I was looking at old threads as far back as 2009 and thought it would be fun to revisit my newbie questions in light of what I've learned. So MANY questions -- some having turned out to be critical and some trivial. I hope that you will find my trip down Nostalgia Lane will be at least entertaining and, hopefully, informative.
From this thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/10-stupid-newbie-questions.212698/
#1. I have a family of 6 who uses about a dozen to a dozen and a half eggs per week on average. Would 6 hens keep us in eggs (with maybe a little surplus to share?)
#2. Would a 4X6 coop and a run of about 200 square feet be suitable as a minimum level of space for 6 hens? I could possibly increase that to 6x6 and, possibly, add an open air "porch" section with a roof, a wall to the west, and hardened fencing about 6X8 but cost is an issue.
#3. Research I've done in books and online and the use of the breed selector tool I found online suggests that black Australorps and silver-laced Wyandottes are suitable breeds -- brown eggs, docile temperament (one of the kids is only 3), good layers, and aesthetically pleasing to our tastes. Summer heat here is blistering and winters are mild with rare ventures into the teens or, possibly, single digits on the worst nights of the year. Any particular reason to choose one over the other? Any reason not to mix them if both are available at a comparable price?
#4. The main predator hazard here in town would almost certainly be neighbors' dogs. The immediate neighbors control their dogs, but there are a few running around in defiance of the leash laws. Is the common, green, welded wire adequate protection from dogs if firmly fastened to the posts and backed up with anti-digging measures? Cost is a MAJOR issue for us.
5. Do chickens damage/kill mature shrubbery and trees? I could increase the amount of potential run area (perhaps rotating through several areas), if I could be reasonably confident that the dogwoods and the unindentified shrub that would provide desirable shade in a couple possible areas would survive.
6. Are live oak leaves and pine straw good bedding material?
7. I understand that chickens like kitchen scraps. Is it OK to put the kitchen scrap compost heap (I layer them with fall leaves), in the chicken run so they could enjoy the pillbugs, earwigs, etc. as well or is there a health hazard to them from the rotting vegetation? Would they tear the pile to pieces so that it was no longer an effective pile?
8. Would it be hard to get a couple chickens from the run into a tractor in the morning and back again at night so they could work garden beds for me at times?
9. Would it make sense to locate the coop in a place that would be largely shaded by deciduous trees in the summer with windows facing south and the west side shaded by the garden toolshed?
10. My soil is nearly pure quartz sand just like at the beach so drainage is never an issue. But the chickens would be on a slight slope just uphill of the path DH uses to get from our home to his office at the back of the property. Might it be a good idea to create a swale or trench outside the lower edge of the fence to trap any possible poop-contaminated runoff? Or is this unlikely to be an issue?
From another thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/more-newbie-questions-with-one-from-my-dh-as-well.213311/
DH's question first. He really likes the idea of being able to feed, water, and get eggs from the outside of the pen. But he is worrying that hens will jump out of the nestbox and fly away when we open the lid. Will they do that? Will they try to get through an access hatch when its open?
Will chickens voluntarily go through a corridor a couple feet wide to get to a different run? If you think of the available area in my yard as the number pad on your keyboard with the metal garden shed in the middle at #5 the proposed coop and hardened, free-access run would be #2. #1 and #4 have to remain open for access to the lawnmower and garden tools. #3 is occupied by a sizeable shrub.
It might be possible for me to use the area of numbers 6, 9, 8, 7, and maybe even the page down key and divide it into 3-4 sections to grow mini-pastures that I could rotate. Would the chickens willingly walk a narrow corridor around the shed to get to 8, 7, and page down? Would they have to be herded?
How long would half a dozen hens take to turn about 100-120 square feet of vegetation into bare dirt anyway?
Finally, this property has some weedy, neglected areas where we've cleaned away dead trees and overgrown shrubs. If the vegetation includes ragweed, holly, live oak, honeysuckle, prickly pear cactus, pokeweed, lambs quarters, false dandelion, sassafras, and a heavy layer of pine straw is it a chicken buffet or a chicken last supper?
Another thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/newbie-brooder-questions.757657/
Where in an ordinary, suburban ranch house do you put a brooder? We've got no basement and no garage -- just a carport, an unenclosed back porch, and an unheated shed which has electricity but very poor ventilation. We are bursting full of kids, teens, and cats and do not want odor and dust inside on top of everything else.
How big a brooder is required for 4-8 chicks? I'm thinking that, just like the plants I start, it would be a good idea to get more than I want in case some don't make it.
How long before they no longer need to be in the brooder with the heat lamp and can be in the tractor with no supplemental heat?
Are there any issues involved in brooding mixed heavy breeds rather than all the same kind? In a perfect world I'd try Australorps, Delawares, and Light or Dark Brahmas to see what suited us best though I have no idea what sort of chicks I could get.
