Helpful Hints for Raising Chickens

Shelter

• When you keep chickens, you need to provide a minimum of 2 square feet of floor space per chicken inside the coop. This ensures each chicken gets adequate space for stretching. Provide 12 inches of roosting space and one nesting box per every five laying hens. Cover the floor of the coop with 4 to 6 inches of pine shavings and clean soiled shavings out whenever you notice a strong ammonia smell or humid conditions inside the coop. Provide 12 square inches of window ventilation per chicken. Chickens need a lot of oxygen to stay healthy. The ventilation should provide fresh air without creating harmful drafts. This just means that you do not want cold air blowing directly at the chickens. A gentle breeze during the summer months is fine. If you are raising baby chicks, they need to be reared in a brooder until they get their feathers. Keep the temperature at 90 degrees Fahrenheit for the first week and then lower the temperature by 5 degrees each week thereafter.

Food &Water

• Chickens need a well-balanced diet of carbohydrates, protein, vitamins and minerals. Feed stores that sell poultry feed provide chicken food formulated to fulfill these requirements. Aside from dry food requirements, chickens need to have access to fresh greens, bugs and worms. Set up their chicken coop with an enclosure that allows them access to grass. Keep the grass mowed low to the ground, because the blades are highest in protein at this point. Provide plenty of fresh water for the chickens at all times. Keep the food and water at shoulder height. This will keep the chickens from defecating in them.

Eggs

• If you want chickens that lay brown eggs, look for breeds with red ear lobes. If you want chickens that lay white eggs, look for breeds that have white ear lobes. If you want blue eggs, get araucanas or ameraucanas. If you want dark chocolate eggs, raise Barnevelders, French black copper marans, welsummers or penedesencas. Gather the eggs 2 to 3 times per day to help keep them clean. It is best to scratch mud or feces off egg shells with a piece of sandpaper. Chickens seal their eggs with a protective film called bloom. When you wash this film off, the egg will not last as long in your fridge. It acts as an anti-bacterial. You do not need a rooster to get your hens to lay eggs. They will lay 250 to 300 eggs per year depending on the breed. Commercial egg-laying companies raise white leghorns for white eggs and Rhode Island reds for brown eggs. Each of these breeds have been bred to be prolific layers of large eggs.

Meat

• Cornish broiler chickens are bred to be ready for slaughter at 8 weeks of age. These chickens grow extremely fast and do best on pasture in mobile coops. They need a lot of oxygen to keep up with their rapid growth. Provide a feed especially formulated for broiler growth. Keep water in fresh supply and provide them with adequate shade from the hot sun. Never grow broiler chicks on slippery surfaces, because their legs will deform. When you butcher a chicken, you need to kill it in a killing cone by cutting the juggler vein in its neck. Do not cut the spinal cord or the chicken will flip around in circles and somersaults. Allow the chicken to bleed out and then soak it in scalding hot water to soften the feather. Pluck the chicken, gut it, rinse it and singe any fine hairs off the skin with a lighter. Vacuum bag the meat and pack the meat in ice as soon as possible to chill it before freezing.