Ok! That's great! Now you
have a chicken coop, but what's
a chicken coop without chickens? This sounds like an absurd
question, but it's one we're asked all the time!
If you live in a semi-rural area, there are many sources of
chickens. If you don't know of one, ask a knowledgeable
person at your local farm coop store or your university
agricultural extension branch.
However, if you live in suburbia or even a big city, finding
chickens to put in your coop could be more challenging. It
is beyond the scope of this site to provide a lot of
information on chickens. We sell chicken coops, not
chickens. However, there is a wealth of information online
these days.
We recommend
getting your chickens locally as then you will have a good
local source of knowledge. You can also purchase chickens
(chicks) online from dozens of hatcheries who will ship them
to you via FedEx or USPS. Please call us if you have
specific questions. We'll do our best to answer them or
direct you to the right source!
Important Note: Be
sure the check with your local government and/or homeowners'
association to see if it's legal to raise chickens in your
backyard. Many local governments restrict raising chickens
to land that it zoned agricultural. There are also homeowner
associations that prohibit you owning and raising livestock
(including chickens) on your property.
However, there is a growing trend in America to allow
chickens to be raised in areas that used to prohibit this
practice. In more and more large cities, it is being
permitted and people are raising chickens and gathering eggs
on the roof top of a high rise building!
How many chickens do I need? If just
depends on how many eggs you want! Different breeds produce
different number of eggs. Breeds such as the Leghorn (as
pictured above) will lay an egg most every day! So, if you
have 6 Leghorns and each produce an average of 5 eggs per
week, that will give you about 2½ dozen
eggs per week! Our
Mini 2
Coop would be ideal for this type of egg production.
Do I need a rooster? No, chickens will lay
eggs that are unfertilized without the service of a rooster.
These eggs will not hatch and not produce chicks as they are
unfertilized eggs.
Here's one link to a very informative webpage by Ithaca
College called Henderson's Handy Dandy Chicken Chart.
Link
