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into your lap for cuddling or beg to be picked up and petted. Although some chickens will befriend you with little or no effort on your part, others may take a good deal of time and patience. The more chickens you have, the more likely they are to be content to interact with one another and ignore you. The fewer chickens you have, the quicker they are likely to want to include you as a member of the flock.

For a family, I think 4 to 6 hens is a good amount to have for a backyard flock, or at least 5 hens a rooster (Chickens are social creatures.). Roosters also crow in not just a morning, but throughout the day. They're loud and I tend to hear them well. But they protect the girls really well. I have a lot of hawks and dogs where I live and they warn others.

One of the best fringe benefits of having a friendly flock is that it's a super stress reliever for both you and your chickens.

 

History Of Chicken

Feed Quality Is Important

• Feed quality will affect feed consumption. Ensure that the feed is not stale, rancid, or moldy.

• Immediately remove obviously moldy, rancid smelling or any other questionable feed. Such feed will, at best, not be eaten; and at worst, cause disease or nutritional deficiencies if consumed.

• Purchase feed as fresh as possible. Vitamins will start to degrade if the finished feed is stored for prolonged periods. Plan your schedule so that new feed is purchased at least every 2 months.

• Always store feed away from heat, moisture, and direct sunlight. Protect from rodents.

The most important factors affecting food intake are the following:

body weight

growth rate

egg production

feed quality

environmental situation

Chicken breeds All over the world, more than 300 breeds of the domestic chicken species (Gallus domesticus) exist. We distinguish three main categories of chicken breeds: pure commercial breeds, hybrid breeds resulting from cross-breeding, and local breeds or landraces. We can roughly divide commercial breeds according to their main production aim:

egg-laying, mainly with lightweight laying breeds or layers

meat production, mainly by heavyweight breeds or broilers

both egg-laying and meat production by so-called dual-purpose breeds. Layer, broiler, and dual-purpose breeds can be distinguished according to their shape.

Egg-Laying Chicken Breeds
Hybrids, such as California White, Cherry Egger, Hy-line Brown, Golden Comet, and Indian River, are the most productive egg layers. But if you would rather raise heritage breeds, Rhode Island Reds and Whites, Leghorns, White-faced Black Spanish, Australorps, and Plymouth Rocks are good choices. Some chicken breeds lay white eggs, some lay brown eggs, but Ameraucaunas and Araucaunas lay eggs that are various shades of blue, green, and cream. The egg color does not affect the nutritional value of the eggs, but you may choose what breed, or breeds, you raise based on your own personal egg-color preference.

Another consideration for choosing what breeds you raise is egg size. The heritage breeds that lay the largest eggs are Jersey Giants, Plymouth Rocks, Rhode Island Reds, Australorps, and Orpingtons. A number of hybrid breeds actually lay mostly extra-large eggs. If this is your goal, check into Hy-line Browns, Cinnamon Queens, Brown Sex Links, ISA Browns, and Golden Comets.

One more thing to think about is how quickly you want your hens to start producing eggs. Hybrid breeds - Indian Rivers, ISA Browns, Cherry Eggers, Golden Comets, and Pearl Leghorns mature quickly and can begin laying eggs as early as 17 weeks old. Leghorns and Leghorn hybrids are nearly all quick to mature. Other heritage breeds, such as White-faced Black Spanish, Red Caps, Minorcas, and Anconas, can start giving you eggs as early as 21 weeks. Pullets of some breeds don't mature enough to lay eggs until more than 26 weeks old.

What Is A Strain Of Chickens?

Each strain of purebred chickens has all the traits that define its breed, but with additional unique traits that make the strain clearly distinguishable from other strains of the same breed and variety.

The name of a well-known strain tells you quite a bit about the characteristics of the birds within that strain. Further, once you are familiar with a particular strain, you can readily recognize individual birds from that strain without being told the strain's name. If you acquire chickens of a named strain, your vision for breeding the flock may be different from that of the original developer.

After the first generation in your own breeding program, the original strain name no longer applies.

Free-range chickens In the free-range system, chickens are free to roam the farm in search of food. Eggs are laid outside in simple nests and are mainly used to maintain chicken numbers. In many cases, up to 75% of the eggs have to be hatched because the mortality rate among baby chicks is high. Few eggs remain for consumption and the chickens themselves do not give much meat.

The advantages of this system are that little labor is needed and waste food can be used efficiently. Very low costs can offset low production levels so that keeping chickens around the house can be profitable if certain improvements are made.

The free-range system is most suitable if you have a lot of space, preferably covered with grass. At night, the chickens can be kept in any kind of shelter, as long as it is roomy, airy, and clean. This will minimize the loss of chickens to illness or theft.

Advantages of the free-range system

Exercise in the open air keeps chickens healthy.

Feed, even if it is not well balanced, presents a few problems.

Parasitic infections can be kept to a minimum if there is enough space.

Little or no labor input is needed.

The chickens help limit the amount of rubbish in a productive way.

The direct costs of the system are low.

