February 28, 2025 • 38 mins
Are you ready to embark on a poultry adventure? Whether you're new to the idea of keeping backyard chickens or you're looking to refine your approach, our latest episode dives deep into the essentials of chicken ownership. We explore everything from the joys of nurturing these feathered friends to the practicalities of maintaining a happy, healthy flock.
We kick off by discussing the benefits of raising chickens in your backyard—from fresh eggs to the joy of interacting with these charming creatures. We delve into local regulations to help you understand what’s possible in your area and how to find the perfect breeds to suit your lifestyle. Heritage breeds make excellent companions and are perfect for beginners! With solid recommendations on setting up a cozy coop and safe run, we walk you through the must-have features to create a thriving environment for your chickens.
Feeding your chickens a nutritious diet is key to their health and productivity. We share insights on the best practices for selecting feeds, adding nutritious supplements, and even incorporating kitchen scraps into their diet! Our conversation also covers all the health considerations you'll need to keep your flock safe from illness.
The episode unfolds with heartwarming anecdotes that highlight the bond between family and chickens, encouraging listeners to involve their children in care routines. From learning responsibility to enjoying quality time together, raising chickens can deepen family relationships.
Join us on this exciting journey and learn how to bring the fun of chicken keeping into your life! Don't forget to subscribe, share your thoughts, and maybe even ask your own questions—let's cluck about chickens together!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Are we ready, pawpaw?
Hello friends and welcome toChicken.
Every Day, a podcast for you,the backyard chicken enthusiasts
, and mine.
Your host is my Pawpaw, gary,Gary Valerie of Senla Backyard
Chickens.
Here we have fun while sharingideas and learning how to care
for our foul-feathered friends.
Check out our videos at Senlathat's C-E-N-L-A Backyard
(00:24):
Chickens on YouTube, tiktok andFacebook.
So, without further ado, let'sstart today's show.
How was that?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Hello friends, Gary, with CENLA Backyard Chickens
here with you, and before youknow it, chick season is going
to be here.
It's late February right nowand you're already starting to
see some arrivals showing up atsome of your bigger box stores.
It's time for everybody to startgetting excited.
This video is for the brand newchicken keeper who's just
looking out.
This is what I want to do.
(00:55):
I want to start gettingchickens, but I don't know where
to start.
This is a good starting placeright here.
Something I tell folks all thetime knowledge is power.
Look online, find out what'sout there.
There's many people like methat are trying to be helpful
and get you started on thisproject.
But first of all, understandthere is no absolute perfect way
(01:15):
to do it.
Just because I do it one wayover here at Settling Lob
Backyard Chicken, someone elsedoes it successfully a different
way where they are.
So understand that going in,there's many ways to do this and
there's a lot of chickenkeepers out there that you can
find out and get goodinformation from, and I
recommend that you do this.
You know this is a hobby for meand I go out and I hang out with
(01:37):
my birds.
It's a great way for me tounwind.
My grandkids enjoy it with me.
We get a lot of great eggs outof it.
I even sell some eggs because Ihave more chickens than
probably what I should.
It's a great thing for me to doand it's a great way for me to
just chill.
I love these birds.
I've been doing it a lot ofyears, put it like that.
(01:59):
I started out as a boy doingchickens, got away from it
whenever I became an adult, wentto college and married and all
that Been back into it since Ithink since around 2016.
And you can do as much or aslittle as you want.
Just make sure you take care ofthe basics for them.
Make sure that they have a goodcoop, that they have protection
from predators, they have agood, secure roof over their
(02:21):
head.
So they're going to be out ofthe out of the storms and out of
the cold weather, and you knowonce once you get those things
done.
Everything else on top of thatis lagniappe, and lagniappe is a
french term here in louisiana.
That means something extra.
So whatever you want to doabove, that, that's something
extra for your chickens.
That's what you can do, andwe're going to talk about some
of the things that I do righthere in this video.
(02:43):
And because we're so close tochicken season, the first thing
you want to ask yourself can Ikeep chickens where I live?
More and more cities andmunicipalities are allowing
people to keep chickens.
So if you want backyardchickens right in the middle of
town, you can certainly do thisRight here in the city that I
don't live in the city, but thecity that I'm closest to,
(03:05):
alexandria they allow chickensbut, understand, they may not
allow rooster.
They may limit you on the sizeof your pen.
They may limit you on thenumber of chickens that you get.
So make sure that you find outthis information.
You don't want to have to getrid of birds whatever.
You've just gotten them andyou're falling in love with them
and you're very fond.
So make sure you know what'sgoing on with your particular
(03:28):
situation in your particularlocation.
So the first question afterthat what kind of chickens I
want.
Well, it really depends on whatyou want to do with them.
If you're looking for pets, afew eggs to feed your family,
you're probably talking aboutsome of the heritage breed
chickens Rhode Island Reds,wyandott's, buff, orpingtons,
(03:50):
chickens like that, the old,basic chickens, that that you've
seen through through the years,that were at your grandparents
house.
Those kind of things are whatyou want.
When you just looking forchickens to enjoy and still get
the eggs out of it, I will tellyou you want, want an absolute
minimum of three.
Chickens are a flock animal.
They're happiest and they'rehealthiest whenever they have a
(04:11):
flock.
So you want at least threebirds to have your flock.
And then you can ask yourselfhow many do I need?
And again, you guys, if y'alleat a lot of eggs, you got to
let's say you got a family offour you probably want four to
six.
The number is generally goingto be between one and 1.5 per
family member and again, youneed to adjust that to your
(04:34):
particular situation.
Do I, do we eat a lot of eggs?
Do we eat very little eggs?
What do I want to do with theeggs?
Do I want an excess?
I want a lot of chickens.
I want to sell my eggs.
So, yeah, think about what youwant to do in your particular
situation.
Now we get to the question dowe want to hatch or do we want
to buy?
Hatching chickens can be sorewarding, especially if you got
(04:56):
little ones around the housewhere they can watch them hatch.
You can buy a decent, qualityincubator for less than $200
nowadays they're not reallyterribly expensive and you can
look on the internet.
There's a lot of people thatwill teach you how to do it.
We've done hatching out here aswell.
But understand, when you hatch,think that you're going to get.
(05:17):
At least 50% of those are goingto be roosters, and you need to
have a plan already in mind.
What am I going to do withthese roosters?
For me, it's pretty simple.
I have a gentleman who's got a20 acre farm and he will come
get all of my young roostersthat I don't want from me.
He processes some and that'sperfectly fine to do that and he
(05:38):
lets some roam out in thisfield and that's how he gets his
chicks through that.
Plus, roosters have a lot ofadvantages on the farm.
So make sure that you have aplan in case you're going to
have some roosters and if you'regoing to do your own hatching,
you're going to have roosters.
The next thing you can thinkabout well, if I want to buy my
chicks, or do I want startedpullets?
(05:59):
A started pullet is an olderbird, probably somewhere around
eight or ten weeks at theminimum, and they're just a few
weeks away from starting to layeggs.
The advantage to that is youdon't have the worry and the
trouble of raising these younganimals from little bitty
two-day-old chicks and to getthem going.
The disadvantage to thatthey're usually not as used to
(06:20):
you, they're not as friendly.
You don't get to enjoy thatlittle bitty tiny baby chick
that you can hold in your arm,especially if you have kids.
But they are a good way to gowhenever you don't want to take
the time out to do that.
Thirdly, you can buy chicks.
Chicks have been sent throughthe US Postal Service for a
couple hundred years now,probably since the Postal
Service has been around.
(06:41):
They know how to do it.
They're good at what they do.
If you want to order throughone of the big hatcheries out
there, you can certainly do that.
Need to order well ahead oftime, because the hatcheries
sell out quickly.
You will get them in the mail.
The post office will call youon the phone and say, hey, your
chicks have arrived and you justgo pick them up at your local
post office.
(07:01):
The hatchery that sells willgenerally send you an email
saying, hey, this is the weekthat your chicks are going to be
arriving.
Make sure you have someoneavailable to go pick them up.
If you go get these young chicks, you're going to need something
.
You're going to need a brooder.
A brooder is just a small penthat the young chicks are going
(07:21):
to live in until they startgetting old enough to be out on
their own.
You're also going to need aheat source for the for young
chicks.
Young chicks the first weekneed about 95 degrees of heat.
You can generally.
General rule of thumb is toback off five degrees per per
week after that.
So if they're three weeks old,they're going to be looking at
80 degrees minimum of heat.
(07:44):
When you have your heater inthere and people use heat plates
, people also will use heatlamps.
Heat lamps are not are theirmost popular, but most chicken
people like me will tell you tonot use a heat lamp because of
the danger that the heat lampposes and the fires that it can
start.
If you are very, very, verycareful with your heat lamp,
(08:07):
make sure that it's not going tobe anywhere around anything
that's going to be flammable,you tie it off and then tie it
off again and then tie it offthat third time to make sure
nothing is going to drop,nothing's going to happen to
where you think you can overheatsome things and catch wood
chips or whatever you have closeto it on fire, because every
year people lose them to fire.
