Raising Chickens For Dummies®, 2nd Edition
Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2020 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions
.
Trademarks: Wiley, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ.
For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. For technical support, please visit https://hub.wiley.com/community/support/dummies
.
Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com
. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com
.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019916779
ISBN 978-1-119-67592-1 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-67593-8 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-67595-2 (ebk)
Across the United States, from California (where Rob lives) to Michigan (where Kim lives) and beyond — and even in other countries — people are discovering the joy of chickens. Some people want to produce their own food, some are nostalgic and longing for a simpler and more pastoral time; and others were sucked in by some cute chicks. Whatever sparked your interest in chickens, we hope this book helps you become a happy, knowledgeable chicken keeper.
Chickens are a special part of both authors’ lives. Every day we listen to the questions and concerns people have about chickens. We take great enjoyment in the chickens we own, too. We’re thrilled that more cities and townships are allowing people to keep chickens. But that means there’s an ever-growing body of folks who need information about chickens. Because Rob and I can’t always be there to answer everyone’s chicken questions, we decided it was time for a modern, comprehensive chicken book that provides quick answers to all your chicken questions.
In this, the second edition of Raising Chickens For Dummies, we’ve kept all the good parts of the first edition and done some updating to reflect new technology and knowledge about keeping chickens. We’ve also expanded some chapters to bring you even more information about chicken keeping.
This chicken book is different from some of the others out there. It’s easy to find the answer you’re looking for because of the way the book is organized. Go ahead, flip through the book and see for yourself. Nice bold headings direct your eyes to just the section you need, and you don’t have to read the whole book for a quick answer.
This book gives you a broad overlook of all aspects of keeping chickens, from laying hens to meat chickens, but you don’t have to read it all at once or in any particular order. You can start anywhere in the book that interests you. Today you may be interested in learning how to care for some cute, fluff-ball chicks you fell in love with at the hardware store, and you’ll find that information here. In 5 months or so, when they begin laying eggs, you’ll need information on what to do and how to manage hens. That information is here, too.
And if you get tired of those chicks because they all turn out to be big, fat, noisy roosters, well, we give you good butchering instructions to turn them into chicken fricassee. So put this book on your bookshelf in a prominent place. We’re sure you’ll refer to it again and again.
We’re careful to use modern, scientifically correct information on chicken care, and we direct your attention to sources of additional information when necessary. If you don’t want to read the sidebars or the technical points, you don’t have to; you’ll still get the information you need to become a great chicken keeper. To round out the information, we also throw in lots of good, homey, down-to-earth advice that comes from owning and enjoying our own chickens.
When you’re reading this book, you may notice that some web addresses break across two lines of text. If you’re reading this book in print and you want to visit one of these web pages, simply type the web address into your computer exactly as it’s written in the text, as though the line break doesn’t exist. If you’re reading this as an e-book, you’ve got it easy — just click the web address to go directly to the web page.
To get this book flowing, we had to factor in some assumptions about you, the reader. Here’s how we've sized you up:
Icons are special symbols set in the margins near paragraphs of text in the book. They are meant to draw your attention. Some people use them as a way to access certain pieces of important information, such as tips. This book uses the following icons.
In addition to the material in the print or e-book you’re reading right now, this book comes with some bonus information on the web that you can access from anywhere.
If you want some fast answers on some of the most basic parts of chicken keeping, you can go to the Raising Chickens for Dummies Cheat Sheet, at www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/raisingchickens
. In addition to the Cheat Sheet, you’ll find links to some bonus articles not found in the book. For example, we’ve got bonus articles on feeding chickens organically, making your chicken coop a special place, and showing chickens. These links are found on the page preceding each new part of the book. You also can go to www.dummies.com/extras/raisingchickens
and find all the bonus articles there.
Time to get reading! May we make some suggestions on where to start? Of course, eventually you’ll want to read every scrap of this book, but some things you need to know — now!
Here are some ideas of where you may want to begin, depending on your situation:
Part 1
IN THIS PART …
Find out if owning chickens is right for you. Get all the details of chicken ownership to make an informed decision on starting your own chicken journey.
