Posted at 8:00 am by HomeDabbler, on August 6, 2019
Is my chicken dying? No, she’s bathing.
You’ve probably seen a sparrow or other small bird bathing in a puddle or bird bath, splashing water all over itself. Chickens do the same thing, just with dirt. It’s called dust bathing, and it’s crucial to their health.
Dust bathing helps chickens keep pests like mites and lice off their skin naturally. This saves you having to treat them with medicines to prevent those pests.
Dust bathing is strange the first time you see it. First, they will dig a hole in a soft patch of bare ground a few inches deep. Then they lay down on their side in the hole and use their beak to scratch dirt toward them. Then the funny part.
The chicken will scratch with one leg and flap its wings to throw dirt in the air. The dirt falls on them and settles between their feathers. They do this repeatedly for a while, then stand up, shake the dirt off, and go on their way.
Here’s a video of some of my birds getting their bath on:
So if you see your chickens keeled over and flailing around, don’t be alarmed. She’s probably just taking a bath.
Posted at 5:35 pm by HomeDabbler, on July 21, 2019
You’re going to open your nest box one day and find a hen who refuses to leave.
She will puff up and growl at you (and possibly peck) when you try to move her or retrieve eggs from under her. And she will stay there for days, even weeks if you let her. You have a broody bird.
The term “broody” means a hen who wants to hatch eggs. A switch has flipped in her brain and the only thing she wants to do is gather a clutch of eggs and set them. She won’t leave the box, she will barely eat or drink, and she will literally look like she is in a trance. Because she is.
Broodiness is nature’s way of turning your hen into an incubator. For chicken eggs to gestate chicks that hatch, the eggs must be brought to a temperature of precisely 95 degrees and be kept there for exactly 21 days. They must also be rotated several times a day.
If your hen gathered a clutch and then went on with her normal daily activities, the eggs would die. The only way to create the perfect conditions for hatching eggs is if that hen does nothing but focus on them. Hence the trance.
Now if you have some fertilized eggs you want to hatch when your hen goes broody, you’re in luck! She will do the job with shocking effectiveness. Just put the eggs under or near here and she will do the rest. It is truly something to see.
But what if you don’t want her to hatch eggs? What do you do with a broody hen then?
You have three options.
1. Give her false eggs and wait.
You can buy fake chicken eggs from McMurray Hatchery for just this purpose. Put a few under her, give her some space, and wait. It will take weeks, but she should eventually snap out of it and get on with her life. We’ve tried this and it works – sometimes. Some hens, after the 21-day “gestation” period is over, don’t hear the cheeping of babies and come out of the broody trance.
We’ve had many others, though, who would not. They would set indefinitely, barely eating, for eggs that will never hatch. That’s why we generally use the second options.
2. Put her in a “broody breaker.”
I know the term broody breaker sounds cruel, but it isn’t. A broody breaker is simply a part of your coop away from the nest boxes where you can lock the chicken until she breaks out of her broodiness. Make sure your broody box is plenty big so she can walk around. Give her food, water, fresh air, everything. Just don’t give her a nest or eggs. And because hens don’t lay eggs themselves once they go broody, she can’t lay any in the breaker.
My broody breaker. Plenty of comfort, just no eggs.
She will be pretty unsettled the first day, pacing the breaker box and griping you out. But she will break out of broodiness much, much faster. We have never had to keep a hen in the breaker box more than three days.
Some may not like the idea of a broody box, that it is unnatural, maybe even cruel. I disagree. To me, letting a chicken neglect herself for weeks when you know she will never hatch eggs is worse than helping her get back to her normal life quicker.
Broody box quick tip: Use your nursery area as a broody breaker. Unless you have chicks in there when a hen goes broody, it should be unoccupied. This is what we do.
3. Give her day-old chicks to raise.
If one of your hens goes broody at a time when you were going to buy chicks anyway, let your broody girl raise them. Buy the chicks and wait for night to fall (it is best to do this at night). Place the chicks under the hen from behind. This will trick her into thinking her eggs have hatched. Momma and babies will know what to do from there. It is not 100% guaranteed, but she will very likely take them to raise.
Broody is as broody does.
