Backyard chickens, a love story
By Gina Spadafori
July 13, 2008
Agatha, Beatrice, Charlotte, Harriet, Hester, Hazel, Isabella, Paloma and Viviana.
They’re my pet chickens, and they beyond a doubt offer more entertainment and benefits relative to the very minimal effort put into keeping them than any pet ever. They’re easy to keep, affectionate and fill my refrigerator with beautiful, fresh organic eggs. They recycle green kitchen trimmings, and they eat bugs. They’re quiet and amazingly clean.
What more could you want?
By popular demand, here’s more information on my chicken set-up. Click on any of the pictures to see them larger.
Picture 1: The entire operation
For anyone with basic carpentry skills, my chicken area would have been an easy do-it-yourself project. As it was, I had a couple of guys come over an put it together for $400, including materials. If you have lumber leftover from another project, you could save even more.
On the left (At No. 2) you see the original coop, $119 at a garden center. The one I wanted was $270, but that was more than I was willing to spend. Two months later, the plastic shed I was originally looking at was on sale for … $119, display model only. So I put the bigger shed in the yard and moved the smaller one next to the compost bin, where it’s now used for storing the chicken feed and supplies. I think the run overall is something like 6 feet by 18 feet. By day, the chickens have the run of the larger, but still fenced, garden area, which is about three times larger.
Right now a tarp provides shade on the side and a piece of particle board does the same on top. Before winter, those will be upgraded with a higher-quality tarp/wind and rain shield, and a piece of fiberglass roofing.
Picture 2: Inside the run
A chicken’s eye view inside the run. You can see the food/water containers at No. 4, and free-feed oyster shell calcium (for stronger shells) at No. 6. No. 1 is the storage shed, so you can see where you were and where you are now.
You can get a glimpse of the open space behind my house through the gaps in the fence. For winter I plan to drop in a something behind the coop to block the wind and rain. For now, though, the additional ventilation really helps on these hot summer days.
There’s plenty of room inside the chicken run for nine chickens, but of course they’re only locked in the run at night, for safety. Once I’m sure the dogs will leave them alone — they don’t show any interest, really — the hens will additionally get the run of the larger fenced yard outside the garden gate.
Picture 3: Inside the coop
As with the run itself, a person with basic carpentry skills could have knocked together something easy from scrap lumber for the coop.
Instead, I picked up a plastic storage building from the hardware store. It works great, with a roof that lifts up and doors that swing out for easy egg-collection and coop cleaning.
The two cat carriers are the laying boxes, although I’m looking for something more shallow so I can fit three laying boxes in. The hens like these fine, though, so maybe I’ll just let them be.
What I do need is to put some perches into place inside for better roosting. My neighbor cut some bamboo for me, but again, my lack of skills and tools means I’ll have to get someone over to put the roosts in.
Now, I leave the roof and the right-side door closed. For winter, I want to cut a simple door in one of the front doors and put a light flap over the hole. That’ll make the coop better able to protect the hens from the elements. For now, though, the extra ventilation works great.
The chicken routine:
Every morning first thing I let the chickens out into the fenced garden, and make sure they have ample fresh food and water. I usually give them the green kitchen trimmings at this time, too. This takes about five minutes, 10-15 if I hang out and pet the chickens, which I usually do.
I check for eggs a couple times in the morning when I’m at home, and check at lunch when I’m at work. Under optimum conditions, I get six eggs a day. Last week, I got nothing for four days, because of the extreme heat and the smoke from the fires (I was worried that I would lose chickens, they looked so miserable). I should get far fewer eggs in winter. Although you can use lightbulbs to trick their bodies into continuing to lay, I’ll probably just let them do what come naturally for them.
At night, I lure them back into the run with a couple handfuls of cracked corn and a couple verses of “Good Night, Ladies” (click for the Buffalo Bills version from “The Music Man.”
Weekly, I take all the old hay out of the coop and run with a steel rake, put about a flake of fresh hay down and put the old stuff in the compost pile. That takes about 10 minutes.
I buy grass hay by the bale (10-12 flakes to the bale, $20 a bale)and organic chicken feed ($20), cracked corn ($22) and oyster-shell calcium ($12) by the 50 pound bag. A bag of feed lasts 6-8 weeks, and I have enough calcium to last forever. I use cracked corn as treats, so that will last a long time, too. The greens they get are leftovers that would have been thrown away or put directly into the compost bin.
