Hen Keeping: Raising Chickens at Home

By Mike Hatcher

A beginner’s guide to keeping hens with info on over fifty breeds, plus housing, feeding, daily care, disease prevention, egg production, breeding, & more.

Self-sufficiency and organic living have never been more prevalent than in recent years. Keeping hens is becoming increasingly popular and is one way of ensuring you have fresh produce at your fingertips.

This authoritative book introduces some of the key aspects of keeping your own chickens and benefitting from the produce. You don’t need a large garden to keep poultry, and an average family only needs a couple of hens to keep them well stocked in fresh eggs all year round. The set-up costs are minimal, and you don’t need a whole host of expensive gadgets or equipment to get started or care for your chickens.

Packed with useful information on poultry keeping (housing, food and water, daily care routines, disease prevention and cure, encouraging egg production, and breeding), this guidebook also features comprehensive information on breeds and a useful list of contacts.

“This book provides a good starting place to ensure that you have everything you need to know at your fingertips . . . If your aim is to keep hens for their eggs on a small-scale, then Self-Sufficiency: Hen Keeping should be at the top of your to-read list.” —The Rural

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Sep 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781607652519

Book preview

The basics

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Keeping chickens is very satisfying on many levels and there are numerous benefits to be enjoyed. This book is aimed at those who have contemplated keeping a few hens but have no idea how to get started. Make no mistake: keeping chickens is not a casual hobby you can pick up and put down when you feel like it! It is a genuine commitment and takes time and dedication.

The main reason most prospective hen keepers wish to start keeping hens is to enjoy a regular supply of freshly laid eggs. The idea of having your own fresh eggs produced by birds you have fed and nurtured yourself is very appealing. A little hen house and run with five or six hens sounds straightforward enough, but you need to be fully acquainted with the dos and don’ts of hen keeping to ensure your brood is happy and will lay regularly.

The rewards of hen keeping

As with all living things, hens will not thrive unless they are cared for. A commitment to the welfare of your birds is essential if you are to find satisfaction in hen keeping. To be successful, you or someone you trust has to look in on your birds every day. The idea that simply providing hens a house, food and water, and then collecting eggs at the end of the day, is not what looking after hens is all about. You have to be more interested than that and I hope that after reading on and keeping a few birds yourself, you will find the enjoyment that so many others have experienced.

The reaction of anyone on first seeing a live chicken at close quarters is very interesting; most are amazed at the detailing on the plumage, its patterning and formation, and at the variation of heads, eyes and legs between breeds. Touching a chicken often produces a reaction of wonderment! Until you see and feel the real thing, a photograph does not tell the whole story. So be ready for it, whether it is a baby chick or a large, fully grown hen – they have a warmth and texture that is soft and very appealing.

You can purchase birds at any age, from day-old chicks to laying birds. For simplicity’s sake it is easier to buy young hens, known as pullets, at point of lay. However, for a bonding and real learning exercise, especially if you have young children, get baby chicks. You and younger members of your family will enjoy handling and tending them, and watching them grow can be a real educational process! Not only will it teach you and your children the essentials of life but also the practice of caring for and loving all living creatures.

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Where you live

Where you live can play a major part in how successful you are with your hen keeping. Unless local bylaws prohibit the keeping of pets on your ground, then you should be free to keep hens. If you have close neighbours, it may be an idea to inform them of your plans. If they are persuaded it is a good idea, then try to get them involved. Invite them round when your birds arrive and promise them that if you have any spare eggs they will be the beneficiaries!

You will need sufficient space for your birds’ welfare. Many people are motivated by the idea of taking hens out of the intensive conditions seen in battery cages. You do not need a grass surface for your birds although most will opt for one. Remember, chickens will not only eat the grass by pecking it but will also wear it out by scratching to find grubs. If you decide to let your hens roam in the garden be ready for them to disturb your small plants or peck at any vegetables you might be growing. Chickens can be left to roam freely on a patch where vegetables have already been harvested. Their constant pecking and scratching will keep the area clear of weeds and harmful insects until the next crop is put in; the ground will also be naturally manured. A light soil such as a sandy loam will be better in a wet time than a heavy clay which tends to get very muddy.

