Expect to commit. Most battery-cage hens live for only a year and are then pulled out of production and “processed,” but a well-cared-for domestic chicken may live up to ten years. While the first two to four years of life are the most productive egg-laying years, most layer breeds will dependably lay for up to seven. If you raise healthy, laying breeds, you’ll be pulling eggs out of the nest box for many years.
Expect to make some modifications to your lifestyle. Whether it’s sharing a backyard with your feathered friends or traveling a bit less, bringing home any new pet warrants some compromises to your current routine.
Expect that your chickens will take a break from egg laying every once in a while for their health and well-being. A hen’s reproductive system waxes and wanes with the seasons. Egg laying naturally declines in winter as the days grow shorter. Other annual events, such as molting, will also put the brakes on laying for a little while.
Expect to be thoroughly entertained. Chickens are, in a word, ridiculous. They have a waddle that’s nothing short of slapstick comedy, they make the funniest chuckles and chortles you’ve ever heard, and their antics never cease. You will never be bored keeping chickens. Promise.
Softscapes: Mulch, Soil, Lawn, and Gardens
Of all the “’scapes” in the garden, softscapes are the most susceptible to destruction by chickens. Soil harbors all manner of grubby bugs, wriggly worms, seeds, and nuts, and seeking out and finding this forage is what chickens live for.
To the gardener, mulch is a must. It protects the precious topsoil, helps the ground retain moisture, and keeps weeds to a minimum. To the chicken, mulch is a flimsy barrier between her beak and the good stuff. In a few swift digs of her talons, she’ll send the mulch flying, revealing the vulnerable soil and bugs below. Like a moth to a flame, chickens instinctively know to search under mulch, piles of leaves, and similar ground covering to find protein-rich forage.
Like mulched areas, flower beds and edible gardens are prone to damage from free-roaming chickens. Vegetable gardens and fruit trees are especially targeted: The sweet greens, juicy fruits, plump veggies, and tender seedlings of newly planted beds are simply irresistible to chickens. With both mulched and cultivated gardens, fencing is the only surefire way to keep chickens from getting to these valuable crops. Fencing can be utilized to corral chickens to one area, enclose entire gardens, or even cover individual beds, so do what works best for your setup and budget.
Generally speaking, grass-covered lawn is less vulnerable than the types of gardens described above. While chickens will dig and scratch at grass, they’ll only do significant damage if they are confined to a small patch for a very long time. Chickens will nibble the tips from grass and take bites of weed and plant leaves but will rarely pull up any of these from the roots while grazing. Chickens may be rotated on grass with portable fencing or pens very successfully. (Chicken “tractors” and “arcs” serve much the same purposes; see chapter 6 for more on portable housing.) The size of the pen and the number of birds in your flock will give you an idea of how quickly they’ll eat the greens down to dirt. For the first few rotations, you will need to watch them closely and move them before you see significant damage to your grass.
“Misc”-Scapes: Outdoor Furniture, Birdbaths, and Garden Accessories
As with deck railings and fences, some garden accessories, such as outdoor furniture, birdbaths, outdoor grills, and garden art, will be used as perching and preening posts. Remove or relocate pieces that you don’t want soiled, especially anything that children play with, such as swing sets or outdoor play equipment, and anything that comes into contact with food, such as grills and tabletops. Furniture that remains outdoors will almost certainly require regular cleaning after perching and preening activities, or you may opt to store it when not in use.
But don’t toss the plastic pink flamingos just yet: Many garden accessories are simply of no interest to chickens. My flock shares the garden with a life-sized concrete chicken statue that goes largely unnoticed. New birds will often eyeball the statue with a sidelong glance, but once they determine that the gray hen is not a threat, they’ll go about the more important business
of tearing up my flower garden in search of crickets.
None of this information is meant to discourage you from allowing your chickens to free-range. In fact, foraging—and all of the great health benefits that come with it—is an essential aspect of any chicken’s life. As with any other area of chicken keeping, I listed these concerns because a few preventive steps can go a long way toward derailing any unfortunate surprises for a new chicken keeper. So, find a happy medium: Protect your gardens, but let your chickens have some free-range time. It’s entirely possible to have a beautiful, flourishing garden, clean outdoor spaces, and happy, free-roaming chickens.
3: The Ins and Outs of Chickens
With so many breeds and varieties of chickens to choose from—not to mention the ability to order online with a few clicks and have them in your hands weeks later, you’ll have some initial choices to make before bringing home the babes. Your choices will range from the 4 lb. (2 kg) game bantam to the 10 lb. (5 kg) Jersey Giant, and between those two extremes are birds with frizzled feathers, beards and muffs, and genes that allow them to lay green and blue eggs. Some breeds are silly and sociable, and some can be standoffish and aloof. Some are flighty, and some are bold. While the topic of chicken breeds could easily fill a whole book (and it has), this chapter will focus on the breeds that are best for the suburban backyard. These birds are primarily egg-laying champions and superfriendly birds. Most of them forage well or live in the smaller coops afforded to urban or suburban backyards, and they’re all really good looking to boot.
But before we get to the outs, let’s start with the ins. Large or small, there’s one thing that all of these breeds have in common: their anatomy. While knowing the ins and outs of chicken behavior will help you provide them with all they need to be comfortable and content, knowing the ins and outs of chicken anatomy will help you catch early signs of disease, symptoms of infestations, and will, overall, turn you into a better chicken keeper.
Chicken Anatomy 101
Chickens may seem like simple creatures to the naked eye, but nature has expertly crafted them to thrive with scarce food sources, find an appropriate mate, safely produce and protect their young, and so much more. Knowing what makes them tick is part of the joy of keeping chickens.
Our many varieties of chickens were cultivated and bred from a humble ground fowl native to Southeast Asia. It is thought that both the red jungle fowl and gray jungle fowl provided some genes to the domesticated chicken we know today, and as such, our various modern-day birds have a few things in common to all.
For starters, all domestic chickens have two legs, two wings, and feathers. (I know, tough stuff, here. Are you taking notes?) With the exception of the Araucana breed (see chapter 3 for more on them), all chickens have a tail. Most have four toes, but a few breeds have five. And regardless of gender, all chickens have a comb.
The Outs
The comb is a fleshy, featherless patch of skin on the top of a chicken’s head. Both male and female at all life stages have one, but an adult male’s comb is usually the most pronounced. Combs range in color from bright red to dark maroon and reach their deepest color around sexual maturity. The styles of combs include the single, rose, pea, buttercup, cushion, and strawberry, among others. The males’ large comb is helpful when attracting a mate, but the comb’s main function is to regulate the body’s temperature through blood circulation. Breeds suitable for warmer temperatures tend to sport a larger comb (to release more heat), and those bred for colder climes have a smaller, more compact comb.
The eyes and ears are located on the chicken’s head. Like most birds,