Does it “pencil out” over the price of buying even free-range organic eggs? Not on a purely financial basis, at least not until the set-up has been up and running for a couple of years. But on balance, I’m very happy with my little flock and would recommend the experience to anyone.
As far as breeds go, there’s no doubt the Rhode Island Reds are my favorites. They’re the most outgoing overall and the most attentive to me, and they’re the steadiest layers of the lot, putting down one pink-brown egg a day, almost without fail (heat wave aside). The Americuanas are interesting for their colored eggs, but they’re the most aloof from me and the flock, and their egg-laying is erratic. Somewhere in the middle are the Barred Plymouth Rocks and the Delaware, in terms of friendliness and steady egg-laying. I can’t figure out the Buff Orphington at all. Harriet is pretty, but she isn’t very bright or friendly, and she doesn’t lay much. That may be just her, though.
My neighbor Judy came to the same conclusion independently of her flock — the Rhodies rule. It’s interesting to note that she raised her hens from chicks and I bought mine as young layers, and yet we rank our preferences the same.
What a lovely set up for the girls. I am most amused that you are training them to “Good Night Ladies”. Too funny! But it IS important for you to have a call-in signal for your girls, and that one is priceless!
Many moons ago, a young Midwestern woman was spending time over college break with her aunt who lived in New England. One morning, the girl decided to make breakfast for her relatives, starting with scrambled eggs. The aunt came into the kitchen to find her niece in tears.
“What’s wrong?’” asked the aunt.
“All the eggs were rotten! I had to throw them out!” wailed the niece.
“All two dozen?”
“Yes! The shells were all BROWN!” lol. Long live Rhode Island Reds!
Comment by Anne T. — July 13, 2008 @ 4:21 pm
“At night, I lure them back into the run with a couple handfuls of cracked corn and a couple verses of ‘Good Night, Ladies’”
You know, Gina - the way you’re hiring everything ELSE out, I’m just wainting for you to post that you’ve hired a local barbershop quartet to sing them in every night! {ducking and running here . . . . . }
Seriously, though - I thought of your chickens today. I was attending a local county fair where there was a “Children’s Pet Show” which consisted of kids bringing their pets up front, telling the crowd about them, and then answering questions about them from a judge. One boy had a rabbit, and the judge asked him if he knew why he should never keep his rabbit near chickens.
The boy shrugged, and the judge said “Because chickens have coccidia, and you don’t want your rabbit to catch that”.
At which point I remembered when you talked about how you’re far less concerned with disease considerations because you know how well-kept your chickens are. Care to comment on the judge’s coccidia comment? (Incidentally, this is the same judge that asked a little girl leading her Collie in a Gentle Leader why her dog was wearing a muzzle. Sigh.)
Comment by The OTHER Pat — July 13, 2008 @ 4:42 pm
I’ll look into it, but I imagine the judge’s knowledge was based on intensive commercial operations.
But if you can’t let a rabbit around your chickens because they’re so dangerous and infectious, why would you be eating their eggs?
I suspect, again, it’s an issue of husbandry choices. My hens aren’t crammed for their short, miserable lives two to a cage that would barely have room for one to turn around. I don’t have to give my eggs a bath in a tank of chemicals to make them “safe.”
As you mention, it goes back to the question my friend asked, “What do you do about salmonella?”
My answer: “I don’t buy factory-farmed eggs.”
I’m also NOT planning to eat any pet rabbits, so I guess I’m not hugely worried on that front, either.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — July 13, 2008 @ 5:01 pm
What? No comment on my waiting for you to hire the local Barbershoppers to call your chickens in every night? VBG!
Comment by The OTHER Pat — July 13, 2008 @ 5:42 pm
Hmph! I don’t respond to trolls!
(But really, I wonder if I could just play the recording instead?)
Good night ladies, good night ladies, good night ladies, I’m going to leave you now ….
Comment by Gina Spadafori — July 13, 2008 @ 5:51 pm
Hey Gina, really enjoyed looking at your chicken digs. You can be very “open” in your climate and the girls will do fine. I’ve converted a south facing 8X10 box stall in our barn for chickens. I’ve installed nest boxes, roosts, and courtesy of the farm’s former owners, the chicken room comes with equestrian-themed curtains, a paint-by-numbers, and most of a concrete lawn groom, (white with blue eyes, so it’s PC, natch) as decorative touches. Last step is installing the chicken door to the yard, which I’ll do when they are old enough to free-range.