Some chickens never go broody. Others do it all the time. Now you’ll know what’s going on if one of your hens suddenly growls at you.
Posted at 12:17 pm by HomeDabbler, on June 28, 2019
One of my favorite things about raising chickens is how low maintenance and low cost they are. Once your coop and run are built and you get a few other items, chickens require much less care and money than dogs, cats, or any other household animal. Except maybe fish.
Chickens have pretty simple physical needs: food, water, and dirt. You also need some vessels.
Food
There are two main foods to give your chickens (and a few snacks):
Starter crumbles
Layer pellets
Starter Crumbles
Starter crumbles are, well, crumbled chicken food. They are broken in small pieces so little chicks can swallow them. They are also formulated with the right mix of protein, minerals, and other vitamins to get those babies off to a good start. I recommend theNutrena NatureWise.
How long chickens eat crumbles: Birth to ~ 6 weeks.
Layer Pellets
Pellets are just bigger chunks that are formulated for adolescent and adult chickens. There are a few mixes with different levels of protein, minerals, and nutrients, but I like Nutrena Country Layer 16% Pellets.
How long chickens eat pellets: 6 weeks through the rest of their lives.
Vessel
There are lots of feeding vessels, but you only need two:
Chick feeder – It’s essentially a little trough with a cap that has holes for the chicks to poke their heads through. Use this as long as they are on crumbles. There are plastic and metal ones. Either works fine. McMurray Hatchery has a great selection.
“Bucket” feeder – A cylinder with a pan hanging underneath. Pour the food in the top and the feeder doles out the pellets as the chickens need them. We hang ours from the ceiling of our coop, a few inches off the ground. This keeps the chickens from scratching dirt into the feed. Again, check out McMurray.
If you feed your birds nothing but crumbles, pellets, and water, they will be fine. However, your eggs won’t be as rich and nutritious as they could be. Also, your chickens just won’t be as happy. That’s where snacks come in …
Bonus: Snacks!
Chickens, like people, love their treats. And chickens will eat just about anything. They are amazing recyclers, turning your kitchen scraps into eggs. You can give them about any vegetable material from your kitchen. They especially love bread (chickens are extreme carb-a-holics).
Tip: Letting kids feed chickens little pieces of bread and other veggies is a great way to introduce children to homesteading and caring for livestock.
Chickens will eat meat, but don’t give it to them. It’s greasy, will stink if it sits in the sun, and isn’t the best for your bird’s bellies.
Chickens LOVE vegetables and will turn your kitchen scraps into nutritious eggs! Here are some of mine munching on turnips.
Water
Chickens need a constant supply of fresh water. Constant. Chickens don’t drink in big gulps all at one time like dogs and horses. They take little sips all day long. If they don’t have water available at all times, they can quickly dehydrate.
Vessel
There are lots of waterer designs out there, but our favorite is a stainless automatic bowl. Just hook up the hose and walk away. This is also great if you need to leave your chickens alone for a few days.
Dust Bathing
You’ve probably seen a sparrow or other small bird bathing in a puddle or bird bath, splashing water all over itself. Chickens do the same thing, just with dirt. It’s called dust bathing, and it’s crucial to their health.
Dust bathing helps your chickens keep pests like mites and lice off their skin naturally. Many times, this saves you having to treat them with medicines to prevent those pests.
Dust bathing is strange the first time you see it, so here is what it looks like. First, they will dig a hole in a soft patch of bare ground, a few inches deep. Then they lay down on their side in the hole and use their beak to scratch dirt toward them. Then the funny part. The chicken will scratch with one leg and flap its wings to throw dirt in the air. The dirt falls on them and settles between their feathers. They do this repeatedly for a while, then stand up, shake the dirt off, and go on their way.
Here’s a quick video of mine bathing:
So if you see your chickens keeled over and flailing around, don’t be alarmed. They’re probably just taking a bath.
Vessel
Chickens need to dust bath. That means you must have some soft dirt for them to use. If you don’t have that kind of dirt in your chicken yard, put a kiddie pool in their coop and fill it with play sand from the hardware store.
That’s About It
I told you they were easy.
Kevin
P.S. – Wanna read more about chickens? Pop over to our Chickens page!
