Backyard Chickens for Beginners! | Caring for Egg Laying Hens the Easy Way!

whether you want them for eggs you just think  they're cute or your spouse is forcing you to   get them I'm going to show you everything you  need to know to take care of your backyard   chickens chickens realistically need three things  to thrive and that's food water and shelter the   main food that is going to be available to  most people is going to be a layer feed and   layer feed you can literally get it at Walmart  IFA Tractor Supply whatever is available to you we're using this IFA stuff right here it's  got a 16 protein which is exactly what you   need for your egg laying hen I really enjoy  layer feed and I honestly believe that it   should be a staple of your hens diet especially  if you're looking at egg laying hens it's going   to be fortified with calcium and it's going to  have all the probiotics and it's going to have   all the the protein everything your hen needs to  produce the eggs that layer feed is going to have   it for you but that's not the only thing that's  good for chickens you can also feed them table   scraps like any of your organic stuff that you  get from the kitchen let's say your fruits your   veggies all that kind of stuff you know you're  chopping your your food up you have all these   little extra pieces like the ends of your lettuce  ends of your celery and all these different things   your chickens are going to love those and it's  going to give them more nutrition and it's going   to be kind of a treat for them it's going to be  a snap my family we don't send really anything to   the landfill anymore all of our extra food goes  to these girls right here realistically there's   not a whole lot from your kitchen that you can't  give your Birds now we did a whole video on what   you can and can't give chickens and I'll put that  down in the description below but what chickens   also love are actual Chicken Treats the this  is grubterra this is by far the best chicken   and treat that I've ever used and this  is something that I get time after time   because my girls go crazy for it I don't know  if you can hear them over here they see the bag   you hear that they see the bag they know it's  coming and they're telling me they're telling   me hurry it up get it over here because they want  it grubterra is actually an affiliate of mine I   honestly absolutely love their product I'm gonna  put a link in the description for a discount code   of 10 this stuff is awesome there's also hundreds  of other different types and different brands of   all these different Chicken Treats get online go  do your research get on Amazon get on grubterra   get wherever you need to go and look up just  Chicken Treats and that way you're giving them   your table scraps you're giving them your treats  you're giving them their layer pellet you're   giving them kind of this combination of a whole  bunch of different things and that's what's going   to lead to the healthiest chicken another great  thing to do if you have the room and if you have   the property is to free range free-range eggs are  probably some of the best eggs you will ever have   the chickens are going to go out they're going to  go out in the field they're going to be eating the   grubs and the seeds and the grasses and all kinds  of different awesome little things that they're   forging around and finding and they're going to  be able to kind of get the nutrition they need   themselves so if you do have the option to either  free range them full-time or free range them hard   time you should definitely do that because it's  a really good Advantage it's a money saver it's   going to help you a lot if you don't have that  option like I said layer pellets are honestly a   really good way to go it's kind of a well-rounded  everything they need they're going to produce eggs   they're going to produce good eggs it's kind of  everything you need all wrapped up in one nice   neat little relatively cheap package but if you do  have your kitchen scraps you do have these other   things that you can kind of supplement with and  kind of give them that extra treat they're going   to love you for it next up is water eggs are made  up of roughly 74 water that means most of that egg   that you are eating and that you're trying to  get is water so what does that mean that means   the chickens need water constant access to fresh  water there's tons of different ways to kind of   make it so you don't have to go to The Coop  once twice a day to kind of give them water   you can get a bucket with these little nipples  on it and that's honestly what we use 90 of the   time and it's just these little nipples that you  can screw into your buckets or into a PVC pipe or   rain barrel or honestly anything and the nipples  we use are my favorite ones because they have a   back screw on it a lot of the other ones don't  have the back screw so this one you can really   tighten it down from both sides I'll put a link  for it in the description and we also did a video   on how we built that I'll put that down there as  well there's a lot of stuff in the description   today because I'm not getting in depth on a lot  of this stuff because I already have videos that   are really in-depth on each one of these things  separately with this bucket of water that we have   we fill it up probably once every three days it  does get a little bit warm so what we do to kind   of supplement that to give them some really just  good fresh water is we have a just water dish out   in the run and we go out there and we fill it up  once a day just give them that really just kind   of fresh cold nice water so they have some good  fresh water out in the run and they also have   that whole bucket of water in their Coop fresh  water super important next up is shelter you   need a chicken coop to put your chickens in and to  keep them safe this is the setup we have this is   a lifetime shed that we converted into a chicken  coop and this has worked really well for us it's   big it keeps all the chickens happy it gives them  this nice little mansion that they get to live in   other things they that you do need in your chicken  coop that are extremely important and you can't do   without you need roosting bars and roosting bars  can come in the form of a ladder like this it can   come in the form of just screwing pieces of wood  across you know corners of your Coop there's a   lot of different videos on YouTube we've got some  videos as well as other channels have really good   videos on how to build some awesome roasting  bars make sure that your Coop has a good set   of roosting bars for the amount of chickens that  you have the