Raising Backyard Chickens

Raising backyard chickens is an enriching adventure. I still remember walking out to the backyard and finding my first egg! I am pretty sure I texted everyone on my contact list to show them.

I get questions about my chickens and eggs all the time. I am by no means a chicken expert, and there are as many opinions on raising chickens as there are on raising children, but I would like to offer some advice or, at the very least, a place for you to start. In this post I will share my personal opinions, but please make sure you research ALL of your options.

1. Can You Legally Have Backyard Chickens?

First things first, can you own chickens? Not every county, city, HOA, state ect. have the same rules. Look up/call your county helpline and ensure it is legally an option for you in your current location. Just because you live in a neighborhood doesn't mean you cannot have a small flock! We live in a neighborhood, but our county has no rules against us having backyard chickens.

Nothing would be worse than doing all your research, building your coop, bringing home those fluffy birds, and then having to get rid of them before you reap the rewards of that labor. If you live in a neighborhood, double-check with your HOA if you have one. Some allow Coops within specific parameters.

2. DO YOUR RESEARCH!

It makes me cringe how often I talk to other chicken owners, and they don't know what chickens they have bought. I don't blame anyone for getting over-excited and buying the cutest baby chicks they see! I completely understand that urge! For my husband and I, we have limited space.

When it comes to our flock, we needed it to be more functional than cute. My friend, the sweetest friend ever, wanted backyard eggs, so they bought chickens but did not know what kind of chickens they had. When I found this out, all I could think was, what if you got a Dorking? (Dorkings lay about 140 eggs a year) now I know where they purchased their chickens, and I have never seen Dorkings, but you should know what you’re buying. My friend isn't the only one, either. I hear it from others too often!

So please do your research. You can start with:

Benefits of free-range vs fencing them in?

Which breeds are suited for my climate?

Does your yard get enough sunshine?

How much space do you have?

Do you want meat birds or egg layers?

Are you more concerned about eggs and meat or about a how the chickens appearance?

Which breeds are best for meat/eggs/both?

All of these questions should be answered before you purchase your chickens. Know which birds you want before purchasing, but leave room for a cute one or two! I cannot resist Americauna’s cute little hawk face and beard!

3. Why Do You Want Chickens?

Meat, eggs, or both. Meat birds, like Cornish hens, are raised for a short amount of time and processed. They are bred to have larger breasts, and if kept longer than the recommended 5-8 weeks, they are likely to break their legs or have heart attacks. They are also not easy to breed and do not lay many eggs, if any.

Egg layers are probably the more popular option. Egg layers are not very meaty birds, but they produce a more significant number of eggs per year; for example, ISA chickens lay around 300+ eggs per, but you wouldn’t get much meat if you decided to eat one. They stay relatively small but steadily produce eggs for you and your family. There are also dual-purpose chickens, like Rhode Island Reds, that lay a good number of eggs 150 - 260, and they get relatively large 6-8 pounds and make a decent-sized dinner when fully grown.

Personally, We keep a mix of egg producers and dual-purpose chickens. We have ISAs our only sole purpose breed; they are THE best egg producers in my opinion, they have an even temperament and do well in confinement. We also have Barred Rocks, Rhode Island Reds, and Black Sexlinks, they are very good egg layers, however they are considered a dual purpose chicken. They lay a good amount of eggs, but also grow meaty enough to have for dinner. All of our chickens are brown egg layers, which provide a wider variety of color than you would think, from pink to tan to brown; spotted and speckled; BUT I really wanted a special colored egg. In comes the Americaunas we purchased from Tractor supply; they do not lay well, but they are pretty to look at and lay blue hued eggs. There are many other options as far as shell color from white to chocolate! My husband and I lean toward ISAs, Barred Rocks, and Rhode Island reds. These are the breeds we cannot live without.

4. Pick a Spot for Your Chickens

If you go with a tractor-style coop, you can skip to #5. You want to pick a spot that gets a decent amount of sunshine year-round, if possible, but at least in the summer. Chickens require sunshine, around 12 - 16 hours, and a steady amount of food to produce eggs.

That is why they do not produce as many eggs in the winter because of the reduced hours of sunshine. You can use a heat lamp to keep them producing eggs during the winter, but some find it unethical. I do not find it unethical, I use the heat lamp to keep my hens warm on freezing nights, and I think they appreciate it.

