A Beginners Guide to Chickens

So you want chickens? Good! In case you can’t tell we are obsessed with our chickens, but we weren’t always chicken people. Before we moved to Texas we never had space for chickens and honestly I never thought we’d have chickens. But now that we have them I cannot imagine life without them. Not only do they give us the freshest eggs every day, but they are also SO much fun to be around, eat all our food scraps, and eat a ton of bugs in our yard. But before I completely sell you on going out to buy your own chickens here are a few things you should know/do before you get your flock:

Research what type of chickens you want to get

There are tons of different types of chickens and it’s best to know what type will work best for you and your family. Some things to consider:

  1. Temperament: Do you need your chickens to be great with kids? Do you want your chickens to be cuddly?
  2. Egg production: Are you looking to just get the most bang for your buck egg wise?
  3. Climate: Is it hot and humid year round where you live? Or do you get brutally cold winters?
  4. Egg color: Do you want to get a fun, color coop of eggs everyday?

There are so many incredible breeds of chickens, that you can’t really go wrong. Just do your research and find the best fit for your family. Personally we have Easter Eggers, Buff Orpingtons, Blue Astralorps, Oliver Eggers, and 1 tiny little Lavender Orpington and we love them all 🙂

Make a place for your chickens to live

Figuring out your coop is a must before you get chickens. Figuring out the size coop you fit on your property will also determine how many chickens you can get. Personally I would have loved to get 20+ chickens but with our yard size, we wanted to keep our chicken coop smaller so we settled for 10 chickens. We build a mobile chicken tractor (plans linked here), so we are able to move it regularly so we can rotate the parts of our yard getting impacted by the chickens.

There are tons of options for coops if you visit any feed store, or you can even build your own. As long as it is safe and secure to protect your chickens, then you are all set!

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