(08:29):
I use heat lamps, I'm verycareful with them but I really
like them.
I can put my heat lamps in acorner of the coop and that's
where you want it, or the cornerof your brooder, because you
don't want it right in themiddle and to heat the whole
thing up because your chicks aregoing to tell you if they're
hot enough, if they're warmenough or if they're too warm,
you put your heat lamp in.
(08:49):
And if your chicks are all kindof scattered around the heat
lamp, not really bundled up,just kind of chilling out and
relaxing, they're feeling prettygood.
If they're way off to a corneror as far away as they can get
from the heat lamp, it's too hot.
You need to back it off, raiseit up out of the way some more.
If they're huddled all under it, then they're not warm enough.
So let the chicks tell you whatthey need.
(09:11):
As far as the heat in the pengoes, you'll raise them in that
for about six weeks.
Then you can transform it tosomething larger.
Usually by nine weeks.
They don't need protection fromthe heat.
They feather it out pretty goodwith their first batch of
feathers and they're going to beready to go.
If you already have establishedchickens, you need to want to
(09:32):
keep the keep these youngpullets away from the chickens
till they're old enough to fendfor themselves, and I have
videos that you can look at.
It send my backyard chickens onYouTube and TikTok that show
you how I incorporate mychickens, and I usually have
very little trouble withchickens beating up on one
another whenever we do this.
Now you want to think aboutbuilding a coop farm.
(09:54):
The general rule of thumb for acoop you're looking at two to
four square feet inside the coop, depending, and what is this?
depending on Depending on thesize of the birds.
So if you want just littlebitty chickens and you get
bantams which are just kind ofsmall, you can go more than two
feet.
If you get standard size birds,you wanna get closer to the
(10:17):
four feet.
If your birds are gonna spend alot of the time inside the coop
, you may wanna go five feet inthere.
My birds do not spend much timein the coop.
You may want to go five feet inthere.
My birds do not spend much timein the coop.
They go in there to roost atnighttime and they go in there
to lay eggs Then.
That's other than that they'renot really in the in the coop
itself.
But a few things you want toincorporate in your coop.
(10:37):
You don't want it to be draftybut you want it to be well
vented.
My coop has there's a top ridgewhere gas, where ammonia, can
kind of vent out of the top.
I also have windows at thebottom that slide open and close
so that they can get fresh air.
Believe it or not, I've got anAlexa out there where I can turn
(10:59):
on lights.
I can turn on exhaust fans, Ican turn vent fans that blow in.
I can turn on vent fans thatsuck air out of it.
Again, I'm the guy thatoverdoes things and I get it,
but this is just some of thestuff that I want to do.
In the bottom of my coop youneed to have the bedding.
The most popular bedding isgoing to be wood shavings and
these are pine shavings and notcedar.
(11:20):
Cedar's got too much oil in itand it can irritate the
respiratory process, but youwant pine shavings in there.
And I also add a lot of peatmoss and it's the sorghum peat
moss and I hope I'm pronouncingthat correctly.
Look up sorghum peat moss onthe internet.
It has got some greatantiseptic qualities.
All the way up to World War one, medics use sorghum peat moss
(11:44):
to wrap bandages because it hadthat antiseptic quality in there
.
It is also great for absorbingammonia not masking it, actually
absorbing the ammonia that canbe in the coop to help cut it
down.
The disadvantage to this peatmoss is it is extremely dry and
if you have, if your chickensspend a lot of time in the coop,
(12:06):
inside the coop, they're goingto be scratching around and
they're going to be stirring alot of dust, and all this dust
is not going to be good for them.
But if they don't spend a lot oftime in there.
They just go in there to roost,like mine do.
They go in there to lay theireggs, then they're just pooping.
Well, this peat moss is really,really, really great to help
absorb all of that.
And you still want to keep itclean.
(12:26):
You want to be practice goodhusbandry practices in your coop
.
Keep it clean.
I go every couple of days,maybe every three days, and I'll
scoop around.
I'll also take a rake and I'llstir things around in the coop.
And you want to have a lot ofgood access and my coop the way
I built it.
I can't walk in the coop butI've got big windows and I've
(12:46):
got big doors that openeverywhere that I can get to
everything in the coop.
And that's important becauseyou want to be able to get in
there and clean, do maintenanceand do the things that you want
to do.
So once you figure out how youwant to build things, then your
(13:09):
run and the run is where thechickens get to go and play.
That needs to be at least 10square feet per bird.
I have two different runs.
They're both 8 feet deep, 20feet long, so it's 8 by 40 total
and they're divided by a doorso I could keep the bird
separated whenever I want to.
And again, you need to thinkabout, there's a phenomenon out
there and it's called chickenmath.
Guys, chicken math is a realthing.
You think, oh, in the back ofmy mind, I don't know.
Three, four chickens, that'sall I'm going to want.
(13:30):
That'll be plenty for me.
Well, that's going to be goodthe first year, but six months
later you're going to go oh,that's a gorgeous chicken right
there.
Oh, I want some green egglayers.
Oh, I want some chocolate egglayers.
I want some blue egg layers.
Oh, I want the ones with thefuzzy hair on their feet or the
top hat on their head and beforeyou know it, that Three or four
chickens is going to be a dozenof them.
(13:51):
So if you think you want to havethat many chickens, build twice
as much for that.
If you think you want to havesix, build a coop that's gonna
handle a dozen or more Chicken.
Math is a real thing, guys.
It trust me, you're gonna thankme in the future if you do this
, if you build it over big andyou don't get them.
Not that big of a deal, buttrust me, it's gonna, it's gonna
(14:11):
happen.
So we have our coop, we haveour run size that we need For my
run and in my coop, the chickenpen, I use hardware cloth, that
I use half-inch hardware clothbecause a raccoon or a big, big
alley cat that's running aroundor a dog is not going to get
through hardware cloth if youwrap it in chicken wire.
(14:33):
Chicken wire is only good forchickens.
Okay, an adventurous dog orraccoon or a possum can get
through chicken wire, and so thefirst four feet of my run has
got hardware cloth.
Now I don't do the second fourfeet because they are eight foot
tall.
Mine are seven and eight foottall.
It's chicken wire and I don'thave hardware cloth up there and
(14:55):
it's a matter of economics.
The stud's expensive, I mean,come on.
So I need to think about themoney that I'm spending.
So the first half is going tobe hardware cloth and all around
the perimeter bottom I will laytwo feet wide, I'll lay
hardware cloth down and I'll letthe grass grow through it and
this helps prevent animals thatwant to try to dig under the
(15:16):
coop.
So I want to make sure that Ido that Also in my coop because
you know, my buddies back atwork years ago used to call me
the high-tech redneck.
I have three run chicken doorsand I love run chicken.
I've been using them for a fewyears for a great door.
They're programmable to do adifferent multitude of things on
(15:37):
ways that you can get them toopen and close.
I have videos about them and ifyou think you might want one,
please, you owe it to yourselfto check out some of my videos
on them in.
In these videos there's adiscount link and you will get
15% off of what your neighborspay for the doors and, to be
honest, I get a small percentageof that 15%.
That comes back to me atSennlon Backyard Chickens.
(15:59):
But you will love these doorsand I do, I've never had one
fail.
You just change batteries inthem.
They say once a year, but Iusually go a little bit more
than that because I'll forgetsometimes.
But they do flash and they tellyou it's time.
They have a solar power one,that you don't need to change
the batteries on but mine aren'tthe more modern solar power
(16:20):
ones.
Mine are the little bit olderones, but I love having them.
It's so convenient when mybirds go in at nighttime ones,
but I love having them.
it's so convenient when my birdsgo in at night time because I
let them free range during theday and so in the morning time
the the run chicken door opensfor the coop.
They all go out into the firstrun and then, like I, like I
just mentioned, I have twodifferent runs and they're
(16:41):
separated by a door and that's arun chicken door and I can
program that door whether or notI want them to go into the
second run.
The first run is completelyenclosed.
It's got a roof over it, wiringgoes all the way to the top.
Nothing's going to get intothem.
The second run has an open topon it so birds can, other birds
can fly in there and you couldhave predator issues.
(17:01):
You really don't have them inthat size of a run, but it can
happen.
And then I've got a third doorthat goes to the outside for
whenever I want them to freerange and I can completely
control.
If we're not going to be home,we're going on vacation or going
to be gone for a few days, Ishut down the door and don't let
them go outside the free range,just let them go in the run
parts, and they're perfectlyhappy with doing that.
(17:23):
So it's really, really great tobe able to have that ability to
do this.
We've got all that set up andnow you want to think about nest
boxes.
The thing about a nest box youwant a nest box to be raised off
the off the floor of the coop.
Mine are about 12 to 14 inchesoff the floor, I can't tell you
exactly, but you want them to bedefinitely lower than the roost
(17:45):
.
Chickens naturally, by instinct, want to get up high at
nighttime whenever they go tobed and if your nest boxes are
way up high then they're goingto start sleeping in there and
they're going to be pooping inthere and you don't want that
because you want to have yournice fresh eggs to be clean.