Posted at 8:09 pm by HomeDabbler, on June 21, 2019
The Fun Part: Chicken Pickin’
One of the most enjoyable parts of raising chickens is picking which breeds you will raise. But there are so many to choose from, it can be overwhelming. My general rule is this: as a beginner, pick the ones that catch your eye and are most interesting to you. Just try them out. It’s hard to make a mistake here (except possibly with bantams, see below). And mostly, have fun!
There are four broad categories of chickens:
Egg birds
Meat birds
Ornamentals
Bantams
There is significant overlap here (for instance, all four types lay eggs), but I’ve grouped them based on the common reasons people want to raise chickens. Depending on what you want from your flock, this will help you decide on breeds.
When you first start raising chickens, you are going to look at a website or catalog and want to try everything. That is perfectly fine, it’s part of the fun! I have tried all sorts of breeds, just for kicks. After a while, my wife and I found the two or three breeds that suit our needs and we just buy them now.
Egg Birds
All hens will lay eggs, but some lay more, more reliably, and for longer than others. If you want good, reliable layers, look at sturdy breeds like Buff Orpingtons, Rhode Island Reds, Pearl-White Leghorns, and Barred (Plymouth) Rocks. They aren’t the fanciest ladies, but your egg basket will stay full.
Our pretty Buff Orpingtons.
Meat Birds
I’m not going to spend much time on these because most of you won’t want to butcher your chickens (at least not yet). That said, two meaty breeds are Dark Cornish and Cornish Rock.
Ornamentals
Like flowers, the ornamental chicken varieties are nearly endless. They are colorful, interesting, beautiful, and sometimes a little odd. I have tried many of them and enjoyed them all. That said, some ornamentals can be a little testy and may not lay eggs as reliably as the ones I mentioned above. They’re sure fun to look at though!
Silkies are a popular (and silly looking) ornamental chicken breed.
Bantams
Bantams, also called “banties,” are a category all their own. They are essentially miniature chickens, about half the size of a normal breed. It takes about three banty eggs to equal one large regular egg.
Banties also have tons of varieties. Many are quite beautiful and interesting. Here’s the thing though. In my experience, they are less domesticated than larger, more established breeds and so their temperament can vary widely. One of the sweetest chickens we ever had was a banty hen named Fluffy. Two of the meanest birds I ever encountered were also banties, roosters this time.
Banties also tend to be a little wilder than large breeds. Banties are more likely to lay and sleep where you don’t want them. In other words, they are less predictable than the traditional breeds.
This may not be your experience, but it was definitely mine.
Bantam chickens (Banties) can be gorgeous, but they can also be pretty wild. Their eggs are 1/3 the size of a normal chicken egg.
Where do I get chickens?
There are lots of sources for buying chickens. I recommend two.
Disclaimer: Murray McMurray does not pay me for this endorsement, though I wish they would.
The Murray McMurray hatchery has been around since the earth cooled and they are as reliable a hatchery as they come. They carry every breed known to man and ship day-old chicks right to your local post office (did you know you could get chickens in the mail?!). All their birds are also vaccinated against common poultry diseases and are guaranteed to be the sex you ordered.
Here’s the downside. Most hatcheries, including Murray McMurray, can only ship a minimum quantity of 25 chicks. That is because they need at least that many for the chicks to have enough collective body heat to stay warm.
Source 2: Your Local Farm and Garden
Most communities have at least one farm and garden store and most sell chickens. The advantage of buying from them is convenience. You can run down have your birds in very little time. There is also no minimum quantity, so you can buy in onesies and twosies if you want. Chickens at the farm and garden should also be vaccinated (though you should double check).
The downside to buying from the farm and garden is lack of variety. They simply can’t stock all the breeds that Murry McMurray does. So, if you want a rare or fancy breed, they will likely not have it. That said, sometimes they can order them in if you ask.
The other occasional con to buying local is that the birds may not be “sexed” as reliably as they are at Murray McMurray. In other words, you may buy 10 little hens and, in a few weeks, discover you have a couple roosters in the mix. This has happened to me several times.
Don’t Over Think It
As a beginner, pick chickens because they look neat to you. Over time you’ll learn which breeds you like and which you don’t. Have fun!
