Maintaining your own flock of backyard chickens is rewarding in a few ways. They make interesting pets and dynamic lawn ornaments that also provide fresh food for your family. They’re relatively low maintenance once you make a few key decisions and they can provide entertainment and nutrition. Below, learn more about the essential chicken supplies you need to sustain a small flock of chickens in your own backyard.
A flock of chickens can be comfortable in a surprisingly small place, particularly at night. While you’ll want to give them ample room to move about during the day, at night they will happily share a small area. All six of mine crowd the same perch every night, all mashed against one another.
To that end, you could house your chickens in a basic coop like this. This allows for some fresh air access as well as close quarters that chicken body heat will easily keep warm even in colder months. The waterproof roof will help keep everything dry, while a nest box on the side provides a good laying area.
Ultimately, these are best suited to just a couple of chickens, but will excel in a small yard without much room for a larger structure. It’s also a good idea to pair this with another covered outdoor roaming area, like the BestPet Exercise Pen, also on our list.
A modified shed can make a great chicken coop without requiring plans or a lot of work. My chickens live in a former utility shed modified to suit their needs. A chicken coop needs to be well ventilated, let in natural light, maintain a consistent temperature, and be easy to clean.
A shed made for people to routinely enter will encourage you to clean it more often than one that is difficult to access. This option features windows on the side, as well as skylights to let light in. It’s also got ventilated vents that promote good circulation, while the resin construction is totally waterproof and predator-resistant. The large size is suitable for a fairly large flock, with options of eight feet by six feet and eight feet square.
Of course, it will need some modification to function best as a coop. You’ll need to find a way to add roosts, attach ropes or chains for hanging the feeder and waterer, and install nest boxes. You may also wish to cut a chicken door in one side to give them access to their outdoor space.
Additionally, you’ll want to check on the ventilation to make sure that where you place this will receive enough moving air to take advantage of the vents. If you smell ammonia or it seems overly warm in the coop, it isn’t ventilated well enough and you’ll want to cut an additional hole for an exhaust fan. This will provide the added benefit of removing dust from the environment.
If a small pre-fab coop or a retrofit shed don’t meet your coop requirements and you don’t have another structure on your property that can do the job, you’re looking at learning how to build a chicken coop. This has the advantage of being exactly what you want and fitting your property perfectly, but obviously requires quite a bit more work.
You can make the design process easy by buying plans that will give you a shopping list and all the necessary cuts in a neat package. This design is just one option, with others also available.
If you opt for a coop that’s quite small or has no attached, secure outdoor area, you’ll want to have another place for your chickens to investigate. Chickens will pretty quickly eat and destroy the grass if left in one spot too long, so by using a moving playpen, you can spare your lawn without spoiling their fun.
This measures 86 inches by 40 inches by 40 inches for a good sized play area. A waterproof cover is included in case of random rain shower and to provide some shade from direct sun. Like a dog crate, this folds down and sets up relatively quickly, making it easy to move to a new spot.
If you want to have laying hens, they will naturally require someplace to lay. If you don’t provide a clear spot, they’ll lay just about anywhere, which will result in lost eggs, which will eventually rot or encourage predators to visit.
While these can of course be built relatively simply from wood, you may wish to have something a bit more robust for this job. This galvanized steel option assembles in about 45 minutes with a screwdriver and a wrench and can serve up to 30 hens.
The nest bottoms are removable for cleaning while the overall construction provides excellent ventilation. Perches in the front make entry and exit easy and this can be bolted up high for convenience.
While normal shavings work just fine in nesting boxes, I prefer nesting pads because they stay in place a little better. A nice little addition is also the Happiest Chicken Nesting Box Herbs, which deters pests and extends freshness.
Whether you build your own coop or retrofit a shed to do the job, you’ll need to install a door specifically for chicken access. When the weather is nice, it’s ideal to allow your flock an outside space to scratch and soak up the sun.
While these can be as simple as a manually-operated sliding door, if you can swing it, an automated door will make your life easier. There have been more than a few nights when my evening routine was thrown off and I forgot to close the coop. While my chicken yard is protected from predators, you never know what could happen, so this piece of mind can go a long way.
This consists of the typical slider door with a weatherproofed timer unit. Set the time you want the door to be opened or closed and a motor actuates the operation. A door closed light will show you from a distance that it has succeeded, as well as alert you to low batteries.
