Working up plans for about 4 chickens for our backyard next spring.

Lots of useful info in the tacked thread but curious what folks are doing with limited space.

I can't decide if I want to do a stationary coop, a tractor, or the old "get both"

I'm on a standard 1/4 acre fenced in suburban lot.  

Anyone else raising chickens in suburbia?  Any advice?

Not in suburbia, but if you're willing to contain the chickens in as little as 100 sq ft I would just do that instead of the chicken tractor.  Chicken tractors are good in theory, but the moving them around is often strenuous or at least annoying, and is therefore skipped to often leading to big nasty dead patches in your yard and chickens contained to too small of an area that is fairly unhealthy for them.  You're better off doing a traditional run, even if it has to be a small one, and keeping them entertained in there with garden scraps or lawn clippings or whatever.  

I just built a tractor. Then I realized it wouldn't be too nice for them to get blasted by the lawn sprinklers. So in the summer I move it between two or three spots off the lawn. In winter I'll move it around the lawn.

If I hadn't built a tractor, the coop would have been a lot simpler and cheaper to build.

Have you had chickens before?  They're noisy and likely to piss off your neighbors, particularly when they're laying.

Yes I grew up with chickens.  The noise won't be an issue with my neighbors and I've already spoken with them about it.


I'm leaning towards a larger traditional coop.
I might end up building a very small A frame tractor to tote around the yard just to supplement their food a bit.

Probably just 4

You will not need a big coop with four birds.

How many eggs can you get from 4 birds and do you have to watch them every day or can you leave them be for a week at a time? (Yes, I travel a lot for work, hence the stupid question. Thank you!)

In theory, 100% production is 1 egg/day per bird. That is ideal, sometimes you can go OVER 100%, especially in peak season.

 

Eggs are fine without refrigeration IF YOU DON'T WASH IT for a few weeks. Check eggs that are questionable by the "glass of water" method before use.

This is what I built for suburban chickens.  It holds four.

Yeah, about that "theory." Here is reality - The first year, assuming you start your flock from chicks (versus buying pullets or adult chickens) sometime in the early Spring, you won't see any eggs until the chicks mature and reach the egg laying stage, which is typically mid Fall. Even then they will be pullet eggs for a quarter or two. At about the first year mark your girls will hit their stride and be laying full-sized eggs and you very well may get close to one egg per chicken per day. But egg production is mostly a factor of how much light a chicken gets, and as I recall to maximize egg production they need ~16 hours of light per day.





If you don't provide artificial light your chickens won't maximize egg production (i.e. one egg/chicken/day) until closer to summer when the days are longer and lighter for longer. And once summer ends and the days shorten, egg production will lessen (again, unless you are providing artificial light). You might now only see about a 75% production rate. Shifting into year two you will start to see a slight natural decline in egg production as the chickens age. As each subsequent year passes this decline becomes more pronounced. By the end of the second year your peak egg production during summer will drop to around 75%. Then in the fall it will drop further to maybe 50%/day.





While chickens can lay eggs for many years, most peak between years two and three, and then production drops off after that. This is accelerated greatly if you provide artificial light and you can "burn out" your chickens easily in two years. It's why you rarely see older (as in 3 years old or more) chickens in large scale commercial egg farms. I currently have twelve chickens on my 8 acre hobby farm, four are about 30 months old and the other eight are 16 months old, and I get 7 eggs per day. I expect this to drop to around 4-5 per day this fall/winter when there is less light (I don't provide artificial light).  





The other considerations for backyard chickens in the suburbs is destruction of your lawn and poop. Chickens poop, a lot, and everywhere. And while it's great fertilizer for your lawn it's not fun to step on and unlike dog poop, I can't imagine trying to scoop it up. Also, chickens like to scratch and will make short work of your lawn. Oh, and if your wife has some pretty flowers or a small veggie garden, well, have fun trying to keep the chickens out.





Lastly, since chicken egg production drops off significantly after around three years what is your plan for your flock after that? Keep them as pets? Drive them out to the country and let them run free so you can buy new chicks at the feed store? Behead them and make them into stew (don't try and eat layers unless you make them into stew, trust me on this)?



Anyway, not trying to sound like a wet blanket but this is some of the stuff suburbanites don't consider when they read an editorial some hipster wrote in Better Homes and Garden about having chickens in suburbia.





