I'm thinking of raising chickens that lay eggs

yeah it would make a great guest house. Or a playhouse.
I see a hammock in your future....

I will name my chickens!! Since I am doing the egg thing. If we have meat chickens, I will put them in a separate area...with their rooster.... omg.
I love the old names for chickens... let's see I had an aunt Lola, and Lucille, and Esther, and I like Mable... Gertrude and Ida...
I think I would name a rooster Mac. Like Old MacDonald had a farm yo!!

What's cool is that the chickens almost name themselves when you watch them and see their personalities. Takes a keen eye though. Some hens like to mosey out in the yard and walk around "gypsy" others hang around the house "lucy" some are aggressive and stupid "rocky" and some hens never shut up "Patty" that was my exwife.

Hey, Patricia, if your reading this....just having a little fun. I still love you, babe!!

Lmao. Patty. I have a Patty in my life.. not a good name.. either is Pam.. No offense to the nice ones... it's just been statistically significant in my experience.

well if you buy chickens locally you can get them really cheap, I mean really cheap, they mostly sell assorted were you can get the red ones and all the other ones mixed altogether. but your gonna need roosters and hens if you want eggs.

reply to post by dgtempe

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I have two pet chickens. They are very smart and full of personality.

I hate it when people think they are dumb.

If you get 25+ chickens... you will soon find out.

good luck with it!

Female chickens lay eggs all the time. They are natures bread basket literally. You need one rooster that's it. Feed them wheat grass and grain. The wheat grass will make the females more fertile, they will lay more eggs. If you have about six chickens you will have tons of eggs enough for the family for the week. 20 chickens is a lot. So if you want more eggs than you can handle go for it ! Also you don't have to refrigerate the eggs. They will last longer if you do though. They last three months if you refrigerate and about thirty if you don't. Enjoy your omletes! Just build an enclosure with shelves and load it up with straw for bedding. Make sure it has a fence or a really big dog nearby to keep predators out. Those foxes do love chickens!

Do you have time to talk to the little chickens? Some of them like it if you sing nice songs to them while they are sitting on nest or preparing to go to sleep. They need love and in turn the quality of eggs will increase.

Op I really hope you take your time and do lots of research. You need to learn about their diet, signs of illness, ideal temperatures for chicks and adults, habitat, possible social conflicts, etc...

Since you had to ask whether or not chickens mate, well, the more reading you do the better. Hate to think of the little critters getting sick and dying because something was overlooked.

reply to post by dgtempe

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Sure, this would work great...Just take a couple of the stalls and put your nesting boxes on the wall of the stalls. Then build you a wide ladder for the chickens to roost at night. Good luck..

When you get your chicks, you will need to feed them chick food. It's ground up grain, minerals, and vitamins. A lot of chick food, (chick starter) has antibiotics in it, and that can cause resistant microorganisms. The antibiotics apparently make the chicks grow faster, but you aren't doing this for money, so it won't matter. Get the chick food without antibiotics. This may be difficult as feed stores seem to really push the antibiotic feed.

When my young chickens were old enough to start going out, I just switched to laying crumbles which didn't have antibiotics, and let them get extra nutrition from the plants and bugs. They seemed to do fine.

If you let fairly small babies out for just a few minutes, watch them carefully! I let some out and I was just a few yards away when, I am guessing, a rat snatched one. It was gone, without a trace.

Hawks are something to be worried about. Every year I would get chicks, raise them, finally get eggs, and in the fall the hawks would come and eat my hens. I can't blame them since humans put houses all over their hunting grounds.

If you want meat, your hens may not sit on their eggs. This instinct has been bred out of a lot of breeds of chickens. You may have to get another breed of chicken to sit on the eggs or get an incubator. Most bantams will sit on eggs and are cute, miniature chickens.

For eggs, I recommend Production Reds. They lay big, brown eggs, and have nice personalities. Barred Rocks are good dual purpose chickens.

Good luck with your chickens! After you get your first eggs, you'll never want those pale yoked things from the grocery store again!

This si an excellent place to join DG, great people and a wealth of information, truly the best fowl site on the net.
www.backyardchickens.com...

If I can help let me know, I love my chickens... I am SO happy last spring I took the leap. No regrets.

Ahhhh,
but...
Can you lay eggs? THAT is the question.



[edit on 11/16/2008 by Rusty P. Shackleford]