How to Raise Chickens On Your Small Farm

Raise chickens on your small farm from egg to laying hen.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• fertile eggs or day old chicks
• room to raise them in
• chick feed
• waterer

1. Raising chickens on the small family farm can be a fun and profitable thing to do. There are several things to think about, to ensure success:
   
   For example, I have found that many people don’t realize you do not have to have a rooster to have eggs. A chicken will lay eggs rather a rooster is around or not. However, without a rooster, these eggs will not be fertile, so if you want to raise chickens from the hens on your property, you must get a rooster. If you have a lot of hens, you may want more than one. They do not need to be the same breed, unless you want to raise specific kinds of chickens. A rooster is not picky; he will breed any hen on your farm, regardless of type or size.
   
   If you decide to incubate eggs from the hens on your farm, you will need to either invest in an incubator, or buy a batch of hens that will tend to get broody. Bantams are good at this. When you find that you have a hen that wants to stay on the nest, you can add other hens eggs to her eggs, until she has all the eggs she can sit on. You need to do this in a couple of day’s time, so that the eggs will all hatch within a couple of days of each other. Otherwise, the hen will jump off the nest after she has a few chicks, and the rest of your eggs will be lost. Another way would be to remove the chicks as soon as they are hatched, to encourage the hen to keep sitting. It takes three weeks to hatch a hen’s egg.
   Remember, putting an egg under a light bulb will not work. There is a very intricate process of humidity and heat that is needed hatch an egg. This is impossible to attain by just keeping an egg warm under a bulb.
   
   You can also buy chicks from a hatchery. This is a little more expensive, but will ensure that you get all pullets (hens) if this is what you are interested in. You can also go straight run, which means you get a mix of roosters and hens. It’s cheaper this way, and the extra roosters can always be sold or butchered.

2. Once you have your chicks, they need a warm, dry place to grow. You can leave them with the hen, although this is very risky if the hen is allowed to roam, or you can fix up a ‘nursery’ for the chicks to grow. They must have temperatures of around 90 degrees in the beginning. They must be dry; a wet chick is a soon to be dead chick. Sometimes if they get wet, you can revive them with a hair dryer, but the best course of action is to make sure they do not get wet.
   
   For the first two weeks, it is best to get a chick starter feed from your local feed store that has medication in it. That will keep the chicks from getting a bloody diarrhea that will kill them. It’s also a good idea to buy a packet of powdered electrolytes and vitamins to add to their water. This will make your chicks very hardy, and you will not lose many.
   Invest in a feeder from your feed store, and keep feed constantly in front of your chicks. This will ensure that they are all getting enough to eat. The same principle applies with water; try not to let their waterer go dry. In buying a waterer, you should also try and find one that has a small lip, so that your chicks will not climb into it and get wet.
   
   I have also found that it is not necessary to change the litter under the chicks. Start out with clean dirt, and maybe some grass. Every week or so, add some fresh dirt and grass. The composting process of the dirt, grass, feed and droppings from the chicks will actually help keep them warm from the bottom up. Just make sure the dirt and litter is very dry. Again, dampness kills the chicks.
   
   Always protect against crowding. The chicks will need plenty of room to move around and also to get away from your heat source if it gets too warm. Chicks are bad about climbing all over each other, and smothering the ones on the bottom of the pile. It’s better to have too much room, than not enough.
   
   Check for holes and small openings in your chick room. Snakes are very attracted to baby chicks, and it is not pleasant to go in to feed and find a huge bull snake curled up in the corner with several lumps along his body where he has swallowed your chicks.
   Baby chicks are also very good at finding these holes and escaping, too.
   
   Keep your baby chicks under the light until they are about six weeks old, or have their feathers. Then, you can move them to another safe, protected space. They will still need to be protected from cold, wet weather, but they do not need the high

3. If you are raising chicks to sell, I’ve found it’s easier to have three prices. Offer a very low price for people wanting to buy chicks that still need to be under the heat lamp. Once the chicks are old enough to move out of the constant heat, raise your price, at least double. Then, when then chicks have become grown and are laying, raise to your final price. Always remember the work you do, your time in caring for them, your knowledge in raising them to the point of selling them, and the money you have invested in feeding and heating, need to be taken into consideration

4. Once your chickens are grown and laying, you will need to decide if you are going to let them roam around your farm, or raise them in a pen. Roaming your farm gives you healthier chickens and saves on your feed bill. Your eggs will be more nutritious and better tasting. The drawback is that the chickens will also most likely roost where you wish they wouldn’t, like your porch and lawn chairs, and leave their droppings everywhere. They will also be vulnerable to predators. It would be a good idea to buy a good guard dog to protect your chickens if you allow them to roam.
   
   If you pen your chickens, they will be safer. Give them a roomy pen with protection from the weather, and also a place with a lot of sunlight. Feed them the weeds you pull from your garden and flower beds. Consider raising a worm bin to feed them for protein. Turn up the chicken yard with a shovel once in a while to freshen it up. Keep a bucket in your kitchen, and keep all the scraps, peelings and leftovers, including meat, during the day, and give it to your chickens each afternoon. All these things will help your feed bill and make your chickens healthier. A little vinegar in their water sometimes is also good for them.
   
   Chickens lay best their first year. The second year, they may not lay as often, although it will be close if they are well cared for, and their eggs will be a little bigger. By the third year, you might consider selling or butchering, and starting over with a new flock.

5. Raising chickens is an enjoyable, fun and profitable thing to do on your small farm. It’s a good way to introduce chores to your children, as they are easy to care for, and children usually enjoying feeding and gathering eggs. It’s also a calming soothing thing to watch chickens pecking and scratching as you sit on your front porch. It’s an endeavor well worth checking out.

[cajunc]

on 6/28/2009 Thanks for a good article about raising chickens.

Linda
cajunC

[tracysmith159]

on 6/28/2009 Good article on how to raise chickens. I love fresh chicken eggs.

[FacePro]

on 6/28/2009 Very informative article! Thank you. 5*