Raising chickens in town

I was pretty disheartened the other day when buying eggs. Even at $2.25 per dozen for free-range, organic, pesticide free, dark yolked eggs. I have raised chickens before and know that it can be done with a minimum of muss and fuss even in a small lot in a back yard. That's when my friend Linda W. turned me on to this site: http://urbanchickens.org . Feel free to check it out, there are lots of links, good information and some thought provoking issues surrounding the keeping of chickens in a town or small city. They are willing to accept input about various ordinances around the country to help people know what is and what isn't allowed. We recently found out that we CAN have chickens in "our fair town" and that came as a bit of a relief. In many places, enforcement of ordinances is complaint driven, so it is always wise to be on good footing with the neighbors. At $2.25 per dozen, a few eggs wouldn't hurt.

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Permalink Reply by Polly McDaniel on February 17, 2009 at 10:14pm

I am glad you started this discussion, Sally. There are a lot of people interested in this topic, including me. I have never raised chickens but we go through eggs around my house like crazy. How many do you need, really, to get started? How do you gauge how big of a pen they need?

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Permalink Reply by Sally Biggers on February 19, 2009 at 12:17am

There are several factors that can help you make your decision. One is the breed of chicken. There are chickes out there that will lay 300 eggs per year each - that's one a day for most of the year. The problem is, they are stupid and lack personality. Often they appear nervous and pace the fence much of the time. There are some wonderful breeds of chickens out there: Rhode Island Reds, Speckeled Sussex, Dominiques, Buff Orpingtons, New Hampshire Reds... the list is not quite endless, but here's a couple of good websites to check out some of the breeds: http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/poultry/ http://www.backyardchickens.com/breeds/
A little investigation will tell you about how many eggs each breed can lay per year. One doesn't need to have a rooster to have eggs; a rooster is a noisy beast for in town and the hens are mostly quiet except when they lay an egg. A good gauge of how many hens you need can be calculated by how many eggs you go through in a week. One hen can lay an egg a day for more than 1/2 a year after they are 10 months or so old. That's about 4 eggs per week average. Keep in mind, they won't lay EVERYday and the best times of the year are spring first and fall second. The heat of summer and the cold of winter slow their egg-laying down quite a bit.
They need 2 or 3 nesting boxes, assuming that you choose to have 4 to 6 hens - they will share - and about as much space as a modest dog lot for a pen. The chicken tractors allow you to move the chickens about the yard so they don't completely denude a single area and help spread the very fertile manure about. Several photos and plans for these are in the Urban Chicken website I posted the other day. We have raised chickens when we lived in the country, and have recently begun entertaining the thoughts of getting 3 hens or so this summer once we have a place for them.
As for feed, they do enjoy corn, grains in general and bugs!! OH boy do they like BUGS! Also grasses and small shoots which makes moving them over a resting garden in a tractor a good idea because they help control the weeds when we aren't looking. They also turn kitchen scraps into fertilizer with a minimum of muss and fuss. (What were you going to do with all those Zucchini, anyway? )
Many feed and seed stores or places like Tractor Supply or Southern States can give you a heads up on hatcheries in your area. Some chicks have a specific sex-link color so you know you are buying hens rather than roosters if you choose to buy them young and raise them. This can be a good idea because they get used to you handling them from a young age. There are reputable mail order chicken houses as well. Pullets are older so you aren't spending as much time waiting for them to become old enough to begin laying eggs, but are a little more expensive and perhaps a little "wilder" in terms of used to the kind of human contact they get in the setting of a back yard. Either method works pretty well in the end.
A lot of what to expect from having a small flock of hens depends on what you want and what you can put into it. Of course the more animals you raise, the more you are tied to home, but these days we're not traveling as much as we used to anyway.
Hope this helps!

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Permalink Reply by Polly McDaniel on February 22, 2009 at 8:00am

This is fantastic information. Thank you so much. I'm going to copy this reply and hold onto it. My husband is against me getting some chickens but we go through eggs like you wouldn't believe around here. I want to give it a try, but I don't want to upset my neighbors. I live in West Asheville.

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Permalink Reply by Sally Biggers on February 22, 2009 at 10:51am

Polly and all;

Samantha Sizemore is my daughter-in-law. She will have more posts about the chicken tractors soon. I am enduring the same discussion with my husband because we live right in Black Mountain. My best friend is the fact that hubby loves birds and has had chickens - even in CHARLOTTE NC - most of his life. So my battle is hardly a skirmish Good luck, it's not so hard!