Q.  I think we want to get about 6 hens.  What is the minimum size coop and pen area needed for 6-8 chickens?
A.  In my personal experience, I would say the footprint of the pen needs to be around 16'x 8', in any shape, for six hens.  But are you trying to get enough eggs for your family?  We only have three hens and that more than feeds our family of four, even with me doing regular baking, and I still have enough eggs left over to give to all the neighbors throughout the summer.  So my current three hens (I've had up to 30 chickens at once before) live in a chicken tractor that has an 8'x4' footprint, with a sleeping/egg-laying area built above the run area.

Q.  I had a neighbor write me an anonymous letter telling me that my three hens are too noisy, are bothering them when they try to sleep, and they are going to call animal control.  What should I do?
A.  Hens can be noisy sporadically, and if the chickens are anywhere near a sensitve sleeping person, they might indeed be bothering someone.  In my own personal opinion, I think barking dogs can be far more bothersome than cackling hens, which only cackle for short bursts lasting usually under a minute, the max a few times per day, and none at all after sun set.  Whereas dogs can go on barking jags that last a half an hour or more, and often after dark.

This neighbor of yours has probably written letters to other neighbors about their dogs or radios, etc., since it sounds like they are sensitive to noises and are prone to write letters.  You’re probably not being singled out.  But sometimes letters are the easiest way to address a concern.

You are doing the right thing in researching and knowing the laws on chicken-keeping in your neighborhood.  The bothered neighbor may indeed call animal control to find that you are keeping chickens completely legally.  At my old house, we had to actually have a permit to keep chickens, which I of course had.  So once when a neighbor said something about my chickens, I was able to say, "I have a permit; would you like to see it?"   (I had complained about their dog coming into my yard a lot and instead of apologizing, they said they were going to call the cops on my chickens.)

What I personally would do would be to put my two or three hens in a mobile "chicken tractor” and move them to the other side of the house.  This way, you will probably be moving them away from the sensitve neighbor.  My solution is to compromise as best as possible, and for me this is keeping the chickens in a coop that can be moved to other parts of the yard if needed due to a complaint.

Another habit I have is when I first move into a new house, I go around and meet all my neighbors.  I bring them half a dozen fresh chicken eggs with my card on it, which has my phone number and email address, and I ask the neighbors if my chickens can be heard and if they are ever bothersome to please feel free to let me know.  Yes, I really do this!   Last year, even with just three hens, I was able to give all of my six immediate neighbors a half a dozen eggs every once in awhile throughout the summer.

Q.  "What does 'broody' mean?"
A.  Going "broody" just refers to the instinct a hen has to stop laying eggs every day and to start sitting on the ones she's already laid, so that in 21 days they will hatch into chicks (provided a rooster has been mating with the hen).  Some chickens "go broody" all the time.  They are often bantam breeds, such as Silkies, or mixed breeds.  Most purebreds, like Rhode Island Reds, were themselves not hatched by a mother hen.  They were hatched in an egg incubator in a hatchery somewhere.  You see, if you want a chicken that lays a lot of eggs for eating, you don't want one that still has the instinct to stop laying eggs and sit on her eggs all the time.  You want one that has had all the broody instincts bred out of her so she'll lay for you year-round.  So farmers over the years have raised up what are known as utility breeds; chickens that don't go broody and that lay almost all year 'round.

Q.  "My chicks are growing fast.  How can I tell which ones are hens and which are roosters?"
A.  If you bought "sexed" chickens, then most likely all your chickens are females.  If you bought "straight run" chicks, then 50% will be males.  Professional chicken sexors are employed by hatcheries and sexing chickens is difficult.  When you see some of your chicks displaying "dominance behaviors" or other fighting type behavior, that won't tell you anything.  All my hens, when they were chicks, would fight, spar, act dominant to the others.  The best way is to wait until it is no longer a chick and almost full grown.  You will start to see pointed sickle and saddle feathers on a male.  Sickle feathers are the two long tail feathers, and saddle feathers are the feathers that grow on a rooster's back right on top of the rump.  They will come to a point versus being rounded.  Wait until you hear a crow before you get rid of a suspected rooster if you are a novice; that's what I still do.

