Little Bitty City Pretty

If you’re on the fence about entering the world of backyard chickens this spring, I’m here to give you a little insight to the somewhat whole experience of owning these adorable breakfast laying critters.

It all started back when I was just a girl…. Just kidding, this isn’t a recipe blog! Where was I?… ah yes.. I had chickens as a child, but never as an adult, so a few years ago when we moved into this little suburban neighborhood outside of city limits, we decided it was time to get a few yardbirds for our backyard.

Our home sits on a little over a half acre with tall trees and thick, green grass. It’s the perfect spot. In our area of town, with at least a half acre, we are allowed to have up to ten hens and zero roosters. Why no roosters, you may ask. Well, hens do not need a rooster to lay eggs, and roosters are very loud… at all hours of the day, not just in the mornings like are favorite childhood cartoons made us think growing up.

To Tractor Supply we went! We got two Astrolorps, two Golden Comets, and two Rhode Island Reds. Whatever do little bitty baby birds need to survive? Well, I’m glad you asked!

Chick Supplies

1. Start and Grow Chick Feeder, this or similar chick food has all the good stuff to help them grow big and strong.
2. Chick Feeder and Water Set. Keep them and their food safe. You don’t want them scratching their food all around, and you also do not want them falling in their water bowl and drowning. Safe and happy is the key.
3. Safe, warm, dry, draft free environment. If you aren’t keeping your chicks inside with you, please choose a safe outdoor pen for them. remember you’ll need a heating element to keep them warm!
4. Heating Element! It’s very important that you have a safe heating element for your chicks. Their tiny little bodies get cold easily and fast, so make sure they have a warm place to have a little cuddle huddle. When chicks with down feathers (their soft little baby feathers) get cold for too long, they will die.

I have to elaborate a little more on the importance of keeping your chicks warm. When chicks are still young and do not have all their big bird feathers, they need a warmer rather they’re kept indoors or out, and a clean, dry, draft free home, don’t skip on the warmer! I DO NOT recommend getting a “heat lamp”. They are dangerous and cause many fires, every single year. I recommend a “Brooder Heater for Chicks”. Safe and happy is the name of the game.

Now that you know how to get the party started, what’s it like raising chickens? Well, where you live plays a big factor on how much work you’ll have to put into it to keep them safe. If you live in an area like us, with not much in the way of wild animals roaming our property, then it’s honestly pretty darn easy… for us.

Our yard has a privacy fenced in backyard and we do not have problems with raccoons or opossums, snakes or hawks.. we did have a little dirt dog get loose from our neighbors yard and he b-lined it right to our fence.. Luckily he wasn’t very smart and didn’t dig under the fence, he just kept running up and down the fence line jumping on the fence in excitement.

If you do not have a fenced in yard, and/or live more out in the country or straight up out in the sticks, then those predators will be more of a threat, so more precautions will need to be taken to insure their safety. You’ll want to start low to the ground and work your way up. Dig-proof fencing and a covered run would be a good place to start.

Our chickens haven’t had many issues with getting sick, bumble foot, or being egg bound often. You may be wondering what all that is… In short, bumble foot is a black callus looking sore on the bottom of the foot, egg bound is when the egg gets stuck for whatever reason. These things and more do happen from time to time, but there are ways to take care of them at home. If you’re not into getting a little messy with stuff like that, livestock is definitely not something I would recommend getting, because they’re going to rely on you to take care of them and trips to the vet can get expensive quickly.

Thankfully, in the three years we’ve had our chickens, we haven’t really had an issue with dangerous animals, and we’ve only had a few cases of one of them getting egg bound, and only once that we’ve had to remove a bumble foot callus. The rest of the time it’s just been letting them free roam the whole backyard and trying to find ways to keep them from digging up all my vegetable garden beds.

Since we hand raised our chicks they grew up around our children’s and pets. Our dogs do not chase the chickens, but our chickens sometimes chase the dogs. Our chickens like to be around us when we are outside and we can hold and hand feed them. For us, they aren’t hard to care for. Make sure you have a safe environment, clean coop, and clean chickens and you’re mostly good to go.