So You’ve Decided You Want Chickens, What Next?

       You’ve looked at all the pros and cons of raising your own backyard chickens (If you haven’t yet you may benefit from reading my previous blog post “On the fence about owning and raising chickens? Ask yourself these questions!”) and now you know that you want to give it a shot. Before you go out and buy some chicks there’s a few important things you should think about.

1. City Ordinance, if you live inside of city limits then this is the most important detail because the city has laws and guidelines that need to be followed and if they are not followed it could lead to fines and penalties. Some of these guidelines include how many chickens you can keep at one time. How far your coop and run need to be from the next house or street etc. You can usually find your city’s code of ordnance on their city website.  It’s also very important to stay up to date with the your local rules and regulations for example my local city ordinance was modified on 3/15/2022. 

2. Decide on where you will put your coop and run, many people keep there coop in their backyard which is great for added security against predators but if you put your pets in the backyard often then you may want to consider adding extra security to your coop and run because unfortunately many times your own dog or cat may be the one to break into your coop and harm your chickens. We can’t put much blame on them, I mean it is their instinct as a predator and it’s our job as the chicken owner to try our best to not let that happen.  If you have a larger area or property to work with then you might not have to put the coop in your backyard. Our property is around 1.3 acres and the neighbor in front of us has a large empty field, there’s an alley separating the neighbor to the west of us along with their tall tin fence so we were able to put our coop on the very west side of our front yard. 

3.Once you’ve figured out where you will put your coop now you can decide on what you will be using as the shelter and the fence for the run. Take into consideration how much space you have, how many chickens you want and what added security measures will you need for your environment. There our plenty of small chicken coops on the market some even have a run built into them, you can also go to Pinterest and look up chicken coop ideas and there are thousands of ideas. I do not recommend chicken wire as a protective fencing, chicken wire is great for keeping chickens confided to a space but it will not keep predators out. A fencing material with a Large gauge and small openings like a hardware cloth is a good choice because you want something sturdy that can not be torn or busted through and something with small gaps between the wire so as a fox can’t stick its arm through and grab at chickens. If your coop will be somewhere that is easy for stray dogs and wildlife to get to then you need to make sure everything is built sturdy and reinforced including lining the bottom of the run with fencing, I learned that the hard way. We build our chicken run by nailing hardware cloth in to a wooden frame but the large stray dogs in my area would bust the hardware cloth off the frame trying to get to my chickens and they were successful many times so I bought 2 metal runs from Tractor Supply and put them together to build our chicken run and so far there has not been any more dogs get in. 

4. If you are starting with chicks then you should look up the needs the chicks at that life stage because chicks will need a heat source to keep warm like a heat lamp or heat mat.  I strongly advise to not use heat lamps because of the large numbers of fires they cause yearly but I have used heat lamps myself in the past. I recommend keeping chicks in a small enclosed area for the first 4-6 weeks of their life or at least until they grow their adult feathers. They will need a special diet of chick starter mix, you can choose medicated and non-medicated based on your personal preference (again where your own research is key). They will need a chick grit because chickens don’t have teeth so grit helps them grind up and break down their food in their gizzard. They do not need mealworms or any extra treats like that until they are a little older but they may benefit from added nutrients in their water to help with the loss of nutrients of stress due to being handled and moving environments like from a store to your coop. 

5. Lastly another very important step is to do your research, find credible sources and compare information. Learn about the nutritional needs of your flock, the different needs from every life stages, how to keep them healthy and safe from predators and each other.  Learning about the anatomy of a chicken is extremely beneficial because then you will know how they eat and process their food and why they need what they need. Some great resources that I’ve used are the books “Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens” - Gail Damerow and “The Chicken Health Handbook” - also by Gail Damerow. 

       I hope you find this information helpful, may you find success on this new endeavor. Check back often for new blog posts that will include a tour of my coop, what I feed my chickens and problems I’ve personally dealt with. Don’t forget to follow us on social media for more daily content of our life on the Red Dirt Ranchette. 

                                                                                       -Shelby Ray 

                                                                                      Let Her Roam

                                                                                 Red Dirt Ranchette