The Chicken Project - 2001

In this case (I can't speak for the general case);
the answer to the old riddle, is that the chicken came before the egg.
Just about 20 weeks before, in fact.




I am lucky enough to live in Portland, Oregon. In Portland, raising hens within city limits is perfectly legal. In fact, if you have 3 or fewer you do not even need a permit. (incidentally, not only hens, but the 3 or fewer rule applies to pygmy goats and a number of other animals).

Roosters, however, are illegal (due to crowing)

I live in the Hawthorne area, which is about 2 miles from downtown Portland, on a standard 1/10 acre lot. So far raising hens has been fun and easy!



It all started out as 5 little adorably cute fluffballs:

They were named (clockwise starting from left):

Guadeloupe - Golden Sex Link
Henny Penny - Rhode Island Red
Diana - Rhode Island Red
Katherine - Golden Sex Link
Henrietta - Barred Plymouth Rock


I bought them at a local feed store on April 20. Chicks generally arrive on Tuesdays or Wednesdays at feed stores (after being born on Monday or Tuesday). They often sell out soon. We went chick shopping on a Friday. This meant the chicks were several days old. Although they lose a little cuteness, they are much less delicate after the first few days. The Rhode Island Reds were left over from the previous week, so were a week older than the others.

What you need to get started (all available from the feed store):
  • cardboard box
  • heat lamp
  • feeder
  • waterer
  • chick feed
- They tend to eat wood shavings in the box, use paper towels or something to cover for a few days. Or not, I didn't learn this until later.
- Make sure they are not too hot or too cold, adjust the height of the heat lamp.
- They tend to poop in the water, so clean it often (helps to elevate the waterer slightly).
- They tend to kick shavings into the food, so clean that out often too.



Warning: It's hard for anyone to resist petting and playing with baby chicks!


Then they needed a home


My dad visited me, and after keen study of information on building coops and the needs of small flocks, designed a mansion for chickens. It was designed to be secure from predators (even in the city, racoons are a serious danger) and comfortable for the chickens, as well as easy to use, easy to clean, and easy to transport.

  • It has a separate coop and fully enclosed, roofed run.
  • Most parts can be taken apart to be moved or cleaned: the roof is removable, all walls are held together by bolts, the floor and roost box sit on ledges
  • It has an exterior, detachable nest box with a hinged lid. This is designed to make collecting eggs easy.
  • It has an enclosed, exterior, detachable box for the waterer, which allows access for the chickens to water in the inside, and allows the waterer to be removed without entering the coop. It also serves to give the water a little more protection from freezing.
  • It has external hoppers for food, oyster shell and grit, so the chickens can eat inside, and the hoppers refilled from the outside.
  • It has wire mesh windows for air circulation, with glass windows to keep out the winter weather (details not fully worked out)
  • It has dutch doors, to keep the litter in the coop when the back door is opened, but allow the litter to be swept out fully for cleaning
  • There is a vertically sliding door (aka the Guillotine) that can be opened and closed from outside the coop/run, by means of a string and a pully.
  • The roost box is removable itself, and has a removable lid for cleaning (most chicken poop occurs while the chickens sleep on the roost>


Some notes on how the chickens feel about their coop:
- Although they have a large amount of roost space, they all bunch up in a corner and occupy about 1 foot of roost length. Perhaps when they are older they will want more space. They struggle nightly for the coveted interior spot next to the door.
- They ate and pooped on the grass until the run is bare dirt. This took less than two weeks.
- 1"x1/2" mesh is much too fine for the roost box cover: a lot of poop stays on rather than falling through


Eggs

 Of the original 5 chicks, two of them, Henny Penney and Guadelope, moved to a farm in Ashland (in southern Oregon). At the time, we were suspicious that Henny Penny was a rooster (later she proved her gender by laying eggs, which is hard to argue with).

The first egg was laid by Guadeloupe (probably), in Ashland, on August 27. Diana followed, on August 31. Diana and Henny Penny are a week older, so they should have started laying first, but witnesses saw Gualaloupe sitting in the nest box, rather than Henny Penny.

On September 5, in Ashland, we found two eggs. This is proof that Henny Penny is indeed a hen; there's no way Guadaloupe could lay two eggs in 6 hours.

By September 10, the Portland hens are laying three eggs a day.

The first eggs are kind of small but within a week or two, they get to a reasonable size. They are all slightly different colors and shapes. And all very delicious!



Links

   More Pictures of my Chickens


Here are links to some of my favorite chicken sites:

  Katy, my original chicken guru
  Breeds of Chickens

Links to chicken housing:
  Poultry club housing center
  Plans for a small hen house
  A Chicken Coop for City Gardens
  Chicken housing for purchase