Raising Backyard Chickens: The Complete Beginner’s Guide (Egg to Adult)

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Below you’ll find our beginner chicken guide covering all your questions as you start your journey as a chicken tender. And there can be A LOT of questions! I know because I’ve been there. And I’m still learning as I experience new things with our flock.

This is a dynamic guide and will continue to grow so don’t forget to check back to see what’s new or join our newsletter for the latest updates.

Happy reading!

Disclaimer: This guide is written with laying hens and accompanying roosters in mind, not meat birds.

Is Raising Chickens Right for You?

While we all love farm fresh eggs, sometimes owning chickens just won’t work in a certain setup or location. Keep reading to see all you should consider as you start your chicken flock.

Before You Buy Chickens

Hopefully you’re here to research before you buy chickens. There’s a lot to consider!

Time Commitment

How much time do you have to take care of your chickens? At a minimum, you should check on them once a day to make sure they have access to food, water, and shelter. It also helps to count them daily to make sure you’re not losing any to illness or predators. And of course, you’ll want to gather eggs daily unless you’re letting a hen go broody and raise chicks herself.

Chickens don’t require the same interaction and time as say, a pet cat or dog, but you may find yourself enjoying just sitting with your chooks which is never a waste of time.

Consider the time needed to secure your chickens before a storm or the changing of the seasons. If you live in a place with extreme weather changes, you’ll want to consider what needs prepping for winter’s freeze or summer’s heat.

If a chicken is injured or becomes ill, you may have to devote more time to nursing it back to health which can sometimes be quite the commitment.

Vacations or Emergencies

Are you away from home often for days at a time? You’ll want to consider hiring a farm sitter to look after your flock. You should also write out your processes as an instruction manual for a sitter to easily follow.

Costs

There are upfront costs like shelter, feed and feed dispensers, and waterers, but for the most part, chickens are pretty easy to start your homesteading dreams.

You’ll want to not go the absolute cheapest route on any item for your flock as it could cost you in the long-run with a shelter that’s poorly setup to protect from inclement weather or predators or feed and water dispensers that break easily. Plastic dispensers can bust if water freezes in the winter and if left in the sun can deteriorate quickly.

Also consider the ongoing costs of monthly feed bills and the need to prep waterers for winter’s freezing temperatures.

Plus consider the cost of a farm sitter if you leave home often for days at a time. Farm sitters aren’t cheap and good ones aren’t in abundance.

If you’re inclined to go to the vet with an injured bird, it’s not going to be cheap even for so small a creature. Make sure you can handle the vet bill, nursing the bird back to health yourself and equipping yourself with the knowledge to do so, or having the ability to do a merciful cull.

Local Ordinances and Neighbors

Can you actually own chickens where you live? Many towns outlaw birds, or at least roosters, due to potential noise issues.

Even if you’re allowed chickens, you could have neighbors who aren’t as enamored as you with a hen’s egg song. Make sure you know the laws and ordinances allowing you to own a certain amount of birds in a certain amount of space before you go crazy at Tractor Supply in the spring.

If you buy straight-run chicks or incubate eggs, you’ll want to confirm roosters are allowed in your area or have a proper way to hand them off to someone else or to a freezer before they start crowing.

Predator Expectations

Do you know what predators lurk around your home? Cats, dogs, coyotes, hawks, falcons, snakes, possums, and even raccoons can be predators for your flock.

You’ll want to understand what likely lives near you and prepare your coop, run, and free ranging area to stand up to potential break-ins. Everything likes to eat chicken.

Winter and Summer Care

Depending on where you live, special considerations for the blistering heat or the freezing cold will need to be managed to keep your flock alive.

Making sure water isn’t frozen, there is shade to stay cool under, the coop isn’t drafty, and that your birds are best suited for your environment are all things to consider with the changing seasons.