Q.  "If my Rhode Island Red hen won't brood, what will make her set?  Do they need a special laying feed to make them go broody?"
A.  If a hen doesn't have the instinct to sit on her eggs, there's nothing you can do.  She doesn't have the mothering instinct.  Special foods won't help, nor will keeping her confined with her eggs or bringing in a rooster.  You might be thinking of "layer pellets," which is simply food fed to hens that have started to lay eggs and hence need extra calcium and other nutrients to make strong shells.  So leaving the eggs in the nest in hopes she'll sit on them is kind of wasting good eating eggs.

Q.   "How often will a grown hen lay eggs? How many a day? What's the physiological reason that a chicken lays an egg?"
A.  I do get a lot of emails asking me about the basic biology of chickens such as this.   A "production" breed, or chickens that have been bred over the decades to really crank out the eggs might lay you an egg every 24-36 hours, and keep that up almost year 'round.  That would be a good production breed.  Secondly, hens don't need a rooster around at all to lay their maximum number of eggs.  In addition, here is a picture that shows the internal sex organs of most birds, including chickens.  You can see that the external genitalia are the same in males and females.  This external part is called the cloacae.  ("klo-AY-kuh.")    The cloacae is the common chamber into which the intestinal, urinary, and generative canals discharge in birds, reptiles, amphibians, and many fishes.  That is to say, chickens poop, pee, lay eggs, and mate all via the same hole.

Q.  "We'll probably get a couple of chickens now, and then maybe another later.  Is that okay?"
A.  That's the one thing that's hard to do with chickens:  Introduce a new one into a pen of other chickens.  The new one gets picked on.  There are tricks you can do to get around actual bloodshed, however.  You can introduce even numbers of birds, like put five new chickens in with five original chickens.  Or you can toss up the ages and ratios:  Put in a dozen youngsters in with just three adults, for example, and the adults will be overwhelmed.  Another thing to do is to let the original chickens chase the new ones around, but provide hiding places for the new ones.  Put a second feeder and a second waterer at the opposite end of the chicken pen or coop, so the new chickens can always access food and water.  Also, I'll refer you to a good link:  http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKRaisingChicks.html.   Scroll down to the very last paragraph on that page for another technique on introducing new birds to a flock.

Q.  "I am new at keeping chickens. I got them when they where born. Well, 2 of them have tried to attack me. I let them roam free and today one of them chased me into the house. I am afraid to go into my backyard.  Have you ever heard of this?"
A.  You really should keep your chickens in a pen of some kind.  I would never let my chickens scare me out of my own yard.  Take back the streets!  I mean yard.  Get those darned chickens in a pen where they belong.  It will also keep them safer.  If you let your chickens roam free, it is my personal opinion and experience that it's just a matter of time before they are harmed by predators.

Q.  "What about parasites on or in my chickens?  Do I have to deal with all that?"
A.  You should dust your chickens every few months with an all-purpose pesticide dust, such as Sevin dust, or Hi-Yield Livestock & Garden dust.  You can find canisters or bags of this stuff at any hardware store or Home Depot or Lowe's.  On the package, it will usually say it can be used on animals and plants.  Real all-purpose stuff.  How I like to "dust" my chickens is to have a big shallow drawer or something, put sand or clean dirt in it, and mix a couple of cups of the pesticide dust in with it.  Chickens love to take dust baths and will be dusting themselves in no time.  Just leave the dusting bin in their run for a week or so.  Also, chickens sometimes get worms.  Just like puppies and kittens.  Just for safety's sake, I like to worm my flock every 4-6 months.  Buy a small bottle of chicken wormer from your local feed store, or you can order from the 'net, too.  It simply involves adding some liquid medicine to their drinking water.  Carefully follow the directions on the bottle.

