Do you crave fresh eggs? It’s getting harder to trust egg production companies and the eggs they produce. Watching your kids gather eggs every morning right from your own backyard seems like a better idea.

Compared with other meat-producing enterprises, raising chickens has the following advantages:

• Shortest time commitment,
• Smallest investment,
• Greatest adaptability,
• Lowest maintenance costs,
• Healthy recipes are guaranteed.

Shortest Time Commitment: Raising any other livestock requires a much longer time commitment. To produce beef for slaughter requires a minimum of 2 years. Hog grown rate will meet the minimum slaughter weight within about 6 months.

But in 10 or 12 weeks baby chicks will attain the proper weight for broiling or frying. If you are raising chickens for eggs, pullets will begin laying eggs at 5 or 6 months.

Smallest Investment: Buying chickens to raise is inexpensive compared to other meat producing animals. Ten times the cost of a baby chick will not buy any other popular meat-supplying creature. Equipment costs for the home flock are also relatively small.

Greatest Adaptability: You can raise as many or as few chickens as you need. A family may brood a dozen chicks in a pasteboard box heated with an electric light bulb or keep 3 or 4 hens in an improvised laying house made of scrap material.

If you decide that raising chickens for profit is the route you want to follow, you can invest in an incubator that will hatch dozen’s of chicks at one time, and build brooder and laying houses to accommodate your new business venture.

Maybe you want to start somewhere in between. Making a little extra money to pay for all the supplies and equipment means that your chickens and eggs are free. What could be better than free food that you know is the healthiest it can be?

Lowest Maintenance Costs: Chicken feed is relatively inexpensive. You can raise 100 hens for the same feed costs as it would cost to feed one cow, seven sheep or 10 hogs.

Healthy Recipes Are Guaranteed: You will have an endless supply of chicken broilers and fryers – plus all the fresh eggs your family needs. No foods offer greater possibilities for variety in the diet than poultry and eggs. There are no less than 250 ways to prepare poultry and at least 300 ways to serve eggs.

Raising chickens guarantees that your family is eating the best tasting and healthiest quality food. You choose exactly what your chickens eat and the chemicals they are exposed to. You may even be able to combine efforts with a few neighbors to cut down on daily chores.

However, some of these cities that allow chickens to be kept do not allow roosters due to the crowing and complaints from neighbors. You’ll want to check with your city to make sure you’re not breaking any animal nuisance laws.

The reasons for keeping chickens vary from wanting fresh eggs to wanting a different kind of pet to desiring a bit of the country in the city. Not only can there be a savings on the grocery bill by producing eggs for family use, but many neighbors are joining together to create chicken projects. They’re splitting costs of the materials to build the backyard chicken coops as well as the cost of the feed and incidentals.

If you figure that you want to have a coop for hens of your own, they’re not at all difficult to build, plus you can design your own plans to make the coop look like a little house or barn rather than the traditional coop you may remember. All it takes is a little planning before you get started.

You’ll need to make sure you plan enough space for each chicken as over crowded conditions can lead to sickness among the chickens. The general rule of thumb for space is to have approximately four square feet of space for each chicken though it never hurts to have more. As you’re building the chicken coop take into consideration the area where you live.

If you live in a northern state where snow and ice are a regular part of the weather, you’re going to need a coop that’s adequately insulated to keep the chickens warm. You don’t want to have to bring them indoors for them to survive. If you happen to live in an area where the winters are not as harsh, but the summers are scorchers, you’ll have to make sure the coop is built to provide maximum cooling.

When building the home for your chickens, you don’t have to spend a lot of money buying brand new materials. You can build it from recycled materials, such as wood left over from a home project – even hinges salvaged from old kitchen or bathroom makeovers can be put to use as hinges for a chicken coop door.

Whatever materials you use to build your backyard chicken coops, make sure you’ve provided good ventilation in the snug home for your chickens otherwise you can get an ammonia build up that’s not good for you or the chickens.

Chick Box was designed and is manufactured by BEC (The Broiler Equipment Company). BEC have over 50 years experience in the original design and manufacture of plastic products for the poultry industry and are recognised as world-class suppliers to the industry.