Basic Chicken Terms

Hen: a female, egg laying chicken

Rooster: a male chicken typically crowing and mature

Pullet: a young female hen not yet laying eggs

Cockerel: a young rooster

Chick: a young chicken, typically under 6-8 weeks of age

Sexed: determining the sex of chicks which is possible in some breeds but not all

There is frequent debate on how these terms are applied and at what ages. It’s always best to ask ages and if a hen is laying eggs when purchasing.

Choosing Chickens

If you’re up to the challenge of keeping a flock of laying birds, you now get to the fun part. Choosing the breed! There are so many different kinds of birds and the great thing is you don’t have to just stick with one. You can mix and match to find the perfect flock makeup for you.

Best Chicken Breeds for Beginners

Consistently, Buff Orpingtons, Rhode Island Reds, Plymouth Rocks (Barred Rocks), and Australorps are touted as great beginner breeds due to their docile temperament, hardiness, and egg laying abilities.

Nothing can be more frustrating than dealing with mean or temperamental chickens as a first timer, so our recommendation is to prioritize docile behavior first.

Cold Hardy Chicken Breeds

Wyandottes, Rhode Island Reds, Barred Plymouth Rocks, Brahmas, Buff Orpingtons, and Chanteclers are great birds to start your research with if you live in a particularly cold environment. And don’t forget about our Svarthöna! We chose them specifically for their rarity, cold-hardiness, and winter egg-laying abilities.

Some things to specifically consider:

1. Research what chickens are raised successfully around you, either by backyard chicken tenders or hatcheries. When we were in Wyoming, Melissahof was a great resource as she raises cold-hardy birds specifically for the arid, bitter cold climate of the state. Always choose a chicken breed that will set you and them up for success in your specific climate.
2. Small combs for roosters: Sometimes a winter storm is so bitter that it can cause frostbite on chicken feet (if roosts aren’t properly setup) or on rooster combs. Not only can this be painful for the roosters, but it can leave them disfigured. In cold climates, small combs are king. Small combs dissipate less heat than large combs.
3. Plumper, larger, and darker birds are good choices for maintaining body heat in cold climates.

Heat Tolerant Chicken Breeds

On the flip side, Leghorns, Australorps, Rhode Island Reds, Naked Necks, and White Leghorns, are considered great breeds for hot climates.

Some things to specifically consider:

1. Same as with cold-hardy birds, consider what is being raised successfully around you and what local hatcheries recommend.
2. Larger combs and wattles help to dissipate heat on those hot, humid days and are extremely beneficial to roosters. Large combs are king in hot climates.
3. Leaner, lighter, smaller birds fare best in hot climates.

Always make sure, no matter the climate and flock, that the birds have a place to rest in the cool shade. When birds are hot, they’ll keep their mouths open and their wings held out to their sides to help cool air flow and to dissipate heat.

Heritage vs Hybrid Chickens

Let’s define these terms first.

Heritage birds breed true and maintain specific characteristics related to the breed. Breeding true means you can basically expect the same time of bird when your hen or you incubate eggs for hatching. These birds tend to be hardy in their natural environment and can be bred sustainably long-term without required human intervention.

Hybrid birds are bred for maximum production of eggs or meat. They do not breed true as they’re a cross between two or more breeds. This means that you cannot expect their offspring to be the same as the parents. If you choose these birds, you can either enjoy what offspring they throw or continue to replenish with the same hybrids as time goes on.

Neither choice is better than the other as long as the breed suits your needs and your flock is happy.

We prefer heritage breeds because we enjoy raising rare birds to help maintain them for future generations. There are many breeds endangered that would appreciate a dedicated flock and chicken tender. Check them out here at The Livestock Conservancy.

Landrace vs Breed

A breed has specific, well-defined physical and temperamental standards. It takes intentional human interaction to maintain these standards. The Ayam Cemani are a good example of a breed with strict presentation standards for showing and breeding.