Q.  "What is coccidiosis?"
A.  Coccidiosis (pronounced, “cock-sid-ee-O-sis”) is a common chicken disease. Poultry raised in crowded or unsanitary conditions (conditions that permit the build-up of a lot of oocysts in the environment) are at greatest risk of becoming infected. Wet areas around water fountains are a source of infection. Oocysts remain viable in litter for many months. In this way they can contaminate a farm from year to year. Oocysts are killed by freezing, extreme dryness and high temperatures. Several factors influence the severity of infection. Some of these are: An increase in the number of oocysts eaten causes an increase in the severity of the disease. Old birds are generally immune as a result of prior infection. Coccidiosis generally occurs more frequently during warmer weather (May to September). The most easily recognized clinical sign of severe coccidiosis is the presence of bloody droppings. Chickens droop, stop feeding, huddle together and by the fourth day blood begins to appear in the droppings. The greatest amount of blood appears by day five or six and by the eighth or ninth day the bird is either dead or on the way to recovery. Keep chicks, feed and water away from droppings as much as possible. Place water vessels on wire frames to eliminate a concentration of wet droppings, in which the chicks can walk to pick up or spread the disease. Keep litter dry and stirred frequently. Remove wet spots and replace with dry litter. Avoid overcrowding. If coccidiosis does break out, start treatment immediately. Amprolium (the stuff they put in medicated chick feed) or one of the sulpha-based drugs (such as Sulmet, which you can get at the feed store) is usually recommended. Follow directions on bottle to the letter.

Q.  "Do your chicken eggs have little red spots in them?"
A.   The blood spot that many people mistakenly take as a mark of a fertilized egg is actually blood from the hen.  Not all eggs will have them.  It happens when the hen is creating the egg in her body and a tiny blood vessel somewhere along the process ruptures and a tiny bit of chicken blood gets mixed into the formation process.  People have long thought all sorts of erroneous things about chicken eggs:  That fertilized ones are healthier, that free-range eggs are so much better for you, that organic ones have less cholesterol, that the blood spot is a mark of fertilization, etc.

Q.  "When you say you can raise chickens in the city, you really mean in the suburbs, right?  One can't raise chickens in a high rise apartment."
A.  I raised a hen from a baby chick when I lived in an apartment once.  It was a bantam breed and so only grew as large as a parrot, which people keep as pets all the time, and chickens can live outside.  Except unlike a parrot, my species of bird would eat my kitchen scraps and give me eggs.  The only thing I would do differently is raise two chicks at a minimum, as one chick gets very lonely.  My apartment had a patio, and I don't see why a person couldn't modify a chicken tractor design to work for a patio.  I personally think it's not too nice to keep a dog cooped up in an apartment, and people do that all the time.  It might be challenging at first, but why couldn't city folks keep pets that are super practical and give them fresh eggs?  There are cages called "patio homes" for small pets.  See examples of them here:  http://www.waremfginc.com/products.asp?p=6

Q.  "I prefer organic versus store-bought eggs and I have read all kind of hen house horror stories, so I would prefer to buy my family's eggs from chickens which don't spend their lives caged up in misery and pumped full of antibiotics and hormones."
A.  It may not be supporting my own cause, but I am compelled to say:  The only real difference you will be getting with backyard eggs is that they will be fresher, and a lot of people like that.  They can have more brightly colored yolks.  Otherwise they are essentially the same internally as store-bought eggs.  I don't really like the idea of battery hens standing on wire the whole year or so they use them, but it might be a necessary evil; there are poor people who need cheap eggs out there. (Yes, we could force children to become vegans but that morality is still a luxury for many, for economic reasons.)  However, even backyard hens have to live in a pen of some kind, because even city folks have raccoons, dogs and hawks to contend with.      If I let my chickens roam the yard, they would be predated in no time.  But you're right; backyard hens definitely are not on wire floors and are able to scratch about happily in the straw or dirt, eat grass and food scraps, fly up to perches, lay in the sun, take dust baths, fight and/or preen each other, interact with each other, etc.  I know egg industry hens are sometimes fed feed with antibiotics in it, but I've never heard of hens being given hormones.  It does please me, however, to have my own happy egg producers, vs. supporting the more cruel egg industry, even though I don't protest it. 

Q.  "Isn't it true that some free-range, organic, vegetarian hens lay eggs with 35% less cholesterol than regular eggs?"
A.  It might indeed be true that the new "Omega 3" eggs developed at the University of Nevada can have up to 19% less cholesterol than regular eggs.  However, it's the folks who are producing them who are reporting this; not an independent researcher. Foodwatch.com says Omega 3 eggs "do not have any less cholesterol but they have more omega 3 fatty acids."  Foodwatch.com also says, "Despite these differences, all eggs have approximately the same amount of protein, total fat and cholesterol."  These engineered eggs don't claim to be "organic" eggs.  They are not free-range eggs.  They just claim to have more Omega 3 fatty acids.  What jumps out at me is that they are doing a lot of work (genetic selection, restricted feed, etc.) to make a relatively little change in eggs.  The hens are still in cages and the hens are fed a fairly unnatural diet.  So to me the eggs might be slightly healthier but are not particularly "natural."  I would say it would be up to each individual consumer to decide which is their own personal lesser of two evils.  Some folks who have high cholesterol might be grateful for any small change in an egg; others will still consider these to be battery hens that are caged and the resulting eggs are not free-range nor organically produced.  Also, you might find some farms that make fairly amazing claims about their eggs.  Buyer beware of such claims.