And another thread : https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/corn-husks.780744/
I've got a job at a farm stand for the summer -- one of the big ones that bring in extra produce from wherever its good -- and one of the waste items we generate is corn husks. Every time I prepare a pretty display of corn and husk ears to be bagged on ice for people who don't like to clean their own corn I end up with a kitchen trash bag of fresh, green corn husks.
I was wondering if chickens would like to eat and/or play with them in the run and if they'd be able to reduce something that fibrous to compost for me.
And next: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/does-feed-consumption-drop-off-after-a-couple-months.813677/
Does feed consumption normally drop off a bit at that age? Is it likely that the finer texture of that feed is making that much difference? Am I overdoing the fruits, vegetables, and weeds? Is it possible that they're getting that many bugs drawn into the run by the remnants of the okra and cucumbers?
And finally: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/you-know-what-they-say-about-stupid-questions.810507/
After giving the chickens supplemental foods like the inner parts of peppers, wormy ears of sweet corn, wilted peaches, etc. do I need to clean up what they don't eat or can corn husks and cobs, pepper stems, peach pits, etc. be allowed to become one with the pine straw in the run and compost in place?
I hope you've enjoyed this look back at my newbie questions. Maybe I'll come back in another decade to look at the questions I'm asking now and see how much further the learning process has advanced.
From this thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/10-stupid-newbie-questions.212698/
#1. I have a family of 6 who uses about a dozen to a dozen and a half eggs per week on average. Would 6 hens keep us in eggs (with maybe a little surplus to share?)
I'm down to 4 in the household but share eggs with several other households. 6 hens was about right for my previous needs, but I think 10 would be more reliable for me now because I need to give eggs to my SIL who lives on the same property, my other SIL who is only here seasonally, my sister (at least until my BIL gets chickens of his own), my son and his family ....
It's easy to expand egg usage and donation. When we get enough laying we'll look into selling eggs too.
But the info I needed then was to expect 3-5 eggs per week *on average* from "dual purpose" breed hens -- flooding out in the spring and dwindling to a trick in the winter.
#2. Would a 4X6 coop and a run of about 200 square feet be suitable as a minimum level of space for 6 hens? I could possibly increase that to 6x6 and, possibly, add an open air "porch" section with a roof, a wall to the west, and hardened fencing about 6X8 but cost is an issue.
This is where I was introduced to the Usual Guidelines:
For each adult, standard-sized hen you need,
- 4 square feet in the coop,
- 10 square feet in the run,
- 1 linear foot of roost,
- 1/4 of a nest box,
- And 1 square foot of permanent, 24/7/365 ventilation, preferably located over the birds' heads when they're sitting on the roost.
Ridgerunner's excellent article explains how/why these are guidelines rather than hard-and-fast rules, but following them has given me good results.
#3. Research I've done in books and online and the use of the breed selector tool I found online suggests that black Australorps and silver-laced Wyandottes are suitable breeds -- brown eggs, docile temperament (one of the kids is only 3), good layers, and aesthetically pleasing to our tastes. Summer heat here is blistering and winters are mild with rare ventures into the teens or, possibly, single digits on the worst nights of the year. Any particular reason to choose one over the other? Any reason not to mix them if both are available at a comparable price?
I ended up leery of Wyandottes because they are more cold-hardy than heat-resistant, but got one last year on the recommendation of a farm-store chicken expert who said that she had Wyandottes in her own flock without issues. So far Popcorn hasn't had any noticeable issues with the heat.
The Australorps have been great for me as were the Delawares. I love my current California White, but she'd have been a problem in my in-town flock because she is a flier with ambitions to be a weathervane. The 4-foot-high run would have been confining for her.
#4. The main predator hazard here in town would almost certainly be neighbors' dogs. The immediate neighbors control their dogs, but there are a few running around in defiance of the leash laws. Is the common, green, welded wire adequate protection from dogs if firmly fastened to the posts and backed up with anti-digging measures? Cost is a MAJOR issue for us.
I wish I had known then about the flexibility and usefulness of electric poultry netting. I could have given the in-town chickens much more space to roam that way -- with due attention paid to the safely of my then 3yo (who is now 15 and my main helper in all things chicken).
5. Do chickens damage/kill mature shrubbery and trees? I could increase the amount of potential run area (perhaps rotating through several areas), if I could be reasonably confident that the dogwoods and the unindentified shrub that would provide desirable shade in a couple possible areas would survive.
The trees and the mature shrubs would have been safe had I known about the poultry netting.
6. Are live oak leaves and pine straw good bedding material?
Yes and no. Pine straw is poor bedding in the coop because it's not very absorbent (though mixing some in with the shavings helps keep them from compacting), but it's excellent litter for the run because it resists breaking down and dries out quickly on top after even the heaviest rain. Not to mention being free for the raking. The live oak leaves were similarly useful in the run.