You want your roost bars uphigh, nest boxes in the middle
and then your floor at thebottom.
(18:07):
Mine are built in such a waythat I can access them from the
outside.
I don't need to walk inside therun or the coop to get to my
eggs.
I can access them from theoutside.
I raise them up and I have one,two, three, four of them in
there and I can pick the eggs.
This is something me and mygranddaughter we enjoy doing
together.
So you want to think aboutdoing that whenever you
incorporate your chicken coopand there's a lot of chicken
(18:28):
coop designs out there.
You just want to do one that'ssmart and you want to have a lot
of doors, a lot of ways to getinto the coop.
Again, it's very, veryimportant build things big
enough for that chicken man.
Do not forget about chicken man.
Okay, after we've got our pinbuilt, we know what kind of
(18:49):
chickens we want.
We got them in the mail, we'reraising them up, and so now what
do we want to feed them?
Well, I can tell you to get thehighest quality feed that you
can afford and you can go fromaround here.
You can go from about $13 for a50 pound bag all the way up to
$23, $24, $25 for a 50 pound bag.
(19:10):
Ingredients make a difference.
Just because something has 16%protein and this other bag has
60% protein with this other bagis $8 more per 50 pounds than
the first one.
This could be an ingredientreason.
And so look at your ingredientson your chicken feed, and I
(19:31):
have found, by and large, thatthe more expensive feeds are
usually going to be the onesthat have the better ingredients
.
I don't want a lot of fillers,I don't want a lot of byproducts
, and some of the bags will usethe word byproducts and by law
they are required to list theingredients and the way the
listing works.
The first ingredient is themost that's in there, the second
(19:52):
ingredient is the second most,the third ingredient is the
third most, and so on.
So if the first ingredient itsays is wheat byproducts, then
the majority of that feed iswheat.
If the second ingredient sayscorn or corn shells in there,
then the second most product inthere is going to be corn, and
so on and so forth.
(20:14):
So make sure you get your birdsa good quality feed.
I use the Coop Works that'sC-O-O-P-W-O-R-X feeder.
I have an 80 pound feeder thatis inside my run, inside the
covered run, so it doesn't getrained on.
This is a great feeder andagain, I've got a video on that
and I've got a discount linkthat you can use for that.
(20:35):
I can put 80 pounds of feed inthere and the cool thing about
those the way I have it set upis I don't have a problem with
rats or mice getting in the feed.
If your feed is on the ground,sooner or later they're going to
get in there and they're goingto start eating your feed.
That's something you don't want.
You pay for this expensive feed.
You want it for your chickens,not the rats, and plus rats poop
(20:56):
and we don't know aboutdiseases and stuff that they may
get.
So look into getting a goodquality feeder if you can, then
next you want a good waterer.
That's in there.
You don't want water and feedinside the coop.
You're just asking for a mess,too much moisture.
Chickens are going to spill thefeed.
You're inviting rats and miceto get in there.
Water and all that moistureinside the coop is not a good
(21:19):
idea.
The only time I have food andwater is when I have young
chicks inside their brooder andyou have to have it in there for
them then, but you have to domaintenance and keeping it clean
as well.
The food and water needs to beon the outside of the coop.
It can be in the run, it can beout in the chicken yard,
whatever you want, but itdoesn't need to be inside the
coop itself.
(21:40):
So next we want to talk aboutfree range or not to free range.
My birds, more days than not,will free range and you take a
chance whenever they do, becausenow they can be more
susceptible to predators.
A stray dog comes by, chickenhawks and all of these happen
and all of these over the yearshave happened to me.
I try to do things thatmitigate it, that help keep it
(22:03):
down.
I keep a young dog that I raisewith my chickens pretty much at
all times you get a dog that,from a very tiny puppy, is with
the chickens and it doesn't growup to be aggressive towards
them.
You don't want a dog that's gothunting instincts in it, you
want just a mutt more or lesswith it.
And I tell people a lot oftimes you don't want a dog
(22:26):
that's really taller than thechickens are themselves, unless
they're those dogs that arespecifically bred to take care
of chickens and to be protectiveof them and they have them out
there.
And these are big old dogs and,trust me, they're great.
But when you got a small littlebackyard, like most of us do,
you want a small dog if you'regoing to use that in there.
(22:46):
But, I like to free range and Ihad the choice of the free range
or not because I, using the wayI use my run chicken automatic
coop doors, I can program themto open or not.
Like I said, if we're gone wedon't do it, otherwise I let
them free range.
They're happier, they'rehealthier.
The birds are out there,they're eating grasses and seeds
, they're eating worms and bugsand all of these things make for
(23:10):
some of the greatest tastingand richest eggs you will find.
In the fall we open up thefencing that's around our garden
and they spend the fall andwinter picking through our
garden and come springtimethere's not a weed want in our
garden.
The chickens have taken care ofthis.
Plus, their poop is greatcompost that goes back into the
soil.
(23:30):
So you can kind of think of allof that.
But I use a lot of supplementsbecause I enjoy it.
I will.
I will ferment my food aboutonce a week.
I've got a video on doing that.
It's an easy, easy thing to dofermenting your food, you know.
I'm talking about fermenting itto the point to where it's if
you have alcohol, because youcould do that, you don't want to
do that, but fermenting it tothe point that you have these
(23:53):
good, healthy bacteria that arein the feed.
You can smell it when it'sfermented just right, and it
makes great gut health for about.
You know, I'll also supplementthat with some apple cider
vinegar.
It has to be apple cidervinegar.
You look on the bottle it sayswith the mother and you can look
at the bottom of it and see athick layer of stuff down there
and that's all the bacteria andstuff that they use whenever
(24:15):
they make it.
This is very, very healthy forthem.
I will drink apple cidervinegar.
It's good for our gut health aswell, and fermenting a lot of
food kimchi and things like thatis also good for our gut health
as well.
In fermenting a lot of food,kimchi and things like that is
also good for our gut health.
So it's easy to do.
It doesn't cost you anything toferment food.
A bottle of apple cider vinegaris only one tablespoon per
(24:36):
gallon and I don't keep it outthere with them a lot.
Maybe once a month I'll mixthem up a couple of gallons and
I'll put it out there, but nomore than that.
It doesn't need to be aconstant supply of that stuff.
So one bottle like this ofapple cider vinegar will last me
, you know, half a year.
It lasts a very long time whenyou think about one tablespoon
per gallon.
(24:56):
Also, give them oyster shells.
You want to give them oystershells.
That's a good calciumsupplement and the way I do mine
.
I had these little rabbitfeeder boxes and they're very
small that I have attached tothe, to the hardware cloth, and
I can fill them from the outsideand they eat them from the
inside, and so I do my oystershells in there and I do grit in
(25:18):
there as well.
And again, my birds, like I said, most of the time they're
outside free-ranging and theypick up grit that way, but
whenever they don't, I want tohave some farm available.
And what the grit does, littletiny pieces of rock, goes into
their eating, goes into theirgizzard and it helps them grind
that food down.
It helps process that foodbegins breaking it down.
(25:40):
Chickens do not have salivaglands and teeth like you and I
do.
To help that process, all ofthat stuff happens inside the
gizzard.
The rocks will grind down,grind down and the passages in
the gizzard are too small forthe rocks to go through.
Until the rocks grindthemselves down to very small
sizes, then they'll pass and thechickens are any more grit,
(26:01):
more rocks to keep that processgoing.
This is how that they processthe food.
Also, give them good, healthytable scraps.
We have leftover greens.
We have leftover cooked eggs isa great source of protein for
your chickens.
Almost anything that we eat youcan also supplement and feed
your chickens.
Now, don't feed them rice,because rice is just blank
(26:23):
calories.
That doesn't really benefitthem any and just gonna make
them fatter whenever they don'tneed to be fatter.
They need to be good, lean,lean and strong.
But what you would feed yourkids you know.
You can probably supplement andfeed your chickens whenever you
have extras of it.
Don't feed them sour foods andfoods that's turned bad.
You don't want to do that.
So if you wouldn't feed that toyour kids, don't feed that to
(26:44):
your chickens.
But again, there's a lot ofgood, healthy table scraps that
you can feed them.
Most afternoons or evenings mybirds know it.
When it comes that time,whenever I go out there, I
usually have some black flylarva that I give them.
They love it.
They come running to me andthen you can just put them in
your hand.
They eat out of your hand forit.
That's a great source ofprotein.
(27:05):
But then again, remember, theselittle treats should not be
more than 10% or so of theirdaily output.
The majority of their food isgoing to be the good quality
layer pellets that I have forthem, or layer crumbles if you
prefer crumbles I like thepellets personally for myself
and then free-ranging out of theyard and then scraps on the
(27:27):
table and then after that arethe treats.
And then in summer, you know,in the summer when it's hot, I
will take blueberries, put themin ice trays, cut up some grapes
, put them in ice trays, freezethem with water, put them out
there for them.
It's a great source of fun forthem.
They'll peck on them and thingslike that, and that helps cool
their bodies down in the heat ofthe summer.
