Howdy everyone! Another week has passed us by, and things at the homestead are beginning to ramp up. Why? Spring has officially sprung! Our seedlings have sprouted inside. The ground is no longer frozen, so it’s time to clean up the garden and prepare it to receive the seeds we will plant.
I am desperately trying to finish spring cleaning, and I thought I would be finished by now. One thing I have learned homesteading is that your situation is always in flux and you have to be of the attitude that you will just roll with the punches and make do. I think it’s a good attitude for anyone to cultivate, homesteader or not.
Another thing that is integral to the meaning and idea of Spring is new life being born, usually in the form of fluffy little chicks you see at almost every feed and farm supply store. When we lived in Louisiana, I took one look at the dozens of adorable chicks in their crates at the feed store and I was hooked. We had 6 chickens and 2 ducks, which we raised from babies, and it was one of the most awesome experiences of my life. It was an experience that was greatly enriched by sharing it with my children. The look of wonder in their eyes every morning as they picked up each chick and duckling and held them close touched my heart and made me glad to be alive. Seeing the tenderness with which they cared for the chicks and ducklings made me glad I was their mother. Raising chickens and ducks at this point in my life isn’t an option, and it hurts my heart. However, I would recommend it to anyone.
Now, a lot of city/county governments put many restrictions on raising chickens. I understand that there should be some regulation to keep places clean, and I am all for taking care of our communities. But many restrictions are based on antiquated prejudices and really have no bearing anymore on modern life. I blame it on ignorance and a sad lack of education in animal husbandry. As a whole, our society has become so far removed from how the food we eat is produced. That results in misconceptions that in the light of day, make no sense.
So in this post, I want to dispel any doubts or misconceptions about raising chickens on your property. First off, here are 10 common misconceptions.
Misconception #1: Raising chickens is unsanitary. With that reasoning, we might as well outlaw hamsters, dogs, and cats as well. Chickens poop. Sure, that’s true. But so does every domesticated pet out there. Until we train chickens to use the toilet, there’s gonna be poop to deal with. But we deal with it. Keeping the coop they spend the night in clean is important, but it is totally doable. And whereas you can’t put Fido’s poop in your compost pile, you CAN and SHOULD use Bessie the Hen’s aged droppings in your garden. Your tomatoes will thank you for it! Your chickens and ducks can be clean and healthy; it’s just a matter of you keeping it that way. Plus, your chickens will also poop breakfast, so there’s that.
Misconception #2: Raising chickens is too hard. Nope. NOPE. I would recommend raising chickens to anyone interested getting started in raising animals. I would venture to say that they are the easiest animals to raise. So if you’re breaching that “livestock wall” in your homestead, chickens/ducks are a great way to get your feet wet and see what you can handle. Why?
Chickens do not require much space. They require room to move and peck around in the dirt and grass and a small protected roost at night. You can build your own (cheapest option) or buy a pre-made chicken tractor/coop. (See the pictures of our homemade coop, inside and out, below!) They require feed and clean water. However, they don’t require much fuss! There are diseases peculiar to chickens, but these are rare. If you get your chickens from a reputable source and take care of them as common sense dictates, they will be healthy and happy.
Definitely read up on raising chickens before you jump in. I would recommend these books:
Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens, 4th Edition by Gail Damerow
The Chicken Encyclopedia: An Illustrated Reference by Gail Damerow
One thing I want to recommend to readers: DO check with your local ordinances before setting up your chickens. The last thing you want is a citation and fine. Lots of cities and towns have changed their laws to allow chickens but there ARE restrictions built in.
Misconception #3: You have to feed your chickens a completely vegetarian diet. Good thing this isn’t true. The plain truth is that chickens are omnivores. They don’t require a vegetarian diet. True, most of what they eat is plant based. But they also scavenge quite a bit. I remember in Louisiana, our chickens almost lost their minds with excitement when we would feed them the tomato hornworms we picked off our tomato plants early each morning. Earthworms, bugs, you name it. Chickens will eat it. The plus side to this is that if you are trying to garden organically, chickens are great natural pest deterrents! (Full disclosure: they will also snack on your plants, so you must keep an eye on them if they are near your garden!)