Posted at 9:28 am by HomeDabbler, on April 7, 2019
Like any hobby or occupation, chicken raising has its own vocabulary. And there is some confusion about what things are called in chicken world. So, let me give you some definitions.
Run: A fully-protected area where chickens scratch, peck, and dust bathe.
Coop: A space with walls and a roof where chickens sleep.
Nest box: A small, dark space with nesting material where chickens lay eggs.
Yard: A fenced area where chickens scratch, peck, and dust bathe.
You need to know these terms because they each have particular elements that match specific chicken behaviors (as well as their predators) and getting them right will make you and your chickens happier.
I’ll explain what each one must have and then you can customize to your own space and flock size.
Run
A fully-protected area where chickens scratch, peck, and dust bathe.
Most mistake a run for a coop but they are not the same thing. The coop is the little box your chickens sleep in (see below). The run is a fenced space around your coop where chickens do their daily activities.
When I say fenced, I mean all the way around as well as on top. Your run should be completely protected against predators. There are many safety techniques I’ve learned over the years that I will share in other posts, but the main thing is that your coop should be inside your run and your run should be like a fortress.
I have found that chain link is the best material for a run. I’ve tried everything else and it eventually failed. Here’s what my run looks like:
*Note: If there is grass or any other ground cover in your run when you build it, there won’t be for long. The chickens will tear it up in short order. That’s okay though, because they need dirt to dust bathe in. Otherwise, you have to provide vessels filled with sand for them to bathe and that’s a hassle. Just dedicate your run space and let your flock have it.
It is important that your coop be inside your run. That way, your birds can do everything they need—Scratch, Eat, Poop, Lay, Sleep, Repeat—in an enclosed, safe space.
If you only have a small area to keep chickens, you can get away with keeping your chickens inside the run at all times as long as you don’t get too many for your space.
Coop
A space with walls and a roof where chickens sleep.
Chickens are birds, obviously. Most birds like to sleep in trees, for protection. Chickens have the same instinct. They want to sleep in a protected area off the ground. They also want to sleep close together.
Chickens are descended from ground-walking jungle fowl and can’t really fly. So, they want to sleep on a tree branch, but not very high in the tree.
You have to create these conditions in your coop. All you really need are some simple walls, a roof to keep the rain off, and several “perches,” or horizontal poles (to simulate branches), for them to grab on to.
For perches, you can use 2 x 4s cut in half, old shovel handles, or any stick of wood that is about two inches in diameter.
Perches simulate tree branches. They can be made of 2 x 4s cut in half.
*Note: Chickens will sleep on the highest thing they can find. Therefore, your perches should be the highest element inside your coop under the roof. If they are not, your birds will jump onto the roof to sleep and leave themselves unprotected.
There is no need to make your coop too big. I did this with my first one. I built it with four or five nice, wide perches. I went out that first night to see how my chickens were acclimating to their new digs. I was shocked – every one of my six birds were huddled shoulder to shoulder on about half of one perch.
Nest Box
Most birds make nests in trees or high in bushes. Chickens do not. If chickens like to sleep high up, they like to lay eggs down low. This is also because they are descended from jungle fowl. To keep their eggs protected on the ground, those birds would make nests deep under bushes or piles of fallen branches.
Your chickens have the same instinct, so you must simulate those conditions. They want a tight, dark corner to lay in so they feel their eggs will be protected. And it should be close to the ground with soft nesting material in it to simulate leaf litter from the forest floor.
I attach my nest box to the outside of my coop, for easy access. See?
Excuse me, laying an egg here!
And on the inside:
See how tight and dark?
If you don’t give your birds a nest box fitting this description, they will lay their eggs elsewhere and you will get to do an Easter egg hunt every day.
Nesting materials can include hay, pine straw, leaves, dry grass clippings, or any other soft, dry, plant material. My preference is shredded paper from the office.
Yard
A fenced area where chickens scratch, peck, and dust bathe.
As mentioned, you can raise chickens forever with a coop inside a safe run. A chicken yard is for those with more space. You can have a run with no yard, but you cannot have a yard with no run.