Louisiana's got some prettyvicious summers, so they really
(27:49):
enjoy doing that.
Let's see what we have next whento expect your first egg.
Generally speaking, with mostheritage type birds, you're
looking 18 to 22 weeks or so,five or six months before you
get your first eggs.
If you bought weeks or so, fiveor six months before you get
your first eggs, if you, if youbought legger and or leg horns
that are specifically for laying.
(28:10):
They're gonna probably startproducing a little bit earlier
than that.
They are made to do that.
But understand, usually thosehigh production egg layers are
not gonna be the friendliest ofbirds out there.
They're not gonna be mean.
I'm not trying to say that, butthey're what what we call
flighty.
They don't like to hang aroundpeople and they'll run from you
and all that.
They just seem to be like.
They're always pissed off aboutsomething.
(28:30):
So you know, you consider thatI have, I think, one leghorn out
there just to give me a whiteegg to go with my colorful
basket that I have.
Then most of my others arehybrids and heritage breed
chickens and I have several ofall of it.
Some people are surprised tolearn that you do not need a
rooster for a hen to lay an eggno different than any other
(28:54):
animal, humans included.
A woman does not need a guyaround in order for her to
ovulate and have one egg permonth.
A hen ovulates almost every dayand she produces those eggs.
Whenever the guy is needed iswhen we want to fertilize them
and when we want to have chicks.
So you need a rooster for that.
If you free range, you may wantto think about a rooster to
(29:16):
help protect the chicken.
A rooster spends a lot of timelooking out for predators and
will warn the birds, the girls,if you have anything coming, and
a really good rooster willsacrifice itself protecting its
chickens.
I've seen roosters beat thesesnot out of chicken hawks that
come down and they are more thanhappy to do it, and you find
(29:37):
some hawks that are reallyregretting having made that
decision.
But you also got to rememberthat a lot of roosters can be
aggressive towards people andnow that I have young
grandchildren whenever I didn'thave grandchildren that were
young and my oldest is in theAir Force, so I have them at all
ages.
The youngest at the time ofthis taping is almost one year
(29:58):
old.
So now that I have these younggrandchildren hanging around and
Sylvie, my grand girl if youlisten to any of the podcasts,
she is now eight years old Idon't have a rooster because if
they ever bow up to my grandkids, they're out of here, they're
going to rooster camp, freezercamp, right off the bat.
If they grow up they bow up toone of us, I'll shoo them out of
(30:18):
the way.
But I'm not gonna have anaggressive rooster and you gotta
spend a lot of time with themand there are some roosters that
are not aggressive.
They can be very, very friendly.
But it takes a lot of work and alot of patience to raise that
chick, to be friendly and tocome up with a good rooster for
your family so you don't have tohave a rooster in order to have
have eggs.
So that that's you know.
You know, don't even thinkabout that.
(30:40):
But when will my chick, how doI know she's getting ready to
start laying eggs?
Not just because of the timethat's going by we're getting 20
, 22 weeks into it but there aresigns.
You see sudden growth in theirwaddles that's these right here,
and they're combed down on topof their head.
You'll see a quick growth ofthose and they'll start turning
a good crimson red.
In most breeds some breeds thatthey're not red, but most of
(31:04):
them that you'll find them, thatthey are going to be red.
You'll see that red colorcoming.
You know, know, your bird'sstarting to get those hormones
raging in them and she's gettingready to lay eggs.
Also, the most telling thing iswhen they start doing that
submissive squatting behavior.
You walk out amongst yourchickens and all of a sudden
they just squat down like thatshe is submitting to you.
(31:25):
This is a submissive behaviorthat chicken hens would do with
roosters whenever they get readyto fertilize the eggs.
So that tells you again we aregetting close to having some
eggs.
Now don't think that a chickenis going to lay an egg every day
.
The most high-productionchickens out there do not lay an
egg every day.
The leghorns that I mentionedearlier are probably some of the
(31:47):
most prolific and they willprobably do between five and six
eggs a week.
Most of your heritage breedchickens that I talked about
earlier are going to give youthree to four eggs a week, maybe
five sometime when they'redoing good.
So kind of keep that in mind.
Whenever you're doing, youcount on how many that you think
that you want.
(32:08):
There's going to be times ofyear that they're not going to
lay.
Every bird every year goesthrough a molt.
That's when they lose theirfeathers and they grow new
feathers.
Usually this is going to be inthe fall, so they can get a good
, fresh coat of feathers to getready to battle the cold weather
of the winter.
When they're molting they'renot going to be laying If it
gets to be very, very hot andthey're stressed, because of
(32:29):
heat stress.
They're not going to be layingwhenever the the daylight hours
start decreasing.
Chickens use sunlight, theamount of sunlight during the
day, and they usually wantsomewhere you know around 14 or
so hours to start triggering,triggering that ovulation period
.
We need a lot of sunlight hoursto for them to lay.
If you're in an area whereduring the winter you're getting
(32:51):
10 to 12 hours is all of thedaylight you get during the day,
their production is going to goway down.
So understand that, going in,that they're not going to be
constantly laying year in, yearout.
That first couple of years iswhere they're going to be the
most productive.
After that chickens will startdropping off a little bit at a
time.
So understand that as well.
(33:12):
And again, that's just how weuse it to buy more chicken.
So there's not a big deal aboutthat.
Something I do want to talkabout eventually we're all going
to lose birds.
There's all sorts of reasons,whether it's through predation,
whether it's to old age, orwhether it's to old age or
whether it's through sickness.
We're going to lose birds andwhen you're very attached to
(33:34):
them like I get to mine a lot ofpeople get to them because we
raise them not only as livestockanimals, but we also raise them
as pets and you can getemotionally attached to them.
It's funny when I was a boygrowing up in Dry Creek, I was
not emotionally attached to them.
It's funny when I was a boygrowing up in Dry Creek, I was
not emotionally attached to ourchickens.
It was my job in the mornings togo out and feed them before I
(33:57):
went to school.
When I got off the bus, it wasmy job to make sure that they
had water and feed out there andthen to gather eggs, and I did
not look at these things as pets.
They were things that mama mademe do and daddy made me do.
But in 2016, when I gotreintroduced to chickens again,
it was a whole differentballgame and it's probably going
to be that way for you.
(34:17):
But remember throughout all ofthis that we're talking about
think about what you want toincorporate in your coop and run
.
Think about where you are.
If you live in the city, findout from your city government on
what you're allowed to have andthen use that as your guide.
Just make sure that yourchickens are safe, that they're
pinned.
While it's well vetted it's notgonna be real drafty.
(34:38):
You don't want to get a lot ofcold wind going through in a
winter.
And depending on where you livewill also help tell you what
kind of chickens that you'regonna get.
If you live up in the highnorthern parts of the US, you
want some winter hardy chickens.
And when I say about winterhardy chickens, chickens that
have good fluffy feathers, thathave smaller cones, are winter
(35:00):
hardy chickens.
Summer chickens are, you know,long-legged chickens and not a
lot ton of feathers around themand got big old cones.
And the cone in the wattleserves as radiator, just like
the radiator in your automobile.
Blood circulates through there,the cone in the water.
The blood is very close to thesurface air and the air helps
(35:21):
cool their bodies down with thatblood circulating through their
cones and wattles.
So you can see in thewintertime if it's freezing
outside, you know 0, 5, 10degrees and you have that blood
circulating through there.
That can really cool thechicken off a lot.
And we want to guard againstthat because chickens can be
subject to frostbite.
Now don't get me wrong.
(35:42):
Frostbite is not necessarily asubject of temperature as much
it is moisture.
You have a lot of moistureinside your coop.
That's when you can get afrostbite in the winter, because
frostbite is gonna be icecrystals that form on the
exterior of them and it actuallykills the cells that are in the
wattles or in their comb.
(36:02):
So you want to again thinkabout your coop.
Make sure it's going to bebuilt the way that you want it
to build.
If you guys have any questions,please let me know.
I'm happy to answer them.
You can find me at Send LotBackyard Chickens and Videos
Chickens Every Day on my podcast.
If you like me, just drive downthe road and listen to podcasts
.
I hope this has helped you some.
(36:23):
I hope that you're going toenjoy your chicken adventure.
It is a ton of fun to do.
Learn and grow, especially ifyou have young ones out there.
They can learn and grow withyou.
Don't be afraid to jump intothis hobby.
It is a ton of fun and you getmore back into it than what you
get.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
So until the next time.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
See you guys again soon.
Bye-bye, hello friends, and Ihope you guys are enjoying the
episodes that I put together andI'd love to hear from you to be
able to get more ideas I puttogether and I'd love to hear
from you to be able to get moreideas.
But, as you can imagine, doingthis is not free.
So if you could find it in yourheart at some point to maybe
think about wanting to supportthe show a buck or two I mean,
that's not a big deal but ifthat's something you would
(37:02):
consider doing, you can go toany of the episodes from your
podcast app.
I personally use Apple Podcastapp.
Scroll down, click on supportthe show and if you do, I'll
give you a shout out on the showand again, I will answer and
read and answer your questionson the show as well.
