Backyard Chicken FAQ Series Part One
BY Brad & AMY LUPTON
Our Top 6 Backyard Chicken Questions
In our years having chickens, we have learned a lot. And we are still learning! Every flock of chickens brings a new learning curve. In the 12 years that we have had chickens, we do love them being around, and the dynamic to the homestead they add. We love their fun personalities and stubborn ways. They always add a spunk to our day. Not to mention yummy farm eggs!
We get lots of questions about chickens, so we thought we would answer some of the most common ones. Look out for part two of this coming soon! Are you a chicken owner and have one you want to add? Contact us. 😊
1. What is the difference between chicken breeds?
While there are about 53 different chicken breeds, most people raise only 10 of the different breeds for egg laying and meat birds. Common ones for warm weather climates are Rhode Island Reds, Easter Eggers, Barred Rock and Orpington. We have had several seasoned chicken owners tell us that dark colored breeds actually do better in warm climates and light colored breeds do better in cooler climates. Over the years we have definitely found this to be true. The light colored breeds are susceptible to heat more.
Are chickens vegetarian? If you own chickens, you have seen the crazy things that chickens will eat. Many egg suppliers tout that chickens are vegetarian and will state that they prefer vegetarian lifestyle. We (and many other chicken owners) will tell you that chickens are definitely not vegetarian. They will be if that’s all they have access to, but if you let them free range (or when a bug wanders into the chicken cage), they will chase and eat bugs over chicken feed all day. We have seen our chickens eat centipedes, baby mice, roaches, small snakes, and a whole host of other things.
That being said, chickens love their greens. Plants are their fave (especially the new spring sprouts), and they will munch and munch (and almost munch too much) to get their bellies full.
2. What do you feed chickens?
Chickens are natural scavengers and love exploring and scratching and eating. They are naturally curious and eat many things! They have such a varied diet according to season and what is growing around them. Many commercially raised chickens (or chickens in confined spaces) eat mostly grain, consisting of corn, soy, and wheat. This can be problematic for the chickens to have such a narrow diet and can lead to problems with the chickens and a shortened life. It also yields nutrient deficient eggs and meat.
Our chickens eat a varied diet. They are able to freely roam and eat what is available for forage, but we do supplement them with organic feed and other herbs/vitamins at certain times of year when there isn’t a lot of green. We have what we call a chicken salad bar (which is a garden bed just for the chickens) which we seed and grow beneficial and nutrient dense plants for them to eat. If you are eating your chickens eggs, remember, you are what your chickens eat!
3. Do you keep your chickens confined in a cage?
We don’t normally. Because we know how important and life-giving it is for the chicken to roam.
We do see the need for it in some circumstances. For example, If we have young chicks without a mama, they need caging till they are ready to mix with the older hens. If we have a sick or hurt hen, we do separate them from the flock to heal.
4. What’s the deal with yolk color?
Many people think yolk color determines the nutrition of the egg. The darker the better. While this can definitely indicate that the chicken is eating certain things (or has certain nutrients in the things they are eating), it does not determine if one egg is better than the other.
Some egg suppliers (and it’s legal to do so) will add food coloring to the chickens food to darken the yolks. You can also feed the chickens supplements such as alfalfa, marigold, pumpkin or peppers to get the yolks to darken. While these supplements are nutritious in themselves, the health and day to day diet of the chicken is what is most important. A chicken that is fed more corn, soy and wheat grain will have yellower yolks. Here at the Liferoot Homestead, we find the yolks vary over the seasons, depending on weather and availability of plants.
5. How do you keep predators away from the coop?
This has been one of our biggest learning curves! We have lost many chickens to predators over the years, some faults of our own, and some faults of a stubborn chicken. We have come out to the chicken yard in the morning finding chickens slaughtered in the night by a fox, opened the coop door in the evening to raccoon causing havoc and in the act of killing chickens, and all sorts of creatures trying to grab eggs. The losses have been hard, but such an amazing learning lesson. This topic deserves its own blog, and we can expand on it more later.
6. Some ways to protect your chickens from predators are as follows:
Have a rooster (they are always waiting in the wings ready to pounce haha)
Make sure all chickens are locked up in a coop at night (this is key to keeping them safe)
Have a reinforced door (such as a solar powered door) to close in case you forget
Have a solar powered radio on at night near the coop (human voices scare predators away)
Deter them with strong smelling herbs (such as lavender, lemongrass, peppermint)
