[Celeste]

1: what breed of chicken is standardly used for egg laying?

2: how difficult is it to build a chicken coop for maybe 5 chickens?

3: does there have to be a rooster present for the females to lay INFERTILE (eating) eggs?

4: can you just let the chickens run around wherever, or should you keep them in an enclosed pen? will they run away or stick where the food is?

just some research

[arabianlvr87]

1. NO CLUE, but I have a Rhode Island Red chickens, and then hen lays eggs just fine.


2. My dad built an "arcitecturaly" (sp?) sound coop for hree that took 4 months.

3. No

4. I'd keep them in, my first two were attacked and killed wehn I let them out unsupervised.

[CJ]

I have had hawks divebomb my guineas, fox go under the raised rabbit cage housing the chicks, and neighbors have had raccoons get into the coop cage.. so all the options have some peril. Loose is probably the 'worst', layers are sitting ducks, and having a high perch is probably ideal. I never? lost a bird from a high roost. I would have put them in a Big cage if they weren't so good at debugging the yard.

[luckylady]

Well almost any chicken will lay eggs, we personally have always used a red sussex cross. That way you can use them for both meat and eggs. But they're not as heavy as a meat bird.

As for a rooster the only reason you need one is if you want to hatch chicks, although they sound beautiful when they coc.k a doodle doo!!! I should know, unfortunately I have 6 roosters!!! LOL

I free range all my chicken the eggs taste better that way. But when you first get them , you'll want to keep them in their coop for a solid 2 weeks, so they know where their roost is. No outside what so ever for the first 2 weeks!!!

Mine go all around the farm, but never leave home. But I do have to put up a little fence around all my flower beds or they will have dirt baths in them, and well the flowers don't look so good after that!! LOL.

As for the coop that's entirerly up to you, but if you're only gonna have 5 chickens you wouldn't need a very large coop. Remeber in the winter the closer together they are, the warmer they'll be.

Happy hatching, hope that helped!
Raechelle

[Celeste]

i want mine to be able to eat bugs and worms and things. i want their diet to be as natural and varied as possible. i'm going to of course give them a standard chicken feed, but they need live food too ^_^

[Appylvr]

Some of my favorites are the Buff Orpingtons and Light Brahmas, very beautiful chickens. I'd stay away from roosters if I were you.... but I'm afraid of them so of course I'd say that My friends had chickens and they would always loose them, with dogs getting them, etc... so I think it's best to keep them in a coop, but maybe a big one... I wouldn't think it would be too hard or expensive to build your own coop....

[Magzinator]

1.) White Legerns (that's what my dad said)

2.) Not too terribly hard, do you have stalls? you could put them in the stalls if you have a spare

3.)No

4.) I don't advise you letting your chickens run around at night or if you have dogs cuase your el chickens might not be in there el pen in the morning lol, but I think the eggs taste better if they're both grain and grass fed.

[Celeste]

i was thinking of having like a coop with a small dirt pen attached that has like a chicken wire "ceiling" over it. and then have like another fenced area that's larger adjacent to the smaller dirt pen that's part of the back yard and grassy. their will be like a little door or gate to connect them. the chickens can go in the grassy area during the day, and they go in the smaller area with the coop at night.

[luckylady]

Mine are out all day with the dogs and cat we've never had a problem.
My neighbor on the next quarter kept losing his chickens to foxes but he didn't have a dog. So maybe the dogs help.

I've also have some buff orpingtons and Brahmas, they make great nesting hens. They raise all my chicks.

As for roosters not many are mean. Ours are all quite friendly. We've got a couple of Columbian Rock, Sussex and some Brahmas. No mean ones yet!! If they get mean they get the frying pan, LOL.

Below is a buff orpington with some of the other chickes chicks (surrogate mother)

[SammyDoodle]

I have two "Light Sussex" hens

They lay 12 large eggs per week between them - I dont have a rooster

Mine are free range and fed organic "layers pellets" and they scratch about for worms and they come to me to "beg" for rasins and other goodies!

I kept them in a pen surrounding their house for the first week I had them. In this way they became happy to go to their house and perch up at night. Now they run around the garden all day and take themselves off to bed at about 8:30 pm (earlier in the winter) They dont run away

If you are building a hen house it needs to be secure from foxes and other predators - make sure you lock them in at night - they like to feel secure.

The house must have "perches" - they need to "perch up" when they go to zzzzz

And you could add a little nesting box as well

Chickens are great pets

Oh quick edit here - they drink a lot of water - make sure you keep their water dispenser full