All You Need to Know About Chicken Setups

Although chickens themselves are super cheap to buy, there is an investment up front for where they will live. Chickens need to have,

• Some kind of coop to go in at night and to escape the elements
• Nesting boxes for them to lay their eggs
• 24-hour-a-day access to clean drinking water
• Space that they can scratch and forage
• Chicken feed

There’s no real price point I can say that you will definitely need for your setup. Some choose to do something simple with repurposed materials, while others go all out with their design and build. It’s really up to you, but you can make something work within many budgets. In this blog post, I’m going to go over in lots of detail everything you need to know about getting started with a chicken setup!

Coop:

Coops come in many shapes and sizes. You can have it stationary or on wheels, big enough to walk in, or just big enough for the chickens. Those things are up to your personal preference, but here’s what you’ll definitely need to keep in mind.

• Big enough for all your chickens
  • Depending on how many chickens you plan to get ( take into account future chickens as well) you’ll want to make sure your coop is spacious enough for all of them to fit comfortably. Each situation will be a little bit different. If your chicken spends 90% of its time free-ranging, it won’t need as much coop space, however, if they are confined to one area they should be given much more space. I’d say for most situations the coop should have at least 3-4 square feet per chicken. However, if you live in a climate that has a lot of harsher weather, meaning they would have to stay inside the coop for extended periods, I would advise at least 7 square feet per chicken.

• Secure
  • The main purpose of your coop is a safe place to keep your chickens safe from predators while they sleep. Because of this, we want to make sure our coop is safe! Any doors and windows should be secured as some predators know how to untie knots, turn handles, open latches, you name it! You may want to also either build an elevated coop, have flooring at the bottom of your coop, or use chicken wire under your coop as a measure to prevent any predators from digging under to get to your chickens.

• Ventilation
  • Ventilation in your coop is super important. Chickens are prone to respiratory issues under nonideal conditions, so making sure there is proper ventilation will keep them healthy and prevent disease. There should be secured openings high up in your coop. Don’t worry about them getting cold. Chickens are much more likely to get sick from overheating than they are from the cold. Their body temperatures stay around 105 degrees Fahrenheit, and their feathers keep them insulated

• Roosting Bars
  • Roosting bars are a very important part of a coop as this is where your chickens will sleep! Chickens like to sleep high up naturally as a way to keep safe from predators and are most comfy being perched on something branch-like. I recommend something like 1 1/2 inch dowels to be used as your bars and to install them high enough up so that they can stay dry from any dampness on the ground.

Nesting Boxes

• Nesting Box
  • I would recommend your nesting boxes be inside your coop or part of your coop. They should be 1 foot by 1 foot in size and 1 nesting box will be sufficient for about 3 chickens. So for every 3 chickens, you plan to have I would make another nesting box.

• Nesting Material
  • You’ll want to put something in the nesting box so that it’s a comfortable place they will want to lay, and to keep the eggs safe from breaking. I like to use hay or straw.

Water Source

• How much water do they need?
  • Chickens should have access to clean water 24/7. On average a chicken will drink about a pint a day, but this can definitely increase in warmer weather.

• Watering options
  • There are many different options when it comes to giving water to your chickens. The main thing to think about is that whatever option you choose needs to work best for you to be able to keep it clean and keep it filled. You technically could use a bucket of water, however, I wouldn’t recommend it as it would be hard to keep chicken poop out of it, and you could also risk a chicken falling into it. You never want your chickens to be wet other than when it’s raining. I would personally recommend either a galvanized chicken waterer or putting together a waterer with something called chicken nipples. Keep in mind if you live somewhere that freezes, you’ll have to find a solution to your water freezing.

Foraging Space

Healthy chickens need grass and space to explore, scratch, and forage through. We can provide this for them by either allowing them to free-range, move around with a fence and chicken tractor, or have an enclosure set up attached to the coop for them to roam. Once again, all these options have pros and cons to them that I will go over