Whether you’re a seasoned chicken owner or you’re new to the chicken world, get information on chicken biology, how chickens interact with one another and other animals, and how to identify illnesses that plague chickens.
Will it be the cute, loveable Silkie or perhaps the brown-egg-laying Isa Brown? Discover the different breeds and what they offer.
Get some tips on buying chickens. From starting with adults or chicks, to figuring out costs, to finding the right place to buy your birds, we cover all your bases to get your flock started.
Chapter 1
IN THIS CHAPTER
Checking on local legal restrictions for chicken-keeping
Considering the commitments you need to make
Counting the costs
Being mindful of your neighbors
We love chickens, and we hope you’re reading this book because you love chickens, too. So we’re going to discuss a very basic issue in this chapter: whether you should actually keep chickens. Chickens make colorful, moving lawn ornaments, and they can even furnish your breakfast. But they do take some attention, some expense, and some good information to care for properly.
So consider this chapter as chicken family planning. If you read the information in this chapter and still believe you’re ready to start your chicken family, then you have the whole rest of the book to get all the information you need to begin the adventure.
You may be surprised one day to notice chickens in your suburban neighborhood. Many urban and suburban communities are bowing to public pressure and allowing chicken-keeping. But not every community is so enlightened. The person keeping chickens in your neighborhood may be flouting the law. So before you rush out and buy some chickens, too, check whether any laws in your area prevent you from legally keeping chickens.
Almost all property is classified into zoning areas (some very undeveloped areas may have no zoning). Each type of zoning has laws that state what can and cannot be done to property in that zone. This legislation is a way to regulate growth of a community and keep property use in an area similar.
Zoning classification is the job of local governments. Each local governmental unit then assigns laws governing property use within each zone. These laws vary from community to community, but laws and ordinances can regulate what type and how many animals can be kept, what structures and fences can be built, whether a home business can operate, and many other considerations.
The good news, though, is that many cities are giving in to pressure from citizens who want to keep a few chickens for eggs or pets and are allowing poultry-keeping. In most places, a person who wants to use his or her property in a way that’s prohibited by the zoning can ask for a zoning variance. Zoning classification can also change if several property owners request the change and it then is approved. The high population of emigrants in some cities who are used to keeping a few chickens in small quarters has also contributed to the relaxation of some rules.
To know whether you can legally keep chickens, first you need to know the zoning of your property. Then you need to know whether any special regulations in that zoning district affect either chicken-keeping or your ability to build chicken housing.
Some common zoning areas are agricultural, residential, and business. You may also find subcategories such as single-family residential or suburban farms. Here’s what those categories generally mean for you:
After you’ve looked into your zoning, you can ask your government officials about any laws regarding keeping animals and erecting sheds or other kinds of animal housing in your zone. You need to be concerned about two types of laws and ordinances before you begin to raise chickens:
Just because others in your neighborhood have chickens doesn’t mean that it’s legal for you to have them. Your neighbors may have had them before a zoning change (people who have animals at the time zoning is changed are generally allowed to keep them), they may have a variance, or they may be illegally keeping chickens.
Not only do you need to find out what you are allowed to do, chicken-wise, but you also need to make sure that you get that information from the right people. If you recently purchased your home, your deed and your sales agreement likely have your zoning listed on them. If you can’t find a record of how your property is zoned, go to your city, village, or township hall and ask whether you can look at a zoning map. Some places have a copy they can give or sell you; in others, you need to look in a book or at a large wall map.
In larger communities, the planning board or office may handle questions about zoning. In smaller towns or villages, the county clerk or an animal control officer may handle questions about keeping animals. In either case, another government unit may handle the issue of building fences and shelters.
If you can, get a copy of the laws or ordinances so you can refer to them later, if the need arises. You may need them so you can show a neighbor who challenges your right to keep chickens or to remind you of how many chickens you can legally own.
If your city, village, or township doesn’t allow chicken-keeping, find out the procedure for amending or changing a law or zoning in your location. Sometimes all you need to do is request a zoning variance. A variance allows you, and only you, to keep chickens, based on your particular circumstances.
In some areas, getting permission to keep chickens is just a formality; in others, it’s a major battle. Some places require you to draft a proposed ordinance or zoning variation for consideration. In either case, you’ll probably be required to attend a commission meeting and state your case.