The Chick Box offers an improved module nest box rather than a fabricated wooden alternative, it will save hundreds of hours cleaning over the life of the poultry shed, more importantly it is a massive step forward when managing red mite, disease and bacteria within the important nesting area, and the laying hens love them.

Order your boxes now simply click on the PayPal Button below.

The aim of our Facebook  page is to offer all people who love chickens a place to hang out so we can all share hints, tips & general ramblings on all aspects of keeping chickens.

My wife Sharon & I have kept chickens for over 25 years and from our Smallholding here in Lincolnshire as well as selling our surplus eggs we now sell a range of 12 different types of  Hybrid Egg Laying Chickens. It seems though that there is a shortage of good easy to understand information on keeping chickens so I thought I would start this Blog which will take the form of a diary of our life with our chickens and good informative articles, so please come back regularly for fresh articles.

A successful chicken keeper today is the one that accepts the fact that forms of poultry perfectly acceptable say 10 years ago is not acceptable today. The call for better stock, and for information as to what is good stock and the best mode of handling, general care, feeding, housing, deseases is higher than ever. So I thought why not start a simple chicken keeping blog that is accessable to all those who keep a few chickens as pets, and at the same time gives all the information desired concerning the different varieties of chickens and how best to look after them.

My site will contain all that is really valuable to the fancier who keeps chickens for pleasure, I will try to keep it plain, practicle & simple. I will blow no horn in the interest of any class of man or woman, or any type of fowl but make it a plain and truthful talk between writer & reader.

In answer to this demand as far as in me lies, I offer this little site on keeping chickens: all of which is respectfully submitted to the reader.

Raising chickens has become popular not just in farms, but also in many urban areas. It’s hardly surprising considering the amount of benefits one can have with the endeavour. You get a regular supply of eggs for food, not to mention that their manure has proven to be one of the cheapest and most effective organic fertilizers around. Chickens are also very potent when it comes to getting rid of pests in the garden.

It is important that you familiarize yourself with some facts and general guidelines in raising chickens before making a decision. I’ll enumerate them all one by one.

Raising Chickens Is Illegal In Some Cities. You might do well to call your municipality and ask about the city laws that involve the matter of housing poultries. Doing a research on the internet can also yield some results. There might be limits on how many fowls you can keep, or how many square meters your hen house can occupy. You should also take into account the designated locations where you are allowed to raise poultry. Take heed of all these and make sure that you aren’t breaking any laws in the process of raising your chickens.

Ask Your Neighbours First. Chickens can be bothersome with their constant clucking, after all. If you’re fortunate enough to get their approval, some conditions might also be raised and you’d best ensure that you meet them once you already have chickens prowling your backyard. Asking for approval is a very noble gesture, and prevents a rift from developing between you and your neighbours.

Choose The Breed Of Your Flock Wisely. Most would prefer hens instead of roosters, for they are not as rowdy and noisy, not to mention that hens don’t require roosters for them to lay eggs. Hens are the ultimate feminists, since they are very much comfortable without their male counterparts. As for breed selection, the “bantam” is more popular for their docile nature and gorgeous plumage. Their small size also makes them easier to handle. You also have to consider the size of a chicken’s comb and wattle since these extra appendages are prone to frostbites during winter, which can cause health complications if not treated properly.

Set Up A Coop To House Your Pets. A strong and high fence should be built around the vicinity to prevent potential predators from harassing your domestic fowls. The hen house should be warm and bright, has enough ventilation, but no draft. Placing a dirt pen is also essential for the chickens for their dust baths. A roost is also required since hens love to sleep off the ground, and nesting boxes (you can use any pliable box) to store the eggs as they come. And finally, a water dispenser and a food tray must be set up so they could feed and have their daily intake of water.

These are inexpensive and can be found in any feed store. Once your hens are settled in their homes, you have to feed them regularly and keep their surroundings clean.

Taking care of the chicks does not require much although they may need extra attention.