Q.  No matter what I put my chicken's water in, they get dirt in it!  Do you have any tricks for keeping their water supply unfouled?
A.  They sell automatic watering systems, like the one seen here.  But they require you to have them always hooked up to a water source, and most back yard poultry keepers don't get that complicated.  I've used the plastic one gallon gravity feed ones (you have to refill them often), the 5 gallon plastic Dura Founts (two of them leaked/cracked on me), a plain plastic shoebox but placed very high on some boards and bricks, and other methods.  The problem I have with the galvanized gravity feed ones is that although they can hold a lot of water, the actual reservoir holds only about a cup of water, and it gets dirty fast.  So the chickens, although using a five gallon waterer, only have access to the trough of a cup or so of dirty warm water.  That bothers me every time I look at it.  Currently I'm using a five gallon bucket, as seen in the picture.  You must keep the water topped off or the chickens won't be able to reach the water easily.  With gravity feed waterers, you have to go into the poopy chicken pen to remove it, open it, refill it, and then lug 5 gallons of water back into the chicken pen.  The bucket can be filled from outside the pen by sticking the garden hose through the wire; no top to unscrew.  The bucket water level is right near the head-level of a standard breed bird.  The water surface is high enough to keep most scratched-up dirt out of it.  The dirt that does land in the water settles down to the bottom of the bucket.  It is heavy so if the birds fly onto it, it won't tip over like a smaller bucket.  It is inside a locked chicken tractor so that no children can fall into it.  I will undoubtedly change around my watering set-up; I often do.

"Dear Katy...Just wanted to let you know that I really enjoying coming back to your site and this time you've have added a lot of new stuff that you're up to.  You were the website that gave me the courage to buy chickens and keep them in our dog kennel.  We are still loving the chickens, getting 5 eggs a day (soon to be six), and proud to be chicken owners.  I'm getting ready to email your site to a friend who's buying her first chickens this weekend.  Thanks again, Beth from Virginia."

Q.  "I gave my chickens a few worms.  They loved those.  Is it OK to do so?"
A.  You will find that chickens are better than pigs for eating anything.  Get a pretty ceramic bowl or container (I use a kid's sand pail), set it next to your kitchen sink, and throw all your food scraps into it.  This will become your "chicken bucket."  Then feed these scraps to the chickens.  Empty the container daily so as not to breed germs.  Dump the "chicken bucket" of food scraps into an old metal cake pan or the like that you leave in the chicken run.  This way the scraps are kept off the ground and droppings.  You can then easily dispose of any food that the chickens didn't eat that was left in the cake pan.  You will find that chickens hardly refuse anything.  It gives them food variety, too, and you will feel like you are not wasting food but recycling it.  Think you can't put scrambled eggs or cooked chicken meat into the chicken bucket?  Think again; those are among their favorites.  I used to put even raw meat scraps in, but I've read that raw meat can transmit toxoplasmosis to animals, including chickens, and I wouldn't want myself or my kids to then come in contact with contaminated chicken manure.  This is especially important for pregnant women.  Some chicken fanciers are wholly against feeding human food to chickens.  I just don't understand how some leftover Cheerios, which are enriched with vitamins, or bread or pasta made with enriched flour could possibly be bad for chickens.  One time a mouse made a nest under one of my chickens' nest boxes, and when we moved the box, about 7 baby mice went scampering.  My hens ate those baby mice so fast you wouldn't believe it.  Chickens are the ultimate omnivores.  Oh, and chickens love fresh grass clippings; be sure to put your garden clippings into the chicken pen.  (Earthworms and other bugs, actually, can be carriers of microscopic parasitic chicken worms.  My personal solution is to administer worming medicine via their water roughly every year versus never letting them eat worms or bugs.) 