Ask your city clerk, township supervisor, or other local government official whether you need to attend a planning commission meeting, another special committee meeting, or the general city commission meeting. Find out the date, time, and location of the meeting. In some areas, you need to make an appointment to speak at a meeting or bring up issues.
Be patient — some of these changes can take months of discussion and mulling over. If you don’t succeed the first time, ask what you can do to change the outcome the next time. Then try again.
Come to any necessary meeting prepared and organized. Try to anticipate any questions or concerns, and have good answers for them. Be prepared to compromise on some points, such as the number of birds allowed. Research bulletins and other information prepared by university poultry specialists that have guidelines and sample ordinances for keeping chickens in urban settings.
Ask other people in your community who seem involved in local government about the process in your community. They may give you valuable tips on how to approach the officials who have the power to change a law or grant a variance.
If you can afford it, you may consider hiring a lawyer to represent you. However, most people want to handle it on their own, if they can. If you have a city commissioner or other official assigned to your neighborhood, you may want to enlist his or her help.
It helps to find other people in your area who also want to keep chickens and who are willing to come to meetings to support you. Local experts such as a 4-H poultry leader, veterinarian, or agriculture teacher who can speak on the behalf of poultry-keeping may help. You can also draft a proposed law or ordinance and get people to sign a petition in support of it.
Chickens can take as much time and money as you care to spend, but you need to recognize the minimum time, space, and money commitments required to keep chickens. In the next sections, we give you an idea of what those minimums are.
When we speak about time here, we’re referring to the daily caretaking chores. Naturally, setting up housing for your birds takes some time. If you’re building a chicken coop, give yourself plenty of time to finish before you acquire the birds. You will have to judge how much time that entails, depending on the scope of the project, your building skills, and how much time each day you can devote to it. See Chapter 6 for more on constructing your own coop.
Count on a minimum of 15 minutes in the morning and the evening to care for chickens in a small flock, if you don’t spend a lot of time just observing their antics. Even if you install automatic feeders and waterers (see Chapter 8), a good chicken-keeper should check on the flock twice a day. If you have laying hens, collect the eggs once a day, which shouldn’t take long.
Try to attend to your chickens’ needs before they go to bed for the night and after they are up in the morning. Ideally, chickens need 14 hours of light and 10 hours of darkness. In the winter, you can adjust artificial lighting so that it accommodates your schedule. Turning on lights to do chores after chickens are sleeping is very stressful for them.
You will need additional time once a week for basic cleaning chores. If you have just a few chickens, this may be less than an hour. The routine will include such chores as removing manure, adding clean litter, scrubbing water containers, and refilling feed bins. Depending on your chicken-keeping methods, you may need additional time every few months for more intensive cleaning chores.
Each adult full-size chicken needs at least 2 square feet of floor space for shelter and another 3 square feet in outside run space if it isn’t going to be running loose much. So a chicken shelter for four hens needs to be about 2 feet by 4 feet, and the outside pen needs to be another 2 feet by 6 feet, to make your total space used 2 feet by 10 feet (these dimensions don’t have to be exact). For more chickens, you need more space, and you need a little space to store feed and maybe a place to store the used litter and manure. Of course, more space for the chickens is always better.
As far as height goes, the chicken coop doesn’t have to be more than 3 feet high. But you may want your coop to be tall enough that you can walk upright inside it.
Besides the actual size of the space, you need to think about location, location, location. You probably want your space somewhere other than the front yard, and you probably want the chicken coop to be as far from your neighbors as possible, to lessen the chance that they complain.
Unless you plan on purchasing rare breeds that are in high demand, the cost of purchasing chickens won’t break most budgets. Adult hens that are good layers cost less than $10. Chicks of most breeds cost a few dollars each. The cost of adult fancy breeds kept for pets ranges from a few dollars to much, much more, depending on the breed. Sometimes you can even get free chickens!
Housing costs are extremely variable, but they are one-time costs. If you have a corner of a barn or an old shed to convert to housing and your chickens will be free-ranging most of the time, then your housing start-up costs will be very low — maybe less than $50. If you want to build a fancy chicken shed with a large outside run, your cost could be hundreds of dollars. If you want to buy a prebuilt structure for a few chickens, count on a couple hundred dollars.
