[Fuamami]

I don't know if this goes here, but I was wondering if anyone has city chickens, and if so, if they have any advice. I just ordered some, which seemed a little cavalier of me, but we've had this coop I got on Freecycle sitting in our driveway for a month, so...

I had chickens when I was little, on our ranch, but I imagine this is going to be different. Is it really easy to compost their manure? How many hens would you recommend for a .25 acre city lot? Any book recommendations?

TIA!

 

[greenmagick]

:

I have been thinking about getting chickens but know nothing so I'm subscribing

 

[Shahbazin]

Keep Chickens! is a good urban chicken book - Your Chickens is aimed at kids, but is also really good for beginners w/small flocks. http://feathersite.com/ has all the links/info you could want!

 

[chefpaige1]

Our babysitter has city chickens with great success. Good luck!

 

[thekimballs]

Did you check your zoning? Lots of urban areas forbid poultry of any kind and I wouldn't want you to get in trouble.

Your challenges are going to be forage and fencing. I don't know what kind of coop you have, but a modified chicken tractor approach would probably be best for a tiny lot. I wouldn't have more than half a dozen hens; that's more eggs than you'll need. Chicken manure is good compost, but it's "hot" and requires lots of ageing and you'll need to figure out a bedding that you can compost as well (shavings, the most common choice, takes years to compost, so you'll want to do something quicker).

Oh, and do your research on feeds. Most chicken feed is pretty bad stuff--try to find a vegetarian-only feed.

 

[Fuamami]

Thanks for the book recommendations! Our zoning states no farm animals, but I know there's lots of households around here that have chickens, partly because a lot of them raise roosters. So I'm not too worried. I already asked the one neighbor who will notice if they'd mind, and they were excited.

So how about feeding table scraps? And what's the problem with chicken feed? Is it the horses?

 

[thekimballs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by natensarah So how about feeding table scraps? And what's the problem with chicken feed? Is it the horses?

Scraps (vegetarian) are a good addendum, but you also need a commercial mash or a feed specialist to tell you what to feed. Modern laying hens are incredibly specialized and quite modified from the wild type; you need to meet their "freakish" (when compared to wild) needs for calcium and protein so that egg-laying doesn't wear them down.

Chickens are the lowest common denominator in the livestock world. Their feed is the cheapest, crappiest, sweep-shavings-into-a-barrel stuff that exists, because if you're only getting two cents for an egg wholesale you'd better be able to feed a chicken for substantially less than two cents a day. Those protein needs are met with MBM (meat and bone meal), meaning that your chicken is eating cow and pig and horse and so on. You want to make sure you get a vegetarian-only feed, and if you're sensitive to soy or some of the other cheaper vegetables (if they're cheap to grow, they'll end up in chicken feed), be very vigilant about reading labels. Ask around at your feed store; they're usually very knowledgeable.