• Free Range
  • Pros
    • More active and healthier birds
      • The ability to free-range allows them to get more exercise, have a better diverse diet, and keeps them at a much lower risk of having, and spreading illness.
    • Pest Control
      • Chickens absolutely love to forage for bugs! That means any ticks, mosquitos, flies, and all the bugs that cause you grief are a delicious snack for chickens. Free-ranging really helps to keep the population of these pests down.
    • They eat less feed
      • When being able to scratch around all day looking for food, they won’t need to eat as many pellets, meaning less money for you to spend, and a more diverse diet!
  • Cons
    • Predators
      • Although it’s true that predators are more of an issue at night, that definitely won’t stop a fox, a hawk, or even a neighbor’s dog from snatching a chicken up if given the opportunity during the day. This is a real issue, and even if you take precautions like getting a livestock guardian animal, it could still happen.
    • Making a mess
      • If you have any areas landscaped beautifully that arent fenced in, you could bet that the chickens will most likely do straight there and make a mess of it. It’s in their nature to forage by scratching the ground, and turning up the soil so of course, it’s going to be destructive in areas we didn’t plan for, and you better believe they’ll get into your gardens if that’s not fenced off and eat away at your plants.
    • Eating harmful things
      • When left to their own devices there’s always the possibility of them eating things they shouldn’t. Could eat something harmful to them like a poisonous plant, or could even get into something that wouldn’t necessarily kill them, but we wouldn’t want to be going into our eggs, such as something that’s been sprayed with weed killer.
    • Not allowed everywhere
      • Some areas, usually more suburban, don’t allow you to have free-range chickens.
• Chicken Tractor
  • Pros
    • Keeps chickens contained to one area, but consistently gives them new areas to explore
      • This is kind of the best of both worlds when it comes to keeping them from getting into places you don’t want them to be, but allowing them to always have new areas to pest control and forage through
    • Has more protection
      • With a chicken tractor you use some kind of moveable fencing, most opt for electric. This is definitely more protection for them throughout the day than just free-ranging, however, it does not stop ariel predators such as hawks.
    • You can use them to prepare garden areas
      • Chickens’ natural instinct to scratch for food is great when used to your advantage! They basically act as little tillers digging up the weeds and softening the soil.
    • Gives grass time to regrow
      • As opposed to a stagnant coop and enclosure setup, a chicken tractor will actually allow time for the grass to regrow, as you’re moving the chickens around often.
• Enclosure
  • Cons
    • Not as much space for the chickens
    • Grass won’t grow back
      • When your chickens are kept in just one enclosed area, they’re going to completely dig up all the plant life in that area. This means if it rains and there’s no protection, they’re gonna be in a big mud puddle. Because of this a lot of people choose to have the top of the enclosure completely closed off, and or put some time of bedding at the bottom.
    • Highest feed cost
    • We will need to make a dust bath area
      • To be healthy, chickens need to keep themselves clean, and they do this by giving themselves “dust baths.” It’s basically just them rolling around in the dustiest dirt they can scratch up and find. If you’re keeping them in an enclosure, you most likely will need to create this dust bath area yourself.
  • Pros
    • Safest for your chickens
      • Being in an enclosure is definitely the best option when it comes to safety, as they are protected all around, from above, and sometimes even from the bottom.
      • You won’t have any hidden eggs
        • If they’re in a smaller space, they only have so many options for where they can decide to lay, which is good for you since you won’t have to go on any egg hunts!
      • It’s an option for basically anyone to keep chickens!
        • No matter how much land you have, almost everybody can keep chickens if they do it this way. Even if you have the tiniest space you still could keep two if you had a little enclosure for them.

Feed

Now that you have everything else in place. All that’s left is figuring out what you are going to do for feed. What you feed them is super important, as it directly impacts their health which in turn, will affect the eggs, which ultimately affects whoever eats them.

• Chick feed vs Chicken feed.
  • It’s important to remember when you’re new to chickens that chick food and chicken food are different things. Chick food has everything in it to help a new baby chick grow and thrive whereas if you gave that to an adult it would most likely make them overweight. If you gave adult food to a chick, it would not have enough nutrients in it for them.
• Medicated vs Unmedicated
  • When you go to a feed store you will most likely see a feed that is medicated, and some that are not medicated. Medicated feed simply is made to help prevent something called coccidiosis, which can affect chicks who ingest soil or poop from chickens that have it. The medicated feed has something in it called Amprolium which reduces the risk of death as it builds a young chick’s immunity to it. Whether or not to feed a medicated pellet to your chickens is completely a personal choice, and I would encourage you to look up more information about it. There are definitely positives and negatives to both.
• Making homemade feed
  • Making homemade feed is definitely an option, however, I don’t think it’s something that a newer chicken owner should be doing. You have to make sure the feed is well balanced and would meet their dietary needs. If that’s something you want to look into further, I would do separate research.
• Where to buy feed
  • You can find the chicken feed at any animal supply store. A common one is Tractor Supply, but many places have local feed stores as well.
• How to store feed
  • Your chicken feed should be stored in a way that it’s nice and sealed. Typically you’ll put it in a bag that needs to be cut open. Then you should directly put it into a container that stays nice a closed. This is for a couple of reasons. One, to keep from attracting pests such as mice and rats who love to nibble on chicken pellets, and two, to keep moisture out and prevent molding.
• Feeding your chickens scraps
  • Feeding your adult chickens scraps is an excellent idea! They love picking through the food and it’s a great way to have less food waste! Moderation however is key. If you only have a few chickens, you shouldn’t be giving them buckets and buckets of scraps a day. It would be too much for them, and you’d have to clean up all the scraps that weren’t eaten to prevent attracting pests such as rats and mice. Also, keep in mind that chickens cant eat absolutely everything. To be safe you should look up things that you don’t know are safe, but here’s a brief list of just some common things they cant eat.
    • Anything that’s already molded and rotting
    • Citrus peels
    • Avacado
    • Dry Beans
    • Chocolate
    • Any Processed Junk food
    • Anything fatty such as lots of butter
    • Coffee grounds
    • Apple Seeds
• Chicken treats
  • Good chickens deserve treats from time to time! Chickens love worms and mealworms and will go crazy for them. I also found my chickens absolutely love watermelon in the summer!

That’s all I have for you today! Hopefully, all that information is helpful with you starting your very own chicken setup, whether you’re in the country or the suburb!