Comments on: Backyard Chickens 101: A Few Considerations

By: Black Soil Country

Black Soil Country — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 08:59:21 +0000

Hi, I enjoyed reading your post very much. Really great content and good advice. I think you and your readers may be interested in reading my blog. Keeping Chickens

By: Christy

Christy — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 03:29:38 +0000

How do you keep the rats away from the chicken coop/food? I would like to have chickens one day, and am gathering info…

My neighbor recently started keeping chickens and, after this last snowstorm, I found tons of rat tracks in our yard. Snow in previous years only showed a couple of tracks.

Any advice? Thanks.

By: Willi

Willi — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 16:42:52 +0000

Ann–We’re just going to keep them. My husband is a vegetarian, so eating them isn’t really an option for us! Ours are 3 years old and still laying eggs like crazy. I suppose when your chickens got old, you could also always give them to your friends who are more comfortable with slaughtering, that way you wouldn’t have to do it yourself.

By: Ann Bell

Ann Bell — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:11:17 +0000

Willi, Maybe you have dealt with this (I’m new to your site and love it, by the way!): what do you do when the chickens stop laying or get old or…do you or your husband do them in? This is the only part that is holding me back. Friends who have chickens calmly explain that they dispatch them…that is a major drawback for me!

By: Willi

Willi — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:27:40 +0000

Nellie–Great idea. We have a chicken run but it is way too small so we feel bad about leaving them in there all day. We have plans to build them a bigger one!

By: Nellie

Nellie — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:57:56 +0000

Reduce the work and build a chicken run! We’ve included an uncovered area in our 6×16 foot coop – the girls are happy and healthy. One point too: chickens are great because they get to live inside your home when they are cute and fluffy and as they get older (and prettier but not as cute) they move outside with their bigger mess… how many pets can you say that about! Great advice and go chickens!

By: Willi

Willi — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:22:32 +0000

Karen–Getting a bigger coop (with a much bigger run) is a priority for me. The run we have now is too small (only about 25 sq. feet) and I don’t feel comfortable leaving the girls in there for long periods. Consequently, they end up eating a lot of my veggies.

Annie–We haven’t seen an increase in rats since we got our chickens. We keep their food inside the coop (not out in the run or yard) and the extra food is stored in our garage in galvanized pails with locked down lids. When we first got the girls, we noticed evidence of rats, but we plugged up the hole they were getting through and haven’t had a problem since. It is certainly a concern though, especially in Seattle where we have such a big rat population to begin with.

C–I’ve also had to explain that it is okay for us to have four birds! With nine you must get lots and lots of eggs!

By: c

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:29:13 +0000

Thanks so much for explaining that you could have more than three chickens in larger lot…

We have 7 chickens in 11250sqft lot (we could have up to 9, but our coop will be a little crowded…). Almost every time we told someone that we have chickens, people suspiciously asked “Really? But aren’t you supposed to have only 3 chickens in city of Seattle?” .

I’m getting tired of explaining to them lately…

“well, city actually allow you to have more than 3 chickens if you have more than 5000 sqft lot. You could add one chicken/1000 sqft. So, for us, (11250 – 5000) / 1000 + 3 = 9!”.

We have small house in large lot w/lots of chicken. It’s fun! But sometimes exhausting due to above reasoned.

By: Annie

Annie — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:42:31 +0000

Ditto the thanks for the downside of chicken owning. Let me add one other: rats. Seems when some neighbors got chickens the neighborhood rat population increased—or at least got more visible. I have had a little pitter in my heart for chickens and would enjoy having them (their fertilizer and eggs), but the upkeep would be mine alone. Also, we had another neighbor complain about the increase in rats when I feed the birds, so I can only imagine how they’d feel if I added chickens to the equation!

By: Karen

Karen — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 04:38:18 +0000

Thank you for this “fair and balanced” look at the wacky and wonderful world of city chickens! I have fantasized about doing this for many years but have resisted due to many of the reasons you mention (and, in addition, I have heard many horror stories about predator successes and didn’t think I could handle the aftermath of something like that). Especially since I knew the bulk of the care would fall to me. If you have managed to get it broken up (and smart call with the neighbor involvement/free egss trade-off!), it seems do-able. What about building a bigger coop and not having them be free-range so much? Also, how will you protect your veggie garden from their tendency to munch little seedlings? I’m curious to see how this will all shake out. Hope the benefits outweigh the hassles!