next thing you need in your chicken   coop are nesting boxes these are just literally  these are just totes that we got from Walmart   they also have a bunch of different ones on Amazon  as well that are the exact same thing but these   have worked really well for us you can also get  nesting boxes that are made for chickens that   are actual nesting boxes you can build your own  nesting boxes you can DIY whatever you need to do   just make sure you have some nesting boxes in your  chicken coop to give your hens a nice cozy place   to go in and lay their eggs because really that's  why we're doing this right we want we want them to   lay eggs and you want to give them a comfortable  place to do that we touched on the water and the   food a little bit but this is how they're set  up in our Coop we have our food right here the   they can come down here and just kind of Peck the  food out of the holes and then we have the water   with the nipples right here so they can come over  and get their water those are the main components   you need for a chicken coop maintenance and upkeep  on keeping your chicken coop clean it's not nearly   as bad as you think it would be what'd you say  to me we use we use What's called the deep litter   method this is where you put a small layer of your  bedding into your Coop oh there's so many feathers   this is where to get started you put a small  layer of bedding in your Coop the chickens are   going to poop on it you put more bedding chickens  are gonna poop on it you put more bedding any   layer like that after about six months you pull  all that bedding out and you put it into your   compost pile and then you use that bedding over  in your garden now I'm not going in depth on the   deep litter method I don't have a video for this  one so there will not be one in the description so   here in about the next month or so we're going to  clean this out we're going to do a video on it so   if you go ahead and go down and hit that subscribe  button you'll be able to catch that video when it   comes out the next thing you need kind of attached  to your chicken coop is going to be a chicken run   our chicken run we just built them out of two  by fours it was just super DIY we connected it   to a shed this whole thing is DIY it keeps them  safe and kind of confined during the day a lot of   people will put a automatic door or you know door  they can open and close on their chicken coop and   they let their chickens free range during the  day some people can get away without a chicken   run because they free range their chickens  they have plenty of space to frolic and Skip   and prints all through the fields and just have a  jolly old time there are a lot of different price   ranges of chicken coops you can go for like a b  beginner just like kit Coop like a prefabricated   Coupe and those will run at the very least 200 and  they go all the way up to thousands of dollars in   my opinion prefabricated Coupes are going to be  for somebody in their first year of chickens and   they're really just kind of Dipping their toes  in and they want to see if it's right for them   anything after that a prefabricated just one of  those little kit Coupes it's honestly not going   to be in your best interest to get one if at all  possible build a DIY Coupe I'm not a very handy   person so I took a shed that was already built and  I turned it into a chicken coop I hate that I keep   saying this but I have a video on that too I will  put it in the description of how we we built our   uh our Coop shed thing there's also companies that  will build a chicken coop for you there's a lot of   different options and different things you can  look into with the chicken coop is going to come   the safety aspect everything that walks is going  to want to eat your chickens they are the bottom   of the food chain more or less I mean except for  bugs I guess they eat bugs everything wants to eat   your chickens you're looking at skunks the cougar  that lives in my house snakes raccoons all kinds   of different Hawks all kinds of different Critters  are going to want to eat your chickens so you   really need to Predator proof your Coop there's a  ton of different ways to do this especially with   your chicken run this is going to be the the main  place you need to Predator proof and the reason   for that is animals can dig underneath the fence  of your chicken run so you want to make sure that   you're digging the fence down into the ground  or you're putting cinder blocks down underneath   the ground you can also put like a skirt at the  bottom of your chicken run that will make it so   animals can't dig under it or you can put a bottom  into your chicken run either way you want to make   sure nothing can dig down and into your chicken  run and that is probably the most important part   as well as fencing on the top of your chicken  run because Hawks and any kind of bird of prey   are going to want to prey on your chicken so  make sure that you keep them safe you secure   your chicken run as far as the chicken coop goes  most chicken coops are going to come pretty well   predator-proofed the most you might need to do  is make sure that your door is closed every night   whether it be an automatic door or you come out  here and actually close it yourself you want to   make sure that your chicken coop is completely  closed off at night because at night is when a   lot of these predators are gonna be coming out a  lot of your chunks and your raccoons at least for   us those are the two main ones we need to worry  about here this one is important because I feel   like it's I feel like there's a misconception here  backyard chickens for 95 percent of people are   going to be more expensive than the eggs you're  getting at the store so if you're wanting chickens   to save money on eggs this might be something you  want to rethink and I'm not trying to talk you out   of it because I really do think that you should  get chickens because they're great but I don't   want you to go into this with the expectation that  it's going to be cheaper than getting eggs from   the store because it's not especially now the  eggs have gone back down raising these things   from these tiny little fluff balls you are turning  them into adult birds you are getting food in the   form of eggs in your own backyard there's nothing  better than that there's honestly a whole lot of   things you should consider before you get your  chickens and you can find all of those in this   video right here in this video I gain about 40  pounds and I talk about everything you need to   consider before you get your chicken so go watch  that video right there and I will see you there