How many chickens can you legally have
02-29-2012, 07:32 PM
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We have 6 chickens, but live out in the country. Harvesting the eggs is pretty easy. Set up a nesting box, collect eggs everyday... Setting up a place for them to live without being eaten by something else is the bigger trick.
02-29-2012, 08:22 PM
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ive gotten around this by having a ratio of 1:3 dummy chickens. ive found sources for arsenic online and have applied to said dummy chickens. this has kept the fox population to a minimum. i have also installed several fox dummies along the perimeter and also applied said arsenic to them as well, when the foxes try to mate they get the arsenic on them. just a helpful tip.
02-29-2012, 08:35 PM
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Legality and numbers would depend on your city and HOA.
First, all you need are hens. Roosters just eat, make noise, copulate, can be agressive, and are tastey when young and cooked with dumplings.
Are you getting chicks or hens? Where from?
Diet makes a difference in how well they lay, as does breed. What breed are you looking at? For feed we always had the pellets in feeders and would throw some grain out once or twice a day. You'll also need some calcium for them. We used crushed oyster shells in a feeder and threw egg shells out with kitchen scraps.
I would suggest free range for better flavored eggs if you have the room. You still need to build a pen and coup for them to get into at night and when they need to lay and when you need to have them penned. The coop will need laying boxes and roosts. Not only for shelter but so they don't go lay eggs where you won't find them, and help keep predators out. A coop will get poo all in it and start smelling so you'll need to clean it. If you have plans on using the manure for fertilizer use it sparingly because it will burn foliage and kill plants if used too strongly.
Chickens can and will fly. You can clip their flight feathers to help with this. Its like cutting hair. You can also clip the wing, but I have no experience with this. We just clipped feathers.
Back on predators. Not much you can do about hawks. if a bird or two starts disapperaing at night its probably a coon. Snakes will eat the eggs, but you can put a ping pong ball in the nest. The snake will swallow the ball and can't crush it so it will kill it. My grandma would cut the swallowed ones out and reuse them. The ball also simulates an egg and assists in getting hens to use the box.
If you're getting chicks there is more to it that I can go into if needed.
First, all you need are hens. Roosters just eat, make noise, copulate, can be agressive, and are tastey when young and cooked with dumplings.
Are you getting chicks or hens? Where from?
Diet makes a difference in how well they lay, as does breed. What breed are you looking at? For feed we always had the pellets in feeders and would throw some grain out once or twice a day. You'll also need some calcium for them. We used crushed oyster shells in a feeder and threw egg shells out with kitchen scraps.
I would suggest free range for better flavored eggs if you have the room. You still need to build a pen and coup for them to get into at night and when they need to lay and when you need to have them penned. The coop will need laying boxes and roosts. Not only for shelter but so they don't go lay eggs where you won't find them, and help keep predators out. A coop will get poo all in it and start smelling so you'll need to clean it. If you have plans on using the manure for fertilizer use it sparingly because it will burn foliage and kill plants if used too strongly.
Chickens can and will fly. You can clip their flight feathers to help with this. Its like cutting hair. You can also clip the wing, but I have no experience with this. We just clipped feathers.
Back on predators. Not much you can do about hawks. if a bird or two starts disapperaing at night its probably a coon. Snakes will eat the eggs, but you can put a ping pong ball in the nest. The snake will swallow the ball and can't crush it so it will kill it. My grandma would cut the swallowed ones out and reuse them. The ball also simulates an egg and assists in getting hens to use the box.
If you're getting chicks there is more to it that I can go into if needed.
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02-29-2012, 09:58 PM
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the best part about it is that you can make your newly poisoned foxes into more fox dummies. saving you tons of money on fox dummies. they are also way more realistic.
02-29-2012, 10:27 PM
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I hope you're considering your neighbors. Chickens can be very noisy and if you're a responsible owner you will make sure the chickens are kept quiet.
02-29-2012, 11:58 PM
#16
A guy i use to work with, had a large chicken community.
I helped him build the coop and pen.
I remember he told me about the ping pong ball. And had small animal traps.surrounding the coop. Sold off the critters he caught. He also use to feed the chickens crushed up kellogs corn flakes,along with the feed.
He would keep a radio in the coop. To keep the chickens awake and keep feeding. The chickens grew huge and they got to the point where they could no longer stand to feed and would literally sit and eat. LOL! I saw this.
Dem was some of the juiciest, plumpest chicken ive ever had. No fooling. Ill tell you what.
I helped him build the coop and pen.
I remember he told me about the ping pong ball. And had small animal traps.surrounding the coop. Sold off the critters he caught. He also use to feed the chickens crushed up kellogs corn flakes,along with the feed.
He would keep a radio in the coop. To keep the chickens awake and keep feeding. The chickens grew huge and they got to the point where they could no longer stand to feed and would literally sit and eat. LOL! I saw this.
Dem was some of the juiciest, plumpest chicken ive ever had. No fooling. Ill tell you what.
