THE COOP

CHICKEN CARE GUIDE

Your chickens need a special home to reside in. The perfect chicken coop

includes an entry way, roosting bars, nesting boxes, draft free ventilation

(an air way above them but no airway below), and a walkway ramp.

COOP SECURITY

Chickens have A LOT of predators, some of the most common include

hawks, racoons, opossums, minks, foxes, and coyotes.

A well secured coop includes an enclosed run with a door, another

external fence (mine is metal), bird netting, and ground digs/underground

wire.

CHICKS

Baby chicks need a heat lamp until about 5 weeks old unless they are

being raised by a hen who provides a natural source of heat.

At 5 weeks old most chicks are ready to be introduced to their coop

although if it is very cold out, it is recommended extending the wait until

their feathers fully grow in to ensure they don’t get too cold during the

night.

CHICK DIETS

Chicks require “chick starter” to get the right nutrients and grow into

healthy chickens! Information about chicken diets can be found on the

back of most chicken feed bags.

COOP INTRODUCTIONS

At 5 weeks old your chicks are now ready for their forever home, the

coop! Placing your chicks in the coop area during the day will give them

time to observe their new environment but they should be monitored at

this time to ensure they can’t escape through your fence.

Once the sun starts to go down you may need to place your chicks inside

their coop. For the first few weeks we closed our entry door in the evening

and let the chicks out in the morning once the sun came up. Eventually this

became a routine and they learned to go up by themselves.

THE PECKING ORDER

Once your chicks start to get older they will sort out the “pecking order”.

Some pecking and fighting is normal but if it gets to the point where a

chicken is bleeding or having feathers completely picked out, it may be

time to intervene by seperating the bully from the flock for a few days.

Your roosters may fight more so than the hens when it comes to

establishing dominance.

ROOSTERS

Roosters act a bit different than your hens! They don’t lay eggs, crow, act

as protectors of the flock, and are often times more aggressive.

One of the best parts about raising a rooster is seeing his colors come in

and listening to his first crows!

ROOSTER F IGHTING

Your roosters may fight with eachother until one has established his

leadership and the other has accepted his place although sometimes

roosters will fight to the death.

There will be a lot of blood during a rooster fight no matter wha, the key is

to watch for signs of over aggression. If one roosters runs away and

continues to be chased down and further attacked by the dominant

rooster, this may signal they need to be seperated.

When we started our flock we had 7 chickens with 3 roosters. Life was

good until about they were 6 months old, the roosters had established

their pecking order but as Munchy (3rd in the pecking order) got bigger

he decided to start challenging Carmen (2nd in the pecking order).

We tried to let them resolve their issues but eventually the fighting kept

getting so bad that our head rooster would join in and we decided to

seperate Carmen. Carmen was introduced into our all bantam “littles”

flock of ladies only. He now enjoys life being a head rooster and will still

try to peck at Munchy through the fence!

MEAN ROOSTERS

Roosters are notorious for being mean and attacking! This is because of

their natural instinct to protect the flock. You should try to establish

dominance over your rooster early on but often times, roosters will be

roosters!

There are a few methods people recommend for “rooster training”

although I’m not really sure if any of them truly work. One is taking your

rooster and holding his head towards the ground (I do not mean pick him

up and turn him upside down, NEVER do that to your chicken. I mean

literally holding him in place on the ground and forcing his head down.)

Another method is using a stick to swat at their tail feathers.

I’ve had our head rooster attack me only when I’m not looking, he likes to

“sneak attack”. Sometimes it’s because I’m wearing red (chickens hate

red) and other times I’m not sure what triggers his behavior. I’ve handled

all of my chickens since we got them at 5 weeks old but like most animals,

breed and personality play a factor in the outcome of your chicken’s

behavior.

1ST EGGS

You can usually expect your first egg around 6 months but chickens are

less likely to lay during winter! If you don’t have designated nesting boxes

your hens might find their own “egg laying spot”.

FREE RANGING

Free ranging is DANGEROUS, yep dangerous. Our chickens enjoy life

inside of their fence unless I’m outside to closely supervise free range

time!

I try to let my chickens free range at least once a day but sometimes life

just gets in the way.

There is heavy debate about free ranging but I’ve read way too many

stories about hawks, foxes, even dogs swooping in to steal chickens during

free range time to let mine free range alone.

Many people think chickens who don’t free range aren’t happy but that

dœsn’t seem to be the case with ours! Our chickens started laying in the

middle of winter, enjoy weekly dirt baths, and can be seen enjoying the

great outdoors from their secured area everyday.

CARMEN MUNCHY

CHICKEN RESOURCES

REMEMBER TO FOLLOW THE FLOCK ON INSTAGRAM!

Hopefully this guide has given you some great tips about raising and

caring for your flock but there is still so much to learn!

Some of my favorite resources:

Backyard Chickens Facebook Group

Chicken Keeping 101

Backyard Chickens Community

www.theflock4you.com