Things To Know When Starting A Flock

Before you start a flock or decide to grow your flock, there are five major things to consider first. Taking these five things into consideration will ensure that your chickens are healthy and that your ladies produce the most eggs or your meat birds grow to their biggest potential.

Selecting the right breed of chicken

Do you want chickens that lay lots of eggs, chickens that look cool, or meat birds? Once you have decided what kind of chickens you want, then it’s time to pick the breed. This list of chickens for egg-laying, cool birds, and meat birds are excellent choices for Utah.

Egg Layers

These birds are great birds for laying eggs in the cold and hot Utah climate.

Australorp, Silkie, Plymouth Rock, Cochin, Rhode Island Red, Welsummer, Wyandotte, Buff Orpington

Cool Birds

These birds may not be the best egg layers or the best in the winter, but they will add a little extra to your flock.

Ameraucana, Cochin, Silkie, Golden Sebright, Silver Sebright, Silver Laced Polish, White Crested Black Polish

Meat Birds

These birds have a significant growth rate and will provide you with meat in no time.

White cornish cross, Red Ranger, Turken, Bresse, Barred Plymouth Rock

Decide how many chickens you will need

This all depends on how many eggs you want a week. Chickens like to be in flocks so try and have at least three chickens. Hens on average will lay about two eggs every three days on average. But you will want to look at each breed you chose and decide how many you will need.

For example, let’s say I want to have 12 eggs a week, I could have one Rhode Island Red(laying around six eggs a week), one Wyandotte(laying around four eggs a week, and one Welsummer(laying around four eggs a week) that would give me about 14 eggs a week.

Setup for your new chicks

Before you pick up your chicks, make them a brooder. You can use anything you want as a brood. Just make sure it’s 24 inches tall and has one square foot per chick.

Things you will need to put into your brooder. Wood shavings for bedding one to two inches of shavings. A waterer and a feeder at the end of the brooder. In their water, you will want to add electrolytes to keep them hydrated and probiotics to help build healthy digestive function. On the other end put a heat lamp, placing heat lamp 12-36 inches from the bottom.

At six weeks old, it’s time to transfer your chicks into the coop.

Chicken coop and run setup

These things will make your coop a coop your chickens want to be in, and they will thank you by laying eggs. When it comes to the coop, have 3-4 sq. ft. per chicken. When you build your run, have ten sq. ft. per chicken.

Nesting Boxes

Have one nesting box away from the perch, in a dark place, with wood shavings or straw for nesting. Have one nesting box for every four chickens.

Roosting Perch

When building your perch, use wood; a 2×4 on its edge works excellent. Chickens will seek the highest place to perch, so make perch higher than the nesting boxes.

Air Flow

Your coop needs to have airflow to keep ammonia out of the coop. Ammonia is released from fresh or moist chicken poop and can be bad for your chickens’ health. Keep your vents high in the coop to prevent a draft in the coop.

Food and Water

Keep your chicken’s food and water inside the coop; this will help keep water and food clean. Place food and water away from the nesting boxes; this will prevent them from pooping in the boxes.

The Run

Build your run have ten sq. ft. per chicken. Have some places for your chickens to roost when they are in the run.

Feeding your chickens

You have your chicks and you are going to want them to produce as many eggs as possible or grow as big as they can for meat. That all starts with feeding and watering your chickens.

When it comes to watering is simple, make sure they have fresh clean water at all times.

It’s easy and difficult when it comes to feeding because you can’t just feed your chickens any chicken feed and expect results. But easy because Bear River Valley Coop offers excellent feed that will help your chickens lay lots of eggs and help your birds grow healthy and strong. Nutreana poultry feed will provide the perfect combination of nutrients for your chickens.

These feeds at Bear River Valley Coop from Nutrena will provide your chicken with what they need.

Chick Starter Grower Medicated, NatureWise Hearty Hen, All Flock, Crumble Feed, Feather Fixer Poultry Feed, Layer 16% Feed Pellet, NatureWise Meatbird Feed, Gamebird Feed Nutrena, Country Feeds Scratch Grains