Or you could just simply go tochickenseverydaybuzzsproutcom
(37:25):
that chickens plural every day,all one word b buzzsproutcom,
and it would be very helpful.
Believe it or not, I haveequipment that I need to upgrade
.
I pay a monthly fee for thepodcast service.
I pay a monthly fee for theediting software that I use, so
anyway, I thought I would bringthis to your attention and if
it's something that you wouldconsider doing, I would be
(37:46):
eternally grateful.
Thank you, bye-bye.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
That's all we have time for today.
I really hope you enjoyedlistening to the podcast.
Be sure to watch our videos.
So, on behalf of my Papa, gary,and me, sylvie, thanks for
listening.
Are we ready, pawpaw?
Hello friends and welcome toChicken.
Every Day, a podcast for you,the backyard chicken enthusiasts
, and mine.
Your host is my Pawpaw, gary,Gary Valerie of Senla Backyard
Chickens.
Here we have fun while sharingideas and learning how to care
for our foul-feathered friends.
Check out our videos at Senlathat's C-E-N-L-A Backyard
(00:24):
Chickens on YouTube, tiktok andFacebook.
So, without further ado, let'sstart today's show.
How was that?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Hello friends, Gary, with CENLA Backyard Chickens
here with you, and before youknow it, chick season is going
to be here.
It's late February right nowand you're already starting to
see some arrivals showing up atsome of your bigger box stores.
It's time for everybody to startgetting excited.
This video is for the brand newchicken keeper who's just
looking out.
This is what I want to do.
(00:55):
I want to start gettingchickens, but I don't know where
to start.
This is a good starting placeright here.
Something I tell folks all thetime knowledge is power.
Look online, find out what'sout there.
There's many people like methat are trying to be helpful
and get you started on thisproject.
But first of all, understandthere is no absolute perfect way
(01:15):
to do it.
Just because I do it one wayover here at Settling Lob
Backyard Chicken, someone elsedoes it successfully a different
way where they are.
So understand that going in,there's many ways to do this and
there's a lot of chickenkeepers out there that you can
find out and get goodinformation from, and I
recommend that you do this.
You know this is a hobby for meand I go out and I hang out with
(01:37):
my birds.
It's a great way for me tounwind.
My grandkids enjoy it with me.
We get a lot of great eggs outof it.
I even sell some eggs because Ihave more chickens than
probably what I should.
It's a great thing for me to doand it's a great way for me to
just chill.
I love these birds.
I've been doing it a lot ofyears, put it like that.
(01:59):
I started out as a boy doingchickens, got away from it
whenever I became an adult, wentto college and married and all
that Been back into it since Ithink since around 2016.
And you can do as much or aslittle as you want.
Just make sure you take care ofthe basics for them.
Make sure that they have a goodcoop, that they have protection
from predators, they have agood, secure roof over their
(02:21):
head.
So they're going to be out ofthe out of the storms and out of
the cold weather, and you knowonce once you get those things
done.
Everything else on top of thatis lagniappe, and lagniappe is a
french term here in louisiana.
That means something extra.
So whatever you want to doabove, that, that's something
extra for your chickens.
That's what you can do, andwe're going to talk about some
of the things that I do righthere in this video.
(02:43):
And because we're so close tochicken season, the first thing
you want to ask yourself can Ikeep chickens where I live?
More and more cities andmunicipalities are allowing
people to keep chickens.
So if you want backyardchickens right in the middle of
town, you can certainly do thisRight here in the city that I
don't live in the city, but thecity that I'm closest to,
(03:05):
alexandria they allow chickensbut, understand, they may not
allow rooster.
They may limit you on the sizeof your pen.
They may limit you on thenumber of chickens that you get.
So make sure that you find outthis information.
You don't want to have to getrid of birds whatever.
You've just gotten them andyou're falling in love with them
and you're very fond.
So make sure you know what'sgoing on with your particular
(03:28):
situation in your particularlocation.
So the first question afterthat what kind of chickens I
want.
Well, it really depends on whatyou want to do with them.
If you're looking for pets, afew eggs to feed your family,
you're probably talking aboutsome of the heritage breed
chickens Rhode Island Reds,wyandott's, buff, orpingtons,
(03:50):
chickens like that, the old,basic chickens, that that you've
seen through through the years,that were at your grandparents
house.
Those kind of things are whatyou want.
When you just looking forchickens to enjoy and still get
the eggs out of it, I will tellyou you want, want an absolute
minimum of three.
Chickens are a flock animal.
They're happiest and they'rehealthiest whenever they have a
(04:11):
flock.
So you want at least threebirds to have your flock.
And then you can ask yourselfhow many do I need?
And again, you guys, if y'alleat a lot of eggs, you got to
let's say you got a family offour you probably want four to
six.
The number is generally goingto be between one and 1.5 per
family member and again, youneed to adjust that to your
(04:34):
particular situation.
Do I, do we eat a lot of eggs?
Do we eat very little eggs?
What do I want to do with theeggs?
Do I want an excess?
I want a lot of chickens.
I want to sell my eggs.
So, yeah, think about what youwant to do in your particular
situation.
Now we get to the question dowe want to hatch or do we want
to buy?
Hatching chickens can be sorewarding, especially if you got
(04:56):
little ones around the housewhere they can watch them hatch.
You can buy a decent, qualityincubator for less than $200
nowadays they're not reallyterribly expensive and you can
look on the internet.
There's a lot of people thatwill teach you how to do it.
We've done hatching out here aswell.
But understand, when you hatch,think that you're going to get.
(05:17):
At least 50% of those are goingto be roosters, and you need to
have a plan already in mind.
What am I going to do withthese roosters?
For me, it's pretty simple.
I have a gentleman who's got a20 acre farm and he will come
get all of my young roostersthat I don't want from me.
He processes some and that'sperfectly fine to do that and he
(05:38):
lets some roam out in thisfield and that's how he gets his
chicks through that.
Plus, roosters have a lot ofadvantages on the farm.
So make sure that you have aplan in case you're going to
have some roosters and if you'regoing to do your own hatching,
you're going to have roosters.
The next thing you can thinkabout well, if I want to buy my
chicks, or do I want startedpullets?
(05:59):
A started pullet is an olderbird, probably somewhere around
eight or ten weeks at theminimum, and they're just a few
weeks away from starting to layeggs.
The advantage to that is youdon't have the worry and the
trouble of raising these younganimals from little bitty
two-day-old chicks and to getthem going.
The disadvantage to thatthey're usually not as used to
(06:20):
you, they're not as friendly.
You don't get to enjoy thatlittle bitty tiny baby chick
that you can hold in your arm,especially if you have kids.
But they are a good way to gowhenever you don't want to take
the time out to do that.
Thirdly, you can buy chicks.
Chicks have been sent throughthe US Postal Service for a
couple hundred years now,probably since the Postal
Service has been around.
(06:41):
They know how to do it.
They're good at what they do.
If you want to order throughone of the big hatcheries out
there, you can certainly do that.
Need to order well ahead oftime, because the hatcheries
sell out quickly.
You will get them in the mail.
The post office will call youon the phone and say, hey, your
chicks have arrived and you justgo pick them up at your local
post office.
(07:01):
The hatchery that sells willgenerally send you an email
saying, hey, this is the weekthat your chicks are going to be
arriving.
Make sure you have someoneavailable to go pick them up.
If you go get these young chicks, you're going to need something
.
You're going to need a brooder.
A brooder is just a small penthat the young chicks are going
(07:21):
to live in until they startgetting old enough to be out on
their own.
You're also going to need aheat source for the for young
chicks.
Young chicks the first weekneed about 95 degrees of heat.
You can generally.
General rule of thumb is toback off five degrees per per
week after that.
So if they're three weeks old,they're going to be looking at
80 degrees minimum of heat.
(07:44):
When you have your heater inthere and people use heat plates
, people also will use heatlamps.
Heat lamps are not are theirmost popular, but most chicken
people like me will tell you tonot use a heat lamp because of
the danger that the heat lampposes and the fires that it can
start.
If you are very, very, verycareful with your heat lamp,
(08:07):
make sure that it's not going tobe anywhere around anything
that's going to be flammable,you tie it off and then tie it
off again and then tie it offthat third time to make sure
nothing is going to drop,nothing's going to happen to
where you think you can overheatsome things and catch wood
chips or whatever you have closeto it on fire, because every
year people lose them to fire.
(08:29):
I use heat lamps, I'm verycareful with them but I really
like them.
I can put my heat lamps in acorner of the coop and that's
where you want it, or the cornerof your brooder, because you
don't want it right in themiddle and to heat the whole
thing up because your chicks aregoing to tell you if they're
hot enough, if they're warmenough or if they're too warm,
you put your heat lamp in.
(08:49):
And if your chicks are all kindof scattered around the heat
lamp, not really bundled up,just kind of chilling out and
relaxing, they're feeling prettygood.
If they're way off to a corneror as far away as they can get
from the heat lamp, it's too hot.
You need to back it off, raiseit up out of the way some more.
If they're huddled all under it, then they're not warm enough.