How you handle winters is your call; I have not had a problem getting my ISAs to produce eggs throughout the winter with or without the lamp. My RIR doesn't do well lying in the winter with or without the lamp. If there is no natural shade in your chosen spot, you will need to create shade for your flock. We put the house on stilts so the chickens could get under the house for shade.

How much physical space you need for the coop greatly depends on how you plan on raising your flock. If you plan on only putting them in the house during bad weather and at night your coop will need 3-5 square feet of coop floor per chicken. So 3 chickens require 9 - 15 square feet of coop. If you are not going to pasture your chickens you also need to include a run. This requires around 7 square feet of run space per bird; so 3 hens would require around 21 square feet of space. All of this may sound like it is taking up a large area; and it certainly can if you want it to, but I will show you my coop in the next section and explain what we do.

5. Get A Chicken Coop

The back of our coop and a peeping Barred Rock hen.

There are a bajillion types of coops you can choose from. You can build a rolling one called a ‘tractor coop’, a coop with a garden border as the run, a raised coop, and that is just to name a few. We built ours, and by we, I mean my husband. He used ODF (coated in acrylic sealer), 2X4s, tin roofing, and chicken wire. He made a run for them using old picket fencing and pallet wood. We also extended the run using metal fence posts, chicken wire for the walls, and bird netting as roof. Our back yard is very wooded so we only needed to provide limited shading or cover from the rain. My husband raised the coop so they had some place, besides inside to escape the sun or weather.

My husband added the right side, the more vibrant looking ODF, when we added more hens to our flock. He made the roof removable for cleaning or collecting eggs. As much as we chicken owners like to pretend the hens will always use the nesting boxes….for my flock, and we have been through a few, this is NOT the case. They will lay where they feels safe so you want to have easy access to all portions of your coop and run.

I have seen people build a barn for the chickens, and I have seen PVC pipe and chicken wire coops. It all depends on the amount of room you have and the number of chickens you have. You need roughly 3 - 9 square feet per bird inside the coop and 7-9 square feet per bird outside the coop.

If you are making a DIY coop, it is important to remember you need floor or wall space for brooding boxes or nesting boxes. You will need roughly 1 nesting box per 3 hens. My flock 10 uses the same nesting box. The only time that varies is if 2 hens need to lay at a single time; even then I have seen them lie side by side in a 12 by 12 nesting box. However your hens may not be as keen on sharing as mine seem to be so plan on 1 nesting box for every 3 hens. I use these; found on Amazon.

If you free-range, you still need a house to keep them safe at night. I speak from experience when I say you will lose a chicken if they do not have a safe place to sleep. Chickens also roost at night. You will need tiered roosts. Your chickens will need 6-10 inches of space per chicken.

Chickens have a pecking order, and their roosting reflects that order. Hens will need a semi-private place to lay their eggs, and you will need one brooder box per 4-6 hens. We have 3 for six hens, and they all use the same box, so there is some wiggle room in those numbers.

I have given you a great deal of dimensions, but please remember these are guidelines. We have had flocks ranging from 6 to 13 and they have all fit in our 9 square foot coop with little to no issues. If you pick docile breeds who are fine with confinement you can get away with a few extra chickens should you choose to do so. Just like you know your children and your pets best; you will know your chickens better than others. Not all opinions are the same and not all chickens are the same.

Should you not be the DIY type and you want to buy a coop there are many options to choose from! Tractor Supply sells a chain linked version of the DIY PVC and chicken wire coop here. Tractor Supply also sells a coop/run hybrid; I thought this one was particularly adorable. I am certain your local feed store or hardware store can show you other options at any price range.

6. Decide If You Want a Rooster

Our rooster is no more RIP General Tzo III, so here is a stock photo.

Roosters are great to have in your flock, but they can also be an incredible pain in the rear. When you buy your chickens, you will typically have two options: a straight run(unsexed) and pullets or females only (also called sexed). Straight runs or unsexed, you have a 50/50 chance that one or more is a rooster.

