How To Start Keeping Poultry 1

Chickens, as I'm very fond of saying, are the easiest bit of self-sufficiency that you'll ever do. A house, a couple of bits of kit, and the birds... and you're off, with eggs so full of flavour a strong man would weep (mind you, it depends what you do with them). But just what do you need to get started?

Space is rarely a problem even in the tiniest of yards, but you do need to know what you're getting into. Laying hens need to be visited three times a day; once for letting out, once for putting in, and once for egg collecting (if you're wise). It's quite possible for the canny keeper to set things up so that the birds can be left unattended for a day or two, but for trips of longer than a weekend you'll need someone to stop by for those three daily visits - not usually a problem if you add the magic phrase "and do help yourself to as many eggs as you want".

Let's start with the birds. Chickens come in all shapes and sizes, from hulking great Brahmas down to ridiculous little silkies. Which type to choose depends on your attitude to the laying process, and it's worthwhile doing a little reading when you find out what's available locally. For my first flock I went for a heavy, hardy bird - barred plymouth rock / rhode island red hybrids, which were excellent but laid such large eggs that we had to factor the size into cake recipes! Here are a few suggestions for starting birds.

ISA browns are usually easy to get and are good first-timers, being good layers and not all that fond of flying. A light-bodied bird, so not suitable for eating. Up to 300 medium eggs per year.

Rhode Island Reds are tough and resistant to illness, and are usually docile, quiet and friendly. Good free range birds, heavy enough for meat, and 275 large eggs per year.

Silkie bantams are tough enough to free range despite looking like someone has sneezed in a hat shop. They like to sit on eggs (making them handy incubators) and are extremely docile and friendly. They lay about 150 tiny eggs a year.

As you read descriptions of various breeds, you might be forgiven for wondering why everything hasn't been bred to lay as heavily as the ISA browns and RIRs above; the answer is that the more heavily a bird lays, the shorter its useful life. You have to decide what your attitude to laying is. On one hand you might choose White Leghorns and install a booster light into the house to extend "winter daylight" hours and squeeze out every last egg for a year or two; on the other you might prefer to have Cuckoo Marans laying only around 180 chocolate-brown eggs, but laying tolerably well into their fourth year. My personal take on the booster light issue is to have enough birds to keep us ticking over for eggs in the winter without light, and providing surplus for sale in the summer - which means getting about twice as many birds as our minimum eggs-per-day figure; in our case, three or four birds is enough. By the way, you don't need a rooster for your birds to lay - only if you want the eggs fertilized!

Next time - sorting out a chicken house.

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