Spread the love

By David Brown, Bladen Community College Agribusiness Program Intern with NC Cooperative Extension – Bladen County and Becky Spearman, Livestock Extension agent with NC Cooperative Extension – Bladen County

With rising egg prices, many people are considering raising their own chickens. If you are thinking about starting a small backyard flock, here are some things that you need to think about. Before purchasing chickens, you need to check on the laws of growing chickens in your area. Make sure where you live will allow you to raise chickens. Some places will allow you to have hens, but no roosters. Once you have researched the laws and you are able to raise chickens, then there are several things that you must do. First you must decide if you want to hatch your own eggs, buy them as baby chicks, or buy hens that are at the laying stage.

If you wish to hatch out your own chicks, then you need to decide how many you want to hatch out and purchase the appropriate size incubator. Check with neighbors and hatcheries that sell fertilized eggs. If this is your first time, you hatch rate may be lower than you anticipate. Most incubators have operating instructions that come with them. Decide on a location to place the incubator such as in the garage, barn, or a good location in the house. Placing an incubator in the house can be educational for young children as it gives them the opportunity to see the chicks go through the hatching process.

If you are not ready or able to hatch chicks, there are two other ways that you can start your chicken flock. The most common is to buy chicks already hatched – these are a few days old. There are several places you can buy baby chicks from such as Tractor Supply, your local feed and grain store, and hatcheries. Before buying any chickens, you need to decide what you want to accomplish. Are they for only having around the house as pets and getting just enough eggs for your household or are you going to raise them for food? Take time to research the different breeds as there are pros and cons of each. There are “broiler breeds” out there that will make excellent meat chickens and there are other breeds that are very good layers for those who just want eggs. You may be able to find laying hens for sale locally. Make sure to find out more about the farm you are buying them from, so you are getting healthy chickens.

If you are raising chicks, either those you hatch or buy, you must also make sure that you are able to brood them. As chicks, they need special attention and need to be kept warm and free from drafty areas. When the chickens are bigger, you need an appropriate chicken house or coop. Chickens will start to lay around 20 weeks of age depending on the breed. For the first 5 months, you will not get any eggs and when they start to lay the eggs will be small.

Nutrition is another important aspect that needs to be looked at. When raising newly hatched chicks you must use a feed called chick starter. There are two types of starters – non-medicated and medicated. The type of feed that you will buy for your birds depends on the type of birds you are raising. There is a special feed formulated for raising broilers and there is a special feed that is used for egg layers. It is very important that you do research to determine the best type of feed to purchase for your chickens.

Small backyard coops are nice to have and can be helpful in many ways from producing eggs and meat for your family, to giving children the education needed to understand about the wonders of life through watching chicks grow. We have only touched briefly on raising chickens and starting a backyard flock. There will be a Small Flock Chicken Workshop on Thursday, March 6th at 6:30 pm at the Bladen Cooperative Extension office located at 450 Smith Circle in Elizabethtown. Topics will include breeds, incubating eggs, brooding chicks, basic coop design, nutrition, how to tell if your chickens are laying, and egg safety and handling. For more information on raising chickens or to sign up for the class, call the office at 910-862-4591 or email becky_spearman@ncsu.edu.