So let the chicks tell you whatthey need.
(09:11):
As far as the heat in the pengoes, you'll raise them in that
for about six weeks.
Then you can transform it tosomething larger.
Usually by nine weeks.
They don't need protection fromthe heat.
They feather it out pretty goodwith their first batch of
feathers and they're going to beready to go.
If you already have establishedchickens, you need to want to
(09:32):
keep the keep these youngpullets away from the chickens
till they're old enough to fendfor themselves, and I have
videos that you can look at.
It send my backyard chickens onYouTube and TikTok that show
you how I incorporate mychickens, and I usually have
very little trouble withchickens beating up on one
another whenever we do this.
Now you want to think aboutbuilding a coop farm.
(09:54):
The general rule of thumb for acoop you're looking at two to
four square feet inside the coop, depending, and what is this?
depending on Depending on thesize of the birds.
So if you want just littlebitty chickens and you get
bantams which are just kind ofsmall, you can go more than two
feet.
If you get standard size birds,you wanna get closer to the
(10:17):
four feet.
If your birds are gonna spend alot of the time inside the coop
, you may wanna go five feet inthere.
My birds do not spend much timein the coop.
You may want to go five feet inthere.
My birds do not spend much timein the coop.
They go in there to roost atnighttime and they go in there
to lay eggs Then.
That's other than that they'renot really in the in the coop
itself.
But a few things you want toincorporate in your coop.
(10:37):
You don't want it to be draftybut you want it to be well
vented.
My coop has there's a top ridgewhere gas, where ammonia, can
kind of vent out of the top.
I also have windows at thebottom that slide open and close
so that they can get fresh air.
Believe it or not, I've got anAlexa out there where I can turn
(10:59):
on lights.
I can turn on exhaust fans, Ican turn vent fans that blow in.
I can turn on vent fans thatsuck air out of it.
Again, I'm the guy thatoverdoes things and I get it,
but this is just some of thestuff that I want to do.
In the bottom of my coop youneed to have the bedding.
The most popular bedding isgoing to be wood shavings and
these are pine shavings and notcedar.
(11:20):
Cedar's got too much oil in itand it can irritate the
respiratory process, but youwant pine shavings in there.
And I also add a lot of peatmoss and it's the sorghum peat
moss and I hope I'm pronouncingthat correctly.
Look up sorghum peat moss onthe internet.
It has got some greatantiseptic qualities.
All the way up to World War one, medics use sorghum peat moss
(11:44):
to wrap bandages because it hadthat antiseptic quality in there
.
It is also great for absorbingammonia not masking it, actually
absorbing the ammonia that canbe in the coop to help cut it
down.
The disadvantage to this peatmoss is it is extremely dry and
if you have, if your chickensspend a lot of time in the coop,
(12:06):
inside the coop, they're goingto be scratching around and
they're going to be stirring alot of dust, and all this dust
is not going to be good for them.
But if they don't spend a lot oftime in there.
They just go in there to roost,like mine do.
They go in there to lay theireggs, then they're just pooping.
Well, this peat moss is really,really, really great to help
absorb all of that.
And you still want to keep itclean.
(12:26):
You want to be practice goodhusbandry practices in your coop
.
Keep it clean.
I go every couple of days,maybe every three days, and I'll
scoop around.
I'll also take a rake and I'llstir things around in the coop.
And you want to have a lot ofgood access and my coop the way
I built it.
I can't walk in the coop butI've got big windows and I've
(12:46):
got big doors that openeverywhere that I can get to
everything in the coop.
And that's important becauseyou want to be able to get in
there and clean, do maintenanceand do the things that you want
to do.
So once you figure out how youwant to build things, then your
(13:09):
run and the run is where thechickens get to go and play.
That needs to be at least 10square feet per bird.
I have two different runs.
They're both 8 feet deep, 20feet long, so it's 8 by 40 total
and they're divided by a doorso I could keep the bird
separated whenever I want to.
And again, you need to thinkabout, there's a phenomenon out
there and it's called chickenmath.
Guys, chicken math is a realthing.
You think, oh, in the back ofmy mind, I don't know.
Three, four chickens, that'sall I'm going to want.
(13:30):
That'll be plenty for me.
Well, that's going to be goodthe first year, but six months
later you're going to go oh,that's a gorgeous chicken right
there.
Oh, I want some green egglayers.
Oh, I want some chocolate egglayers.
I want some blue egg layers.
Oh, I want the ones with thefuzzy hair on their feet or the
top hat on their head and beforeyou know it, that Three or four
chickens is going to be a dozenof them.
(13:51):
So if you think you want to havethat many chickens, build twice
as much for that.
If you think you want to havesix, build a coop that's gonna
handle a dozen or more Chicken.
Math is a real thing, guys.
It trust me, you're gonna thankme in the future if you do this
, if you build it over big andyou don't get them.
Not that big of a deal, buttrust me, it's gonna, it's gonna
(14:11):
happen.
So we have our coop, we haveour run size that we need For my
run and in my coop, the chickenpen, I use hardware cloth, that
I use half-inch hardware clothbecause a raccoon or a big, big
alley cat that's running aroundor a dog is not going to get
through hardware cloth if youwrap it in chicken wire.
(14:33):
Chicken wire is only good forchickens.
Okay, an adventurous dog orraccoon or a possum can get
through chicken wire, and so thefirst four feet of my run has
got hardware cloth.
Now I don't do the second fourfeet because they are eight foot
tall.
Mine are seven and eight foottall.
It's chicken wire and I don'thave hardware cloth up there and
(14:55):
it's a matter of economics.
The stud's expensive, I mean,come on.
So I need to think about themoney that I'm spending.
So the first half is going tobe hardware cloth and all around
the perimeter bottom I will laytwo feet wide, I'll lay
hardware cloth down and I'll letthe grass grow through it and
this helps prevent animals thatwant to try to dig under the
(15:16):
coop.
So I want to make sure that Ido that Also in my coop because
you know, my buddies back atwork years ago used to call me
the high-tech redneck.
I have three run chicken doorsand I love run chicken.
I've been using them for a fewyears for a great door.
They're programmable to do adifferent multitude of things on
(15:37):
ways that you can get them toopen and close.
I have videos about them and ifyou think you might want one,
please, you owe it to yourselfto check out some of my videos
on them in.
In these videos there's adiscount link and you will get
15% off of what your neighborspay for the doors and, to be
honest, I get a small percentageof that 15%.
That comes back to me atSennlon Backyard Chickens.
(15:59):
But you will love these doorsand I do, I've never had one
fail.
You just change batteries inthem.
They say once a year, but Iusually go a little bit more
than that because I'll forgetsometimes.
But they do flash and they tellyou it's time.
They have a solar power one,that you don't need to change
the batteries on but mine aren'tthe more modern solar power
(16:20):
ones.
Mine are the little bit olderones, but I love having them.
It's so convenient when mybirds go in at nighttime ones,
but I love having them.
it's so convenient when my birdsgo in at night time because I
let them free range during theday and so in the morning time
the the run chicken door opensfor the coop.
They all go out into the firstrun and then, like I, like I
just mentioned, I have twodifferent runs and they're
(16:41):
separated by a door and that's arun chicken door and I can
program that door whether or notI want them to go into the
second run.
The first run is completelyenclosed.
It's got a roof over it, wiringgoes all the way to the top.
Nothing's going to get intothem.
The second run has an open topon it so birds can, other birds
can fly in there and you couldhave predator issues.
(17:01):
You really don't have them inthat size of a run, but it can
happen.
And then I've got a third doorthat goes to the outside for
whenever I want them to freerange and I can completely
control.
If we're not going to be home,we're going on vacation or going
to be gone for a few days, Ishut down the door and don't let
them go outside the free range,just let them go in the run
parts, and they're perfectlyhappy with doing that.
(17:23):
So it's really, really great tobe able to have that ability to
do this.
We've got all that set up andnow you want to think about nest
boxes.
The thing about a nest box youwant a nest box to be raised off
the off the floor of the coop.
Mine are about 12 to 14 inchesoff the floor, I can't tell you
exactly, but you want them to bedefinitely lower than the roost
(17:45):
.
Chickens naturally, by instinct, want to get up high at
nighttime whenever they go tobed and if your nest boxes are
way up high then they're goingto start sleeping in there and
they're going to be pooping inthere and you don't want that
because you want to have yournice fresh eggs to be clean.
You want your roost bars uphigh, nest boxes in the middle
and then your floor at thebottom.
(18:07):
Mine are built in such a waythat I can access them from the
outside.
I don't need to walk inside therun or the coop to get to my
eggs.
I can access them from theoutside.
I raise them up and I have one,two, three, four of them in
there and I can pick the eggs.
This is something me and mygranddaughter we enjoy doing
together.
So you want to think aboutdoing that whenever you
incorporate your chicken coopand there's a lot of chicken
(18:28):
coop designs out there.
You just want to do one that'ssmart and you want to have a lot
of doors, a lot of ways to getinto the coop.
Again, it's very, veryimportant build things big
enough for that chicken man.