Q.  "What kind of chicken food do I buy for my laying hens?"
A.  Very simple:  One should always provide free-choice commercial chicken food.  Chicks should be fed "chick starter" clear up until you get your first egg, then switch to "layer pellets."  That's it.  Cracked corn or scratch grains are not sufficient.  A chicken fed on only "chicken scratch" will be malnourished and fat.

Q.  "I was watching my chickens and they are pecking the feathers off of each other a lot.  Could feeding them straight barley for a long time make them pick?"
A.  Absolutely.  Chickens have been bred from the wild jungle fowl.  In the wild, chickens eat beetles, worms, mice, carrion, bugs, flies, seeds, grasses, etc.  They are omnivores, which means they eat meat and vegetable matter.  They are omnivores in much the same way we humans are omnivores.  So feeding them plain barley for a long time would be just as if you ate plain barley for a long time.  You would start having strong cravings for protein, vitamins and minerals.  You would become malnourished.  Your chickens are picking each other and eating the feathers for protein and other trace minerals.  "Scratch grains," such as barley kernels and cracked corn, are just extra treats for chickens.  They should never be their only food.  You should always provide commercially prepared chicken food for your captive chickens.  Always.  It should be "free choice," too, which means a supply should always be available and should never run out.  So go out today and buy an all purpose chicken feed like Triple Duty or Chicken Mash or Crumbles.  If your chickens are all older and are egg layers, you can get away with feeding Layer Pellets, as it is nutritionally complete for laying hens.  Don't feed this to chicks or chickens who haven't started laying yet.  They need Chick Starter until you see your first egg.  A 25lb. bag of chicken feed (not scratch) costs about $5.95.  Also, put grass clippings in your pen as often as you can, as this helps cut down on pecking because it gives them something to do and is very healthy for them, as regular chicken feed, although nutritionally complete, has no green leafy living matter in it. Also provide grit (small gravel rocks you buy at the feed store) for your chickens. 

Q.  "If you read the fine print on a bag of commercial chicken feed, you'll see that some chicken feed uses by-products from butchering animals."
A.  I don't have a problem with that.  I would have a problem if we raised cows and pigs and just took out all their fancy parts (filet mignon, etc.) and completely wasted all the rest of the parts.  In the old days, and even today, even humans eat:  Haggis, head cheese, kidney pie, blood pudding, tongue, tripe, etc.  Only today can we afford to waste certain body parts just because of our current sensibilities.  When my chickens ate the baby mice, or eat beetles and worms, they are eating eyeballs, legs, hair, teeth, reproductive organs, bone, etc.  When I see a crow or vulture eating a dead animal in the woods, I see them eating all the body parts.  So suffice it to say, I have no problem feeding "offal."   I believe that some people think offal is bad to feed chickens because of popular tastes (and there's no arguing with taste) and the fact that morality is often a luxury; we can afford to make our chickens vegetarians if we want to play that game, even though chickens are not naturally vegetarians.

Q.  "Is there any way to quiet my crowing rooster?"
A.  The only trick I've heard of, but have never tried myself, is to put your rooster into a low cage at night.  Apparently, roosters have to stand up tall and crane their necks upward to crow.  Supposedly, if you keep them in a cage which keeps them from being able to stand all the way up then they can't crow.  Then you would be able to let the rooster out at a more reasonable hour in the morning.  Don't, of course, keep a rooster in a little cage like that for longer than just for its overnight sleep.  The rooster would still undoubtedly crow during other times of the day.  Catching a rooster each night and letting it out each morning sounds too time-consuming to me.  Another thing I've heard of is that you can surgically de-crow a rooster.  Chickens don't make sound with vocal chords so it's not a matter of just snipping the vocal chords as they do with dogs; it's more involved surgery, it's expensive, and it's very hard to find a vet who can/will do it.

