Ridgecrest, CA
Quoted from canea:We've had chickens for about 10 years now. This year looks like it's going to be tough to get the chicks you want as everybody is jumping on the chicken wagon since egg prices are high. The truth about raising chickens is that it's always going to be more expensive than just buying eggs, even if egg prices are high. Chicken feed, etc. has risen with inflation, some of it up 50% in just a couple years. Unless you can do it at scale, you'll never break even. The eggs are way better than store bought though so there's that.
Premade coops are garbage. Don't buy one. Build your own. Make it strong and weatherproof and consider weak points where predators can get inside. Build a burly fence while you're at it.
Chickens aren't really pets. You'll name them at first but after a couple years realize it doesn't matter. They're dirty and smelly and mean ("pecking order" is a saying for a reason and when you see a chicken scalp another and you have to glue the attacked chicken's head back together with super glue you'll understand). But they're not really much work either. Water and feed in the morning. Auto-timer coop. Clean them when things get gnarly (they don't care though).
To really get good results, you'll need to cull your chickens every year or two (commercial chickens are all culled after their first laying season) - some people eat them, but they're not very good for the most part unless you like soup. Most of the generic sexlink chickens lay great and are cold hardy, like black and red stars and americanas. Avoid all the fancy breeds if you just want layers, but if the kids want a couple exotic ones you can throw those in for fun (just don't get too attached because those ones are usually the first to meet untimely ends). I personally like to have a couple brahmas in with the good layers because they're just such beasts.
Also get ready for more death and killing stuff. For us it's raccoons which we trap and kill during the summer. They're very hard on chicks if you have them in a separate coop that's not bullet proof. Minks and foxes can also be problems but in my experience, not as much. And of course, the ultimate predator, as mentioned: the neighbor's dog(s). I've disappeared a couple dogs over the years that I caught killing chickens. Depending on your relationships with neighbors, that may or may not be a good move, but when you're going into fall and there's a dog killing your layers, yeah... terminated.
Good luck with your chickens z
Love what I’m hearing. Many things I did not think about. Great conversations and all point everyone is mentioning really has me thinking twice.
Okotoks, AB