When considering a poultry drinker or chicken waterer, the primary considerations are: volume of water it can hold, ease of refilling, and ease of cleaning. There are a few designs out there that allow water to backflow from where the chickens drink into the reservior, which will promote fast algae growth.
This style, which uses individual cups for the drinking area, allows you to wash the cups individually from the container itself, which will help keep things clean. It also prevents backflow and maintains cleaner water on the whole. The hinged top also makes it easy to refill and to clean.
Chickens drink between one and two cups per day, with laying hens drinking twice as much as non-layers. Keep this in mind when calculating what size waterer to get – more frequent refills are good for keeping water fresh, but if you go too small, your chickens may be without water for a period of time. Also, if you allow your chickens to move freely between coop and an outdoor space, you’ll probably want a waterer for each spot, especially in the summer.
This four gallon waterer is great for backyard flocks. In my experience, it will need to be filled just about once a week. You could also go with a slightly larger five gallon version with valves instead of cups, or upgrade to a much larger 12 gallon waterer, which is a bit harder to clean.
You can also go with one that has a large water dish that allows many chickens to drink at once, but I find that these are harder to clean and get dirty faster.
If you live in a cold area of the country, you may want to switch to a heated version to prevent freezing. Note that a heated waterer is all the warming a well-sorted chicken coop is likely to need for the winter in most cases; a coop heater is not required and can be dangerous.
When it comes to feeding your chickens, something simple will do the trick. You just need a vessel that will keep food off the ground, preferably away from pests, and provide fair access to all of your chickens.
This is the one I use and it works like a dream. I refill it every few days by simply pouring a scoop of feed into the top. Ten pounds feeds roughly ten to 25 birds at varying rates. It’s super easy clean and hang either indoors or out.
Virtually all of the nutrition your chickens need can be found in commercially-available pellet feeds. These make owning chickens easy and are ideal for the casual backyard chicken owner.
To that end, if you want organic eggs, you have to give your chickens organic feed. Manna Pro makes a range of excellent feeds for a variety of animals and their layer feed is no exception. It’s a typical 16 percent protein formulation, with no GMOs and is certified organic.
There are, of course, more considerations when it comes to feeding chickens than just adult laying hen feed, such as chick starter and times when you may need to adjust the protein. Be sure to consult one of the books on this list for further feeding guidelines. For the most part, though, a pellet like these will give you excellent results.
Once you’ve purchased your large bag of chicken feed, you’ll need something to store it in. The bag it comes in is really insufficient for a few reasons, the least of which is that it won’t keep the feed quite as fresh.
A large, sturdy trash can excels at this job. There are two schools of thought to consider when making your decision. Some chicken owners and guides say that a plastic container with a tight-fitting lid is best, like the option featured here. This container is NSF certified food safe and reinforced to provide robust performance in environments a lot more demanding than holding some chicken feed.
Conversely, some feel that plastic containers don’t hold up to pests as well as a galvanized steel trash can does. Generally speaking, steel cans are advised against because they can sweat in the hot months, which in turn promotes mold growth. If you have especially cool spot for it and a real problem with rodents, you might be compelled toward this option.
Supplemental feeding usually comes in the form of scratch – food you throw around your chickens’ living area to encourage them to forage and seek out added nutrition. Scratch can be used to add interest, provide extra energy to free ranging birds, and to adjust the protein level in the diet overall.
Scratch should consist of at least two types of grain, with one of them generally being cracked corn. This offering includes seven different grains: corn, wheat, milo, barley oats, sunflower seeds, and millet. This provides a good mix of nutrients and energy, while giving your chickens an enriching environment. They also make a 6 Grain & Flaxseed Scratch and Garden Delight Poultry Treat if you want to vary it further.
For the most part, you’ll probably spread scratch in their outdoor area. It can be especially good for training chickens to come to you, for example. You can also use it in their coop since digging for scratch will help mix up their bedding and keep everything dry.
In addition to scratch, chickens love treats now and again, with grubs being among their favorites. I treat my chickens with these, U.S.-grown black soldier fly grubs.
The additional calcium helps form stronger eggs while providing a very compelling foraging treat. My chickens don’t like anything as much as they like these, so if you really want them to come running over when you visit, give these a whirl.
They are, admittedly, quiet expensive, so you can opt for a smaller bag if you’re only feeding ocassionally, though this is not solely U.S.-grown. Cheaper still are Picky Neb Mealworms, which chickens love equally. Kaytee also makes a Mealworm & Corn mixture if you want both.