A landrace does not have specific breed standards and evolved to best handle the environment it is native to. Many people will take whatever characteristics arise in a landrace as part of that chicken’s uniqueness. For example, our Svarthöna are a landrace native to Sweden and not a breed. While we focus on certain standards in our flock, many do not. Neither is a right or wrong way to tend to landraces.

Egg Colors by Breed

Now this is the really fun part. Those gorgeous pictures of rainbow eggs really grab people’s attention. You can have white to gorgeous blues to deep greens and browns. However, no chicken lays black eggs so don’t be fooled! I write more about this here.

Green eggs? Consider:

• Easter Eggers
• Olive Eggers

Brown eggs? Consider:

• Rhode Island Red
• Orpington
• Sussex
• Wyandotte

Even Darker Brown eggs? Consider:

• Marans
• Welsummers
• Penedesenecas

Tan or Cream eggs? Consider:

• Swedish Black Hens/Svarthöna
• Wyandottes
• Faverolles (we had Salmon Faverolles previously and loved them)
• Dorkings
• Buff Orpingtons
• Silkies

White eggs? Consider:

• Leghorn
• Andalusian
• Minorca
• Ancona

How Many Chickens Should I Start With?

This is formulaic. Calculate how many eggs you typically need daily and multiply that by 365. That’s your average egg need annually. From there, determine how many hens you’ll need from your chosen breed to make up that annual average egg need. Do this by dividing your average annual egg needs by the average number of eggs one hen lays.

For example, our Swedish Black Hens lay, on average, 200 eggs per year. If we needed 4 eggs per day, we need 1,460 eggs per year. Dividing 1,460 by 200 tells me that we require at least 8 hens to meet our egg laying needs.

You’ll want to remember that hens don’t always lay consistently due to weather changes or other upsets in their environment or daily routine. Your best bet is to have a few more hens than necessary to cover unexpected egg needs or any deaths and illness in your flock.

Choosing a Breeder

Hoo boy, it can be tough determining who to buy chickens or eggs from. There are thousands of large hatcheries to small backyard breeders (like us) who are selling chicks and eggs for all sorts of breeds.

How do you determine which is the best fit for you? I’ve written a guide here to help you. It covers what I learned while searching for a breeder to purchase Swedish Black Hens from along with tips I’ve gathered along the way from selling chicks and eggs myself.

Basic Supplies Checklist

Chickens don’t need lots of expensive equipment, but investing in quality products will make you and your flock happy

Here’s a list of supplies you’ll want on hand along with our specific recommendations. We only share products we’ve used and loved.

A Coop and (Optional) Run

We do not recommend the ridiculously expensive and flimsy coops sold by places like Tractor Supply that house maybe 3-4 hens. Check Facebook Marketplace or consider making your own coop to find a good, economical fit for you.

We have had coops with and without secure runs. We prefer coops with secure runs, even though our flock free ranges, because it’s a way to let them out of the coop safely if we’re away from home or if they need to be gathered at night for a NPIP testing the next day. Neither option is right or wrong.

Make sure your chosen coop fits the number of chickens you want along with nesting boxes (one for every 3-5 hens), roosting bars (6 inches per bird), and absorbent bedding (straw or wood chips). More on this later.

The coop should be draft-free during storms and cold weather, but with ventilation, and secure from predators. The coop needs to be cleaned out at least once a year so consider the ease of doing so in your purchase.

Waterer

We’ve tried many waterers over the years and we’ve settled on a specific type from Premier 1 called the All Season Heated Poultry Waterer. We love this one because it’s covered yet (the new model) has a flap at the top to refill it and because it’s heated. In both areas we’ve raised chickens, we get freezing temps so heated water is so helpful when managing during winter.

We love that it’s covered because the water stays clean and keeps away other birds that could bring in illness and diseases.

We have two of these waterers and couldn’t be more pleased with them after trying out other products. It is easy to train the birds to these nipple waterers by taking away other water sources and pressing on the nipples to release water that the birds can smell. It helps if they are nearby to watch you do this.