Misconception #4: You need a rooster to get eggs from your hens. This is something I heard from someone who raised chickens for decades. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVED having a rooster in our flock. He was an ornery old cuss, but he protected his hens, which is great. Chickens have predators from above (hawks, owls) and below (foxes, raccoons) so they need someone watching over them. Roosters do a great job with that. I remember watching our rooster (Spot was his name) round up his girls during the day. They would be pecking the ground and he would play lookout.
So, while having a rooster isn’t necessary, it is useful. Some city ordinances forbid roosters, though. So it’s good that you don’t need one to get eggs! An egg is simply proof of a hen’s ovulation. Just as human women ovulate whether the egg will be fertilized or not, so do chickens lay eggs even if the eggs are not fertilized by a rooster.
This subject of fertilization leads me to our next misconception.
Misconception #5: If a rooster fertilizes the eggs, you can’t eat them because there are baby chicks inside. This is the other side of the coin, so to speak, from our previous misconception. We ate the fertilized eggs of our hens, and there were never babies inside. Why? Eggs require incubation for chicks to develop. The incubation period is only 21 days, so it doesn’t take long for a chick to start developing once a hen starts sitting on a clutch of eggs (also known as “brooding” or “going broody”). The only way to prevent a chick from developing in a fertilized egg is to collect eggs every day. An eggless nesting box prevents a hen from going broody, which in turn prevents chicks from developing.
Misconception #6: All chickens are the same, so it doesn’t matter what breed you get. Just as people sometimes choose a breed of dog as a pet depending on the traits of the breed, so do you choose the breed of chicken you get depending on what your needs are. For example, you might group chickens into three groups: laying birds (used for egg production), meat birds (pretty self explanatory right there), and dual purpose (used for both egg production AND meat).
Laying birds produce high numbers of eggs and usually go “broody” easily (meaning they have a strong mothering sense and will sit easily on clutches of eggs). There are exceptions. There are some breeds, like Leghorns, that lay approximately 300 eggs per year. However they do not go broody easily. It takes about 5 months for a laying hen to go from chick to laying her first eggs. Some great laying breeds are Leghorns (white eggs) and Plymouth Rocks (light brown eggs).
Meat birds are bread to mature quickly and produce a LOT of meat, as well as a yellow skin that makes them, well, more palatable. I’ve never raised meat birds. However, the books I recommended above contain suggestions for choosing the right meat bird breed for you!
Dual purpose birds produce eggs well, and are substantial enough to provide a fair amount of meat. This is what we chose to raise. Our reasoning was that we would get the eggs while the chickens were producing well, raise a clutch of new chicks in the Spring, and slaughter the older chickens for meat when the time came. We bought four Rhode Island Red hens, who produced fabulously. You will get about 250 eggs per year from your average Rhode Island Red. We also bought two “Easter-eggers”, sometimes called “Ameraucana”, a male and female. They weren’t as plump as the Reds, but our Easter-egger hen laid beautiful pale blue-green eggs. Worth it. Other great dual purpose breeds are Wyandottes (brown eggs), Buff Orpington (brown eggs), and New Hampshire (brown eggs).
Misconception #7: Brown eggs are better for you than white eggs. In short, healthy chickens make healthy eggs, no matter the color. ‘Nuff said.
Misconception #8: You need to buy new chicks every spring. You CAN, but you don’t have to. This is where having multiple hens is golden! Or even a duck or two. This is how our situation played out: in addition to our 6 chickens, we bought a mating pair of ducks. We used way more chicken eggs than duck eggs. So when Spring came around, we saved around 14 eggs, mostly chicken eggs with a few duck eggs thrown in. We placed them in the duck nest, and Mama duck went broody rather quickly. Not all the chicks hatched, as is normal. But we got enough to raise a new generation. The added bonus: Our Rhode Island Red hens were bred with an Easter egger male. The subsequent chicks (that were female, of course) would be Olive Eggers, laying dark green eggs!!
Long story short, you don’t have to buy new chicks every Spring if you don’t want to. The wonderful thing about raising your own new generation of chicks is that you get to experience the whole life cycle, full circle. It had good parts and bad, but I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything! The picture below is my oldest son holding one chick out of the next generation we hatched.