Your chicken yard can be as big as you want. In fact, your chickens will roam as much space as you give them. The main concern is that it must be fenced all the way around. No exceptions. This has to do with predators.
Your chickens will spend their daytime hours in your yard and most of the critters that threaten chickens during the day (dogs mostly, but I’ve had coyotes snatch my birds in broad daylight) can be stopped with a strong fence. The one exception is hawks and other predatory birds. Trees can help with them, since they have a harder time getting a straight shot to your birds.
A Poultry Shangri La
These are the basics, but you really don’t need much more. Chickens are pretty simple and easily contented if you give them this fundamental infrastructure.
Have fun, and comment with questions or ideas. If you want to direct message me, pop over to my Facebook page.
Posted at 8:43 am by HomeDabbler, on April 5, 2019
Thinking of getting some chickens?
Sweet! I started almost 20 years ago and love it.
One of the great things about chickens is that, in one way, they are like robots. Their behavior is totally predictable. Which means that if you understand their behavior and what they need, your experience should be as happy as mine.
That said, chickens will not change their behavior. For anything. So read this carefully and if what I describe doesn’t sound like something you are in to, maybe they aren’t for you.
Scratch, Eat, Poop, Lay, Sleep, Repeat
These are the core chicken behaviors. Here’s what you need to know about each.
Scratch
Chickens are obsessed with scratching the ground. If they are awake, they are likely scratching. It makes them happy and it’s one of my favorite things to watch them do.
Chickens scratch to find bugs and seeds to eat, and they mean business. Which means that they will scratch out anything in their way, including your lawn grass, flowers, garden veggies, anything. I have personally watched my flock obliterate an entire quarter-acre site of grass in my back yard. Down to dirt.
Chickens are scratching machines. See that dirt? Used to be grass there.
This means that you must give your chickens a place to scratch that you do not mind getting beat up. If you have an enormous yard—an acre or more—and you have less than 15 chickens, you are probably okay (but they will still destroy your flower beds).
However, most people don’t have that much space, which means you must sacrifice some turf grass to your birds and let them scratch the heck out of it.
Chickens scratch for another reason – to “dust bathe.” They will dig a hole a few inches deep, lay down sideways in the hole, and throw dirt all over themselves. It looks like they are dying, but don’t worry, it keeps them healthy.
The dust they throw on themselves removes a lot of pests that bother your birds, like mites and lice. In fact, in the nearly 20 years we have had chickens, I’ve only had to treat my flock for bugs once. If they have plenty of loose dirt to dig in, they’ll take care of the rest.
Here’s what it looks like:
Eat
Food
There are three types of food that chickens eat:
Starter crumbles
Layer pellets
Just about any other vegetable substance
Crumbles
Starter crumbles are for baby chicks. They have the right mix of protein, carbs, and vitamins to get them started. They are also in little pieces, “crumbles.” Chicks eat these from the day they are hatched to about four weeks old. Then they move to layer pellets.
Pellets
Layer pellets are just that – pelletized food for adolescent and adult chickens. The commercial feeds are mixed with the right levels of good stuff to help make healthy birds. They eat pellets starting about four week through the rest of their lives.
*Note: There are lots of layer pellet brands out there, from standard commercial to all-natural to organic. We like the all-natural variety and so do our chickens.
Crumbles and pellets are everyday food for your birds. Just keep a feeder full of it in a dry place (we hang ours from the ceiling of our coop) and they will eat when they want.
Veggies
In addition to crumbles and pellets, chickens will eat almost any vegetable substance from your kitchen. Lettuce, carrots, melons, citrus, beans, turnips, you name it. They are better than goats. Supplementing your chickens’ diet with kitchen scraps is a great way to recycle the scraps and also make healthier chickens and eggs.
Mmm, cabbage.
Water
Watering is probably the easiest part, but super important. Chickens don’t drink in big gulps like humans and dogs. They drink in little sips all through the day. So, you must keep a vessel full of fresh where they can get to it at all times. We use a stainless steel automatic dog waterer. Works like a charm.
Poop
Chickens eat constantly, drink constantly, and poop constantly. They also poop whenever and wherever they feel the urge, even when they sleep. This means that anywhere a chicken can walk or roost, there will be poop.
