Getting Backyard Chickens? Here's What You Need to Know!

You’ve decided to become a flock master. A coop keeper. A chicken daddy, if you will.

Most likely you’ve already covered the basics: What to feed your chickens. How to house them. What to do with excess eggs.

What comes next, for as long as you have a backyard flock, is all of the hard stuff. Once set up, chickens are generally beyond easy to keep, but a little preparation goes a long way when the going gets tough. Here are a few essential tips for starting your journey as a bona fide backyard chicken checker.

1. You Need a First Aid Kit

Don’t wait until an emergency to have a few essentials on-hand. While hardy, chickens are prone to a few conditions that are life-threatening if not resolved quickly. If one of your birds gets injured, you’ll want to be able to act as soon as possible. Unless you have an avian vet (and the money to meet one on short notice), keep in mind that you’ll be diagnosing and treating your chickens yourself. But that’s okay! You got this!

Many issues can be avoided altogether by having proper food, nutrients, water, and coop conditions (dry, ventilated, spacious). What can’t be avoided can be detected early by regularly observing your birds. Then there are the varying degrees of surprise injuries. A few basics to have in your tool-kit:

- Vetericyn - antimicrobial

- Blue Kote - anti-fungal

- Rubber Suction Bulb & Mineral Oil

- Antibacterial Ointment (NON pain-killer formula)

- Elastic bandages, nonstick gauze pad & tape

- Scalpel

- Disposable gloves

2. Know Your Breeds

With over one hundred breeds to choose from, selecting your flock doesn’t come down to just “brown or white”. Getting familiar with your breeds of interest (and availability) will help you create a flock that meets your needs and matches your environment. Where your priorities lie is the first factor to consider. Maybe you’re in it only for the eggs! A consistent year-long supply of brown eggs is great but some hens lay gorgeous green, blue, speckled, even chocolate brown eggs! You could even have small, cute, cuddly birds that lay small, cute eggs. There are also gorgeous show birds that hardly lay any eggs at all!

Next, you’ll want to consider the climate. If you’re in a place that gets long, snowy winters, you’re going to want chickens that will continue to thrive in those conditions. It’s not only about your needs. In a mixed flock, understanding different temperaments is vital. An ideal starter flock would be comprised of easy-going, docile, birds. Territorial aggression is heightened in some breeds, and while the pecking order will help them sort it out on their own, you wouldn’t want to pen one docile bird with a group of pushy hens!

3. Have a Rooster Contingency Plan

“Sexed” chicks and even older “pullets” can be surprise roos. If you go straight run or hatch your own, then you’re very, very, likely to end up with at least a few male chicks. You need to know what you’re going to do if you end up with an unwanted rooster. The upside to having a rooster is the built-in alarm system if your birds free-range. They may or may not fight to protect your flock, but they will raise the alarm. If you’re interested in breeding your chickens, then a rooster is a must. However; many local ordinances (which you should check before getting chickens if you’re in an urban area) do not allow roosters due to the noise.

Roosters can cause stress to the flock. Curbing overbreeding requires a minimum of eight hens. Even then, the rooster may choose a “favorite”, which will still result in feather breakage and bodily injury from being mounted repeatedly. Territorial roosters often become aggressive with humans over “their” space and “their” hens. A rooster attack can be more than bluster - their spurs can do real damage! On top of all that, they don’t even give you eggs!

Rehoming a rooster can be difficult to impossible. Surrendering to a livestock-friendly shelter is the best option, but one that may not be available to you. No farm or flock wants a “bad” rooster, either. Using the internet to rehome a roo may be playing into the hands of cockfighting rings that will force the rooster to fight to the death. The most humane option that you’ll need to consider is culling your rooster. Which is why it’s very important to have a plan before it’s ever a possibility.

4. Manage Your Expectations

You’re not going to keep a chicken from chickening. Meaning, no matter what you think having chickens is like, you can’t change the reality of what it is.

You are not going to save money. Don’t even calculate how many eggs you’d need to eat in order to offset the cost of building a coop and run, feeding your birds, and treating your birds for injuries. It’s outright not worth it for the money. The eggs are tastier and the company is great, and greatly loved - that’s all that really matters!

Chickens can, and will, dig and eat up every piece of green in your yard or garden that they can. In a matter of seconds, they can destroy vegetable rows. It doesn’t take them much longer to snap up every flower seedling in the spring after a barren winter. If you aspire for lush greenery, it will mean either fencing the plants or chickens in.

Chickens can be loud. Even without a rooster, chickens generally give an egg call after laying. Some individual chickens can be fussier than others will cause quite the ruckus when they aren’t getting their way. Your neighbors will definitely know that you have chickens.

You are still part of the ecosystem whether you are aware of it or not. Don’t wait until the worst happens to realize that even though you don’t ever see predators in your neighborhood doesn’t mean there aren’t any. Hawks, possums, rats, snakes, raccoons - all of these lovely creatures still manage to live among us, and thank goodness! We all coexist, and as the caretaker of a decidedly prey animal, you need to keep in mind that they are still in the food chain. At the bottom. Don’t blame wildlife for trying to snatch a quick and easy chicken dinner - that’s the nature of nature. Do what you can to keep your birds safe without harming local wildlife.

You will become attached to your chickens more than you expected! Many chicken owners attest to being able to watch their flock for hours on end. Individual personalities packed in little feathered ground-dinosaurs frolicking around your yard - it’ll be easy to wonder what you did before with all the quiet. There will be great times, sad times, and many in between, but the joy you will experience is priceless!