Many sources say that you can’t keep a flock of mixed ages.If you don’t yet have one, here’s how to build your own chicken coop.Keep refilling the oyster shells as the hens will only eat what they need. Hens also need a hopper of ground oyster shells or other calcium source to prevent soft-shelled eggs.Be sure to offer a hopper of grit to help the hens grind up any grains or plant matter they eat.If You Free-range Your Hens or Supplement Their Diets Feeds bought from the store contain all the phosphorus and salt your hens will need, and they eliminate the need for grit.However, avoid offering raw potato peels (hard to digest), garlic or onions, (which may alter the way the eggs or meat taste), or anything spoiled. You can add scraps from your table, such as fruit and vegetable peels or leftover breads.Chicken feeds can be supplemented by homegrown or home-mixed rations of grains (oats, corn, barley, wheat, etc.), various brans, fish meal, alfalfa meal, and bonemeal.Once the hens reach laying age, at approximately five months, you’ll want to switch to layer rations with at least 16 percent protein.Fresh water should be a constant supply.(If you can keep a healthy flock with the non-medicated rations, do so.) Young chicks will require “starter” feeds, and you may have a choice of medicated or non-medicated versions.What Baby Chicks Eatįor simplicity, most owners of small flocks buy commercial rations from their local feed stores. (It also reduces pecking and cannibalism among chicks.) When the chicks have feathered out, reduce the temperature by 5☏ per week until they are 6 weeks old. This keeps the temperature at 92☏ (33☌) at 2 inches above the floor. First, they need a draft-free brooder pen with a red brooder lamp on at all times. Tending baby chicks isn’t difficult, nor need it be elaborate. (Did you know that there are best times for setting eggs under a hen or in an incubator? You can find out more about setting chicken eggs by the Moon’s Sign here.) Raising Chicks An incubator must be monitored diligently chicks left too long after hatching will die of dehydration or pecking. On the whole, we find it best to leave hatching to the hen. You can hatch replacement chicks yourself with a home incubator. Bantams are famously broody a bantam hen will even hatch other hens’ eggs. Broodiness-the instinct to sit on eggs until they hatch-has been bred out of a lot of chickens, but we always had one or two who would begin to sit tight on the nest and peck if we tried to remove their eggs. Hens will lay perfectly well without one, but the eggs won’t ever develop or hatch. Check your zoning regulations some places allow hens, but not roosters. Of course, you’ll also need a rooster to get fertile eggs. If you already have chickens (or know someone who does), there’s always the option of hatching your own chicks. (“Battery hens” are not good candidates for a farm flock-they’re confined in tiny cages, debeaked, and made to produce so hard that they’re “laid out” at 2 to 3 years of age.) Unless you have someone with a small flock nearby who wants to replace older hens and will sell their “old girls” to you, chances are, you’ll have to buy pullets or chicks. Mature laying hens are harder to come by.These, too, can be ordered through your farm supplier from the hatchery. They can go straight to the coop and are all females. They’re more expensive than day-olds, but of course, you get your eggs sooner.
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