I just dump the pine straw in the run and let the chickens spread it for me.
7. I understand that chickens like kitchen scraps. Is it OK to put the kitchen scrap compost heap (I layer them with fall leaves), in the chicken run so they could enjoy the pillbugs, earwigs, etc. as well or is there a health hazard to them from the rotting vegetation? Would they tear the pile to pieces so that it was no longer an effective pile?
Yes, to all of the above. You *can* put your compost pile into the chicken run, but you have to be careful about rot and mold that could present a health hazard. They do enjoy the bugs, etc. but they will tear it up. The solution?
Throw the more chicken-friendly things into the run, letting what they don't eat become one with the bedding but have a separate pile for the things you want to undergo a more intensive composting process.
8. Would it be hard to get a couple chickens from the run into a tractor in the morning and back again at night so they could work garden beds for me at times?
I seem to have no luck training chickens to do anything I want them to rather than just working with what they want to do. Some people do manage to train chickens to go in and out of a tractor so it wouldn't have been impossible. I didn't end up doing it.
9. Would it make sense to locate the coop in a place that would be largely shaded by deciduous trees in the summer with windows facing south and the west side shaded by the garden toolshed?
It probably would have -- though south-facing windows are not optimal in central North Carolina summers. However, we found a better place that was almost fully shaded all summer.
10. My soil is nearly pure quartz sand just like at the beach so drainage is never an issue. But the chickens would be on a slight slope just uphill of the path DH uses to get from our home to his office at the back of the property. Might it be a good idea to create a swale or trench outside the lower edge of the fence to trap any possible poop-contaminated runoff? Or is this unlikely to be an issue?
We chose a different site so this became irrelevant. With my drainage it would probably have been unnecessary, but in many places it might have been a good idea.
From another thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/more-newbie-questions-with-one-from-my-dh-as-well.213311/
DH's question first. He really likes the idea of being able to feed, water, and get eggs from the outside of the pen. But he is worrying that hens will jump out of the nestbox and fly away when we open the lid. Will they do that? Will they try to get through an access hatch when its open?
None of them have ever tried to jump out of the nestbox. They did try to get out through the access door when I was cleaning. I came up with a routine of tossing scratch into the run to draw them all out there, closing the pop door, and cleaning at my leisure without having to guard against possible escape chickens.
Will chickens voluntarily go through a corridor a couple feet wide to get to a different run? If you think of the available area in my yard as the number pad on your keyboard with the metal garden shed in the middle at #5 the proposed coop and hardened, free-access run would be #2. #1 and #4 have to remain open for access to the lawnmower and garden tools. #3 is occupied by a sizeable shrub.
It might be possible for me to use the area of numbers 6, 9, 8, 7, and maybe even the page down key and divide it into 3-4 sections to grow mini-pastures that I could rotate. Would the chickens willingly walk a narrow corridor around the shed to get to 8, 7, and page down? Would they have to be herded?
We ended up unable to put that plan into action (again, I wish I had known sooner about electric poultry netting), but it would have been a good plan. Chickens will go through a "chunnel" once they get the idea. Probably not enough space to keep the green growing, but it would have helped.
How long would half a dozen hens take to turn about 100-120 square feet of vegetation into bare dirt anyway?
Less time that one would expect. 
It's totally impossible to predict exactly how long.
Finally, this property has some weedy, neglected areas where we've cleaned away dead trees and overgrown shrubs. If the vegetation includes ragweed, holly, live oak, honeysuckle, prickly pear cactus, pokeweed, lambs quarters, false dandelion, sassafras, and a heavy layer of pine straw is it a chicken buffet or a chicken last supper?
Chicken buffet -- after removing the pokeweed and the cactus.
Another thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/newbie-brooder-questions.757657/
Where in an ordinary, suburban ranch house do you put a brooder? We've got no basement and no garage -- just a carport, an unenclosed back porch, and an unheated shed which has electricity but very poor ventilation. We are bursting full of kids, teens, and cats and do not want odor and dust inside on top of everything else.
In my climate I can brood outdoors. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/run-to-outdoor-brooder-conversion.76634/
In that house I could easily have set up a brooder in the carport area to raise chicks in even the worst of our possible winter weather because it was sheltered on the windward side and no precipitation could have reached the inner corner -- not even when we had a hurricane. The back porch could have worked too as long as I made sure of protection against the wind (right next to the porch fridge would have been a good place).
I didn't know this though because the possibility of brooding in a carport or on a sheltered porch instead of the garage or the bathroom seems to be generally overlooked.
