From a year-round supply of fresh eggs to the entertaining personalities of each hen, raising chickens may be a great choice for you. The benefits of building a backyard coop are plentiful. There are several things to consider before you start building a coop. Let’s take a look at some of them.
Have you ever wondered where those “fresh” grocery store eggs come from? How long ago do you think they were laid? Day, weeks, months? The average store bought eggs can be 30 – 45 days old by the time you buy them.
Today, more than ever, people are questioning the quality and source of their food. Eggs are no exception. With undercover videos on YouTube showing the conditions that battery (or factory-raised) chickens live in, many people are concerned that those “farm fresh“ eggs may not be all that fresh or even from a farm.
One solution that is really gaining popularity is raising your own chickens in your own backyard. There are many benefits to having a mini backyard chicken farm besides the truly fresh eggs. In most cities around the U.S. backyard chicken coops are popping up in record numbers. This trend appears to be on the increase.
Chickens are relatively low maintenance
The time demands from raising chickens is more comparable to cats than dogs. They are very self sufficient and need just the basics like food, water, shelter and some ground for bug hunting. They love to spend their days scratching through the dirt looking for insects, worms and other tasty treats.
Food can be provided in self-serve dispensers kept inside the coop or out in their run slightly elevated off the ground, so you don’t have to manually show up for feeding times.
That doesn’t mean that you should leave them on their own for days on end. The coop should be closed up and secured each night. This will require your presence unless you install an automatic door opener.
We open our coop just after dawn each day and close it up just after sunset. These are the times that seem to be natural for the hens. If we are not home, we used to ask a nearby family member to drop by to do it for us in exchange for eggs. Concerned that this plan wouldn’t always work, we recently installed a door opener and used a wi-fi connected power strip to program it, although a standard outlet timer would work fine.
Now their door opens and closes itself without our intervention and they seem to know exactly when it happens each day. We haven’t figured out how to automatically put fresh lettuce and mealworms out each morning and that’s probably a good thing since these birds are social and they like interaction with people.
Fresh eggs are far superior to the factory produced type (battery chickens)
Around the time your hens reach four months old, you should start to get your first eggs. They may seem unusually small or large at first, but what you will really notice is the taste.
There is no comparison between a grocery store egg and fresh eggs. While the USDA does require that famers get eggs to market within 30 days, in most cases it only take a few days. Once you get them home, they are edible for up to five more weeks.
However, the egg goes through a lot of changes during that time. As each day passes, the egg yolk will not sit as firm and high as it did when first produced. The egg whites will also be become less thick and viscous.
The fresh egg will typically have a richer and creamier texture. If you scramble them, you’ll find them fluffier and if you fry them, you’ll find the yolk stands up firmer. They also appear richer in color.
Some argue that there is no difference in taste, so this is a subjective topic. If your local grocery store gets their eggs within two or three days, then the difference may be difficult to discern.
The big advantage with having your own backyard eggs is that you know your hens. You know what they eat, what conditions they live in and their overall health.
Free gold – black gold that is…
Manure is not one of my favorite things to talk about, especially when it’s in my backyard. But, here are a few reasons why chicken manure is actually something that can be beneficial and put to good use, right at home:
The average hen can produce close to two cubic feet of manure per year. Chicken manure can be composted and converted to black gold. Black gold helps soil retain water and adds phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen.
We do not compost our chicken manure, mostly because we don’t do a lot of gardening. If you choose not to compost, check with your garbage pickup service to see if you can use a recycling option. Some areas provide yard waste or compost containers that may be usable for this type of material.
Natural pest control
Chickens are omnivores, so they eat food that is of plant and animal origin. Put a hen in a garden or lawn and they will instinctively go to work, scratching at the ground to uncover some tasty bugs or eating the plants that you worked so hard to grow.
Our backyard is popular with the crane flies and the crane flies are quite popular with our hens. Until you’ve seen your hen pick a crane fly out of mid-flight, it’s hard to appreciate what good hunters they are.
I think our worm population has also decreased. The first indication of how tasty they are came when we witnessed two of our hens fighting over the same one. It’s amazing how far it stretched before they finally bit it in half and enjoyed the spoils of their conquest.
Chickens make great pets, have personality and are people-friendly
I’m the first to admit that I had no idea just how curious and social chickens are. When we bought the young chicks from the local farm and feed store, they all seemed the same to me. As they grew (and they grow really fast), it became obvious why they call it a pecking order.
Within the first month or two, this order is established and it’s very apparent who the dominant one is, and who is the more submissive. One of them will be the leader who will not be pushed around or have their space invaded.