We’re raising our first set of peeps here — they were a week old today, and provided much of the entertainment for a cookout/berry-picking party we had this afternoon. I’m brooding them in a dog crate in the mud room. Fifteen (fingers crossed) pullets — Buff Orps, hatchery Americunas (aka “Easter Eggers”), Delawares, New Hampshires, and silver-laced Wyandottes, three of each. I got the “special surprise mystery chick” from the order I split with a friend, and have teased out the mystery to figure that it’s a silver-spangled Hamburg, and of course almost certainly a roo. He’ll bring some flash and style to the farmyard. His name is Henery Hawk. The girls don’t have names because I can’t really tell them apart in their sets of three. The Easter Eggers look like chipmunks, though, which is way cute.
It’s especially entertaining to toss a June bug into the brooder (our house is where June bugs come to die each night) and watch the mayhem. Our friends wanted to paint little numbers on their backs and run bets on which chick would actually get to eat the bug. In a few days they should be strong enough to eat Japanese beatles, and we’ll have a steady supply of chick treats.
The two young English shepherds are fascinated with them, and I’m being very careful with the introductions. The GSD doesn’t notice them. And my Momma ES thinks they are hers, and seemed to be trying to brood them the other day when I had them out while I was cleaning. They all thought she was their Mommy, too, so everyone was happy with one another.
Looking forward to lots of eggs starting in late fall.
A good site for information on all things chicken is http://www.backyardchickens.com
As for “chickens have coccidiosis” — it cost me fourteen cents each to have mine vaccinated against it. I went ahead and spent the big bucks for it since chicks are more prone to having a problem when born during hot weather, and I did NOT want to give them medicated feed.
Comment by H. Houlahan — July 13, 2008 @ 8:52 pm
I’m also planning to eat any pet rabbits, so I guess I’m not hugely worried on that front, either.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — July 13, 2008 @ 5:01 pm
Gina, did you mean that you’re not planning to eat any pet rabbits? Just wanted to clarify that for any new readers that don’t know you. (I’m ducking and running with The Other Pat!)
Comment by Marcy — July 13, 2008 @ 9:38 pm
Um … yeah. Fixed. :)
Comment by Gina Spadafori — July 13, 2008 @ 10:16 pm
Thanks for the very practical information! I can’t wait to get my chicks next spring. Funny you should mention the “Music Man.” I’ve already picked names and one of them is “Eulalie.”
Comment by C.L.H. — July 14, 2008 @ 3:05 pm
Oh, that’s a GREAT name for a hen!
Comment by The OTHER Pat — July 14, 2008 @ 4:28 pm
One of my Sheltie Drew’s nicknames is “Drewlalie McKecknie Shinn,” because he’s such a busy-body.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — July 14, 2008 @ 5:40 pm
And would you call what the chickens leave all over the yard “Shipoopie”?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related
Comment by The OTHER Pat — July 14, 2008 @ 8:06 pm
OK it’s high time I ran a coop. This is all very inspirational. I even have two names picked out: Kikiribu and Mandinga (very onomatopoeic Cuban names). But how do they get along with goats?
Comment by Dr Patty Khuly — July 15, 2008 @ 5:59 am
My friend has a dairy goat herd and free-range hens. It’s a good match. The chooks are good about cleaning up any feed the goats spill. But be forewarned — out either end.
First time I saw a chicken at her place … ummm … pick up after a dog — I just about swore off chicken forever. Couldn’t sustain it — my husband’s cacciatore called me back.
Comment by H. Houlahan — July 15, 2008 @ 7:15 am
Dr. K … I can’t imagine why you haven’t added chickens already! Go for it, girlfriend.
And I guess I’m in good company among other “Music Man” fans. My favorite musical of all time!
Comment by Gina Spadafori — July 15, 2008 @ 9:41 am
I got to do Marian one time. I knew I’d be kissing Harold Hill, but completely forgot I’d have to kiss the obnoxious salesman who was trying to frame him, too!
But it was worth it to get to do the “Lida Rose/Dream of Now” number!
Comment by The OTHER Pat — July 15, 2008 @ 9:57 am