Before I started homesteading, I had never raised anything in my life. I knew nothing about raising chickens. My initial thought when it comes to doing something new on the homestead is, “how hard can this be, humans have been doing this for thousands of years?” Now having a few years of solid experience, I can tell you that raising chickens for eggs fits into the category of “not hard at all.” Here is what our first experience raising chickens for eggs (laying hens) looked like.

How We Started

A year into homesteading, my wife took a trip to the local feed store and bought a dozen chicks for $1.00 a piece in the early spring. We then purchased a large metal stock tank and filled the bottom with wood chips. We clipped a heat lamp to the side of the tank, and just like that we were raising chickens!

Once every four to five days we changed out the wood chips. After about two weeks the chicks started to smell very much like a barn. They also kicked up a lot of dust and feathers as they were growing inside the stock tank. We learned that chickens are pretty gross animals. They will defecate in their water and food bowl and eventually start jumping and roosting on top of them. We cleaned the water and food dispenser daily, usually in the morning.

We kept the chicks inside for the first four weeks. This was mainly because it was still cold at night and I did not have their coop ready yet. Once the coop was ready at the end of week four (a converted concrete block milkhouse from our homestead’s past), we moved the chickens into the coop. At this point, they had feathers for some more warmth, but we also kept the heat lamp in the coop for a week or two for good measure. By the time nicer weather arrived, the chicks were larger with more feathers for protection.

The Chicken Coop

For the coop – I built a roost pole out of a 2×4 board mounted to a block wall. The roost sits approximately 8-inches from the wall and is about 48 to 52 inches above the ground. For the nesting boxes, I utilized 1-inch thick hemlock boards. Each individual box is 12-inches square and 12-inches deep. Hens prefer to roost on the highest object they can get at, so I set my roost pole at elevation above the nesting boxes. Another thing with roosting – chickens defecate when they roost, so make sure the roost pole is not above the nesting boxes or it will be filled with manure.

I built a small 2×4 board “perch” in front of the nesting boxes so the hens can jump from the ground onto the perch, and then climb into their boxes. This seems to work well, but probably isn’t as necessary as I originally thought. Chickens are pretty nimble and accurate flyers despite looking clumsy.

It took our hens a week or two to figure out the nesting boxes. At first, they were just sleeping on the ground. Once they got big enough, they figured out how to fly up to the roost pole to nest.

After four months of raising chickens, we had our first egg! They all started laying eggs within about a week of eachother. Chickens lay one egg every 24 hours. For the past four years, we’ve received approximately one egg per chicken (they do slow up in the winter, but never enough that we had to buy eggs!).

Life with Chickens

Our chickens roam around our homestead everyday. We do not have any close neighbors, so that really isn’t an issue for us. They typically stay within 100 yards of the coop and seem to stay off the roads. We did have to fence in our garden as a result of getting chickens, but that has other benefits too. Chickens are good bug eaters. They constantly have their beaks to the ground eating aphids, ticks, crickets, grasshoppers, and just about anything else they can get their beaks on (fallen apples and blueberries are a delicacy for them on our homestead!). Another benefit of letting them roam the homestead is that they pick up “grit” to help them digest their food. This is in the form of small rocks and gritty material that is required in their diet.

We provide our chickens with food scraps when available such as watermelon rinds, vegetable pieces, and occasionally a fresh deer leg during hunting season after we butcher off the meat (yes, chickens have carnivorous tendencies and it helps their egg production in the winter).

For the chicken’s main feed, we purchase custom ground feed from one of the local farmers who grinds his own feed. We have used store bought feed in the past, but nothing beats farmers supporting other farmers.

We use hay for bedding in the chicken coop. We place approximately three quarters of a bale of hay in the coop every 3-4 weeks. The old hay is removed and composted for our garden, which is mixed with chicken manure. Our chickens go outside every day, so the coop stays fairly clean.

Our chickens have survived temperatures as low as -10 degrees Fahrenheit without issues. Chickens are very hardy birds. They basically just require a roof and wind protection. They will sit on their roost pole all “puffed” out when it is cold, all day. The hardest thing about keeping chickens through the winter months is keeping their water thawed. Keeping chickens hydrated is essential, as with all animals.

Final Thoughts

Chickens are a good “starter” animal to get on your homestead. They are simple to take care of and provide a major benefit – fresh eggs! We have had the same chickens for over four years, and they are still producing just fine!