Backyard Chickens
Having chickens in our backyard was a long time dream of ours. When we first moved out of the city, one the thing we were looking for was a town that allowed backyard chickens. And you would be surprised how may suburban neighborhoods and cities allow chickens. I am pretty sure we are the only people that I know in our neighborhood, maybe even our city, with chickens. But if you are thinking about chickens, wishing for a farm or wanting to keep chickens, you might be able to accomplish that dream without moving. Look into your local codes and and city ordinance, you might be surprised what you learn.
We have been keeping chickens in our back yard for about 4 years now. We have learned a few things along the way and made some upgrades to our coop and systems. I am going to highlight a few products and upgrades that I feel have made the biggest difference for us.
Automatic water and feed
Having an automatic water and feed system in place allows you more freedom. We do put out a dish of fresh water for our chickens, but if we happen to be out of town or another hen knocks dirt or bedding into the dish, it is not a big deal because we have a clean, sealed automatic system in place. We have a 50 lb feeder and this 12 gallon waterer in our covered run. Now the girls have food and water inside the coop, and as I said more water outside the run, but if all else fails, we have these 2 systems in place. The 50 lb feeder holds a full bag of feed. We really like the OverEZ Hanging Chicken waterer and OverEZ Chicken Feeder However, there are many brands out there that work in the same way.
2. An Automatic Coop Door
When we first got chickens, we would get up in the morning and open the coop door to let them out and then at night, after they went to bed, we would go out and shut the door. This is totally fine and is a good time to check on your chickens. It is also really cute to watch them strut down out of the coop in the morning. However, it means that if you get home late or are out of town, or heck, if you want to sleep in, the chickens are stuck inside. If you haven’t shut them in, you are leaving them vulnerable to predators. So for us an automatic door was really a must for long time chicken parenting. We still check on the girls everyday and let them in and out of the outdoor run but this way they can get up nice and early with the sun and we can have some coffee before venturing outside:) This door has sensors to make sure the chickens don’t get crushed and are programable to open and close with sunrise and sun set. We have been very happy with it.
3. Hardware Cloth
Now this may seem silly but we recently upgraded our covered run and fences for our outdoor run with hardware cloth over just chicken wire. It is more robust and will last much longer than chicken wire. It is also a lot less likely to be susceptible to predators breaking in than just chicken wire.
4. A Coop Camera
This is not a necessity, but we really like having a coop camera. Especially when we are out of town. It lets us check on the chickens and make sure everything looks like it should. Also it can be nice to see that they have gone to bed, or make sure the coop door has shut, etc.
There are a variety of other feeders and products I will list below. There were some things I did buy when we had our chicks in the brooder inside the house that I will list as well a couple other options for waterers and feeders that we use inside the coop.
For our Chick Brooder these are the products that we loved and would recommend:
Chick Brooder- We like the radiant heat one from Brinsea and I highly recommend it. It worked well, has adjustable heights and will be super easy to store for the next time we want to incorporate new chicks into our flock.
Chick Waterer- I bought a small cage waterer by Rentacoop. This 1 gallon waterer fit well in our brooder. It keeps the water clean and holds plenty of water so they will not run out. They also can not spill this water and no risk for drowning.
Chick Feeder- I bought the Lixit Baby Waterer. This one doubles as a feeder on one side or waterer on the other. I used it for both so 2 for one sounds like a good deal to me. Just don’t put it in the dishwasher… mine is a little misshapen now.
Hopefully this was helpful for anyone who is thinking about getting chickens or already has a few and wants to upgrade their set up. I will link a few videos I made about our chicks and our coop/run set up below.