Feeders

We started with this Grandpa’s Feeder but we also have this Rat Proof Chicken Feeder. Both are treadle feeders which require the chickens to step on a treadle to open access to the feed. This keeps rodents and other birds from driving up your feed bill. Training the birds to this process has been easy for our flock. Both come with instructions on how to train your birds.

The only two issues with these feeders are that small birds (like bantams) and chicks aren’t heavy enough to operate the treadle and sometimes gravity doesn’t work well in pushing the feed down as it is eaten. Overall though, we’ve appreciated these two types of feeders especially when leaving home for a few days at a time. These make it easy to leave home and for a sitter to understand and operate.

However, you can also throw feed on the ground if you’re measuring out exactly what your flock needs daily. I actually feed fermented scratch to our birds and I throw it on the ground for them to scratch through. I only ferment enough at a time so as not to waste feed.

Feed

There are all types of feed for your flock. Organic, local, scratch, and protein percentages, you’ll want to determine what’s best for your specific breed.

You can calculate your feed needs by assuming each bird eats, on average, 1/4 pound of feed daily. Multiply that by the number of birds and by 365 days to determine how much feed you need annually.

We don’t recommend buying feed with oyster shell added if you have roosters. They don’t need as much calcium as hens.

Fermenting feed, free ranging, and giving them household scraps can help extend the useful life of your feed.

Oyster Shell/Calcium

Hens need calcium to create those gorgeous, strong eggshells. While the birds can get calcium from free ranging, we also make sure they have a free choice calcium or oyster shell option available at all times.

We also feed the hens’ eggshells back to them and they go crazy for them. It’s a great way to make sure nothing goes to waste.

Dust Bath

Roosters and hens alike need an area with dry dirt or sand to dust bathe. This helps them “clean” between their feathers to remove ticks, mites, lice, etc. You can provide this for them or they enjoy making one for themselves somewhere on your property (lots of times in your garden or flower bed).

Supplements

Especially during winter, supplements can help your flock. We like to provide ours with kelp, that contains so many micronutrients, free choice alongside their calcium.

Other

Here are some other items that are helpful to have on hand.

• An electrolyte liquid like Rooster Booster
• A healing, antiseptic spray like Silver Honey spray
• Barn lime for managing odor and dampness and repelling unwelcome insects (we’ve used both First Saturday lime and regular old barn lime from Tractor Supply)
• Mealworms to train your chickens with delicious treats

We do not recommend heating elements for your coop due to fire hazards. Plus providing artificial heat does not allow the birds to naturally build up endurance to the cold. Our birds have easily dealt with negative temperatures with no issue. Heat in coop can cause humidity to rise and lead to illness and death besides their inability to adapt. If your power goes out in the cold and your birds are reliant on heat, you’re all in for a bad time.

Choosing How to Start

So now you have your setup, your chosen breed, and you’re prepared to start your flock. How should you start?

You can purchase chicks, started pullets, adult birds, or hatching eggs. There is no wrong choice here but some avenues are easier to start with than others. Let’s break down the pros and cons of each option.

As stated previously, with lots of debate surrounding these terms and their corresponding ages it’s best to ask sellers what they mean exactly unless explicitly stated.

Chicks

Pros:

• Generally cheaper than older birds
• Hands on from a young age can potentially make them friendlier
• You can more easily train them to your setup (coop, automatic door, run, etc.)
• Can generally be easily found in the springtime
• Very cute

Cons:

• More fragile than older birds (shipping can be really rough)
• Need a brooder setup for an extended period of time
• Longer time delay to egg production
• Harder to find year round
• Sometimes human raised chicks don’t learn the ropes as well as if they’re with mothers
• Not always possible to sex the chicks so your choice on hens vs roosters might be limited

Started Pullets

A started pullet is, generally, 12 weeks old and not yet laying eggs. These birds have made it past the fragile chick stage and are fully feathered and ready to join the flock in the coop.

