Why You Need a {Small} Flock of Chickens

You're probably thinking that the only thing a flock of chickens, even a SMALL flock, could possibly add to your life, would be more WORK.

Well, I'm writing this lens to prove to you how wrong you would be in making that assumption.

Not only is having your own flock not going to be that much work on your part, but your chickens are going to provide you with the most delicious eggs you've ever eaten in your entire life, not to mention they have some entertainment value also. The chickens that is, not the eggs.

So let me try to persuade you to have your own small flock of chickens.

Photo, above: That's our hen "Red", and the red roo who was supposed to be a hen also. Red roo has passed on. He was mean. Very, very mean. 'Nuf said. Oh, and that's Midge's butt behind them.

Because I know you're dying to find out.

My reasons were simple. We live on 27 acres, so we have room. We had an old coop. It would have worked just fine, until the hubby burned off our pastures in the spring of '09 and severely torched the coop in the process. Luckily, we didn't have the chickens yet.

(The only casualty was Barack, our black cat - he lost his whiskers and he was crunchy when I petted him. Just a few singed hairs ~trust me, he was fine. Our barn cats would hang out in the coop back then - not anymore!)

I wanted fresh eggs. I had heard so many good things about having your own chickens, and getting fresh eggs from them, how superior they are to supermarket eggs, yada, yada, yada.

I wanted to be a REAL country girl, dang-it.

And so finally, in the fall of 2011, we purchased our first chicks at the local Orscheln's. I only wanted hens, but then caved and got one rooster. So I picked out my "pullets" (I say "pullet" loosely - you'll find out why later...) 2 Rhode Island Reds, 2 Buff Orpingtons, 1 Ameraucana, 1 Barred Rock and 1 Barred Rock rooster.

In fact, I love Amazon so much that I bought a subscription to Amazon Prime this year. Because I have a Kindle Fire and I want books to read. Ok, who am I kidding.... I'm a glutton for shopping on Amazon, and I want my stuff delivered as fast as possible!

But I digress. If you've been thinking about getting your own chickens, here are some great starter books. I have Storey's Guide, and it's a good-sized book chock-full of info. It's the kind of book you'll dig out of the bookcase time and time again. I highly recommend it.

Or, why did I pick them?

I did lots of research on chicken breeds before I picked mine. I also had Australorp and Dorking on my list, but my local store didn't have either of these breeds when I purchased my chicks.

The characteristics of the following breeds will help you understand the reasons I decided to include them in my flock.

Rhode Island Red: Considered a dual-purpose bird, good for meat and eggs. Popular for backyard flocks because of their egg laying abilities and hardiness. Friendly chickens, often good as pets for children, except for the roosters, which can become aggressive when annoyed. (amen to that!) Hens will lay more than average hens (+200 eggs/year) if fed a quality feed and/or free ranged. Our hen, Red, is a bit stand-offish but she's a good layer.

(see photo in intro, above)

Buff Orpington: Perfect backyard, homestead chickens. Large (7-10 lbs) and easily tamed. Hens make great mothers. Excellent layers with good meat quality. This breed does well in very cold climates. We started with two pullets and ended up with a hen and a rooster. Sally is skittish but tolerates being removed from the nesting box quite well. Foghorn, the rooster, needs to stop trying to assert his dominance over me and my husband, else he will end up in the same place as the red roo did.

Barred Rock: Also known as Plymouth Rock. This is a cold-hardy, dual-purpose chicken and a great addition to the backyard flock. Both hens and roosters are evenly tempered, and usually get along well with people and other animals. Hens are good mothers, and good layers. We have two - Roxanne (aka the bitch) and Chickie, who adores my husband.

Ameraucana: Most Ameraucanas are actually "mutt" Easter Eggers. They have the blue egg-laying gene, but do not meet any of the Ameraucana breed descriptions found in the American Poultry Association's standards. Regardless, we love our "mutt" Midge, both for her blue eggs and for her unique feather coloring and her sweet face.

Bottom line: the breeds I picked were generally known for being calm, relatively docile and friendly, climate-hardy, and good egg layers.

Photo note: The photos shown are of my own flock. Please do not copy or use these photos on other websites without proper credit to Oz Girl.

May 2013, additional side note -- I agonized over re-uploading these photos when I noticed at some point that they were no longer here. For reasons unbeknownst to me, I cannot seem to upload them in a larger resolution so that they are not so pixelated. I have spent well over 2 hours trying to figure this out and I think I finally give up.

One Rooster to Every 10 Hens

That's if you don't want cock fights in your coop. I didn't, so my plan was to buy all pullets, and avoid the rooster issue all together.

Ah, the best laid plans....

As mentioned above, I ended up buying all pullets and then changed my mind and bought one rooster - a "pan-fry" special. The girl at the store assured me that meant "rooster". So we left the store with 8 chicks total.

My "pan-fry" special was a barred rock rooster. Sadly, as the chicks matured, we discovered that two of the other pullets were actually roosters in disguise. So I had paid more for pullets and still ended up with roosters!

One of the buff orpingtons was a rooster and one of the rhode island reds was a rooster. Sigh.... such a dilemma. Way too many roosters for our small flock.

As they grew, they started to fight. It was inevitable. My "pan-fry" special, the barred rock roo, was picked on mercilessly, and of all the roosters, he seemed to have the best temperament. Whether he got sick, or the other two roosters hurt him, we'll never know. But he became rather inert and listless, so I brought him into the house in a dog crate and kept him on the back porch, trying to nurse him back to health. Alas, I woke up one Saturday morning, went to check on him, and he was dead. I was oh-so-sad.

The rhode island red rooster was proving to be extremely aggressive and mean, so hubby dispatched him one sunny day.

The buff orpington rooster seemed to be fine. But lately he has also become aggressive, so he may eventually go the way of the Red Roo.

Aggressive roosters are no laughing matter and can inflict considerable injury and damage to a human. I've already had my run-in with our golden roo, and now when I need to go into the chicken pen or coop, I ensure that I am adequately protected in case he decides to assert his male dominance. Follow this link to read my tongue-in-cheek blog post about my adventures with our angry rooster.

What can you learn from this? It's probably best to spend the few extra dollars for pullets if you don't want roosters, but just bear in mind that sexing chicks is a difficult job, and it's not always guaranteed. You may STILL end up with a rooster. Or two. Or three....

You'll need a feeder (or two) for your chickens, and a few waterers too. If you don't get yours at Amazon, you can usually get them at your local Tractor Supply, Orscheln's, Atwood's, etc. You'll want to be sure you get the right size of feeder for the number of chickens you have - you don't want any fighting, or any of the chickens being crowded out and not being able to eat!

Whether you've had chickens in the past, or you have them now. Whether you like them, or not. I want to know whatever you want to tell me about chickens.

Or, if you want, you can just tell me that you enjoyed my lens. :-)