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Types of birds

Before you decide which birds to go for, you have to be aware of the many options available to you. At supermarkets you will notice that you can buy eggs of various sizes. This is usually governed in the commercial world by the age of the bird: when young hens start to lay, they produce small eggs. No egg producer breeds a hen to lay small eggs when it will still eat the same amount of food as a hen that lays large eggs. However, bantam chickens, which, when fully grown, are about a third of the size of large hens, will lay eggs that are about half the size of those of large hens.

In the large hen category, many hybrids are bred specifically to lay plenty of eggs on a minimal amount of food. You may decide to go for one of the pure breeds that come in a myriad of colours and shapes, and have added visual impact over the hybrids. They do not, however, lay as many eggs as hybrids.

Different breeds produce eggs in a great variety of colours: the shells range from a deep chocolate through to a pearly white, blue and even green! The contents are the same though. These colours are also available in the bantam varieties. The advantages of breeding bantams are that they require less space and eat less food than hybrids. Also, because they are smaller than hybrids, bantams can be easier for children to handle.

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Choosing your birds

You must now consider how many birds you would like to keep. Estimate how many eggs you buy at the supermarket per week for you and your family, then add a few more, as you will likely enjoy your own eggs more than shop-bought ones, as well as the convenience of having them to hand. Your average chicken will, if looked after properly, lay on average five to

six eggs per week. Too many eggs can become an inconvenience as your relations and friends will not always want those extra eggs! Chickens are not solitary creatures, so it’s a good idea to keep at least two chickens, as a chicken on its own will feel lonely.

Point-of-lay pullets

You may decide to take the easy option of buying fully-grown young hens, which in the poultry world are known as ‘point-of-lay pullets’. The advantage of buying point-of-lay hens is that they accept a change in environment more readily and suffer fewer setbacks than hens that have already started laying, who may stop laying for a few weeks as a result of this disruption.

So where can point-of-lay birds be purchased? The Internet is always a valuable source of information, but sellers advertising in specialist poultry magazines tend to be more reliable. As there is no restricted breeding season for chickens (they lay eggs that will hatch into chicks all year round) birds are always in plentiful supply. If ordering your birds, however, it is a good idea to check availability in advance, as it takes about four months to rear point-of-lay pullets and they can sometimes be sold out. If your source is quite local, then it is advisable to collect them yourself so you can see what you are getting. If you see a contented bunch of chickens running around looking happy and healthy, then so much the better. On the other hand, if they look hunched up and inactive, you should exercise caution. Do not expect to be able to hand pick the birds, especially if you are buying direct from the breeder. You must be aware that they will wish to keep the best ones for themselves to retain the quality of their stock.

Day-old chicks

Another option is buying day-old chicks, in other words babies that have only just emerged from the shell. This can be both a challenging and rewarding experience. The challenge comes with finding a good, reliable source, keeping the chicks warm while transporting them to their new home and the fascinating period of rearing them to point of lay. Unless you find a source where you can buy chicks ready sexed you should order at least three times as many chicks as you intend keeping as laying hens. On average half the chicks will be males, so that out of 15 chicks you could have eight males and out of the remaining seven you may lose one or two through accidents or other unexpected problems. Only if you are buying from a large commercial hatchery can the sex of your baby chicks be guaranteed. A small hobbyist poultry keeper, on the other hand, will not be able to identify the sex of the young chicks and they will be sold unsexed.

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If you do end up with more males than you need, you will not be able to rear them all and keep them amongst the females, as they will fight each other to mate with the females. You will either have to harden your heart and rear them up until they are sufficient size to be killed for the table or sell them to someone else who is interested in doing just that.

For the first 48 hours of their life the chicks can live on the yolk sac from the egg which is absorbed into the body at the end of