Pros:

• Past the fragile chick phase
• Closer to egg laying production age than a chick
• Can be added to the coop and flock without needing a brooder box (quarantine first!)
• More expensive than a chick but less expensive than a laying hen
• Can choose hens or roosters as the birds can be sexed

Cons:

• More expensive than a chick but less expensive than a laying hen (see what I did there)
• Can be more difficult to train them to your coop setup, automatic doors, etc.
• Not hands on since hatching so they may be less friendly (not always a guarantee)

Adult Birds

Pros:

• Already laying eggs (but might be disrupted a few days due to the transition)
• No brooding necessary (quarantine is still a must)
• Hardier than chicks
• Can choose just hens as the birds can be sexed

Cons:

• Generally more expensive than chicks and pullets
• Can be more difficult to train them to your coop setup, automatic doors, etc.
• Not hands on since hatching so they may be less friendly (not always a guarantee)

Hatching Eggs

Pros:

• Can be hands on as of hatching which may lead to friendlier birds
• Generally less expensive than live birds
• Less guilt with shipping (we do not ship out or ship in live birds due to the risk of death)

Cons:

• A brooder and incubator are required to take the place of a hen
• Sometimes human raised chicks don’t learn the ropes as well as if they’re with mothers
• Are fragile and can break when transporting or shipping
• Long delay to egg production
• No choice in roosters or hens

We actually prefer incubate and hatch eggs because incubating and brooding is fun and challenging. It’s more enjoyable to go from egg or chick to the end product when you’ve been along for the entire ride. We offer shipped hatching eggs and only local pickup chicks to our community.

With whatever option you choose, make sure you’re comfortable with the breeder and the challenges that can come along with any aged chicken.

Incubating Eggs

Typically the cheapest in terms of egg cost, but maybe not easiest, way to grow your flock is by incubating eggs.

Preparing Hatching Eggs Before Incubation

Whether you’re shipping them in or picking them up from a breeder or gathering them from your own flock, there are few things to keep in mind.

Do:

• Keep the eggs stored upright with the pointy side down allowing the air sac to rest in the widest part of the egg
• Let the eggs settle for 24 hours with the pointy side down before placing them in the incubator
• Check for cracks in the egg by candling and discard if present
• Keep them in a cool, dry environment

Don’t:

• Wash the eggs which removes the protective bloom
• Incubate old eggs (more than 14 days old) otherwise you risk a rotten one exploding
• Store the eggs in the fridge

Chicken Egg Incubation Timeline (Day 1–21)

Your best bet at a great hatch rate is to follow the instructions that accompany your incubator.

General incubating guidelines:

• Incubator Setup: Run for 24 hrs before use, stabilize temperature (99.5°F forced air / 101°F still air) and humidity

Day 1 – 17

• Set eggs pointy side down or facing toward the center of the incubator.
• Temperature: 99.5°F (forced air) or 100-101°F (still air).
• Humidity: 45-55%
• Turn eggs 3-5 times manually daily until Day 18 if your incubator does not do so automatically.
• You can candle eggs after Day 7. Look for blood vessels and the embryo (small dark spot). This dark spot will grow as the chick grows.
  • Discard any eggs that did not develop or that stopped developing.

Day 18 – 20 (lockdown)

• Stop turning the eggs and remove the egg turner if using one.
• Increase humidity to 65-75% for lockdown
• You can candle the eggs again and discard any that didn’t develop or died during incubation. Avoid opening too much as it’ll disturb the environment.

Day 21+ (hatch day!)

• Do not open the incubator until your chicks have dried off and are fluffy.
• The chicks won’t all hatch at the same time. Early hatchers are okay to wait and rest while the other eggs hatch. Chicks have enough nutrients to sustain them for the first few days of life.
• Opening the incubator too early can cause harm to unhatched eggs.
• I sometimes allow eggs to go for a few extra days past Day 21 to allow for any late hatchers.

