

Why don't you want to give them lettuce?

[popscott3]

Well, apparently it has a chemical that huts them, But thats just what i read so it may not be right.