In the spirit of encouraging your hens to lay in the nest box (or wherever you want them to lay), these decoy ceramic nest eggs help to encourage a variety of preferred behaviors in laying hens.
New layers will often lay where these eggs are, particularly if there’s a lack of other obvious direction. Because they’re ceramic, it also discourages egg breaking. When they’re adjusting to their new coop and in the days before they begin laying in earnest, they may test these eggs, but since they won’t break, the temptation to break and eat them can be discouraged.
A simple product that does a good job, in my experience.
Before you do anything else, you should read up on your future flock. Unless you’ve had chickens before, you may not be aware of the many ins and outs of chicken maintenance. While tending a small backyard flock is not quite on the same level as trying to achieve a commercial egg operation, there are still valuable insights to be gained.
The bible of chickens is this guide, which has been out and updated over 20 years. This will tell you everything you need to know, and a whole bunch of interesting information besides. I read this cover-to-cover before I acquired my chickens and it was very helpful in sorting out exactly how I wanted to go about it.
There’s a lot of stuff in here and not all of it is strictly relevant to smaller hobbyist chicken owners who are just looking for a few eggs, but I reliably get a minimum of five eggs a day with strong shells and great flavor, so it must have taught me something.
The floor of your coop will need bedding wherever chickens are allowed to roam. You need something relatively cheap because you need quite a lot of it, as well as being very absorbent, relatively lightweight, and as dust-free as possible.
Pine shavings make just about the best option going because it captures all of these properties and can be composted when you’re done. It also dries quickly, so you can extend the life of each package by regular stirring and rotation. As long as it’s relatively clean and dry and not packed down, it’s still good.
Another option worth considering is hemp bedding, but it’s a bit more expensive.
If you plan to have your flock primarily free ranging, eating plant matter around your yard or in a field, you’ll have to supplement them with grit. Flocks primarily fed with commercial food like we’ve mentioned on this list don’t require grit because that food can be processed without it, but birds with a primarily plant-based diet will.
Grit lodges in a chicken’s gizzard and allows them to grind plants up for digestion. This particular offering is made from crushed granite, which is ideal, and offers added probiotics. They also make chick grit, if you’re raising them from very young.
Free-range hens will also require a calcum supplement, often in the form of crushed oyster shell. This helps keep eggshells hard and thick. Other supplements are needed for primarily plant-eating hens, too, so consult your favorite reference guide to decide.
If you don’t buy your chicks or hens from a source that can guarantee the sex, you might wind up with a rooster in your flock. It happens often enough, but you might also opt to have a rooster for that small amount of protection they can add from predators.
If you do, however, you need to be aware that the rooster will likely mate with all of the hens regularly. When they do, they mount the hen and dig their feet into the hen’s back, eventually stripping the feathers on the hen’s back. You can prevent this – or prevent it from recurring – with a chicken saddle.
These are durable fabric capes hens can wear that keep rooster feet off their back and allow their feathers to grow back. This one has adjustable straps and should fit a wide range of hens. It’s a simple fix, but worth having one for each hen when there’s a rooster around.
Much like my beloved chinchillas, chickens use dust baths to keep themselves clean. Dust baths remove moisture from their skin, discourage pests, and help keep them cool.
If you don’t have a dry, dusty area for your birds to bathe outside, you’ll need to provide them with a dust bath. This product is a mix of aluminum silicate and diatomaceous earth, among other ingredients, that peform this job well. Combine with a bathing dish so you can offer them a two to three inch deep layer.
When you need to collect eggs everyday, you’ll soon tire of juggling a bunch of them and still trying to open doors. Grab yourself a classic egg basket to make collection easy. This particular option will hold up to two dozen eggs.
There are more fanciful options, like this chicken-adorned holder, but they’re not as practical.
Whether you plan on selling eggs, giving them away, or just stockpiling them, you’ll want to start off with a reserve of egg cartons. They fill up faster than you think, so unless you’ve been planning ahead by saving cartons from store-bought eggs, this will rectify the situation easily.
Unless you’re an omlette fanatic, you’ll probably want a variety of ways to enjoy your new super-fresh eggs. You’ll find yourself trying to find ways to use them, so you might as well invest in egg-centric cookbooks to diversify your egg usage.