Do not forget about chicken man.
Okay, after we've got our pinbuilt, we know what kind of
(18:49):
chickens we want.
We got them in the mail, we'reraising them up, and so now what
do we want to feed them?
Well, I can tell you to get thehighest quality feed that you
can afford and you can go fromaround here.
You can go from about $13 for a50 pound bag all the way up to
$23, $24, $25 for a 50 pound bag.
(19:10):
Ingredients make a difference.
Just because something has 16%protein and this other bag has
60% protein with this other bagis $8 more per 50 pounds than
the first one.
This could be an ingredientreason.
And so look at your ingredientson your chicken feed, and I
(19:31):
have found, by and large, thatthe more expensive feeds are
usually going to be the onesthat have the better ingredients
.
I don't want a lot of fillers,I don't want a lot of byproducts
, and some of the bags will usethe word byproducts and by law
they are required to list theingredients and the way the
listing works.
The first ingredient is themost that's in there, the second
(19:52):
ingredient is the second most,the third ingredient is the
third most, and so on.
So if the first ingredient itsays is wheat byproducts, then
the majority of that feed iswheat.
If the second ingredient sayscorn or corn shells in there,
then the second most product inthere is going to be corn, and
so on and so forth.
(20:14):
So make sure you get your birdsa good quality feed.
I use the Coop Works that'sC-O-O-P-W-O-R-X feeder.
I have an 80 pound feeder thatis inside my run, inside the
covered run, so it doesn't getrained on.
This is a great feeder andagain, I've got a video on that
and I've got a discount linkthat you can use for that.
(20:35):
I can put 80 pounds of feed inthere and the cool thing about
those the way I have it set upis I don't have a problem with
rats or mice getting in the feed.
If your feed is on the ground,sooner or later they're going to
get in there and they're goingto start eating your feed.
That's something you don't want.
You pay for this expensive feed.
You want it for your chickens,not the rats, and plus rats poop
(20:56):
and we don't know aboutdiseases and stuff that they may
get.
So look into getting a goodquality feeder if you can, then
next you want a good waterer.
That's in there.
You don't want water and feedinside the coop.
You're just asking for a mess,too much moisture.
Chickens are going to spill thefeed.
You're inviting rats and miceto get in there.
Water and all that moistureinside the coop is not a good
(21:19):
idea.
The only time I have food andwater is when I have young
chicks inside their brooder andyou have to have it in there for
them then, but you have to domaintenance and keeping it clean
as well.
The food and water needs to beon the outside of the coop.
It can be in the run, it can beout in the chicken yard,
whatever you want, but itdoesn't need to be inside the
coop itself.
(21:40):
So next we want to talk aboutfree range or not to free range.
My birds, more days than not,will free range and you take a
chance whenever they do, becausenow they can be more
susceptible to predators.
A stray dog comes by, chickenhawks and all of these happen
and all of these over the yearshave happened to me.
I try to do things thatmitigate it, that help keep it
(22:03):
down.
I keep a young dog that I raisewith my chickens pretty much at
all times you get a dog that,from a very tiny puppy, is with
the chickens and it doesn't growup to be aggressive towards
them.
You don't want a dog that's gothunting instincts in it, you
want just a mutt more or lesswith it.
And I tell people a lot oftimes you don't want a dog
(22:26):
that's really taller than thechickens are themselves, unless
they're those dogs that arespecifically bred to take care
of chickens and to be protectiveof them and they have them out
there.
And these are big old dogs and,trust me, they're great.
But when you got a small littlebackyard, like most of us do,
you want a small dog if you'regoing to use that in there.
(22:46):
But, I like to free range and Ihad the choice of the free range
or not because I, using the wayI use my run chicken automatic
coop doors, I can program themto open or not.
Like I said, if we're gone wedon't do it, otherwise I let
them free range.
They're happier, they'rehealthier.
The birds are out there,they're eating grasses and seeds
, they're eating worms and bugsand all of these things make for
(23:10):
some of the greatest tastingand richest eggs you will find.
In the fall we open up thefencing that's around our garden
and they spend the fall andwinter picking through our
garden and come springtimethere's not a weed want in our
garden.
The chickens have taken care ofthis.
Plus, their poop is greatcompost that goes back into the
soil.
(23:30):
So you can kind of think of allof that.
But I use a lot of supplementsbecause I enjoy it.
I will.
I will ferment my food aboutonce a week.
I've got a video on doing that.
It's an easy, easy thing to dofermenting your food, you know.
I'm talking about fermenting itto the point to where it's if
you have alcohol, because youcould do that, you don't want to
do that, but fermenting it tothe point that you have these
(23:53):
good, healthy bacteria that arein the feed.
You can smell it when it'sfermented just right, and it
makes great gut health for about.
You know, I'll also supplementthat with some apple cider
vinegar.
It has to be apple cidervinegar.
You look on the bottle it sayswith the mother and you can look
at the bottom of it and see athick layer of stuff down there
and that's all the bacteria andstuff that they use whenever
(24:15):
they make it.
This is very, very healthy forthem.
I will drink apple cidervinegar.
It's good for our gut health aswell, and fermenting a lot of
food kimchi and things like thatis also good for our gut health
as well.
In fermenting a lot of food,kimchi and things like that is
also good for our gut health.
So it's easy to do.
It doesn't cost you anything toferment food.
A bottle of apple cider vinegaris only one tablespoon per
(24:36):
gallon and I don't keep it outthere with them a lot.
Maybe once a month I'll mixthem up a couple of gallons and
I'll put it out there, but nomore than that.
It doesn't need to be aconstant supply of that stuff.
So one bottle like this ofapple cider vinegar will last me
, you know, half a year.
It lasts a very long time whenyou think about one tablespoon
per gallon.
(24:56):
Also, give them oyster shells.
You want to give them oystershells.
That's a good calciumsupplement and the way I do mine
.
I had these little rabbitfeeder boxes and they're very
small that I have attached tothe, to the hardware cloth, and
I can fill them from the outsideand they eat them from the
inside, and so I do my oystershells in there and I do grit in
(25:18):
there as well.
And again, my birds, like I said, most of the time they're
outside free-ranging and theypick up grit that way, but
whenever they don't, I want tohave some farm available.
And what the grit does, littletiny pieces of rock, goes into
their eating, goes into theirgizzard and it helps them grind
that food down.
It helps process that foodbegins breaking it down.
(25:40):
Chickens do not have salivaglands and teeth like you and I
do.
To help that process, all ofthat stuff happens inside the
gizzard.
The rocks will grind down,grind down and the passages in
the gizzard are too small forthe rocks to go through.
Until the rocks grindthemselves down to very small
sizes, then they'll pass and thechickens are any more grit,
(26:01):
more rocks to keep that processgoing.
This is how that they processthe food.
Also, give them good, healthytable scraps.
We have leftover greens.
We have leftover cooked eggs isa great source of protein for
your chickens.
Almost anything that we eat youcan also supplement and feed
your chickens.
Now, don't feed them rice,because rice is just blank
(26:23):
calories.
That doesn't really benefitthem any and just gonna make
them fatter whenever they don'tneed to be fatter.
They need to be good, lean,lean and strong.
But what you would feed yourkids you know.
You can probably supplement andfeed your chickens whenever you
have extras of it.
Don't feed them sour foods andfoods that's turned bad.
You don't want to do that.
So if you wouldn't feed that toyour kids, don't feed that to
(26:44):
your chickens.
But again, there's a lot ofgood, healthy table scraps that
you can feed them.
Most afternoons or evenings mybirds know it.
When it comes that time,whenever I go out there, I
usually have some black flylarva that I give them.
They love it.
They come running to me andthen you can just put them in
your hand.
They eat out of your hand forit.
That's a great source ofprotein.
(27:05):
But then again, remember, theselittle treats should not be
more than 10% or so of theirdaily output.
The majority of their food isgoing to be the good quality
layer pellets that I have forthem, or layer crumbles if you
prefer crumbles I like thepellets personally for myself
and then free-ranging out of theyard and then scraps on the
(27:27):
table and then after that arethe treats.
And then in summer, you know,in the summer when it's hot, I
will take blueberries, put themin ice trays, cut up some grapes
, put them in ice trays, freezethem with water, put them out
there for them.
It's a great source of fun forthem.
They'll peck on them and thingslike that, and that helps cool
their bodies down in the heat ofthe summer.
Louisiana's got some prettyvicious summers, so they really
(27:49):
enjoy doing that.
Let's see what we have next whento expect your first egg.
Generally speaking, with mostheritage type birds, you're
looking 18 to 22 weeks or so,five or six months before you
get your first eggs.
If you bought weeks or so, fiveor six months before you get
your first eggs, if you, if youbought legger and or leg horns
that are specifically for laying.
(28:10):
They're gonna probably startproducing a little bit earlier
than that.
They are made to do that.
But understand, usually thosehigh production egg layers are
not gonna be the friendliest ofbirds out there.
They're not gonna be mean.
I'm not trying to say that, butthey're what what we call
flighty.
They don't like to hang aroundpeople and they'll run from you
and all that.