Chicks can survive 24 hours (sometimes longer) in the incubator thanks to the egg yolk absorbed prior to hatching.

My Chick has Pipped but Seems Stuck. Should I Help?

Pipping is when a chick has broken through and cracked the eggshell. It can take up to 24 hours or more for it to “unzip” the rest of the egg. This is when they continue to crack the shell as they twist around the egg allowing the two ends to separate.

More times than not, interfering can lead to worse outcomes than letting the chick figure itself out. If you are inclined to help, you can wet the white membrane with a damp qtip so that it doesn’t dry out and seal the chick inside the egg. You can also use tweezers and take small pieces of the shell or membrane off.

If you see blood, STOP! A chick is ready to hatch when it has absorbed all the yolk and blood from the membrane. A chick can easily bleed out with premature help.

In most situations, the best avenue is to be hands off and allow nature to take its course.

Why Didn’t My Chicken Eggs Hatch?

There are a myriad of reasons why eggs might not hatch. Almost too many to properly diagnose an issue unless there’s an obvious reason presenting itself.

• The egg wasn’t actually fertilized (this cannot be determined without breaking open the egg and cannot be determined once the egg has been in the incubator)
• The egg was damaged in transit by jostling or temperature fluctuations
• There was something wrong with the developing embryo
• The incubator isn’t maintaining the temperature or humidity its reporting to maintain

Shipped Hatching Eggs: What Hatch Rate Should You Expect?

Be aware that shipped hatching eggs have a lower hatch rate than ones gathered from your own flock. Shipping brings damage from jostling and temperature fluctuations that can affect egg viability. Hatch rates for shipped eggs can be anywhere from 0% to 100%. 50% is a great hatch rate for shipped eggs.

Don’t purchase shipped hatching eggs if you’re not comfortable with a potential 0% hatch rate.

How to Candle Chicken Eggs

To avoid potentially exploding rotten eggs, you can candle eggs before incubation to check for cracks and around Day 7, Day 10, Day 14, and Day 18 before lockdown to see how the embryos are developing. To be honest, I generally just candle once, twice, or not at all depending on how I’m feeling. I’ve never had a rotten egg but I have seen it happen to others!

Candling as simple as it sounds and our incubator brand even come with built in lights for candling.

1. Make sure you’re in a dark room
2. Take one egg out at a time with the pointy narrow end pointed down
3. Shine a flashlight or other light source up into the pointy end of the egg
4. Look for cracks or a dark spot (embryo) with veins growing

If you properly candle at each critical date and track the development, you can tell when an embryo has died and can be removed. One big sign is the red ring of death which occurs with embryo death early in incubation. You can see a red blood ring around the egg indicating lack of life. Be careful not to mistake this ring of death with the natural expansion of the embryo and the air sac.

Brooding Chicks

Once all your chicks are fluffy and dry, you can move them from the incubator to the brooder. Or if you’re bringing home chicks from the store or had them shipped in, they’ll go directly into your brooder.

Make sure your brooder is setup prior to lockdown (incubating) or the expected delivery or pickup date for chicks. For the safety of the chicks, proper setup is not a task to delay until the last minute.

Setting Up a Chick Brooder

In the past we’ve used lined cardboard boxes, water troughs, and nice wooden brooders as brooders. You can create a brooder out of most anything but think about ease of cleanup, grabbing chicks, and refilling food and water.

• Space: draft-free box/tote/stock tank with bedding (straw, pine shavings, paper towels) but avoid slippery surfaces.
• Heat: 95°F under lamp/plate (we prefer a heat plate)
• Food: chick starter
• Water: we use a gravity fed waterer with rocks in the lip to prevent drowning. We add an electrolyte supplement to their water in the initial week.
• Grit: you can buy this or gather small rocks from outside (we go for the free small rocks outside)
• Fresh Greens: we gather weeds, grass, and other greens to supplement a chick’s diet. This helps to prevent pasty butt.
• Cleanliness: daily water change, spot-clean bedding

Watch for signs of pasty butt, lethargy, overheating (chicks panting/spread out from each other), and hypothermia (chicks bunching together).