How big a brooder is required for 4-8 chicks? I'm thinking that, just like the plants I start, it would be a good idea to get more than I want in case some don't make it.
At least 1/2 square foot, preferably a full square foot, per chick up to 4 weeks and at least 1, preferably 2 square feet per chick after that. Those little plastic totes get too small in a hurry.
Yes, getting extras is a good idea. Sometimes a chick doesn't make it. Sometimes you get an "oops rooster". If you go into it with the mindset that you will choose the X-number that you like best and sell the rest as started pullets or POL pullets you'll be in a good place for a successful flock.
How long before they no longer need to be in the brooder with the heat lamp and can be in the tractor with no supplemental heat?
That depends on your current weather and how fast the chicks feather out.
The standard advice is to start with 95F and back down 5 degrees per week, but many people here on BYC find that they can put fully-feathered chicks outside without heat by 4-5 weeks even with nightime lows in the 50s. My heavily-feathered Orpington x Wyandottes were out in 45F nights at 4 1/2 weeks. But 2 of my current Langshans are slow-feathering and still very downy at that age so I kept the heat on until night's were above 70. If they didn't have 10 fully-feathered sisters of other breeds to snuggle with I probably would have kept heat on longer.
Most of the time chicks are ready to be off heat by 6 weeks except for the most delicate and/or slowest-feathering breeds in the most extreme conditions. Observing the chicks' behavior is critical. I took the heat lamp away from the Ideal Dozen the other day after finding that they were no longer clustering under the heat first thing in the morning. If they'd still be acting cold during the lowest temperatures of the day I'd have left it longer.
Are there any issues involved in brooding mixed heavy breeds rather than all the same kind? In a perfect world I'd try Australorps, Delawares, and Light or Dark Brahmas to see what suited us best though I have no idea what sort of chicks I could get.
See above in re: different feathering speeds. You have to consider your slowest-developers' needs. There is also the possibility that a single chick that looks different -- a different color, crested, feather-footed, etc. -- *might* be picked on. But hundreds of thousands of backyard chicken owners successfully raise mixed flocks every year.
And another thread : https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/corn-husks.780744/
I've got a job at a farm stand for the summer -- one of the big ones that bring in extra produce from wherever its good -- and one of the waste items we generate is corn husks. Every time I prepare a pretty display of corn and husk ears to be bagged on ice for people who don't like to clean their own corn I end up with a kitchen trash bag of fresh, green corn husks.
I was wondering if chickens would like to eat and/or play with them in the run and if they'd be able to reduce something that fibrous to compost for me.
The chickens don't really eat corn husks but they do end up contributing to the bedding. When taking compost out of the run I toss back incompletely broken-down corn cobs to cycle some more.
And next: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/does-feed-consumption-drop-off-after-a-couple-months.813677/
Does feed consumption normally drop off a bit at that age? Is it likely that the finer texture of that feed is making that much difference? Am I overdoing the fruits, vegetables, and weeds? Is it possible that they're getting that many bugs drawn into the run by the remnants of the okra and cucumbers?
Yes, feed consumption does seem to drop off a little once the most rapid period of growth is over. But the texture of the feed does matter as does the level of waste from the feeder. Those little chick feeders of the "screw onto a jar" type get dumped a lot so a great deal of feed ends up down under the bedding. Switching to an adult feeder that limits wastes creates the impression of a drop in consumption.
It is possible to overfeed "treats" but there is a lot of debate over just what constitutes a "treat" vs "supplemental food". I personally avoid feeding more than minimal amounts of starchy or fatty things but don't bother limiting vegetable scraps on the theory that if they were on pasture they'd be eating a lot of vegetation anyway. Roast bones and the stuff I strain out of a pot of chicken soup are raked out after the chickens are done eating but before anything remaining rots.
I also don't give them a lot of wet stuff like bruised fruit in wet weather when what they don't eat quickly might mold. I also avoid dumping it all into one soggy pile but, instead, spread it around the run so that the run litter can help dry out what isn't eaten promptly.
And finally: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/you-know-what-they-say-about-stupid-questions.810507/
After giving the chickens supplemental foods like the inner parts of peppers, wormy ears of sweet corn, wilted peaches, etc. do I need to clean up what they don't eat or can corn husks and cobs, pepper stems, peach pits, etc. be allowed to become one with the pine straw in the run and compost in place?
I have found that what doesn't get eaten composts nicely in place in the run. From time to time I rake out the picked-clean roast bones and such large, solid things and bury dried-out, mummified sweetpotatoes or pineapple tops so that the soil-dwelling bugs and bacteria can have at them, but I generally expect my chickens to eat what they like and then allow the rest to become one with the bedding.
I hope you've enjoyed this look back at my newbie questions. Maybe I'll come back in another decade to look at the questions I'm asking now and see how much further the learning process has advanced.
