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Raising Chickens - The Best Way To Start An Egg Laying Flock Of Chickens
Author : Joshua Hardingur
Raising hens can be simple, enjoyable, and lucrative. It can also be satisfying knowing you are producing delectable and nutritious eggs for the entire family. Previous to buying your birds you need to buy or build your own chicken arks, also known as chicken tractors, or hen houses. Furthermore, you will need feeders, water fountains, nests, and a small number of additional materials. Then once you have your portable chicken ark or hen house and the additional basic materials, you can proceed to get your birds. But with the multitude of ways to start a flock of chickens, what manner is better?
You can establish a small flock of laying pullets by hatching eggs or buying living pullets. Fertile eggs can be hatched with a brooding hen or an incubator. If you are a novice at backyard chicken raising you will doubtless want to acquire living hens as an alternative to hatching fertile eggs. Using a brooding hen or an incubator can be an enjoyable method, but a good number of things are able to go wrong for the rookie. It's usually better to get some practice before trying to hatch eggs with a brooding hen or incubator.
For the backyard chicken raising novice there are three ways to purchase living pullets. Your first choice is to buy day-old chickens. Second, you have the option to buy started hens that are just under five months of age. And third, you will usually be able to acquire pullets that are ready to start their second season of laying. These are called second-year pullets. It is imperative to understand the benefits and disadvantages to all of these methods so that you will be able to make the right choice for your situation.
If you choose to start with day-old chickens you will need to buy a brooder to keep them nice and warm for their first several weeks until they are old enough to reside outside in a portable chicken ark or hen house. Purchasing a brooder will cause your operating expense to rise. What's more, it means you will be forced to offer special care and consideration to your new birds if you expect them to live to the age of production.
If you make a decision to go with second-year hens you might want to rethink your resolution. At the outset, it appears to make good sense that buying pullets that have already produced eggs for one year would be a first-class idea, but there are too many negatives to make this the ideal option. These pullets can cost more and have several other disadvantages. Chickens will lay the largest amount of eggs of the highest quality their very first year. From then on, the number and quality of their eggs will decrease each year. Purchasing second-year pullets means you will end up with a smaller number of eggs that are lower in quality. What's more, transporting these pullets to a different place can cause them to become stressed. This can cause them to begin molting which will suspend their egg laying, which will defeat the reason for buying them initially.
The correct tactic for the backyard chicken raising beginner is more often than not to get started hens. They will in the beginning be more expensive than day-old birds, but you are normally able to make back the difference since feeding them for the first several months is totally unnecessary. You will save a good deal of cash on feed that would have been spent on day-old chickens. What's more, you will not have the supplementary cost of a brooder and will not need to spend as much time or effort to care for the birds because they won't need to spend time in a brooder, but can be put at once into your chicken ark or hen house. Getting started hens is the easiest approach for the backyard chicken raising apprentice to get their feet wet growing hens.
Author's Resource Box
Mr. Harding has successfully grown pullets for practically three decades and has made all of his own hen houses throughout that time. He is an expert in successfully raising poultry for meat and egg production. He keeps an educational website where you can obtain free information with regard to backyard chicken raising, getting the highest amount of meat and eggs from your poultry, and more.
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Tags: backyard chicken raising, chicken ark, chicken coop, chicken coops, raise chickens
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Submitted : 2010-01-28 Word Count : 807 Popularity: 286 Times Viewed: 25