The best way to plan housing costs is to first decide what your budget can afford. Next, look through Chapters 5 and 6 of this book to learn about types of housing. Then comparison-shop to see what building supplies would cost for your chosen housing (or prebuilt structures) and see how it fits your budget. Don’t forget to factor in shipping costs for prebuilt units.
You may have a few other one-time costs for coop furnishings, including feeders, waterers, and nest boxes. For four hens, clever shopping should get you these items for less than $50.
Commercial chicken feed is reasonably priced, generally comparable to common brands of dry dog and cat food. How many chickens you have determines how much you use: Count on about a third to a half pound of feed per adult, full-sized bird per day. We estimate the cost of feed for three to four layers to be less than $20 per month.
You may be nostalgic for the chickens scratching around in Grandma’s yard. You may have heard that chickens control flies and ticks and turn the compost pile. You may have children who want to raise chickens for a 4-H project. Maybe you want to produce your own quality eggs or organic meat. Maybe you just want to provoke the neighbors. People raise chickens for dozens of reasons. But if you aren’t sure, it helps to decide in advance just why you want to keep chickens.
Egg layers, meat birds, and pet/show chickens take slightly different housing and care requirements. Having a purpose in mind as you select breeds and develop housing will keep you from making expensive mistakes and will make your chicken-keeping experience more enjoyable.
It’s okay to keep chickens for several different purposes — some for eggs and others as show birds, for example — but thinking about your intentions in advance makes good sense.
While we’re at it, let’s define egg here. The word egg can refer to the female reproductive cell, a tiny bit of genetic material barely visible to the naked eye. In this chapter, egg refers to the large, stored food supply around a bit of female genetic material. Because eggs are deposited and detached from the mother while an embryo develops, they’re not able to obtain food from her body through veins in the uterus. Their food supply must be enclosed with them as they leave the mother’s body.
The egg that we enjoy with breakfast was meant to be food for a developing chick. Luckily for us, a hen continues to deposit eggs regardless of whether they have been fertilized to begin an embryo.
If you want layers, you need housing that includes nest boxes for them to lay their eggs in and a way to easily collect those eggs. Layers appreciate some outdoor space; if you have room for them to do a little roaming around the yard, your eggs will have darker yolks and you will need less feed.
Don’t expect to save lots of money raising your own chickens for meat unless you regularly pay a premium price for organic, free-range chickens at the store. Most homeowners raising chickens for home use wind up paying as much per pound as they would buying chicken on sale at the local big-chain store. But that’s not why you want to raise them.
You want to raise your own chickens because you can control what they eat and how they are treated. You want to take responsibility for the way some of your food is produced and take pride in knowing how to do it.
It isn’t going to be easy, especially at first. But it isn’t so hard that you can’t master it. For most people, the hardest part is the butchering, but the good news is that, in almost every area of the country, you can find folks who will do that job for you for a fee.
You can raise chickens that taste just like the chickens you buy in the store, but if you intend to raise free-range or pastured meat chickens, expect to get used to a new flavor. These ways of raising chickens produce a meat that has more muscle or dark meat and a different flavor. For most people, it’s a better flavor, but it may take some getting used to.
Average people who have a little space and enough time can successfully raise all the chicken they want to eat in a year. And with modern meat-type chickens, you can be eating fried homegrown chicken 10 weeks after you get the chicks — or even sooner. So unlike raising a steer or pigs, you can try raising your own meat in less than 3 months to see if you like it.
The major differences between how you’re going to raise meat birds and how they are “factory farmed” are in the amount of space the birds have while growing, their access to the outdoors, and what they eat. You can make sure your birds have a diet based on plant protein, if you like, or organic grains or pasture. Most home-raised chickens are also slaughtered under more humane and cleaner conditions than commercial chickens.
Some people also object to the limited genetics that form the basis of commercial chicken production and the way the broiler hybrids grow meat at the expense of their own health. The meat is fatter and softer, and there’s more breast meat than on carcasses of other types of chickens.
