Keep Chickens!: Tending Small Flocks in Cities, Suburbs and Other Small Spaces (7 page)

Cock.
An adult male chicken at least one year old. More commonly called a
rooster
. Keeping roosters within city limits is usually not permitted.

Cockerel.
A juvenile male chicken less than one year old.

Flock.
A group of three or more chickens. Most municipal codes permit at least three chickens to be kept per residence.

Hen.
An adult female chicken at least one year old.

Pullet.
A juvenile female chicken less than one year old. A chick is considered a pullet when most of its feathers have come in and it’s about the size of a husky park pigeon.

Sexing.
The act and the art of determining chick gender. The sexing of baby chicks is 90 to 95 percent accurate. Sexing chickens is a highly specialized vocation whose practitioners are steadily diminishing.

Poultry Tribune,
circa 1940.

Bantam.
A small variety of chickens weighing 2 to 4 pounds (0.9–1.8 kg). Most bantams are miniatures of standard breeds, although there are a few
true bantam
breeds (e.g., the Silkie and the Japanese bantams), meaning there is no standard breed equivalent. Also referred to as
banties
.

Comb.
The reddish, skinlike “hat” or crown atop a chicken’s head.

Dual purpose.
Chickens raised for both meat and egg production. Dual-purpose breeds tend to have calmer dispositions than strictly egg-laying or meat producing chickens do. They lay brown eggs, except for the English Dorking, which lays white eggs.

Oviduct.
The reproductive channel down which eggs descend to the vent.

Shank.
A chicken’s leg between the thigh and the foot; comparable to the human shin.

Standard.
Larger chickens that are medium to heavy weight. Chickens of standard breeds weigh anywhere from 5 to 14 pounds (2.3–6.4 kg).

Vent.
The chicken’s bottom end, from which eggs and waste descend.

Wattles.
Those red, fleshy, dangling muttonchops on either side of a chicken’s beak.

Basic chicken anatomy

Chicken run.
An outdoor area within the coop that provides a protected place for chickens to freely wander about; the equivalent of a dog run.

Coop.
An enclosed area for chicken habitation that contains a chicken run and a henhouse.

Feed.
Chicken chow. There are different formulated feeds for chicks, pullets, and hens. Chick food can be medicated to prevent possible disease. Pullet food helps chickens grow and put on weight. Hen feed, also called
laying feed,
contains calcium for strong eggshells. Never feed hen food to chicks — the jolt of calcium in younger fowl can damage their kidneys. Start giving laying feed to pullets when they are around four to five months old, right before they begin to lay eggs.

Henhouse.
A shed or other small structure located within the coop where chickens sleep (roost) and lay eggs; the equivalent of a doghouse.

Nest box.
A cozy, private cubicle in the henhouse where hens lay their eggs.

Perch.
A small ledge affixed to an interior wall in the henhouse that hens roost (sleep) on. Hens like to sleep about 2 to 3 feet (60–90 cm) off the ground.

Scratch.
The chicken equivalent of a snack. It’s a mix of grains and cracked corn. Give it to your birds in addition to, and not instead of, fortified, enriched hen or pullet feed.

Brood.
A hen sitting on her eggs to try to hatch them.

Dirt bath.
Chickens’ instinctive act of cleansing away and killing mites or parasites by digging a shallow hole, lying in it, and kicking up dirt onto their entire bodies. After a dirt bath, some chickens lie motionless and appear dead — they are relaxing after their satisfying “spa” treatment.

Lay.
To produce an egg.

Pecking order.
Social ranking of hens established naturally within the flock.

Preen.
To run the beak through the feathers to clean and arrange them.

Roost
. A chicken sitting on a perch to sleep at night.

Poultry Tribune,
circa 1940.

Over the years, I’ve been asked all kinds of questions about keeping chickens in the backyard. While some questions are . . . well . . . unique, to put it mildly — Question: Can I walk my chicken on a leash in the park? Answer: Only if you want to attract a pack of wild dogs — most folks seek more ordinary information. The following are some of the most commonly asked questions about chickens and keeping them in the city.

Do I need a rooster for my chicken to lay eggs?

