Home Grown Poultry Magazine | Chickens - Waterfowl

Tell your neighbors what you are doing. They are less likely to get upset over a wandering chicken in their yard every once in a while if they know where it came from. Better yet, turn them into allies and give them free eggs! You will likely end up with more eggs than you will know what to do with.
Protect the outdoor run from hawks by draping bird netting over it and tying it down. Bird netting is very cheap and, without it, you are inviting hawks over for a daily feast.
If there is no one in your area to buy chicks from, try mail ordering them. Keep in mind, you may have to order quite a few, but this will allow you to order just hens… and you don’t need a rooster for good eggs!

Warnings:

Most people in an urban environment would rather you not actually try to cultivate a group of chickens in your backyard.

Check online for plants in your yard that may be toxic, as chickens love to eat greenery and your garden is ‘on the menu’! It follows that you should never use pesticide spray on or around plants that chickens may eat, and never use slug and snail killer pellets as they will kill your birds. Chickens naturally scratch and dig in the dirt with much gusto, so don’t expect them to steer clear of your prize-winning petunia patch. If you don’t want them to eat it and/or dig it up, fence it off.

Roosters are loud! All male chickens love to crow and they do it in the morning, noon, night and every chance they get in-between. Keep that in mind if you have close neighbors. Hens, on the other hand, are not as noisy, but they DO cackle loudly here and there.

Roosters are loud, but they serve a purpose – hens tend to be scattered and witless and roosters work to manage the herd in foraging and protect them from predators. Roosters also tend to decrease “hen pecking” – the abusive pecking inflicted on the runts of the roost.

Chickens can carry diseases just like any other outdoor animal, so if you have very small children, make sure you monitor their contact. Tell them to wash their hands after petting them, and never kiss them. Educate yourself on chicken health, including common diseases and parasites, many of which can be carried in by wild birds.

Consider what you will do with unwanted birds. If you are hatching your own chickens, about half of them will be roosters. They can’t be kept together because they’ll kill each other and harm the hens as well. Likewise, if your main reason for keeping chickens is for the eggs, remember that chickens can live 8-10 years but only have a productive life (one egg every 1.5 days) of about 2-3 years. It’s not easy to find homes for roosters and unproductive chickens, and usually your only option is to sell them for meat. However, keeping older chickens is often an option. They don’t eat quite as much, but still produce delicious eggs. The roosters make good chicken jerky if you’re ambitious. Be aware that rooster meat is pretty tough and would rarely make something like fried chicken taste good.