Urban Farming 101

Of Chickens and Men

Mitch, the kids, and I went to Atwood’s to stretch our legs on a cold Saturday (2/26) and came home with a little breath of springtime. A peeping, feathering breath, that is. We purchased eight Rhode Island Red pullets (immature females/hens) to raise and eventually gather eggs from. This is our second adventure into “urban farming,” and we had a lot to learn that first year despite reading as much as we could from books and online sources.

Right now, we’re just enjoying the new babies! They're still fuzzy and don't mind the kids picking them up all the time. Gabi (4) loves to hold “Henny Penny” (she has a more yellow head than the others) and “Chicken Little” (she has a browner head than the others) -- the rest are collectively called “Little Red Hens.” Addy (2 ½) likes to hold them with too, and pet their heads. Rafe (1 ½) grabbed one from the brooder box a little too tightly and the chick let everyone know about it!

Trial and Error

In March 2010 we purchased five “straight-run” (un-sexed) day-old chicks from someone through Craigslist. We paid $2 per chick, and they sent us home with a small bag of “Chick Starter” to feed them. We chose day-old chicks so that our “brood“ of three small children could have the experience of raising chicks from the first days. They were truly day-old and had to be taught where to eat and how to drink. A couple of times the first day I took each of the chicks and dipped their beaks in the water, and then let go, allowing them to swallow. They caught on pretty quickly.

We put them in the brooder box with the heat lamp the recommended distance from the floor, but the chicks were soon laid out with their wings spread and panting; they were too hot. I moved the light up until the chicks’ body language told me they were more comfortable. Cold chicks will huddle together and peep loudly to say, “where’s Mom?!”

We started out with a cardboard brooder box.

We loosely followed plans laid out in Capper’s magazine, which can be found here.  It was very economical but turned out not to be very practical. Our chickens frequently knocked over the water--at first we used plastic container lids for food and water--which soon resulted in soggy cardboard. Additionally it was difficult to clean, and we always had to move the chicks somewhere else before cleaning it out. That was easy, until they were big enough to jump and fly short distances!

Soon, Mitch had built a wooden brooder box.

Chicken wire was added to the open half of the box after this picture was taken. It was more durable and sturdy but still difficult to clean. Every 5-7 days we moved the heat lamp up a few inches, making the brooder box a few degrees cooler. As their feathers continued to come in, they only needed the light at night, and eventually not at all. By this point we had bought a regular chicken feeder/waterer, but we didn’t realize how easily and frequently the birds would knock the one quart water container over. The spilt water in the wooden brooder box mixed with poop and newspaper was smelly and gross. Luckily our chickens were now old enough to go outside almost all the time, or we would have needed to build another brooder box last year. The transition to an outside coop will vary upon the breed and weather conditions, but they will need the brooder box for approximately 6-8 weeks.

All five of our chicks lived to make the transition to outside, but unfortunately they all ended up being cockerels (immature males/roosters), and we had to invite them to the July Chicken Fry! We purchased through Atwood’s this year mostly due to the fact that we needed all pullets. While I did help my aunt kill, feather, and dress the cockerels last year, it’s not something I particularly enjoyed, and we want eggs!

This year, our brooder box was built with cleanliness, durability, and functionality in mind. It has many upgrades and should last for years to come.

Food and water is located opposite the heat lamp. The flooring features small ½” chicken wire. After two days the chicks were accustomed enough to walking on it that the napkins could be removed, and now their poop will fall through to the steel tray that slides out for convenient cleaning/composting of the chicken droppings. We have wood shavings below the wire covering the tray to reduce/eliminate any chicken poo smells.  It has worked great so far!

Coming Up: Considerations before buying your first chooks!