Essential Tips for First-time Chicken Owners

5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Getting Chickens

1. Flock Health: Never let your chickens run out of water.

If they run out of food for a little bit, they might get a little grumpy, but they will be fine. If laying hens run out of water even for just a few hours when it's really hot, they can quit laying for a week or more. Extended time without water can lead to serious health issues or death. 

2. Egg Quality: Pasture-raised eggs right from your backyard will ruin you.

The mass-produced factory farm eggs from the grocery store will never look appetizing again. 

When raised with care and intentionality, backyard eggs can have: 

• Better shells
• Better nutrition (sometimes more than 300% of vitamins and minerals as compared to factory-farm eggs)
• Stronger yolks

3. Flock Safety: Never underestimate predators.

Chicken wire keeps chickens in but it does not keep even the smallest predators out.

Alternatives such as: 

• Hardware Cloth
• Welded wire

are much more dependable ways to keep your chickens safe. 

Investing in a high-quality chicken tractor or coop always beats constantly repairing a cheap one and replacing dead chickens. 

4. Flock Dynamics: You can't just mix grown birds and chicks that haven't been together all their lives. 

There are ways to slowly integrate them if you’re really careful. But integrating older hens and young chicks without endangering the young ones is tricky. 

There are several primary methods for integrating chicks into an existing flock:

1. Put the new younger chickens in a space adjoining the living quarters of the older established flock. The separation between the two flocks should be a see-through material like chicken wire. This allows the chickens to get used to each other before they are forced to share living space, thus reducing the risk of attack once they are integrated. 
2. A second highly recommended method is bringing young pullets (6-8 wks old minimum) to the established flock during the night when all the hens are roosting and sleeping. Place the pullets on the roost among the older hens. In the morning, the chickens all wake up and accept the newcomers as part of the flock. 

5. Emotional Health: Unless you're just a really calloused person, you will get emotionally attached.

Even if you got chickens as a source of food, you'll tend to start viewing them as pets, especially if you have a young family.

That’s not a bad thing, just be prepared for it.