Misconception #9: If you raise chickens, you will have eggs all year long. This is NOT true if you plan to raise your chickens naturally. Let me explain. Chickens require 14 to 15 hours of sunlight to produce eggs. So all summer, you have eggs just about every day. In fact, you often have more eggs than you know what to do with. But what happens when the days get short from Fall through to Spring? Egg production slows way down. Instead of having an egg a day, you may go down to an egg a week per hen. The reason? To let the hen rest, recuperate, molt her old feathers, and grow in healthy new ones.
Now, some people choose to “remedy” this with artificial coop lighting through the winter to trick the hen’s body into producing year round.
We chose not to do that. While I do believe that livestock you raise is there for your use, I also strongly believe that we should give them a good quality of life while they have it. Our chickens work so hard to feed us all those warm months. They deserve a break when it’s cold to rest.
So how can you ensure an egg supply all year? Do what homesteaders do: plan ahead! If you have a good size freezer, eggs freeze quite well. During the bountiful months with longer days, your hens will lay almost every day. You can freeze the eggs you don’t use! You can freeze individual eggs in ice cube trays and then store in an air tight container or freezer bag. You can also scramble a large amount of eggs, measure 1/4 cup amounts into muffin tins and freeze. Then store in an air tight container or freezer bag. 1/4 cup works out to be a good sized large egg. Then, when your girls are resting, you can still bake and scramble.
Here’s a thought: Sometimes I think doing without a certain thing makes us appreciate it so much more when we have it again. Going without eggs for a few months or weeks won’t kill us, but it will make us appreciate the humble egg that much more when we get them again! It’s kind of like having fresh garden tomatoes. We look forward to the first tomato sandwich all year, and I think it makes the tomatoes that much sweeter when we’ve been eagerly awaiting them!
Misconception #10: Hens lay regularly for years. Sadly, this is not true. A normal, healthy hen will produce well for about 2 years. After that, egg production decreases more with each year. The average chicken won’t live more than 5 years. This is why we 1) bought dual purpose birds and 2) raised new layers the first Spring our chickens were laying. That way, you ensure good, steady egg production.
A few more words about raising chickens: Your location will often dictate which breeds will work best for you. Some are better suited for cold winters than others.
I loved having a rooster, but having one does come with its challenges. Sometimes the natural protectiveness a rooster feels for his hens comes back on you! Our rooster charged everyone is our family and attempted to “spur” us. The long “spurs” or spikes on either leg are one of a rooster’s defenses, but when they get you, it hurts! Definitely try to get a rooster of a docile breed, like Orpingtons, if you decide you want one. Spend lots of time with him as a chick, get him used to being around you and being touched by people. It pays off in the end.
How do you get a rooster? Well, that can be tricky. The way you tell the genders apart in chickens or ducks can be really tricky. But there are ways you can get a rooster or two from your local farm supply store. There are usually two groups sold: straight run and pullets. Straight run is basically a batch of hatched chicks that haven’t been sexed. So the chances of you getting a rooster from a straight run batch is 50%. Pullets have been sexed to determine that they are female. This isn’t 100% accurate. Let me tell you what happened to us. We bought what we thought were 6 pullets, 2 Ameraucanas and 4 Rhode Island Reds. I remember asking the man at the feed store what the chances were of us getting a rooster from a batch of pullets. He said about 10%. Turned out to be a little higher than that, and I’m glad! One of our Ameraucanas turned out to be our rooster, who the kids named Spots. One thing I ought to mention is the availability of “Sex-Link” chickens. They were available at the feed store I went to. The cool thing about them is that their color tells you their gender! So you know exactly what you’re getting. Sex Links are hybrids bred from different breeds. The breeds they come from determine what color eggs you get; even blue-green eggs are possible from Sex Links. Additionally, they are excellent layers and usually make good dual purpose birds.
I can’t say this enough: Do your research before diving in. You’ll be glad you did! Take time to learn about the health problems birds will sometimes experience so that, heaven forbid, you come across one in raising your birds, you won’t freak out so much. You’ll know how to handle it while hopefully keeping the rest of your flock healthy.
I’d love to hear from you guys. Do you have any chicken breeds that are your favorite? Any questions? I’d love to help if I can!
Thanks so much for stopping in. Till next week, keep putting one homesteading foot in front of the other, one step at a time!
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One Step At A Time Homestead 