Q.  "What kind of bedding do you put in a hen house or chicken run?"
A.  I can only speak from my own experiences, and I've tried a number of things: Sand, pea gravel, wood shavings, straw, etc.  The main thing is that you want something that promotes drainage.  If you have a muddy chicken run, then it is more conducive to disease.  Some people throw straw in their chicken tractor or run, and then when it gets layered with poop and moisture, they throw on another layer of straw.  This works, except for eventually, you have to remove the dirty straw, and in my experience the layers become very matted and almost woven/cemented together so that even with a shovel it is hard to get up.  So I would suggest using one of those compressed bales of wood shavings for $9.  A bale for three hens in a chicken tractor lasts a long time and make things look "petting zoo" cute.  It also doesn't mat together quite as bad as straw, you can layer fresh wood shavings on top of old, and it absorbs standing water or mud which can harbor an excess of pathogens.  If have very well-draining soil in your coop, or live where it is dry and warm a lot, you can also use no litter; just bare earth.  Just rake out the dried poop occasionally.

Q.  "I do like the chicken tractor idea-but they'd also need a regular hen house and pen, right?"
A.  In a word, no.  My chicken pen housing situation evolved.  I used just chicken tractors successfully but then tried all sorts of other ways.  I used a dog kennel in part because it was given to me free.  Basically, you use as housing that which works.  And that would be some shelter that keeps the chickens dry and relatively draft free, and predator proof.  A chicken tractor, depending on how long you built it, could house up to 5 or more hens.  Chicken tractors are perfect for city folks' chickens.  In the U.K., they call chicken tractors arks.  Predator-proof means different things depending on how determined your predators are.  Some people in Colorado have to string electric wire around their pen to keep out wolverines and stuff.  But here's how I've done it:  I wait to see what predators we have and then build accordingly.   I don't start out building the electric fence and brick wall because you may not need it.  For example, a lot of people assume they have to bury the chicken wire three feet into the ground.  I don't bury anything in the ground.  It would be overkill.  But if I saw evidence of something digging under all the time, I'd address it then.  I think that chicken tractors are sufficiently safe, and are good accommodations for city chickens.  Be sure to park your chicken tractor near a window on occasion (or permanently, like I do) so you can have fun watching your chickens.

Q.  “Tell your site readers that chicken wire will not keep their chickens safe from dogs.  We built a chicken tractor like the ones pictured in your chicken tractor gallery and still our dogs tore through the chicken wire and killed our two chickens.”
A.  I’m so sorry to hear that.  I will mention again about the danger of dogs around chickens.  Determined dogs might indeed be able tear lightweight chicken wire off of its framework.  I will advise builders to use lots and lots of extra long staples when attaching the chicken wire to their chicken tractors or hen houses.  I will also suggest that if using a chicken tractor to house chickens, the safest way is to keep the pen inside a fully fenced yard.  That way, no stray or roaming dogs can come into your yard.  If you have your own dogs sharing your yard with your chickens, I must simply say that there is no real way to fully trust dogs around chickens.  If you have dogs, a chicken tractor may not be appropriate for you.  You would have to use something very dog-proof to keep your dogs away from your chickens.  (See my segments on using a modified dog kennel as a chicken yard.)  Also, if a dog can’t tear through the chicken wire, it still might be able to tip over a very lightweight chicken tractor.  So if you are going to leave your dogs unattended around your chicken tractor, I would suggest building a heavy chicken tractor or else put some kind of heavy object such as an old tire on top of it.

"Dear Katy...Just found your website and found it helpful and encouraging.  I have been wanting to raise chickens for some time but always found an excuse.  Your site covers a lot of the issues that stopped me because it's such unknown subject for me right now.  My experience is my memories of my grandmother's many chickens and gathering eggs for her.  Thanks for the boost to my determination to raise some chickens!"   ----Carol D., Bartlett, Illinois.

Q.  "I've been told by several people that bantam hens have a very good disposition and are exceptionally easy to manage.  In your experience are there any breeds that do better than others as pets?"
A.  I've tried a lot of breeds, and ultimately, they are all chickens.  In my experience, how "pet-like" a chicken is is directly related to how much it was handled while it was growing up.  It will be unafraid of humans if humans handled it a lot and hand-fed it, etc.  Some chicken fanciers will tell you that some breeds are born friendlier than others.  My personal opinion?  It's dependent on how much human contact they had when growing up.  Some breeds will *look* more pet like, because they are fluffier, or slower, or have shorter legs.  Remember, they are birds.  They are all flighty, unless you work against their nature and hand-rear them a lot.  Get some baby chicks, brood them in your coat pockets, only hand feed them, etc., and your chickens will hang around you forever.  But I don't have that kind of time, and I’d hate to think what my coat pockets would smell like. :)