But many people are getting used to a new taste in chicken. They’re concerned about the inhumane conditions commercial meat chickens are often raised in and the way their food is handled before it reaches them. So they’re growing their own or buying locally grown, humanely raised chickens.
Chickens that are raised on grass or given time to roam freely have more dark muscle meat, and the meat is a little firmer and a bit stronger in flavor. Your great-grandparents would recognize the taste of these chickens.
Many of you may be thinking that you want to raise some chickens to eat. You want to control the conditions they’re raised in, what they’re fed, and how they’re butchered. Some people want to butcher chickens in ways that conform to kosher or halal (religious) laws. If you want to raise meat birds, here’s what you need to think about:
Emotional challenges: If you’re the type of person who gets emotionally attached to animals you care for, or if you have children who are very emotional about animals, think carefully before you purchase meat birds. While traditional meat breeds can make okay pets, the broiler strain birds tend not to live too long and are tricky to care for if left beyond the ideal butchering time.
We like our birds, and we don’t like to kill them. But we love eating our own organically and humanely raised meat. How do we get around the emotional thing? We have someone else do the butchering, at another location. In almost every rural community, someone will butcher poultry for a fee. It adds to the cost of the final product, but it isn’t much, and to us, it’s well worth it.
That being said, we know how to butcher a bird, and we advise everyone who raises meat birds to learn how to do it. A day may come when you need the skill, and knowing about the process makes you aware of all the factors that go into producing meat, including the fact that a life was sacrificed so you can eat meat. You will appreciate even more the final product and all the skills it takes to produce it. In Chapter 16, we discuss butchering. Read the chapter; then see whether you can do what’s necessary, if needed.
If you live in a rural area, feel that you have plenty of room, and think you can do your own butchering, you probably can try raising your own meat chickens. Start with a small batch and see how you do with the process.
Showing chickens is a rewarding hobby for adults and an easy way for youngsters in 4-H or FFA to begin raising livestock (and possibly earn a reward!). Chickens can also be a good hobby for mentally handicapped adults. The birds are easy to handle, and care is not too complex. A few chickens can provide hours of entertainment, and collecting eggs is a pleasing reward. If you want pet birds, certain chickens tame easily and come in unusual feather styles and colors.
If you’re considering raising chickens as show birds or as pets, consider the following requirements:
If you live in a rural area, you can indulge your chicken fantasy to the fullest and maybe get one of everything! Just use common sense and don’t get more than you can care for or legally own.
Neighbors are any people who are in sight, sound, and smelling distance of your chickens. Even if it’s legal in your urban or suburban area to keep chickens, the law may require your neighbors’ approval and continued tolerance. And it pays to keep your neighbors happy anyway. If neighbors don’t even know the chickens exist, they won’t complain. If they know about them but get free eggs, they probably won’t complain, either. A constant battle with neighbors who don’t like your chickens may lead to the municipality banning your chickens — or even banning everyone’s chickens. Regardless of your situation, the following list gives you some ideas to keep you in your neighbors’ good graces:
Confine chickens to your property. Even if you have a 2-acre suburban lot, you may want to keep your chickens confined to lessen neighbor complaints. Foraging chickens can roam a good distance. Chickens can easily destroy a newly planted vegetable garden, uproot young perennials, and pick the blossoms off the annuals. They can make walking barefoot across the lawn or patio a sticky situation. Mean roosters can scare or even harm small children and pets. And if your neighbor comes out one morning and finds your chickens roosting on the top of his new car, he’s not going to be happy.
Cats rarely bother adult chickens, but even small dogs may chase and kill them. In urban and suburban areas, dogs running loose can be a big problem for chicken owners who allow their chickens to roam. Free-ranging chickens can also be the target of malicious mischief by kids. Even raccoons and coyotes are often numerous in cities and suburban areas. And of course, chickens rarely survive an encounter with a car.
You can fence your property if you want to and if it’s legal to do so, but remember that lightweight hens and bantams can easily fly up on and go over a 4-foot fence. Some heavier birds may also learn to hop the fence. Chickens are also great at wriggling through small holes if the grass looks greener on the other side.
Finally, don’t assume that because you and your neighbors are good friends, they won’t care or complain about any chickens kept illegally.