There are many benefits to learning how to keep chickens on the urban homestead. Raising chickens for eggs is just one. A couple more benefits include keeping chickens in the garden; it is good for both the garden and the chickens. Raising chickens for food, both eggs and meat as a healthy alternative to the mass processed chicken and eggs found in large chain stores. Getting eggs produced from battery hens, which are used to feed diets of oily fish, produces a better quality egg. And raising chickens helps guard our planet from harmful environmental practices.
Once you decide you’re going to be raising chickens for eggs, you should think about what you will need to do and how to start. This article is to give you ideas to help determine a general starting point. We will only be discussing the female birds, as a rooster is not necessary for egg production, only for fertilization if you want to hatch chicks.
One of the first things you will want to do is count the cost. No, not for feed or a coop, but what it costs you in time. Chickens require daily care. Not a bunch, but enough that you can’t leave them for a long time without feeding and watering, and protecting them from predators. Who will feed and water them if you go out of town? How will they be secured each night without leaving your home? Every night a different predator inhabits your chickens and this can’t be accepted. If you are single and fortunate enough to not have creepers, you can run outside with a flashlight and see who is in your garden and pick them off. This is better than suppressing predators with chemicals.
Before you go buying a rooster, you must be thinking about what you are going to do with the chicken manure and what you will do with the manure. This is vital to the health of the rooster. If you plan to raise composted roosters, you will want to balance this by feeding them “white” chicken manure, balancing the pH, nitrogen, and phosphorous levels. Maintain a pH around 6.5.
You will want to maintain a variable temperature so the center of the hen roosters not be too hot and not too cold. Again, you will want to think about what you will do with the manure. If you plan to do some worm composting or indoor gardening, you will want the temperature to be higher. If you want to do some vermicomposting (worm composting can be successful either outdoors or indoors), you will want the compost to be cooler.
Once you have picked out a rooster, you need to decide what to do with him. Think about what you want to do with the eggshells. Do you want to mix that with chicken manure? Are you going to dust them on the garden soil? Dampen the soil with the chicken droppings?
RosterSides are much more forgiving than manure sides. They require watering only once per month. This is much easier to handle.
The ChickenPond
If you have a pond, you can place the rooster near the edge of the pond. Put a rock over the pond if you have a slippery rockseter. Preformed wooden edges make the difficult task easier.Roster frames are available for purchase from most garden centers. They come pre-formed or can be made from a number of curved designs. They are fairly easy to install. You will need to bury some of the corners under the ground to make it easier to bring the sides together.
After framing, you need to make sure the bottom is level. You can determine this by simply pulling the side of the rooster against the edge of the pond. If the bottom is not level, simply fill in the gaps with pebbles, river stones or marbles.
Cleaning the Pond
You need to clean the pond very well before you decompose it. Use a good quality fish that is resistant to disease. This will prolong the life of your pond.
The biggest problem in cleaning a pond, is the accumulating algae. algaecides and fertilizers are usually the best tools you can use in cleaning up a pond.
In conclusion, if you want to enjoy your very own koi fish, you should try to raise them in a koi pond. They are easy to care for and are very enjoyable to watch swim around in your pond.
