I have owned chickens for about 3 years now, and I haven’t regretted it once. They are fun, quirky, and sociable creatures. They are relatively easy to care for, and add some humor to your life on those quiet, summer days.
As long as you have the correct setup and care for chickens, I would highly recommend owning some. Their primary purpose for me is the egg production-have you ever cracked open an egg from that store bought carton you just brought home and it smells bad or tastes like salmonella? Has it made you wonder how long those eggs have been sitting on the shelf? You probably don’t want to know. From my 10 chickens, one being 11 years old and I highly doubt laying any more, I would gather between 4-8 eggs a day last year, sometimes more. Fresh eggs can last a while, especially if you don’t wash them. That may sound gross, but as long as you keep the nesting boxes clean, the eggs will also be clean. If you do happen to have some chicken poop on your eggs, you do want to wash that off as the bacteria will get absorbed through the shell over time.
I have had only one rooster, but he lived with us when we were in a suburban neighborhood and kept waking up our rentee as well as the neighbors, so he had to go. I have definitely had a desire to home raise some chicks, but I have only had 2 chickens go broody over the 3 years, which are not very good odds for me. This year I was thinking about focusing my efforts on raising and breeding Wyandotte chickens, as they are my favorite more many reasons, as well as beautiful birds to watch. But as I was thinking about what I really need for our homestead, I realized that the need for eggs was greater than the need for chicks. I also hope to sell some fresh eggs on a roadside stand, which would require a greater quantity of eggs. So, along with the 10 current chickens I own, I have ordered 12 new chicks to expand my flock. My flock consists of 1 Barred Rock, 3 Speckled Sussex, 1 Silver laced Wyandotte, and 6 Cuckoo Marans. I ordered 3 more Barred Rocks, 3 Cream Legbars, 3 Golden Laced Wyandottes, and 3 Dark Brahma. The Cream Legbars actually lay blue eggs, which I am looking forward to, and I would also like to pick up some Easter Eggers or Ameracauna’s for the same reason. I was a little picky for which breed I picked as I want my chickens to free range as much as possible. I have wanted Salmon Faverolles for a while, but I had researched that they weren’t great at free ranging, due to being kind of scared and hiding a lot. Some other breeds aren’t great because of their lack of self preservation. That is not saying that those chickens would not do well, but I did want to try to pick ones suitable for our homestead.
Basic Care: As I mentioned earlier, chickens do not need a whole lot of specialized care, but there are still some primary things you want to do for them. First off is proper feed and water. You always want your chicken to have fresh water, consistently. A single chicken can drink up to 4 cups of water on a hot day! Times that by 10 chickens, and your 5 gallon waterer will be empty rather quickly. I have had success with having a rubber bowl for water, though the chickens make it dirty and you need to clean it daily. I have had success with the nipple/cup waterers, though my water line eventually became clogged and I had to abort that for a more basic waterer. My favorite, and what I use now, is an old galvanized waterer, similar to the link below, but mine is probably around 30 years old and works great. It is such a basic design, but holds around 5 gallons of water, and the chickens do not tend to stand on the top if they have enough perches. It is easy to fill up, and because ours is older, it is strong enough for me to carry when full. I have seen advertisements cautioning against doing that with the new galvanized waterers. The only thing I would recommend is sitting it on a block of some kind to keep it off the ground, as shaving or dirt will get kicked in the water trough when the chickens run around.
You obviously want to provide your chickens with feed as well. Some people like to give the chickens enough food to last them an entire week, while others like to feed them once a day. I have tried both ways, and I now just leave the bowl full for them to nibble one, though they don’t eat much since they are digging around outside at the slim pickings february has to offer. I feed mine the basic layer feed, but am looking in to mixing up my own, non-GMO feed for them, mainly consisting of oats, corn, wheat, split peas, and Black sunflower seeds. But that is another story. They also need to get an unlimited supply of Oyster shell, which contains calcium to help with the egg shells. It also acts as grit, though it wouldn’t hurt to mix some grit in with the feed. Scratch grains are a bonus for the chickens, though not essential. Meal worms are great, though I have found out that a lot of bulk produced worms are fed styrofoam, so when you feed your chicken a worm, you are essential feeding her styrofoam. Once the weather warms up, I am going to start my own mealworm farm, feeding them only veggies and grains. Lastly, your chickens will love any table scraps you have to offer, except potatoes or uncooked beans. They eat veggies, pasta, bread, meat (in limited quantites), cereal, berries, scrambled or hard boiled eggs, almost anything that you were thinking of throwing out. They will even benefit by eating the egg shells you usually dispose of, but I recommend you crumble them up a bit so it doesn’t actually look like a shell. Chickens have been known to eat their own eggs before you come and pick them up if they are hungry or bored, so I avoid doing anything to trigger that.
Lastly, please make sure your chicken has plenty of space to move around. They will want to be outside 95% of the day. Your average farm store offers chicken coops for sale, but the runs are so small that the birds have hardly any room to roam! They will love to free range, and they put themselves to bed at dusk. You can teach them a “come” call, or alert sound, which will have them all come running back to home base. I have taught my birds that when I call “Chickies!” they come running and get treats. It also works for trying to round them up mid day, because rounding up chickens when they don’t want to come in is almost as hard as rounding up cats.
All in all, I highly recommend getting chickens and I am sure you will not regret it!
Roots N Boots 
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