 

With 4 birds, assuming no artificial lighting, I would plan on 75% production year 1 and 2 during the summer (your estimate of 20-24/week), then 50% during the fall/winter/spring (14/week). Then year 3 and 4 I would plan on that dropping to 50% during the summer (14/week), and 25% during the fall/winter/spring (7/week). These are estimates, of course, and its not an exact science.

Excellent points, thanks for the write up and elaboration, may comment more when not on phone



 

Just to clarify guys, I'm a farm boy.  It's the suburbia shit that's new to me.  I'm not some yuppie that saw a cool idea on pinterest.  I just haven't given a lot of thought to chickens on such a small scale.

I'm wanting to do this for the eggs (obviously) and the composted poo.  It's me, my wife and our 9 month old boy, 4 hens should be more than enough when they are in full production.  We aren't going to run a retirement home, will probably just turn them into dog food once they have outlived their usefulness.

Just do a stationary coop and be done with it. The whole "chicken tractor" thing sounds great in theory but they are annoying to build and definitely a pain in the ass to always be moving around. I do a "tractor" method with my meat birds and if I don't move it frequently enough you'll get bald spots in the yard or spots completely covered in shit that will kill the remaining grass. Chickens honestly don't need a ton of space per bird. If I were you I'd build a coop with an attached run and figure high on the "recommended square feet per bird," just to allow for chicken math. Chicken math happens to everyone. You start with 4 chickens and end up with 6, 8, 10+. Get high production breeds like Barred Rocks, Rhode Island Reds, etc. that will lay you the most eggs for the least amount of feed. When I started off I bought some of the "fancy, funny" breeds like Cochins, etc. and they aren't worth a shit. Not sure about your whether but if you get major cold make sure to get hardy breeds that can tough out the cold.

buk buk buk buk bukaw! Buk buk buk buk bukaw!

Impressive work, do you have plans you'd be willing to share?

That is really nice. Do you let them out at all to forage?

 

Unfortunately, I don't have plans.  I just made a rough sketch, and started building, figuring out the details as I went along.

I let them out while supervised once a day.  I have a big predator problem around here - the type you can't shoot.  There is an osprey nest less than 1/4 mile away, a bald eagle nest 1/2 mile away, and numerous hawks in the area.  I actually had a hawk attack two years ago while I was standing 20 feet away.  So, the chickens don't come out unless I am out.  I chose breeds for that scenario, who are good with confinement.  

So I knew a couple who were really into organic gardening and such. They made an 8x10 tractor and had a garden that was roughly 24'x20'.

They would rotate the six spots over the course of the year (it was FL, so two growing seasons). The girls seemed to like it. I think they had 4 or so.



Mine just kind of free ranged.

Never a peep from my hens, but I'm not in town.  5 years now, never considered them noisy (roosters are loud).

All of this, read it.  I keep just a few birds around, not enough to destroy everything, but the eggs are welcome. Even a tractor in suburbia with 2-4 birds will have your property looking like the face of the moon in no time.  If you have dogs, they will eat the chicken crap and get diarrhea.

I went with two Barred Rock and two Gold Sex Links.  I am about to re-chicken, and will be keeping one Barred Rock, and adding a Buff Orpington and two Welsummer.  

After having chickens for five years, I have decided that I want to always have one of a type that will go broody for when I want to re-chicken.  It is so much easier to stick chicks under a broody hen and have her raise them, rather than raise new chicks in the house, and have to mess around with introducing them to an existing flock.

Google "Wichita Cabin Coop"...it is very similar

As far as noisy hens go I picked up a Rhode Island Red and 3 Gold Buffs yesterday...the RIR is going back today for another Buff.  The stupid thing thinks it's a freaking rooster or something with all the noise it's making this morning.  Haven't heard a peep out the the buffs.

LOL, funny you mention this :) Our RIR is the same way, and some friends got one this summer that they thought was a rooster... they're def. the most loud out of the ones we have.



But I think all of our definitions of "loud" are ifferent.  We have a rooster and he doesn't wake us up even and he has a straight shot to our bedroom window / back of house.  I think it's about 150' away.



The only time I can hear a hen is if they are all going off in panic mode, and that's if I pay attention with the door open.  Door closed nope, TV on nope, people talking nope.



Now Guinea Fowl on the other hand... they sometimes sleep tell 8AM in their tree other times its 6AM and then they walk 10' from your bedroom window and sound the alarm... LOL!!  Other than when they get that close I don't mind them, in fact they follow me around for treats and sometimes call back if I mock them, the chickens just look at me freaked out LOL.
 

We had a RIR that did the same thing last month. Took her back and got one that was less crazy and have had zero problems