Q.  "Would my chickens be safe to wander around our fenced yard unsupervised during the day, as long as I put them in their house at night?"
A.  In a word, no.  There are too many things that like to eat/kill chickens.  I had chickens only 64 blocks from downtown Portland and I had dogs, raccoons, and hawks all attack my chickens, showing me the insufficient portions of my coop set-up.  And why must it always happen at 4am?  So I really don’t advocate letting your chickens out, unless you are standing right there, and are sure you’d be able to catch your chickens to put them back in their pen.  Running around after your chickens is not that fun.  Well, maybe a little.  Some chickens will come when called, with "calling" being shaking the chicken feed bucket.  But many chickens don't want go back into the pen and can be hard to catch.

Q.  "Would my chickens have the capability and the desire to fly out of our yard?"
A.  Yes.  The capability is there.  I even keep particularly skittish hens’ wings trimmed so they can’t take off.  No, chickens can’t really “fly,” but they can get over fences.  If you cut the wings like in the picture here, it doesn't hurt them a bit.

Q.  "I was wondering if the smell is very bad if we are good about keeping our chicken area really clean.  It seems like it is not too bad as long as the area is kept clean.  Is that correct?"
A.  Since your chicken pen is outside, then even if it got quite poopy you wouldn't notice the smell much.  But you're right; cleaner always equals less smelly.  I think you have to let the poop accumulate for a LONG time before it gets really smelly.  Also, a fresh dropping smells.  A dried out dropping doesn't.  Wet area equals smell, dry area equals no smell.

Q.  "Do you notice a rat problem starting up because of the chicken feed that is out?  If so, what do you usually do to curb that problem?"
A.  I've noticed a few mice, but they've never got to the "problem" level at all.  They come around looking for the kitchen scraps I feed my chickens.  But then one time my hens ate a bunch of baby mice they found under their nest box.  So there you go.  :)  I also keep my chicken feed outside, but in a metal trash can.  I tried plastic; the squirrels chewed through it.

"Dear Katy...Interesting webpage.  Been wondering about what it would take to have some chickens for awhile.  Just hadn't taken the time to take a look - until now!  Thanks for the info.  If I decide to get some chickens I'll see if you have any first." --- MD from Beaverton, Oregon

Q.  "What should be done for chickens in the Winter?
A.  Chickens, in zero degree temps and lower, can get frostbite of the comb and wattles.  However, I don’t want my chickens to get anywhere near the point of frostbite.  Because I can imagine there are many points before actual frostbite that would be very uncomfortable for a chicken.  Chickens may be able to "survive," "handle," or "tolerate" the cold, but those adjectives don't sound very pleasant.  Chickens are descendants of Jungle Fowl, a tropical pheasant that are from Fiji and other South Pacific islands.  I.e., warm places.  They evolved big combs and wattles because they could; they didn't get frostbite in those climates.  They might live, but will suffer. Some might argue that today's buff Orpington, for example, is a much hardier creature than the Jungle Fowl, but I believe that today’s chicken is still genetically not made for zero degrees, let alone the negative temps, without supplemental heat.  Orpingtons have combs and wattles just like the Jungle fowl, and have the same genetic sensitivities.  Okay, so now you probably want to know an exact Fahrenheit temperature at which you should put in supplimental lighting for heat in your chicken pen, right?  All I can tell you is what I do, and what I've noticed.  In the Portland, Oregon area where I live, it's been down to 15 degrees for a few days in the winter.  My hens always seemed fine.  I tend to worry more about them when it's 100 degrees in the Summer.  But anyway, if the temps get much below 15 degrees, then I might put a drop lamp in my coop.  Keep lights away from bedding so as to prevent fire.

