How To Raise Chickens
A Brief Primer On How To Raise Chickens
To begin with, your search for information on how to raise chickens can take you to many places, your local library for one. It can help of course if you have an acquaintance or family member already in the business, and who is willing to take the time to show you the ins and outs. Excellent sources of information are the agricultural extension programs of one of your state colleges or universities, local 4-H clubs, and of course the Internet. There's a wealth of information available on the Internet, but it's often much more helpful to be able to talk things over with a real live person who is an expert on the subject.
This article can't provide you with everything you need to know, from A to Z, but can give you an idea of what you'll need to be thinking about and planning for. Your grandparents or great-grandparents could make a living by having a couple of hundred chickens, and selling eggs and fryers, while hatching a new batch of chicks every year. That is just about an impossibility today, as the competition would be the large chicken farms having perhaps a couple of hundred thousand chickens at one time, and a highly automated means of providing meat and eggs to the marketplace, at a price you could not compete with. That does not mean however, that you can't provide enough poultry products for your immediate family, plus a few friends, or maybe even earn a little extra income.
In learning how to raise chickens, you want to make certain you know for what purpose you are raising them, so you'll know which breed to get. This is important, as chickens raised as egg layers are fed and cared for differently than those destined for the dinner table. You can get started with fertilized eggs, which need to be incubated to hatch, or a batch of baby chicks. The latter course will be the easiest, at least as far as getting started is concerned. If you start with eggs, you'll have to have an incubator, and know the temperature and humidity requirements. You will want clean eggs, eggs that are not more than a few days old, and it's important to know that the embryos take in oxygen through the shell, and expel carbon dioxide through the shell, so air circulation is important. Also the eggs need to be turned periodically until a couple of days before hatching. So, there are a few things to remember.
If you start with chicks, which is much more fun, you have to keep them warm (a light bulb under a hood works well), give them clean water, and of course provide the correct feed. Baby chicks will begin exploring their environment when only a few days old. They'll get used to human presence quickly, but generally will complain if picked up. After about three weeks they will be noticeably bigger and enter their rather awkward appearing stage. In five weeks they have generally feathered out enough to take outside to the chicken coop, especially if the weather is reasonably warm. If very cold, you may need a heat source in the coop.
You can find some excellent plans for building a chicken coop by searching the Internet, and this is a project you may wish to get started on before getting either eggs or chicks, as they grow quickly. Other information readily available on the Internet is the information you need to know about feed. A complete poultry feed will contain all the nutrients necessary to keep the chickens healthy, and growing properly. It is very important to get the right feed and stick with it, at least in the initial stages of the chicken's growth. Changing their feed or mixing different types of feed can have adverse effects and such a practice is not recommended.
If you don't have too many, you can start your chicks in your utility room, or any other suitable room. Eventually, they'll have to go outside, and of course that is one reason why you see chicks available in the spring more than in the fall. You're going to have to ensure their warmth until they grow a full set of feathers. Chicks need to be fed a starter diet, which differs from the feed given an adult chicken. This starter diet, which includes a high level of protein, will be the standard fare for the first 6 to 8 weeks of the chick's life. After that time, you can switch to a lower protein feed. The feed for chickens raised for meat production will differ from that given to egg-layers. The meat producers are generally larger and grow faster, requiring higher levels of protein. Meat producing hens, if kept for egg laying purposes, will eat more but produce fewer eggs that the egg-laying breed.
Keeping the chicken coop and surroundings clean is a good way to prevent diseases of course. There are medications, often added to, or an integral part, of the feed which serve the same purpose. Grown chickens usually develop resistance to the diseases they are most apt to get during their early months, and after a time the medicated feed can be discontinued. Chickens also need a constant supply of clean water. Their water source is best placed where the water will not get too hot or too cold. If that happens, the chickens won't drink. Feed troughs also need to be cleaned regularly, sometimes daily. Following simple rules of hygiene will go a long ways towards keeping your brood fit.
There are other rules you'll need to follow in learning how to raise chickens, from how to best store feed, to how to prepare a chicken for show. Again, an agricultural extension service may be your best source of information, especially when starting out.