Disadvantages of the free-range system

Free-range chickens are difficult to control.

The chickens, especially young chicks, are easy prey for predators.

Chickens may eat sown seeds when looking for food.

A large percentage of the eggs can be lost if the laying hens are not accustomed to laying nests. Mortality rates are usually high.

Baby poultry cannot generate enough heat to sustain itself. That is the reason the mother hen keeps the young under her wings. The process of getting chicks off to a good start is called brooding. The brooding period is roughly the first 3 to 4 weeks of a chick’s life. By then, most breeds are fully feathered and can generate enough heat on their own to get by.

Transition From The Brooder To Outdoors

Basic needs for brooding chicks are:

• Heat source, such as a 250 watt infrared light. Keep a temperature gradient from 110°F under the heat source to 84°F at the edge of the brooder ring. Decrease temperature of about 5°F each week. However, if chicks appear too cold or hot, adjust accordingly.

• Clean water.

• Good quality chick starter feed.

• Clean litter (pine or cedar shavings are recommended).

• A circular confined area to keep the chicks from wandering away from the heat source.

Successfully transitioning young poultry from their brooder to permanent outdoor facilities requires following a few common-sense guidelines.

Within the birds' comfort zone, a temperature slightly on the warm side will result in slow feathering, while a temperature slightly on the cool side will increase the rate of feathering. An often-stated rule of thumb is that the brooding temperature should start at 95ºF and be reduced 5ºF per week for the first six weeks, or until the brooder temperature is the same as the daytime temperature outdoors. On the other hand, if the outdoor temperature is higher than brooding temperature and conditions are dry, young poultry may be moved out of the brooder sooner. A big factor in successfully moving young poultry from the brooder is to make a gradual adjustment to let the birds get acclimated to outdoor conditions. Never abruptly move poultry from a heated brooder to permanent outdoor facilities. Another acclimation option is to furnish brooded birds with a sunporch fully enclosed with hardware cloth, where they can choose to spend time outdoors during the daytime. After the birds are moved to the outdoor coop, keep them confined inside for the first few days before opening the door to the outside run. Additional transitional measures relating to the number of young birds in relation to the size of the outdoor housing. By gradually transitioning your birds - and taking into consideration outdoor temperatures, the number of birds and their degree of feathering - you can successfully move young poultry from their brooder to permanent outdoor facilities.

 

The chick water container should be small to prevent drowning. When you bring the chicks home and place them in the brooder, dip their beaks in the water gently so they know where to find the water. Make sure that the chick feed you give them has grit included in it. They will find the food on their own. After a couple of months, you should be able to move the chickens to the coop. If it's still very cold where you live, you might want to wait a little longer.

Once you move them to the coop (or tractor), give them dietary variety. Cracked corn in the winter will help them keep up their body temperature. Chicken feed, food scraps, insects, and grass all help feed them. You might also look into allowing your chickens to range freely in your yard (with proper precautions to protect from predators), since free-range eggs have lower cholesterol and saturated fats, as well as higher omega-3 fatty acids. Don't ever let them roam unsupervised and make sure that you close them up in the coop at night.

Housing Chickens are very adaptable and no single best way exists to house them. Creative architectural construction may even be considered in building a “designer” chicken house in order to enhance the backyard landscape. Regardless of the ultimate design, the 2 following practical considerations should be observed.

The building must:

• Be large enough for proper air circulation (i.e., ventilation), but small enough to keep from getting too cold and drafty in winter;

• Allow 1.5 to 2.0 ft2 (0.14 to 0.19 m2 ) floor space per adult chicken;

• Provide easy access to feed and water

• Provide nesting areas for hens in egg production.

Nest boxes are essential furnishings of any hen house because she will seek a secluded place to lay her eggs. Properly constructed and maintained, nest boxes provide a clean environment for laid eggs and facilitate gathering them. Again, there are no hard and fast rules for nest box construction. Commercial boxes are available from various retail sources, or you may construct your own.

• Nest box height and width should be 12 to 15 inches (30 to 38 cm); depth should be at least 12 inches (30 cm).

• One nest box is required for each four to five hens. Place nest boxes no less than 18 inches (46 cm) above the floor.

• A front panel, 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 cm) high, is necessary to provide seclusion and keep eggs from rolling out of the nest.

• Maintain at least 2 to 3 inches of clean dry shavings in each nest box to reduce egg breakage and to minimize the number of soiled eggs.

• A perch may be attached to each box to facilitate access, running parallel to the front of the box and located 6 to 8 inches out.

Egg Production

Hens do not need roosters present to produce eggs. Increasing day length, not the presence of males, is what stimulates egg production. A rule of thumb is that four to five hens will supply two to four eggs per day during their production cycle. Pullets (young females) reach sexual maturity and are capable of laying eggs when about 5 to 7 months of age; however, this can vary considerably depending on breed and strain of chicken.

Use the following criteria to choose which eggs to hatch:

The eggs selected must, of course, be fertilized. This is rarely