If you walk in your chicken yard, you will get poop on your shoes. Most experienced chicken raisers keep a pair of rubber boots or clogs by the back door that they slip into before going to the chicken yard.
“Doesn’t that mean my whole chicken yard will stink?” Actually, no. The average chicken yard is remarkably stink free, and because chicken poop is small (as opposed to, say, a dog) it breaks down into your yard quickly.
The one exception is your coop, where the chickens sleep. Unless you clean it regularly, poop will accumulate and smell. One solution to this is to have a dirt floor under the roosts in your coop. The poop falls into the dirt and decomposes. Really cuts down the smell.
Lay
The average healthy laying hen in her prime will drop about five eggs per week. She needs a small, dark, quiet place to lay them that has soft nesting material. A dedicated space just to lay eggs.
Nesting material can be hay, pine straw, dry leaves, anything that mimics leaf litter on a forest floor. We use shredded paper from the office.
See?
Sleep
Chickens wake and sleep with the sun, no matter how long your day is. In the winter, when days are shorter, chickens sleep more. In summer, less.
They also want to sleep in exactly the same place every night. They are super habitual about this. Once they find their sleeping spot, they stick with it.
Another thing about chicken sleep – they are almost completely night blind, which means they are most vulnerable to predators at night. You must have your chickens locked in a safe place when the sun goes down or they are in danger.
Repeat
That is the life of a chicken. If that sounds like something you can live with and accommodate, get some!
For more great chicken tips, look at my chicken page.
Posted at 11:08 pm by HomeDabbler, on March 24, 2019
If you are reading this, you are either:
Considering whether to start a flock of backyard chickens.
Sure you want a flock and need to know what to do next.
Either way, you’re in the right place.
Keeping chickens, like any animal, can be a delight or a chore. You may want a dog, but if you live in a small apartment it’s probably not a great idea to get a Great Dane.
The type of flock you want will determine the size yard you need, the type and cost of housing, food and water equipment, time for maintenance, everything.
Keeping chickens should be fun and meaningful, a good fit for your life. I’ve had everywhere from four birds to more than 25 at a time. It took us a while to find our sweet spot. When we did, everything got easier and more enjoyable.
Which Flock Fits?
There are three kinds of back yard flocks (according to me):
For Fun Only. Two or three hens (six max) clucking around the yard. A few eggs a week, you choose breeds because they are pretty or interesting. These birds are mostly pets (you’ll probably name them).
Egg Flock. Also fun, but this flock is a little bigger, 12 or so. Breeds are chosen for longevity and egg production. This is the flock we have.
Back Yard Pro. Twenty or more birds, for eggs and/or meat, hatch and raise your own chickens. Full-on homesteader.
Chances are you’re not a back yard pro. My guess is you want to try for fun only first, then maybe grow into an egg flock. If you’ve never raised chickens before, that’s what I recommend. That’s how we started.
To help you decide, here is a handy table with the three types of flocks and the general requirements for keeping them in your yard.
You’ll notice that once your flock is established the maintenance time is not too different between the three types. The big differences are in space and cost.
Bottom line: When you picture your flock in your mind’s eye, what do you see? That’s the flock that will likely make you happiest, so build it.
Posted at 1:52 am by HomeDabbler, on March 20, 2019
I get a lot of questions about the color of my eggs. Well, not mine. My chickens.
It’s fun seeing the variety in our egg basket. But can you know which color egg a hen will lay just by looking at her? Yep. Early in my chicken-raising career, I learned a cool way to know.
Her ear lobes.
I know, you didn’t even know chickens had ear lobes. They do. You have to look close and they are covered in little pin feathers, but they are there and they correlate to egg color to a shocking degree.
Bottom line, if a hen has white ear lobes, she (almost always) lays white eggs. Non-white lobes (brown, gray, yellow, tan, etc.), and she will likely lay a shade of brown. There are a few breeds that lay blue/green ones. Ameraucanas are the most common.
Wanna see a chicken’s ear lobe? Here you go:
White lobes = white eggs. Non-white = brown eggs.
Cool right?
Bonus info
Many folks ask if there is any taste or nutritional difference between different colored eggs.
