Backyard Chicken Raising - How to Start an Egg Laying Flock
Posted: Thursday, January 07, 2010
by Joshua Hardingur
JMS
Successfully growing chickens in your backyard can be simple, entertaining, and profitable. It can also be gratifying knowing you are producing tasty and nourishing eggs for the entire family. The first thing you should do is to buy or manufacture your own chicken arks, also well-known as chicken tractors, or chicken coops. You will also need to purchase feeders, nests, and a few other things. Then once you have your portable chicken ark or hen house in place, along with the other necessary equipment, you can proceed to get your chickens. But with the many varied options for putting together a flock of chickens, which manner is better?
For the backyard chicken raising apprentice there are three ways to acquire living chickens. One, you can obtain day-old chicks. Two, you are able to buy started pullets which are generally around 19 or 20 weeks of age. And three, you are able to purchase chickens that have already laid eggs for one year. These are called second-year hens. It is important to realize the benefits and disadvantages to each of these methods so that you can make a knowledgeable decision on the ideal option for you.
If you choose to start with day-old chickens you will have to obtain a brooder to keep them comfortable and toasty for their first several weeks until they are developed enough to survive outdoors in a portable chicken ark or hen house. In other words, you will have to purchase a chicken brooder, which will cause your operating expense to go up. Furthermore, it means you will be required to provide special care and consideration to your young chickens if you expect them to survive to maturity.
If you come to a decision to buy second-year hens you might perhaps want to mull over your resolution. At first, it appears to make sense that buying chickens that are experienced egg producers would be a good idea, but there are just too many negatives for this to be an ideal alternative. These chickens can cost more and have numerous other disadvantages. Hens will lay the largest amount of eggs of the highest quality their first year. After that, their production and the quality of their eggs will decline each year. Purchasing second-year chickens means you will get fewer eggs that are lower in quality. Furthermore, transporting these chickens to a different location can cause stress. This can cause molting which will postpone their egg laying, defeating the purpose for buying adult chickens.
The ultimate option for the backyard chicken raising rookie is more often than not to buy started pullets. They will initially be more costly than day-old chicks, but you will usually be able to make back the difference because supplying food to them for the first few months is unnecessary. You will end up saving a fair amount of money on feed that would definitely have been used on day-old chickens. Furthermore, you will not have the extra expenditure for a chicken brooder and will not have to expend as much time to care for the pullets because they will go immediately into your chicken ark or hen house. Buying started pullets is the best way for the backyard chicken raising apprentice to get started in their new endeavor.
Joshua has grown pullets for practically thirty years and has constructed all of his own chicken ark units all through those years. He is an authority in growing chickens for meat and egg production. He maintains an instructional site where you can get free information about backyard chicken raising, getting the highest amount of meat and eggs from your poultry, and more.
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