Raising Chickens in the City
We recently began raising chickens in our Denver suburban home and it has been the greatest investment we have made in years.
The chickens not only produce delicious, natural eggs, but they also offer a world of fun for our two children.
We received our chickens from our daughter's school.
They were hatching the chicks as a school project.
They hatched about 30 chicks and offered them to families free of charge.
We were the only family to take them up on the offer.
We took 4 chicks home with us and began raising them.
Going in, my wife and I had little knowledge of how to actually raise chickens, build a coop, or care for them.
We quickly found it to be an easy task.
We began by keeping the chickens in a portable cage that we found at a garage sale.
It was most likely an old guinea pig or rabbit cage.
It was about 18"x36".
We housed them it the cage for about 3-4 weeks.
This gave me the time to construct our chicken coop.
I found an area on our property that was already enclosed on 3 sides: a fence on two sides and our storage shed on the third.
I began by building some rough framework to help hold the chicken wire and build the general shape of the coop.
I then built a full-size gate for access.
From there we installed a clear roofing material we found at Home Depot.
Once the general structure was complete I then moved on to build the hen house.
The hen house is where the chickens go to rest and lay eggs.
The hen house needs to be a roofed, enclosed area with several individual houses".
The hen house also needs to be off of the ground.
We have 4 chickens and the hen house I made has 3 individual "houses".
This seems to be plenty and we are finding that they typically lay their eggs in one particular house.
It is also important to build roosts.
Roosts are like small ladders that the chickens can roost upon.
We read that having roosts is critical for egg production.
The final step was to lay down a layer of wood shavings.
We buy one or two large compacted bags of shavings and it works for the whole coop for 3-4 weeks.
Each bag costs about $7.
That is the coop in a nutshell.
We get about 3-4 eggs per day.
We get brown and green eggs! They are beautiful, and the taste is amazing.
There is a major difference between store-bought eggs and our home grown eggs.
We feed the chickens some poultry feed we got from a feed store but also feed them all of our left over fruits and vegetables.
Cleaning the coop is quite easy too.
There are a couple schools of thought here.
Some believe in cleaning the coop once every month or so and disposing of all the removed material.
Others believe in keeping the coop as is and just add additional shavings or hay as needed.
We try to remove as much of the old shavings as possible then lay down new shavings about once per month or more.
Chicken droppings are a very good fertilizer and some people even sell their removed coop material.
We have not tried this yet, but plan to this summer for use in our garden.
Overall we have found raising chickens to be a very rewarding and fun hobby.
They not only produce delicious eggs but have come to find them to be wonderful pets.
We open the coop and let them run around our back yard.
The kids have a ball with them.
The upfront costs are not too much, depending on the size and complexity of your coop.
Once it is up and running there are minimal costs and time associated with raising chickens.
Be sure to check with your city to find out about regulations on back yard chickens.
Most cities now allow them but they do put limits on how many you can keep.
The chickens not only produce delicious, natural eggs, but they also offer a world of fun for our two children.
We received our chickens from our daughter's school.
They were hatching the chicks as a school project.
They hatched about 30 chicks and offered them to families free of charge.
We were the only family to take them up on the offer.
We took 4 chicks home with us and began raising them.
Going in, my wife and I had little knowledge of how to actually raise chickens, build a coop, or care for them.
We quickly found it to be an easy task.
We began by keeping the chickens in a portable cage that we found at a garage sale.
It was most likely an old guinea pig or rabbit cage.
It was about 18"x36".
We housed them it the cage for about 3-4 weeks.
This gave me the time to construct our chicken coop.
I found an area on our property that was already enclosed on 3 sides: a fence on two sides and our storage shed on the third.
I began by building some rough framework to help hold the chicken wire and build the general shape of the coop.
I then built a full-size gate for access.
From there we installed a clear roofing material we found at Home Depot.
Once the general structure was complete I then moved on to build the hen house.
The hen house is where the chickens go to rest and lay eggs.
The hen house needs to be a roofed, enclosed area with several individual houses".
The hen house also needs to be off of the ground.
We have 4 chickens and the hen house I made has 3 individual "houses".
This seems to be plenty and we are finding that they typically lay their eggs in one particular house.
It is also important to build roosts.
Roosts are like small ladders that the chickens can roost upon.
We read that having roosts is critical for egg production.
The final step was to lay down a layer of wood shavings.
We buy one or two large compacted bags of shavings and it works for the whole coop for 3-4 weeks.
Each bag costs about $7.
That is the coop in a nutshell.
We get about 3-4 eggs per day.
We get brown and green eggs! They are beautiful, and the taste is amazing.
There is a major difference between store-bought eggs and our home grown eggs.
We feed the chickens some poultry feed we got from a feed store but also feed them all of our left over fruits and vegetables.
Cleaning the coop is quite easy too.
There are a couple schools of thought here.
Some believe in cleaning the coop once every month or so and disposing of all the removed material.
Others believe in keeping the coop as is and just add additional shavings or hay as needed.
We try to remove as much of the old shavings as possible then lay down new shavings about once per month or more.
Chicken droppings are a very good fertilizer and some people even sell their removed coop material.
We have not tried this yet, but plan to this summer for use in our garden.
Overall we have found raising chickens to be a very rewarding and fun hobby.
They not only produce delicious eggs but have come to find them to be wonderful pets.
We open the coop and let them run around our back yard.
The kids have a ball with them.
The upfront costs are not too much, depending on the size and complexity of your coop.
Once it is up and running there are minimal costs and time associated with raising chickens.
Be sure to check with your city to find out about regulations on back yard chickens.
Most cities now allow them but they do put limits on how many you can keep.