They just seem to be like.
They're always pissed off aboutsomething.
(28:30):
So you know, you consider thatI have, I think, one leghorn out
there just to give me a whiteegg to go with my colorful
basket that I have.
Then most of my others arehybrids and heritage breed
chickens and I have several ofall of it.
Some people are surprised tolearn that you do not need a
rooster for a hen to lay an eggno different than any other
(28:54):
animal, humans included.
A woman does not need a guyaround in order for her to
ovulate and have one egg permonth.
A hen ovulates almost every dayand she produces those eggs.
Whenever the guy is needed iswhen we want to fertilize them
and when we want to have chicks.
So you need a rooster for that.
If you free range, you may wantto think about a rooster to
(29:16):
help protect the chicken.
A rooster spends a lot of timelooking out for predators and
will warn the birds, the girls,if you have anything coming, and
a really good rooster willsacrifice itself protecting its
chickens.
I've seen roosters beat thesesnot out of chicken hawks that
come down and they are more thanhappy to do it, and you find
(29:37):
some hawks that are reallyregretting having made that
decision.
But you also got to rememberthat a lot of roosters can be
aggressive towards people andnow that I have young
grandchildren whenever I didn'thave grandchildren that were
young and my oldest is in theAir Force, so I have them at all
ages.
The youngest at the time ofthis taping is almost one year
(29:58):
old.
So now that I have these younggrandchildren hanging around and
Sylvie, my grand girl if youlisten to any of the podcasts,
she is now eight years old Idon't have a rooster because if
they ever bow up to my grandkids, they're out of here, they're
going to rooster camp, freezercamp, right off the bat.
If they grow up they bow up toone of us, I'll shoo them out of
(30:18):
the way.
But I'm not gonna have anaggressive rooster and you gotta
spend a lot of time with themand there are some roosters that
are not aggressive.
They can be very, very friendly.
But it takes a lot of work and alot of patience to raise that
chick, to be friendly and tocome up with a good rooster for
your family so you don't have tohave a rooster in order to have
have eggs.
So that that's you know.
You know, don't even thinkabout that.
(30:40):
But when will my chick, how doI know she's getting ready to
start laying eggs?
Not just because of the timethat's going by we're getting 20
, 22 weeks into it but there aresigns.
You see sudden growth in theirwaddles that's these right here,
and they're combed down on topof their head.
You'll see a quick growth ofthose and they'll start turning
a good crimson red.
In most breeds some breeds thatthey're not red, but most of
(31:04):
them that you'll find them, thatthey are going to be red.
You'll see that red colorcoming.
You know, know, your bird'sstarting to get those hormones
raging in them and she's gettingready to lay eggs.
Also, the most telling thing iswhen they start doing that
submissive squatting behavior.
You walk out amongst yourchickens and all of a sudden
they just squat down like thatshe is submitting to you.
(31:25):
This is a submissive behaviorthat chicken hens would do with
roosters whenever they get readyto fertilize the eggs.
So that tells you again we aregetting close to having some
eggs.
Now don't think that a chickenis going to lay an egg every day
.
The most high-productionchickens out there do not lay an
egg every day.
The leghorns that I mentionedearlier are probably some of the
(31:47):
most prolific and they willprobably do between five and six
eggs a week.
Most of your heritage breedchickens that I talked about
earlier are going to give youthree to four eggs a week, maybe
five sometime when they'redoing good.
So kind of keep that in mind.
Whenever you're doing, youcount on how many that you think
that you want.
(32:08):
There's going to be times ofyear that they're not going to
lay.
Every bird every year goesthrough a molt.
That's when they lose theirfeathers and they grow new
feathers.
Usually this is going to be inthe fall, so they can get a good
, fresh coat of feathers to getready to battle the cold weather
of the winter.
When they're molting they'renot going to be laying If it
gets to be very, very hot andthey're stressed, because of
(32:29):
heat stress.
They're not going to be layingwhenever the the daylight hours
start decreasing.
Chickens use sunlight, theamount of sunlight during the
day, and they usually wantsomewhere you know around 14 or
so hours to start triggering,triggering that ovulation period
.
We need a lot of sunlight hoursto for them to lay.
If you're in an area whereduring the winter you're getting
(32:51):
10 to 12 hours is all of thedaylight you get during the day,
their production is going to goway down.
So understand that, going in,that they're not going to be
constantly laying year in, yearout.
That first couple of years iswhere they're going to be the
most productive.
After that chickens will startdropping off a little bit at a
time.
So understand that as well.
(33:12):
And again, that's just how weuse it to buy more chicken.
So there's not a big deal aboutthat.
Something I do want to talkabout eventually we're all going
to lose birds.
There's all sorts of reasons,whether it's through predation,
whether it's to old age, orwhether it's to old age or
whether it's through sickness.
We're going to lose birds andwhen you're very attached to
(33:34):
them like I get to mine a lot ofpeople get to them because we
raise them not only as livestockanimals, but we also raise them
as pets and you can getemotionally attached to them.
It's funny when I was a boygrowing up in Dry Creek, I was
not emotionally attached to them.
It's funny when I was a boygrowing up in Dry Creek, I was
not emotionally attached to ourchickens.
It was my job in the mornings togo out and feed them before I
(33:57):
went to school.
When I got off the bus, it wasmy job to make sure that they
had water and feed out there andthen to gather eggs, and I did
not look at these things as pets.
They were things that mama mademe do and daddy made me do.
But in 2016, when I gotreintroduced to chickens again,
it was a whole differentballgame and it's probably going
to be that way for you.
(34:17):
But remember throughout all ofthis that we're talking about
think about what you want toincorporate in your coop and run
.
Think about where you are.
If you live in the city, findout from your city government on
what you're allowed to have andthen use that as your guide.
Just make sure that yourchickens are safe, that they're
pinned.
While it's well vetted it's notgonna be real drafty.
(34:38):
You don't want to get a lot ofcold wind going through in a
winter.
And depending on where you livewill also help tell you what
kind of chickens that you'regonna get.
If you live up in the highnorthern parts of the US, you
want some winter hardy chickens.
And when I say about winterhardy chickens, chickens that
have good fluffy feathers, thathave smaller cones, are winter
(35:00):
hardy chickens.
Summer chickens are, you know,long-legged chickens and not a
lot ton of feathers around themand got big old cones.
And the cone in the wattleserves as radiator, just like
the radiator in your automobile.
Blood circulates through there,the cone in the water.
The blood is very close to thesurface air and the air helps
(35:21):
cool their bodies down with thatblood circulating through their
cones and wattles.
So you can see in thewintertime if it's freezing
outside, you know 0, 5, 10degrees and you have that blood
circulating through there.
That can really cool thechicken off a lot.
And we want to guard againstthat because chickens can be
subject to frostbite.
Now don't get me wrong.
(35:42):
Frostbite is not necessarily asubject of temperature as much
it is moisture.
You have a lot of moistureinside your coop.
That's when you can get afrostbite in the winter, because
frostbite is gonna be icecrystals that form on the
exterior of them and it actuallykills the cells that are in the
wattles or in their comb.
(36:02):
So you want to again thinkabout your coop.
Make sure it's going to bebuilt the way that you want it
to build.
If you guys have any questions,please let me know.
I'm happy to answer them.
You can find me at Send LotBackyard Chickens and Videos
Chickens Every Day on my podcast.
If you like me, just drive downthe road and listen to podcasts
.
I hope this has helped you some.
(36:23):
I hope that you're going toenjoy your chicken adventure.
It is a ton of fun to do.
Learn and grow, especially ifyou have young ones out there.
They can learn and grow withyou.
Don't be afraid to jump intothis hobby.
It is a ton of fun and you getmore back into it than what you
get.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
So until the next time.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
See you guys again soon.
Bye-bye, hello friends, and Ihope you guys are enjoying the
episodes that I put together andI'd love to hear from you to be
able to get more ideas I puttogether and I'd love to hear
from you to be able to get moreideas.
But, as you can imagine, doingthis is not free.
So if you could find it in yourheart at some point to maybe
think about wanting to supportthe show a buck or two I mean,
that's not a big deal but ifthat's something you would
(37:02):
consider doing, you can go toany of the episodes from your
podcast app.
I personally use Apple Podcastapp.
Scroll down, click on supportthe show and if you do, I'll
give you a shout out on the showand again, I will answer and
read and answer your questionson the show as well.
Or you could just simply go tochickenseverydaybuzzsproutcom
(37:25):
that chickens plural every day,all one word b buzzsproutcom,
and it would be very helpful.
Believe it or not, I haveequipment that I need to upgrade
.
I pay a monthly fee for thepodcast service.
I pay a monthly fee for theediting software that I use, so
anyway, I thought I would bringthis to your attention and if
it's something that you wouldconsider doing, I would be
(37:46):
eternally grateful.
Thank you, bye-bye.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
That's all we have time for today.
I really hope you enjoyedlistening to the podcast.
Be sure to watch our videos.
So, on behalf of my Papa, gary,and me, sylvie, thanks for
listening.
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