As the weeks go on, reduce their dependence on supplemental heat to prepare them for their move to the coop.

Heat Plate vs Heat Lamp

Another debate that plagues chicken groups is the heat plate vs heat lamp. The concerns come down to safety and the fire hazard that can be heat lamps. We have used both so I can speak a bit to the pros and cons of each.

Heat lamps are relatively cheap but will need lightbulb changes periodically. It directs an intense amount of heat in a particular direction to keep chicks warm. Typically it can hang from a hook to keep it off the ground and off flammable bedding.

One downside is that, if it were to fall in bedding without a protective cage, the bulb can cause a coop to burn down. I have unfortunately seen this happen frequently. Even with a protective cage, the intense heat directed at one particular spot can be a fire hazard.

Another downside is that, if your brooder isn’t large enough, you could overheat the chicks’ food and water as well. Always be mindful of the height and direction of the lamp and watch the chicks’ behavior to see if it needs moving higher or lower to provide less or more heat.

We’ve had a few heat lamps just up and break on us with no good reason.

The heat plate provides heat to the chicks more so in the way that a mother hen would. The chicks can hide up under the heat plate for security. With the heat plate, you can adjust each leg. The legs on one side should be shorter than the other so that the chicks can choose how much heat they need. On the shorter side they get more heat while on the taller side they get less. You will need to adjust the legs as the chicks grow.

We prefer the heat plate and use this one. It’s a pricier investment than a heat lamp but gives us more peace of mind. I also find it easier to reduce their dependence on supplemental heat with the plate versus the lamp. With the plate I can easily raise it higher while the lamp needs to be continually strung up higher out of the way.

After the first two weeks, decrease their supplemental heat gradually until time to move them to the coop.

Pasty Butt in Chicks

Pasty butt in chicks can be deadly. It happens when waste starts to build up on their vent and dries keeping the chick from being able to waste at all. This of course, can kill them with the buildup of waste.

The best way to fix this is to take a warm, wet rag and soak the vent until the waste softens and can be cleaned off. You can also put the chicks in a short cup, where their feet can touch the bottom, and fill it with warm water. The waste will soften and the vent can be cleaned up.

We’ve found that hen raised chicks do not get pasty butt, so we’ve copied the mother hen by providing greens, weeds, flowers, etc. from outside to chicks in the brooder. This seems to help their digestive systems stay clear.

What Can Baby Chicks Eat?

I have made our own chick feed in the past (and there are great recipes out there for it) but the easiest is to grab starter feed at your local feed store. We feed non-medicated, organic chick starter to ours.

On top of the feed, we give them grass, weeds, flowers, kelp, and even mealworms to enjoy. They especially love a scrambled egg from time to time.

When Can Chicks Go Outside?

While you may be excited and ready to move your chicks to the coop, hand-raised chicks are not ready to join the great outdoors as soon as they hatch. We do brood ours outside but they get supplemental heat.

Chicks are ready to join an existing flock or move to their coop around 6-8 weeks old once fully feathered. They lose their cute chick fluff as they grow and gain their feathers that protect them and that keep them cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

Consider your nighttime temperatures before you move them away from the heat source.

Moving Chicks to the Coop

If you don’t already have an existing flock, make sure your coop is ready to go before moving chicks from the brooder.

When Can Chicks Move to the Coop?

This is the same as when can the chicks go outside on their own. Consider your own nighttime temps, but the general age that they have all their feathers is at 6-8 weeks. We tend to err on the 8 week age out of an abundance of caution.

How to Coop Train Chickens

You’ll want to coop train your newest additions so that they know to come back before sunset to the safety of their home. The easiest way to do this is to confine them to the coop and run for a few days to weeks until they learn to go up before sunset.