If you want a rooster, this is your best bet. If you do not want a rooster go for pullets/hens only. Although there is never a 100% guarantee you wont end up with the opposite gender. Roosters are loud and can be aggressive if not handled often. Some people believe they are dangerous; while I tend to disagree with that, you will have to decide for yourself. I find roosters are like dogs. They have flock leader; as long as they see you as the leader, the rooster will not mess with you much or chase you. It can take some negative reinforcement, but the more time you put into your rooster, showing you are the “alpha” rooster, the more docile he will become towards people.

One of the benefits of having a rooster is your ladies will always be protected. Roosters warn their ladies of dangers and will fight a threat to death if it comes down to it. We lost our first rooster because he defended his ladies to the death against an opossum.

(Side note: I now have a deep hatred of opossums.)

Once we lost him, we found out this next benefit; your hens will lay more eggs if there is a rooster around. I always thought it was an old wives’ tale, but again after losing General Tso, we learned that it is true. Hens do not NEED a rooster to lay. They just need a steady supply of food. However, you will want a rooster if you want a self-sustaining flock. Otherwise, when you want to add to your flock, you will have to buy more and rely on others to provide a trade or sell you some of their flock.

As a side note, chickens interbreed for an impressively gross amount of time before defects begin to surface; it's upwards of 9 generations. After about 9 generations you want to introduce new flock members; although you can introduce them prior as well.

Another benefit; you will have an alarm clock that doesn't require electricity unless you get a bum one, like our current rooster, 3rd of 5, who crows all day, every day, for no reason. They tend to crow at or just after sunrise, and I promise it will be loud enough to startle you awake. Roosters help quicken the hierarchy process; hens can have a hard time on their own and will fight to lead the flock. With a rooster, the pecking order is figured out almost overnight. Without a rooster, your hens will fight for the top spot, and it takes a little longer for them to settle into their roles, so expect some fighting, even if you have only females.

The downside to having a rooster is, as mentioned before, they are LOUD. You can put anti crowing collars on them to soften their crow; I recommend them if you have neighbors. Should you decide to invest in the collars; make sure you put the collar under the cockerel feathers. I learned the hard way, the rooster can get to the collar and peck away at it to get it off. Your rooster may lose his mind right after you put it on; my rooster ran backwards and jumped around for nearly 30 minutes before he finally calmed down. It can be difficult to tell if the collar is too tight on your rooster so I also recommend standing around and watching him eat and drink before deciding it no longer needs adjusting.

A second potential downside is that roosters will go through more feed than with hens. You can save money on feed by not having a rooster in your flock.

Roosters are more prone to scratching you when you try to catch them. Their spurs are particularly painful if you get caught on the wrong end of them. Roosters can pick on your hens, or he might pick a favorite hen…if you catch my drift, and that can rip out her saddle feathers. There are cute little coats you can buy your hens if this the rooster is taking too much of a toll on your hens.

Roosters sometimes cannibalize the eggs. Our hens get broody every now and then, and the rooster does not appreciate his hens holding up in the coop, so he destroyed her clutch to get her off the eggs. (A broody hen is a hen that sits on a clutch of eggs to hatch them.)

If you have limited space and only a few hens you do not want to keep more than one rooster. Roosters are territorial; this matters significantly less if you pasture raise your flocks. A rule of thumb to follow is for every rooster you want at least 8 hens. We have two coops and keep one rooster in each coop; we have tried multiple roosters and it never ends well. If you purchase a straight run and end up with multiple roosters you can kill one or you can give him away. Depending on your area you may be able to find a farm to take him. Our area has a swap meet of sorts where every two or three Saturdays you can meet with other chicken keepers to trade or sell hens and roosters.

7. Prepare a space for your baby chicks

You will need a heating pad or heat lamp for the chicks, a small feeder, and a waterer that is small enough that they cannot fall in. You will need a starter feed for your baby chicks; I buy DuMor’s starter feed. For the first eight weeks, you will want a 20% protein feed you can go with a higher protein feed, but it is unnecessary. You will want to put the chicks in a protected area like your garage or a screened-in porch. In this protected area you will need a brooder; something to confine them to a small space where they can stay warm and safe. You can do a DIY a brooder; we use an old dog crate covered in chicken wire. You can also buy a brooder like this.

