IMPORTANT INFORMATION

The short answer is “Why not?” Chickens are great pets with timeless charm and they are useful too. Which of your other pets provide you with wholesome, life sustaining, protein-rich food and ask so little in return? Does your dog keep the number of bugs and spiders down in your backyard? Will the cat provide premium natural fertilizer for your garden or trees? Only chickens and a few other small animals can provide high-quality protein in the city or suburbs around the world. When you experience backyard chickens for the first time, it is easy to see where your food comes from—and even easier to get to know the farmers when they eat breakfast with you!

Chickens have a few basic needs such as shelter/shade, fresh water, food and love. If you have other pets that you love, then you are prepared for keeping chickens and starting to enjoy the experience for yourself. Since the backyard chicken experience is something neighbors and friends naturally want to share with others, it is easy to find extensive resources available online that answer most common concerns.

This is an important consideration as you start planning your backyard chicken experience. Most beginners to the chicken experience start with 3 or 4 chicks that quickly grow into pullets or young hens. Then the pullets reach full size laying hens at around 9-12 months of age. Each step of your backyard chicken experience requires more space as the hens grow. Starting out, the chicks are tiny and can be kept indoors in a box or brooder with plenty of fresh air. At around 4 to 8 weeks, the chicks will need more space than you imagined at first. Then between 2 and 4 months, the birds should have all their feathers and be ready for their first coop. The overall footprint for a coop and enclosure is very small because raising chickens as pets means that you will want to let the hens graze around your yard. Pretty much any size yard will do as long as you don’t mind the birds eating bugs, grass, and occasionally your other plants. It is important to keep the chickens safe inside a fenced area and out of your veggie garden. For more details on coop sizing, please refer to our coop selection guide.

Aside from numerous practical considerations, we think chickens are simply fun to be around for the entire family! We get so much joy watching the antics of our hens that we would probably keep them even if they did not lay eggs. Some of our neighbors call them “mobile lawn ornaments” and are surprised and pleased to discover how beautiful and graceful the birds are as they methodically graze about the lawn or scratch in the mulch seeking hidden worms or bugs. Children of all ages seem to know at first sight that chickens are special creatures with so much to teach us all about nature and ourselves.

Our coops are handmade in Bartonville, Texas. The price ranges from $1200 to $4000 depending on features, options, and cost of shipping.

As an example from Bartonville, Texas in April and May 2020, The Hopper flock of 5 hens laid around 200 eggs in 60 days. The neighbor’s flock with 8 slightly older birds laid about the same number of eggs or around 3 eggs per day during the same period of time. The number of eggs depends on the age, breed, and number of chickens in your flock. What you feed your chickens and how happy you keep them can also influence egg production. Interestingly, egg production goes up in the spring as daylight hours get longer and then fewer eggs are laid in the fall and winter months under natural lit coop conditions. Although the egg as a humble staple food is familiar to all, we can safely say that you have never truly experienced its full potential until you have eaten one laid by one of your own hens and cracked open and cooked while still warm. Not only will its deeply colored yolk and firm white taste richer and more flavorful than you ever imagined an egg could, but this special egg will provide an immense satisfaction earned from your role in its production. Backyard hens enjoy an enviable lifestyle compared to their commercial counterparts. Even so-called free-range hens often suffer from crowding in immense, climate-controlled barns; your hens, on the other hand, will enjoy a relatively carefree life full of affection, quality food, and fresh air. Another thing we love about producing our own eggs in the backyard is that they don’t have to travel to reach our table. When it comes to commercial eggs, organic included, the fragile orbs are deep chilled to preserve them and then trucked many miles to your plate. Even eggs with distant “use by” dates usually were laid weeks, if not months before and are no longer anywhere near their best. Keeping a few hens in the backyard is a great way to conserve resources by eating food that’s grown so close at hand that the “local” label is more appropriately replaced by “homegrown.”

We almost forgot one of the best parts of the backyard chicken experience is abundant natural fertilizer also known as “everything the chicken laid but the egg.” It is important to keep the coop clean and odor free at all times. It is also important to let the poop compost for 2 or 3 months before using as natural fertilizer on your plants, trees, or flower beds. Did you know that most young hens will on average lay slightly less than one egg per day. However, each bird poops about two times per hour! Most of the poop happens at night while they sleep in the coop. Therefore, make sure to keep your coop clean and odor free for a happy and healthy backyard chicken experience.