When it comes to their behavior with people, it couldn’t be more social. If one of us walks anywhere near their run, they all come running over to see what we’re doing. If we walk along one side of it, they follow along.
There is some limit to their comfort level. They like to get up very close, but if you reach out, they are very likely to re-establish some distance. Three of our four hens will let you pick them up without too much protest. One of them, (our brown Leghorn named Lola) will make you chase her down and she is much faster than she looks. Leghorns are known for being shy and more anti-social. They don’t care to be handled.
Like most pets, ours have names and unique personalities. One of hens (a Novogen named Babette) gets very loud and squawks at the other hens when she’s ready to lay an egg. It’s as if she wants them all to know she’s ready. She seems to prefers an audience around her while she does her magic.
Make a little money with your new egg production operation
With enough chickens, you might end up with egg production that exceeds your ability to eat them. Some people sell the excess eggs and bring in some side money. Of course, this means you have to either sell them from your front yard or find a local farmers market.
Additional operating costs include purchasing the egg cartons, obtaining a business license and possibly a special permit in some jurisdictions. If your production rate is like our, four eggs per day, then this really isn’t a good option. The whole benefit to your eggs is that they are so fresh. If you have to wait several days to accumulate a dozen, then your competitive edge is diminished and you’re looking at a $10 per month operation.
We like to buy the half dozen type of cartons and give away our extras to friends and family. They love the eggs and we love providing them.
It is cruelty free
Many chicken farms are built for high capacity and maximum output. Some chickens live their entire lives in extremely overcrowded conditions. The term “battery chicken” refers to the battery cage where she will live her short and tormented life. The cage is designed to hold five to ten hens, each having about one half square foot of living space.
Often, they are debeaked, which prevents them from plucking out their own feathers. These birds never get to stretch and flap their wings or dig in the dirt for inspects or even feel the warmth of the sun on a nice day. This causes tremendous stress on each hen.
In recent years, battery chicken farming has been made more public. Some of the larger customers of these farms have agreed to stop buying from them. Whole Foods grocery stores have banned the sale of eggs from caged hens in their stores. Fast foods giants like Taco Bell and Burger King have also taken the lead. This has prompted others like McDonalds and Wendy’s to announce plans to eliminate them in the coming years.
With your backyard coop and run, you can provide a safe, stress-free environment that will give your hens a natural existence while still enjoying the benefits of their delicious eggs.
While the battery chicken life is a hard and cruel one, it’s good to see that the industry is started to turn away from these practices. Most of the thanks is due to pressure from their customers and animal rights groups.
It’s completely legal
Most counties, cities, towns and other jurisdictions do not prohibit having chickens on your property. However, there are often restrictions that are based on the density of your neighborhood. For example, in a suburban or urban location, you will probably have limits on the number of chickens you can have. In our area, we are limited to six hens.
There may also be restrictions on the coop itself. Building permits are not normally required since coops are smaller than a typical storage shed. It’s common to have setback requirement that specifies a certain amount of distance between your coop and the property line. In our area, it’s 15 feet. Our backyard isn’t huge, but 15 feet wasn’t a problem.
Backyard roosters are not good neighbors. This is one of the more important things to plan for. Male chickens (roosters) will not make you a good neighbor due to their distinct and loud crowing. Many local ordinances, including ours, allow only hens.
The challenge with this is that when you go to your local farm store to buy newborn chicks, the sexing process is only about 90% accurate. You won’t know if you have a rooster until they are about two months old. Have a plan in place to find a new home for any rooster you may end up with. You don’t want to have him waking up your neighbors for more than a day or two.
It is rewarding
My wife wanted backyard chickens for several years before I finally gave in and agreed. Fortunately, she is the carpenter in our house, so she was able to design and build the coop and run mostly by herself. I assisted with some of the technical building tasks, but truly, it was all her design.
The resistance I showed was due to my lack of knowledge. I thought this was going to be something that interfered with our lives and added burdensome responsibilities to our already busy schedules. My concerns were mostly unfounded.
While there is a commitment of time, money and energy to do this right, it isn’t nearly as bad as I expected. My biggest contribution to this project was adding automation where it made sense. This eliminated the requirement for us to be home at certain times of the day for opening and closing doors.
Early on in the process, I did consider buying my wife a “crazy chicken lady” t-shirt or decal for her car. But, when she told me that she thought that was a compliment, it spoiled my fun. She is not a crazy chicken lady, I now know that.
Our extended family is enjoying a supply of eggs that are better than what they get at the store. The dogs get along with their new backyard buddies just fine. Our grand-kids get to learn a little about farming and how food is produced. The benefits are indeed many!