Raising Chickens for their Eggs

Raising chickens for their eggs can be very rewarding. It can also be a lot of work, especially if you aren’t prepared. I started out raising chickens for the meat, but realized that I couldn’t bring myself to kill them. They have become part of the family, so they are supplying us with our eggs instead. Whether you are raising chickens for meat or eggs, the care of the chicks will still be the same.

Brown Leghorn and ISA Brown

Where to Buy Chicks

If you buy chickens from a local retailer or online store you will start out with baby chickens (chicks). I buy my chicks at our local Rural King, but you can also get them at Tractor Supply. If you buy them online, make sure you check reviews for the site you have chosen. Also, make sure that you are going to receive chicks and not eggs. You will need some extra supplies if you intend to get fertile eggs.

Supplies

Before you buy your chicks, you will need to make sure you have a few things to keep them healthy and safe. Here is a list of the things you will need:

A container to put them in (without a lid) – This can be a      Styrofoam cooler, a plastic tub or box. Make sure there is enough      room for you babies. The Styrofoam cooler will hold the heat in better.

Paper towels – use to line the bottom of the container to make it easier to clean up. Paper towels are best for small chicks because they will peck and eat everything they see. Once they get a least 2 weeks old, you can switch to pine shavings.

Food and water – Baby chicks should have clean fresh water.      You will most likely have to clean the dish out often. Don’t use a large water dish or the chicks could drown. Chick Starter/Grower Medicated Crumbles, this is the only food the chicks will need to be healthy. The medicated food helps keep the chicks from getting a disease called coccidiosis. You can read about this nasty disease here.  When they start laying eggs you will need to switch them to the Layer food. If you are raising your chickens for meat, you will need to buy the meat chicken food.

Heat lamp with a reflector – Baby chicks need a heat lamp 24/7      until they lose their down and grow feathers. I bought my heat lamp in the hardware section of our local Shriver’s Pharmacy. You can buy them pretty much anywhere. You can see one here (this is not an affiliate link).

Thermometer – The temperature in the container should be around 88-90 degrees. Keep a thermometer in there to make sure they are warm enough. If they start to huddle on top of each other then they could be cold. If they spread out across the container then they are fine. On the other hand, if they are all huddle away from the lamp they could be too hot.

A heat lamp bulb – I used a regular 75 watt bulb for my baby      chicks. They were in a Styrofoam cooler and it worked great. Although, when I moved them to a Rubbermaid tub I had to get a 100 watt bulb.

Before you chicks are old enough to go outside, you need to think about what kind of coop you want. If you are going to let your chickens free range, you will still need to prepare a coop. You won’t need a run, but a coop will keep them safe at night. I found this out the hard way. We have a 6 foot fenced in yard and our chickens were free ranging inside of the fence at all times. We assumed the big fence would protect them, but we were so wrong. Little by little our chickens would disappear or we would find one dead. 

With a little patience and staying up late, I found out it was a raccoon. It had climbed our fence to get to the chickens. I had some young chickens in a pen with a coop. He grabbed one of my young babies and tried to pull it through the chicken wire. He killed one and injured another before I was able to get my husband out there to scare it away. The next day, we started building a new coop (see picture below)
Please use a coop for your chickens even if you only use it at night. You will need to protect them from raccoons, opossums and other predators.

The start of our new coop