No. Pullets and hens lay eggs without a rooster. A hen’s natural plan is to release several hundred eggs during its lifetime. You need a rooster only if you want the eggs fertilized for the purpose of having chicks. Nearly all cities have ordinances against keeping roosters, because they are noisy. Contrary to popular belief, roosters don’t crow just at sunrise — they crow all day long, frequently and loudly.

How long do chickens live?

Depending on several factors — including your chickens’ health, diet, and heredity — the average life span of a happy hen is eight to ten years. Chickens have been known to live up to twenty years, though this is an exception.

When do chickens start to lay eggs?

When they are about five months old. I’ve had hens start laying as early as four months and as late as six months of age.

How long will a chicken lay eggs?

A hen’s first two years are her most productive; she will lay nearly every day. Thereafter, egg laying slows down each year. We’ve had hens that laid eggs until they were 12 years old, albeit one per week. And I’ve read of a chicken (a Rhode Island Red) that laid into her seventeenth year! Most hens will keep on laying until their old age and demise, although they won’t produce as many eggs as in their youth.

What do you do with a chicken that no longer lays?

Old hens just don’t lay as much as young hens. That’s okay, because your hens are family pets, not objectified egg-laying machines. Your hen’s gradually (and naturally) diminishing egg-laying capabilities are no reason to expel her from her flock and your home. As with all pets, you have a responsibility to keep and nurture your hens until their natural demise. If you don’t think you can commit to your chickens through times of many and scarcely laid eggs, then don’t get a flock.

When your senior chicken does finally expire, you can get another chicken or chick. Raise the chick separately from any remaining adult chickens in the original flock. Gradually, and with supervision, introduce pullets into the adult flock. Chickens are social birds and need to warm up to new flock members.

In the event that your love for your chickens was superficially related to the amount of eggs they laid and you don’t want to keep your nonlaying hens, you have a few choices.

Your first choice is to eat your chicken. It’s not a choice that everyone would make, but if you don’t mind, then why not? This way, you don’t subject others to your unwanted chickens. Although I don’t think I could eat a chicken that I’ve named and that has been following me around the yard for years, chicken farmers and others who raise large numbers of (unnamed) hens butcher and stew their chickens once the best of their egg-laying days are over. Stewing is the only way to cook an old chicken. Chickens over the age of one or two years don’t provide the tenderest meat. Chickens raised for meat, like broilers — yes, they really are called that — are killed for meat when they are only six to eight weeks old. There really is something to the saying about “tough old birds.”

If you don’t want to keep your senior chickens but don’t want to eat them either, put an ad in the paper offering them to a personal party or a petting zoo. There is always a chicken lover out there who may be able to squeeze another beak into a henhouse or flock.

Do not ever
dump your chickens in the woods, in the park, or at veterinarians’ offices. Not only is this irresponsible, but it also is cruel to the helpless birds. Your chickens, like all household pets, deserve better.

Poultry Tribune,
circa 1940.

What do chickens eat?

Chickens eat chicken feed, which is available at feed stores. Chicks and pullets that are not yet laying eggs should be given nonlaying feed; hens that are laying should be given laying feed. The difference between the two is that laying feed contains calcium, which is necessary for strong eggshells. Nonlaying feed does not contain calcium, because it can harm the kidneys of immature chickens. When pullets are ready to begin laying eggs, they graduate from nonlaying to laying feed. Chickens also eat
grit
, gravel or small stones that aid in the digestion of food.

In addition to the formulated chicken feed and grit, chickens love to eat fresh fruits and vegetables, like apples, melon, grapes, lettuce, tomatoes, corn, and spinach, and breads and pastas. My hens are crazy about cottage cheese; a spoonful (low salt or unsalted) lures them into the coop every time! Not only has our household food waste diminished to zero, but all the good food that goes into the chickens makes the eggs sweeter.

While you can give your hens vegetable leftovers and discards (like the outside leaves of a lettuce head), do not ever give them spoiled food. Also avoid giving your chickens any food that might add strong odors or flavors to their eggs, like cabbage or garlic.

For a complete roundup of chicken nutrition, see
chapter 7
.

Do chickens have teeth?