Baby birds will need a heater even in warmer climates. You can tell if they are too cold or too hot based on their movements. If chicks are too cold, they will clump together near the heater to try and get warm; they will also be restless. If they are too hot, they will do their best to get away from the light and sometimes lift their wings and pant if they get overheated. When they are at a comfortable temp, they will mill about the brooder box/area and sleep semi-independently. You have many choices when making or buying a brooder box. You will want something you can cover with chicken wire or something similar to allow ventilation but keep the chicks confined to the brooder box. I have seen people use a kiddie pool and make a top with chicken wire. Google or Pinterest has MANY different ideas if you search for DIY Chicken brooder.

You will want to keep your baby chicks in the brooder, under the heating lamp for at least the first 8 weeks. After 8 weeks they are generally ready to be freed from the heat. This can change depending on your weather and where you have them. If you have them outside and it is still cold at night you may want to monitor their behavior at night to see if they still need heat at night. I keep my chicks confined in their brooder for about 2 months. Since we have established flocks I have to wait until they are a little bigger to introduce the two flocks to each other. If you are just starting your flock you can put your chicks into the coop/run as soon as you are sure they cannot fit through any possible gaps.

8. Pick a grower feed

After eight weeks on starter feed, you can move to a growing. I do not personally use a grower feed, but you can buy a grower feed for nine weeks to 6 months. At six months, most hens will start laying eggs and will need to be on a layer feed. I move from starter to layer feed. I keep my chicks on starter feed for about four months to ensure they are through most of their growing and then switch to layer feed. I also lean towards a feed that is 18%. We use Kalmbach feed for layer feed. You can buy it on Chewy, but I have not seen it in stores around my area. If I buy from tractor supply, I get DuMor. If you have a feed store near you, I am sure they can also recommend a brand for you or may even have their own mix.

Additionally, you can pick up some treats for your flock; they love mealworms and seed mixes. I also feed my chickens and turkeys leftover veggies from prepping dinner, or if I have mushy fruit and veggies, not molded, that I'm not comfortable eating, I will throw it in the pen as a treat for the flock.

The turkeys go batty over cabbage and lettuce. The chickens love all veggies. You can also feed chickens meat, I feed mine all but chicken…which they can eat, but I cannot stomach the thought. Hens also need extra calcium when they start laying eggs. They need it to make thicker shells. You can feed them oyster shells which you can pick up anywhere you would find the chicken feed.

Do not mix it in with the normal feed if you have a rooster. Roosters do not need oyster shells. If you put the oyster shell in a separate bowl, the hens will take what they need when needed. You can also feed your hens their eggshells.

I recommend crushing them so they do not resemble eggs anymore, or they will associate their eggs with food… which you do not want. Some people say to cook them, but I have read that cooking them decreases calcium. I am not sure how scientifically sound that is, but I have found cooking them to be unnecessary. However, research to see what will fit you and your flock best.

9. Find a permanent watering system

Once your flock is in the coop, you will need a more permanent watering system. The larger your chicks get the more water they will require. I use gravity watering system as they seem to be the most reliable. There are many DIY options and lots of options you can buy. You will not want to use the small mason jar version once they are in the coop. The last thing you want to do is walk into your coop every hour to refill a tiny jar or bucket is a pain! A quick search on Pinterest or Google will give you a plethora of plans, ideas, and purchase options.

10. Find a permanent feeding station

Our DIY feeder; I will provide instructions below.

Some chicken keepers choose to throw feed each day to their chickens. It tends to be free-range keepers that do this, but I have seen chicken keepers do this regardless of pasture raising or keeping their flock in a run.

If you free-range your flock it does not mean you do not need to give them feed! Free-range flocks still need a variety of vitamins and minerals to stay healthy. It's best to find a feeder that allows the chicken to free feed regardless of their confinement or freedom.

There are many ideas for DIY feeders with pictures on the internet; take your time to find one that will fit your space. I made my DIY feeder with a storage container I bought from Walmart and a feeder kit I bought off of amazon. This kit provides you everything you need except the container. It also provides waterer cups that you can use to make a DIY waterer should you choose. Using an $8.00 64 quart container and the $13.00 feeder kit I was able to make a 50 pound feeder for a total of $21.00. You can also buy one from your local feed store; Tractor Supply sells a few versions; this is the 50 pound version. When we had a smaller flock I made a 5 gallon version of my storage container feeder pictured above. The 5 gallon bucket held about 20 - 25 pounds at a time.

