Raising Backyard Chickens - A Beginner’s Guide from a Beginner’s Perspective

I always wanted chickens. I am a farm girl at heart, stuck in the suburbs for the time-being and bringing

as much farm life to my home as possible.

I’ll write about my backyard adventures in another post, but again, when we moved into our fixer-upper

(which I’ll hereafter refer to as “FU” for good reason), it was what my husband referred to as the “lunar

landscape.” There was nothing there… literally nothing but dirt.

Chickens were just a dream for another home far into the future, a dream I didn’t really think about

much because there was just too much else to tackle first.

Then, six years into this house in the suburbs, my sweet animal-loving neighbor told me they had gotten

some chickens. What?!! We can have chickens here? She let me know that we are in one of the few

areas of the county zoned for farming, which I should have thought about because there’s a farm right

behind our neighborhood.

So because I’m impulsive and I know what I want, I ran right out to Tractor Supply to see what I would

need to do to make my chicken dreams come true. I went home and declared to my husband that the

time was now; it would be a great homeschool learning experience and teach responsibility to our

daughter; I’d research and do it all myself - and that it was pretty much a done-deal because our child

had gone with me and already seen the precious little fuzzball chicks waiting to be adopted.

Now, before I let my farm-girl dreams get ahead of me, I made sure to research our county’s

requirements on backyard chickens and the basics on raising them. Because if I hadn’t, I probably would

have brought home at least a dozen fuzzballs without knowing their sex or the legalities of raising farm

animals in the ‘burbs.

So, my first piece of advice is to make sure you’re following the rules and regulations in your area. Here

in our county in Virginia, there are only a few zones that allow chickens at all. You can only have a

certain number of hens – no roosters because the non-chicken-loving neighbors probably don’t want a 4

a.m. wake-up call every morning.

Then, because the government always wants to know everything about you and get a piece of the

action, I had to create a map of our backyard with distances from neighboring homes, specifications for

our coop, pay a fee (because even the simple things aren’t free), and wait for my “coop certificate,” a

permission slip of sorts saying I have a permit to own backyard hens.

Every locality is different. If I lived a mile up the road, I’d be able to have as many chickens as I’d like

depending on acreage. But I live in a neighborhood, and I try not to be a jerk. Four hens is plenty for

now.

The Adventure Begins

In line at Tractor Supply the Saturday morning after my permit arrived in the mail, with our daughter

jumping around in front of the door loudly asking when we could be let in, we picked up our ladies.

Now, our house is super small. I work from home and homeschool here. There aren’t a lot of places to

put a brooder. But I figured my home office/classroom was the best option, especially considering it’s

the only room other than a bedroom with a door to keep visiting kids and our own dog away from our

growing fuzzballs.

Fuzzball Health Scares

The first week, I noticed one of the girls had a big black blotch on her backside. I thought she’d clean

herself off, no big deal… but she didn’t seem to be as active as the other chicks and didn’t seem to be

cleaning herself up at all.

Thank goodness for all the chicken blogs online, because I found she had what’s called “pasty butt,”

where their vent gets blocked by stool - and it can be fatal!! I took a bowl of warm water and a cloth

(which my daughter watched me throw in the trash because she refused to allow it to stay in the house

and ever be used again), and carefully wiped the pasty off the butt without pulling any feathers.

First problem solved. And besides, I’ve dealt with plenty of poop in 30 years of parenting, so it didn’t

faze me, and I was proud I figured it out and helped our fuzzball.

Then, a few weeks later, I noticed another of the girls was noticeably quiet, wobbly, and not eating. She

hung out in the corner of the brooder by herself. Now I was really worried because there was nothing

visibly wrong so I could Google solutions to the problem.

I read that she should be moved away from the other chicks, so I dumped out a box of junk I had laying

around so I could use the plastic box to house her in. Off to Tractor Supply again because I couldn’t

seem to find an answer online. They thought she may be a malnourished runt and recommended

vitamins. She also wasn’t chirping and seemed to be making a rattling sound when breathing and was

still not eating on her own.

I lamented her sad state to my husband who declared, “She’s a chicken. Some of them don’t make it.”

Okay, Cold-Hearted Man. That’s not acceptable to me. This began a month-long vigil of giving her food

and water mixed with vitamins in those little cups that come with cold medicine until she started eating

on her own.

I also found VetRX recommended online for suspected respiratory issues. I rubbed some of that on her

and put a few drops in her bedding. At two months old, she was still half the size of the others, still

living in my home office, but doing great. She liked to get out and run around and perch on the

handlebars of my rowing machine. I’m glad it could be used for something.

So Far, So Good

With chicks in my home office for going on two months, all the chirping made work conference calls a

bit interesting (mute, unmute, mute, crap!), but we made it through until the ladies were a little over six

weeks old, the weather had warmed, and they had most of their feathers - all recommendations I had

read online were needed before transitioning to their new outdoor home.

We were fortunate to have someone give us a brand-new coop kit they had ordered before moving and

deciding not to get chickens, but there are lots of kit options through Amazon, Tractor Supply, and other

retailers, or you can BIY (build it yourself) if you have the know-how.

My husband makes fun of me because I painted the coop to match our shed, put some little plants and

decorations around, and made it feel cozy. I can’t NOT decorate everything in sight, and he keeps saying

he’s going to look in there one day and see little curtains and a miniature table and chairs. Hmm, not a

bad idea…

As for our little runt, Polly, I started her outside soon after in her own little “coop,” a modified small animal

hutch I found for a decent price right next to her big sisters’ coop so they could get used to each other.

She eventually caught up in size and was reintroduced to her flock with no problems.

We now have an egg a day from each of the ladies - with the exception of Polly. Maybe she’ll never

fully catch up, but that’s ok. Despite what my husband says, you CAN have a chicken that’s nothing

more than a pet.

So the bottom line is, do your homework ahead of time. These are living things that require several

years of commitment and care. Ask around, read tips online from the experts, follow your gut and use

common sense. It’s definitely a fun experience, one I’m learning from each day.