Our family has had backyard chickens since the spring of 2010.  It has been a great joy to have a working flock of chickens in our backyard – right in the middle of the big city.  We have learned a lot, and these fun, working pets have been worth the time and energy invested.  (Chicken cam is at the end of the post.  You can see what our girls are up to today…keep reading.)

One of our chicks at about a week old.

We started with 4 chicks from a local breeder.  The chicks were just a few days old and they were so much fun to watch.  We set up a brooding box in the office area of our house.  (Chicks have to stay warm until they ‘feather out.’)  One of our chicks turned out to be a rooster so I returned that chick to the breeder and wound up with 2 hens of similar age to the others.  Our first five chickens were Penny, Oreo, Clementine, Hatty and Nana.  (When you have small children, chickens get named.)  You can see all 5 girls in the photo at the beginning of this post.

I built the chicken coop after looking at a variety of ideas online.  The type of coop I decided on is called a “chicken tractor.”  It was designed to be moved around the yard so the chickens could enjoy fresh grass and dirt to scratch in.  The coop is approximately 4′ wide and about 10′ long.  The chickens can roam the entire length and width of the coop since the roost box is elevated.  I will talk about a few things I learned about coop design, including my favorite feature, in a future post.

Owning backyard chickens has been very enjoyable for our family, but I would not say it is for everyone.  Simply stated, not everyone can deal with chicken poop, brooding chickens, and a few

The first day all 5 girls laid an egg. The big one is a fake that is their target.

other things.  Other than that, chickens are low-cost, entertaining and educational pets.  When we had 5 hens our chickens were eating about $20 of feed a month.  At their peak, the 5 hens were laying a total of 3-4 eggs a day.  Approximately 25 eggs a week.  The eggs are some of the best you will ever eat.  The yolks are dark yellow, almost orange.  You won’t save money or make money with backyard chickens, but the educational and entertainment aspects balance things out nicely.

Raising chickens hasn’t been without its sad moments.  In the summer of 2011 we lost 2 of the girls to the heat.  They were both Buff Oprington breed of chickens.  It was a hard, hot summer.  We used shade, a fan at night, and mist during the day to try to keep them cooled off. (We had a month long stretch of 100+ days here in Texas.)

Spring 2012 we purchased 2 pullets (10 week old hens) and added them to the flock after they matured a bit.  In the Fall of 2012 some irresponsible pet owners down the street allowed their dogs to escape.  The dogs chewed their way into the coop and killed 4 of our 5 chickens.  Oreo is our strong survivor that outsmarted the 2 big dogs and survived a nasty dog bite.  A few weeks later we added our white Silkie chicken named Zsa Zsa to keep Oreo company through the winter.

Our girls now reside inside their coop which is inside a 12’x12′ dog kennel.  I figure if a kennel is supposed to keep dogs in, it can also keep them out.  The only draw back is that the chicken tractor must now stay in one place.  As an added bonus they get to run around in the extra space of the kennel when we are home and will be in and out of the backyard.

Our coop on a foggy morning. This is before the kennel.

All of our chickens are friendly.  We haven’t had any problems having small children and chickens.  By far, our friendliest bird is Zsa Zsa.  She is a unique breed of chicken (Silkie) that has fluffy feathers, black skin and an extra toe.  Zsa Zsa thinks she is a poodle and will gladly perch on your arm and be carried around.  She is a favorite of many people and has appeared in several photos on this site.

I think the chickens are interesting and many of our friends would agree.  I often get asked, “How are your chickens?”  We have even taken one of the chickens to our daughter’s preschool for pet day.  When we had a full flock it was also fun to give away eggs as gifts and to let our oldest daughter sell the eggs for $2 a dozen.  Many, many friends have also been kind enough to give us their empty egg cartons for our eggs.

If all goes as planned, we will have two new chicks in the next week or two.  The local breeder that we use is expecting a large shipment of unique breeds.  The chicks will only be a few days old, so expect some cute photos.  We are hoping to get Zsa Zsa a unique friend or two.  Over the next few weeks I will be writing a few posts about things I have learned from raising backyard chickens.  We have several friends who are interested in having a small flock of their own and I wanted to share the lessons I have learned.  The general reader will probably find it interesting as well.

The live chicken cam has been taken down for now.  It will return in the next few days as the ‘baby chick cam.’  Come back Wednesday, January 30 to check it out.