Having food and water by the coop are great motivators as are mealworms in helping them understand to come to a safe home at night.

You may have to help them at night to learn the process but they learn fairly quickly. For the first week or so, check on them before it’s too dark out in case you need to assist some stragglers.

How to Prepare Your First Chicken Coop

As reiterated from where we discussed. this above, you’ll need a building with a roof that keeps the flock safe from weather, drafts, and predators.

You’ll need:

• Roosting bars away from drafts (6 inches per chicken)
• Nesting boxes (1 per 3-5 hens)
• Water dispenser
• Food dispenser
• Free choice oyster shell
• Proper ventilation via windows or openings
• Door for the chickens to come and go (we love an automatic door based on the sunrise and sunset)

Interested in a movable coop? We have built a few before and we detail our experience here.

Feeding Chickens Through Every Life Stage

Did you know that chickens can benefit from different types of feed at different stages of life?

Can Chickens Eat…

Literally every day I see posts in chicken groups asking if chickens can eat tomatoes, potatoes, celery, etc. Any food item you can think of, someone has asked if chickens can eat it.

Generally I have found that chickens will avoid eating things that are toxic as long as they have access to other appropriate food. If they’re stuck with just toxic items around with nothing else to eat, their inclination to eat it will be higher which can lead to illness or death.

Generally avoid feeding these items in particular to your chickens:

• Onions
• Chocolate (caffeeine)
• Avocado skin and pit
• Rhubarb leaves
• Raw or dried beans

When in doubt, don’t feed it to your chickens.

What Do Chickens Eat?

No matter what those grocery store egg labels state, chickens are not vegetarians. They’ll eat meat, fruits, veggies, insects, etc. They can terrorize your garden with their scratching if you don’t fence them out.

There are lots of different types of chicken feed, scratch, and treats you can buy from the farm store, local mill, or local producers as well. We also focus on organic and local feed as much as economically and logistically possible.

Chicken Feed Explained?

Chicken feed is grouped into three major categories of chick starter, grower, and layer feed based on the age of your flock (discussed more below).

Chicken scratch is a higher carbohydrate, lower protein treat of grains compared to feed. It’s meant as a treat, not a complete diet, to encourage chickens to scratch. It’s a great supplement in the winter, fed before bedtime, to increase body heat.

Chick Starter vs Grower vs Layer Feed

Coop Requirements

Coop Management

• Chicken Coop Ventilation
• Chicken Bedding Options
• Deep Litter Method
• Predator Proofing
• Winter Chicken Care
• Summer Chicken Care

Introducing New Chickens

• How to Introduce New Chickens to an Existing Flock
• Chicken Pecking Order Explained
• How Long Should New Chickens Be Quarantined?
• Signs Chicken Bullying Is Becoming Dangerous

All About Eggs

• Why Aren’t My Chickens Laying?
• Soft Shell Eggs
• Egg Color Genetics
• Double Yolk Eggs
• Dirty Eggs
• Washing Eggs
• How Long Eggs Last

Chicken Health

• Common Chicken Diseases
• Chicken First Aid Kit
• Internal Parasites
• External Parasites
• Bumblefoot
• Egg Binding
• Respiratory Diseases
• Marek’s Disease
• Coccidiosis

Behavior

• Why Are My Chickens Pecking Each Other?
• Why Is My Rooster Attacking Me?
• Why Is My Chicken Screaming?
• Dust Bathing Explained
• Why Chickens Stop Going Into the Coop

Common Beginner Mistakes

NPIP (National Poultry Improvement Plan)

Best Resource Groups

Facebook

Backyard Chickens Online Forum

FAQs

• How many chickens should I start with?
• Do chickens need a rooster?
• Can chickens live without electricity?
• Do chickens smell?
• How much space do chickens need?
• How long do chickens live?

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Peruse the most recent chicken posts below or view all of them here.

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