Feeding them by hand daily is always an option, how you choose to feed your flock is up to you. However, I highly recommend getting or making a feeder. Not only will it make your life easier, but it will help your chickens stress less. Hens lay better when they have a steady supply of food. Having readily available food will keep your hens and roosters from eating their own eggs for food and water.

11. Cleaning the coop

You will need wood shavings, pine straw, or grass to keep your feather friends dry. If you keep them in one place long enough, they will kill the grass or turn up enough dirt that they will get muddy.

It is just a fact of nature. They are not pets. They do not use the bathroom in specific spots. They go where they stand, and that could be in the water, on the watering station, or on their food. It's not appetizing, but it's the truth. If you are doing a tractor method, you will not have this issue. We use wood chips in the coop, the run, and the brooder baskets.

Also, there are several opinions on how often to clean the coop. You can clean it as often as you like, but we do a compounding method using a layering technique and then shovel up the coop and run once every six months. There is a benefit to letting the mess sit, you don't have to clean as often, and it makes a great addition to a garden as fertilizer, or you can compost it.

It's a smelly job, no matter how you use it or how often you clean the coop. Research other methods, or again you can make it a point to clean the coop as often as you choose.

The point is it needs to be cleaned because, like a dirty kitty litter box, ammonia builds up and does a number on the chicken's health.

12. Sicknesses and how to treat them

We have been blessed, and aside from a lame chick or two, we have not had many illnesses in our flock. When a chicken starts to get sick, the flock takes care of it. We have yet to catch a sickness before the flock catches it. I know it sounds graphic, and it is; Chicken keeping isn’t always for the faint of heart.

I am not here to lie to you and show you only the good parts. Chicken keeping is messy and gets you up close and personal with nature, but it is so worth it to produce something with your own two hands.

This is a solid reference for sicknesses and how to treat them. There are also a number of blogs that you can search for that will have personal experience with sicknesses and cures. Once I have personal experience, I will absolutely pull y'all along for the ride.

13. Vaccinations and medicated feed

We use medicated starter feed, and after they mature, we stop with medicated food. We typically get chicks from the hatcher; most hatcheries do vaccinate their chicks. However, when we incubate our own eggs, we choose not to vaccinate them.

I have read article after article saying to vaccinate your flock, I choose not to, but you should research what is best for you and your flock. We have found little to no difference in not vaccinating our hatched birds.

Bottom line, do your research in the fall so you are prepared for your baby chicks in the spring. While hatcheries ship and sell year-round, sometimes it is nice to see the baby chicks. You are also more than welcome to wing it if you have plenty of room. For those of you with limited space, research, research, research!

14. Cost of raising chickens

Raising chickens can be as expensive or as cheap as you make it. My husband and I are fans of building things ourselves or partially building things ourselves. It gives us a sense of accomplishment and helps the bottom line! What could be better! We could make our chickens cheaper to keep by buying cheaper food; however what our hens eat we eventually eat as well either by consuming the eggs or the chicken itself. So we are a little pickier with our food choices, but that is entirely up to you. Aside from the initial cost, which I will not get into as their are too many variables; raising a backyard flock can be more cost effective than buying eggs from the store.

Kalmbach is all natural and made in the USA, both are important to us. A 50 pound bag of feed costs us around $30.00 and lasts about 2 weeks with a rooster; around 3 weeks without a rooster. To feed a flock of 10 hens it costs us around $45.00. To feed a flock of 10 hens and a rooster it is around $67.00. On average I get around 217 (large to jumbo sized) eggs or around 18 dozen, a month from my 10 hens (give or take a few). With a rooster a dozen eggs costs me a little under $4.00; without a rooster a dozen eggs cost me $2.50 - $3.00. Yes, this is more than your average 18 count store brand carton of eggs, BUT it should be noted these are fresh and organic eggs.

The cost may vary depending on where you are located. Depending on your state chickens may be more cost effective for you than it is for me. I can get 18 eggs from the store for around $2.00; however that is store brand, “large” eggs. I say “large” because compared to my hens eggs; store bought large is fairly small (picture below).