If the chicken house is big, you will need to separate them from their mothers so that they are not pecked by other chicken or trampled on. The basics that the chicks will need are a clean dry place that will protect them from direct sunlight or cold and a lamp to warm up the place. When there are plenty of chicks, a separate house will be needed although for smaller numbers, a box placed in a space in the garage or a separate room will suffice. No matter where you keep your chicks in, the space provided must be secured from predators and other birds and animals.

When there is no special house to keep the chicks, a sturdy box is a very good and logical choice as it will cost nothing and could be moved around when there is a need. Place wood shavings in the floor of the box, if there are none, layers of newspapers will do. To insure cleanliness and prevent the chicks from diseases, remove the top sheets of the newspapers every day.

The chicks will also need a heat lamp. A good way to do this is to hang a 60-watt light bulb near a corner of the box about eighteen inches from the chicks. If the lamp is lower than that, cover the lamp with a piece of cloth to control temperature. A good way to know whether the temperature is right is when the chicks congregate beneath the lamp when they roost. When the lamps temperature is too strong, the chicks will tend to spread out inside the box away from the lamp.

The height of the heat lamp must then be adjusted about two inches higher every week to wean them off the heat. After two weeks, the chicks will still need the extra heat but reduce the hours that the lamp is on especially during summer months.

The chicks will outgrow the box and you will need additional accommodation for them. Even so, provide a lamp where they could huddle together and get heat especially in the coldest hours of the morning or and when they need it, otherwise turn the lamp off to get them acclimatized to normal temperatures.

Clean water must be provided but even chicks scratch or step inside the water pan that could topple it. To prevent the newspapers or wood shavings from getting wet, place stones inside the water pan for ballast. Replenish food and water in the hopper daily and clean it from droppings.

Mix vitamins and minerals into the water to insure that the chicks grow healthy and to boost their resistance to diseases. This is especially important during the first week. For food, you can mix crumbs to the starter mash that you feed the chicks.

If you are worried about your chickens freezing during the winter, keep in mind that you only have to take minor precautions to keep them warm. Remember, chickens normally acclimatize themselves to cold weather. In fact, their physical constitution is more tolerant to cold than to heat. The body warmth they get from simply huddling together during cold weather can go a long way into keeping them warm for most of the winter. However, it doesn’t mean that it’s safe to neglect the environmental conditions that determine the well-being of your poultry during the cold months.

Heat conduction plays a critical role in the wintering of your poultry. Placing a bed of sawdust or bundles of straw in the coop helps in keeping them warm just in case huddling together is not good enough to handle the cool temperature. Setting up a heat lamp in a secure place also helps in providing direct heat just in case a particular chicken has poor tolerance for extremely low temperatures. Just make sure that the heat lamp is at a safe distance to prevent your chickens from getting too close (chickens like to perch, so make sure the heat lamp is at an elevated area that they can’t reach).

A coop that is dry and free of draft (but still ventilated) is very essential to maintaining reasonable heat within the shelter. One thing to avoid is barring the door since chickens love to go outside and exercise every once in a while, even during winter. Make it a point to clear the coop’s surroundings of snow in order for your chickens to have the luxury to venture outside whenever they feel the urge to do so.

Proper feeding is very important during a chicken’s winter days. Corn is a good supplementary diet since it provides internal warmth. And of course, water needs to be provided daily just like in summer days. I highly recommend using a hard horse rubber dish for the fact that it’s relatively easier to remove the ice without breaking the dish.

Providing roosts is also vital in avoiding your chickens’ toes from freezing. A roost made out of wood is always better than metal or plastic because wood doesn’t conduct cold. The roost should also be wide enough so that the chickens’ feathers can cover the toes and be able to provide warmth into them.

Combs and wattles on chickens can be a big problem since extreme coldness can cause frostbites. Rubbing Vasoline regularly can be a big help to alleviate this particular problem. You can also resort to “dubbing”, which is the process of removing these extra appendages, in the means to fully remove the possibilities of frostbites and the complications that go with it.

Remember that the rules change if you are brooding chicks. They should be kept entirely safe from drafts by placing a solid wall around them. Maintain a heat lamp over them the same way you do with full-grown chickens. If you can’t establish an airtight habitat for them, it is best to avoid the notion of raising them in the winter.