Chickens, Part Two

When you buy your chicks, you will have a choice. You can buy all females, all males, or straight run, which is a mix. Straight run should be an actual mix with some of each, but last year, I bought eighteen straight run chicks and ended up with eighteen males. Yes. So bummed. All but one of them ended up in the freezer because I didn’t want or need that many roosters.

Technically, these aren’t all chicks. The one on the right with its eye open is a poult, a baby turkey. You can tell by the little bump on its nose. I know I used this photo in the last post, but these little guys are so cute I thought I’d use it again.

As your chicks grow, they will be called by new names. The female chicks will become pullets, and the male chicks will become cockerels. Once they are adults, they are then hens and roosters. The pullets will begin laying at around five or six months. This is also the time that you will want to slaughter any roosters (or hens) you don’t want to keep. Once the birds get much older than that, the meat will be tough to eat.

Here’s the thing. Not to be unkind to the males, but once that testosterone kicks in, they spend much of their time fighting each other, and sometimes they will try to mount the hens at the same time, causing the hens some level of distress. You will want one rooster for every five to ten hens for fertilized eggs. More than that is too much.

Basic Care

Your birds need clean water, proper food, and safe shelter. If you don’t have a water source near the coop, or henhouse as I call it, you will need to carry water from the house. If you live in an area with cold winters, you will need an electric heater or, if that is not possible, two waterers so one can be thawing in your house while the birds are using the other.

There are many kinds of commercial feed. Ask at the feed store if you are unsure about which to purchase. I also give my birds cracked corn as a snack. I toss out half a scoop or so into their yard so they can scratch around for it. BE PREPARED FOR RATS. Yes. If you have chickens, you run the risk of attracting rats. They will come after the feed, but they will also carry off small chicks. That has happened to me twice.

The best rat traps that I have ever found are called Snap E Rat Traps. The first time I used them, I set out six traps and caught three rats the first night. After that, I caught one or two a night for two weeks. No joke. By the end of two weeks, I had caught twenty-six rats. One night, there were two rats in one trap! One thing that will help is if your henhouse is not directly on the ground so that the rats can’t dig tunnels underneath. My current henhouse is a small barn and is up on 4×4 lumber on top of gravel.

The henhouse must be predator proof. Raccoons, weasels, bears, stray dogs, and more will all happily break in for a tasty midnight snack if they can. Make sure the structure is sturdy enough to withstand a concerted attack.

These are muddy bear footprints on the door to the barn. The bear had gotten in a few nights earlier by knocking the door handle to the open position, so now I lock the door every night as I shut the birds in. Luckily, the barn is quite sturdy, and the bear hasn’t been able to gain access again.

What to expect

Depending on the breed, your hens will lay around five eggs a week while they are young. I lean toward large breeds that are cold hardy. The reason for a large breed is so that once the hens are done laying (after three to four years), they are large enough to bother slaughtering them for the stew pot. Many farmers cull the entire flock after eighteen months and start over. I keep the girls longer than that because, while they won’t lay as many eggs per week, the eggs will get larger as the hens get older. This is also when you might start to get double yolkers, eggs with two yolks.

I raise brown egg layers. Notice, though, the many variations of brown, from quite pale to a very dark brown. A hen will lay the same color all her life. The color of her eggs will never change.

Breed Choices

I have successfully raised Barred Rocks, Delawares, Sussexes, Rhode Island Reds, Australorps, Silver-laced Wyandottes, and, one of my favorites, Salmon Faverolles, a heritage breed from France. Faverolle hens have beards, muffs, feathers on their legs and feet, and five toes instead of the usual four. Very much fun. I make sure to choose docile breeds so that, in the event the birds need to stay inside because of bad weather, they won’t hurt each other.

The white hens are Delawares. The gray and white striped ones are Barred Rocks. The one on the right with the white feathers edged with black is a Silver-laced Wyandotte. The little brown hen is a Salmon Faverolle. The big black rooster is an Australorp.

There is more to tell about chickens, but my next post is too critical to wait. I’ll get back to chickens later.