Q.  “About 2 weeks ago I started noticing evidence of broken eggs. I can't find any shells--they eat those--but they leave the yolk/white. After much observation I know which two of my girls are guilty but I don't have a clue what to do about it. They are eating a good layer mix, fortified with all the vitamins/minerals they need plus I give them oyster shells and grit. They have a tractor that gets pushed around the yard and frequent 3-4 hour free-range times. Their shells are very strong and the eggs look normal.  Any tips or suggestions would be so helpful!”
A.  Hmm....Usually egg eaters will eat all the yolk and white, too.  Did you actually witness hens cracking in-tact eggs and eating them?  Actual cracking and eating of eggs is kind of rare in my experience.  You would have to actually *see* a hen going after a perfect, in-tact egg in the nest, more than once, before you could be sure you have an egg-eater.  Now, if an egg is already cracked and spilling, *any* chicken will eat it.  My question is this; how soft is your nest box?  I have found that if there is not enough bedding in the nest box, that eggs get accidentally broken when each hen hops in and out to lay.  Also, if the hens don't have a separate place to roost, and have to sleep in the nest box (which is fine), then sometimes they move and shift around when bedding down and step on eggs that haven't been collected.  Ideas to try:  You can make a separate roost in your chicken tractor, and you can put a piece of rubber foam, like from an old camping mat, underneath the nesting material in the next box(es), and add a thick layer of straw or wood shavings to the nest box(es) over that to provide cushioning for eggs.  Also try collecting eggs more frequently, such as every morning and before you go in for the night.  And one more thing I might mention here; the idea that feeding empty egg shells back to your chickens might promote egg-eating is not true in my experience.  I've always fed the egg shells back to my hens, and I've yet to have an egg-attacker.  Chickens seem to have certain egg instincts; like, if an egg is cracked, they know to gobble it up immediately, to not waste the nutrition and to clean up the nest area so as to not attract predators, probably.  But, they prefer to lay eggs in a nest that already has eggs in it, and don't seem to exhibit any preference for their own eggs over another hen's eggs; it's rather communal.  Conversely, some wild birds will push the eggs out of other bird's nests, but that doesn't appear to happen with chickens.  For example, just the other day, I let my bantams out of their chicken pen, and my standard sized hens out of their pen.  One of the standard sized hens went clear over to the bantam hutch, jumped in, found the next box, and proceeded to lay her egg in the bantam nest, without disturbing the bantam eggs.  You just don’t see hens attacking other hen’s eggs normally.  Let me know how it goes!

Q.  I'm excited to try and make our own coop and enclosure.  I'm curious how you managed to turn a Rubbermaid tub into a hen house.  Would you mind sharing some of the details of that endeavor?  I'm particularly interested in knowing how to determine the size of the entry for the chickens and how you secured perches for them.  My husband has challenged me to try to recreate the “Eglu” out of a couple of Rubbermaid containers and I remembered seeing something like that on your site.
A.  I’ve often thought the same thing; that the Eglus look like some kind of Rubbermaid or Sterilite tote.  So why couldn’t a frugal chicken-keeper try to make their own?  You could creatively attach a few of them together to make a large dog-house type pen.

I think one single large tote would be good for two or three bantams, or maybe two standard sized hens.  It would be a place for them to sleep and lay eggs.  I like the plastic tote idea because it would keep out rain, should keep out major drafts, and would keep raccoon hands from being able to reach the chickens if they stick their raccoon hands through the chicken wire of the outer pen.  So the plastic container satisfies the “solid sides” needed for at least part of the chicken coop.  You might not want this set-up for your permanent chicken housing, but it works for safe temporary digs.

There would be many creative options; you just have to remember a few things.  Chickens need ventilation so ammonia fumes from chicken poop doesn’t build up.  Of course this can be remedied also by just cleaning out the plastic container before the poop builds up too much.  Also, to easily check for eggs when your hens are older, you might have to cut another egg-collection door, and attach some sort of secure flap over the opening.  Also, some chicken-owners don’t like the idea of the chickens sleeping where they also lay their eggs.  In my case, I haven’t normally had big enough chicken houses where I could have space for nesting boxes in one area and roosts in another area.  So what happens is that sometimes my chickens roost nearby where they lay, which can make for eggs that get some poop on them.  To me personally, this is no big deal.  I just wash the eggs before I put them in the ‘fridge.

You asked about perches and doorways.  The doorway would simply have to be roughly chicken-sized.  Most of the time they will venture into the enclosure on their own, but if they don’t, you can put them in there yourself after dark, and they will just sit in there.  Then in the morning they will come out, and will know where to go that next night.  Regarding perches; I haven’t bothered to put a perch inside one of these very small houses.  Just bedding material.  I am one of those chicken keepers who doesn’t think perches are completely necessary at all times.

Here are a few pictures of times I’ve utilized plastic with my poultry:

 
 

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