In addition to the size being larger than store bought eggs; the taste is incomparable! Prior to owning chickens I thought people were crazy to say you could taste the difference between fresh and store bought. I will even admit going from store bought to fresh, I did not taste that much of a difference. Fresh have a much more yolky taste than store bought and I thought at first it was the only difference. It wasn’t until I had to buy store bought eggs for a party that I understood what everyone meant!

Going from store bought to fresh was not a huge deal, but going from fresh eggs to store bought was VERY different. Store bought eggs have no flavor! They have no color! The taste alone is worth the extra few cents to a dollar for me. If you are currently buying organic fresh eggs from the store or live in a pricier area than I do, owning hens may be more cost effective for you. Either way I would argue that no matter the expense; the sense of accomplishment and the taste pay for themselves.

White eggs are store bought, brown are from my backyard flock.

15. Bonus topic! Mixed flocks (Turkeys, Chickens, and Quail)

Mixed flocks are possible depending on the needs of the bird and your goals for that flock. The hardest part about mixed flocks is the different needs of each bird type. I am going to focus on the familiar birds such as turkeys, ducks, quail, and of course chickens.

Turkeys:

Our mixed flock; white breasted turkey and a mix of hens.

There are many opinions on the topic of mixing turkeys and chickens. I can tell you some keepers are very against mixing the two types of chickens and others advocate for it. I am in the latter bucket. Although, I will admit turkeys are much more fragile than chickens. Turkeys are susceptible to a wider range of sicknesses than chickens. We kept 10 turkeys last summer and a virus ran through them killing 4 and a 5th died of a secondary infection from the sickness. Had we had a mixed flock I am confident the sickness would have wiped out our flock of hens.

Turkeys are more sensitive to certain foods such as onions and tomatoes. We feed almost all veggie and fruit scraps to our chickens, but with a mixed flock you have to pick and choose what you feed them.

The biggest thing to consider when putting a turkey or turkeys in with your chickens is why. Why, do you want the turkey? What is your end goal with the turkey? If you are just thinking it would be fun to have a turkey, I say go for it. It is better to buy them at the same age and raise them together from day one. Turkeys are MUCH larger than chickens so introducing a full grown turkey to an established flock may not go smoothly. Also, as i mentioned already turkeys carry different illnesses than chickens and chickens can get sicknesses from your turkey. If they grow up together they are more likely to build immunities and tolerances they would normally not have otherwise.

We bought 10 hens and 1 turkey as chicks from Tractor Supply this spring and raise them together. Since we do not plan on processing (polite way to say kill and eat) her for food any time soon we are feeding her layer feed; she can survive well enough on layer feed. If I were planning on processing her for Thanksgiving I would want to feed her a higher protein feed.

If you are raising a turkey to eat for Thanksgiving or for food stores, no judgement we did the same, you will have some issues with a mixed flock. Turkeys need high protein foods to build up more muscle and fat for consuming. So, if you are wanting to eat your turkeys when they come of age you do not want them growing slowly. If you plan on processing your turkey for food; you will want to have them eating game bird feed. This is a high protein feed that will encourage muscle building and fat storing.

Unfortunately for your mixed flock this high protein is entirely too high for chickens after 8 weeks. Game feed is generally 30% protein give or take a few. This can be damaging to your chickens kidneys. I am sure you can find a few keepers who have had success with this, I know a few myself. However, it is generally thought unsafe for chickens to consume high protein for too long. It can even affect the egg production.

Of course this does not mean you cannot keep them in the same coop; you just need to ensure the chickens cannot get to the the turkey feed. Since turkeys are much taller then chickens you can hang the turkey’s feeder out of reach for the chickens, while it is the perfect height for your turkey.

We keep our turkey around because she somehow, someway, keeps squirrels from coming into our back yard. I cannot tell you why or how because she is certainly in a run and cannot chase them, but squirrels like our pups more than our turkey. My husband and I just assume it’s the noises she makes, but we really are not certain. Either way she acts as the rooster for our flock that is currently roosterless.

If you are considering adding a turkey I highly encourage it. Pet or dinner; owning a turkey is pretty special and a little exotic! I do not personally recommend getting different aged birds, but as long as you are prepared and have done your research you know what will work best for you.

Quail:

The quick answer is; no, you cannot keep quail mixed with other birds. I will explain more shortly. I want to start off by making it clear I am NOT a fan of raising quail. I have hatched them and attempted to raise them and have had the hardest time keeping them alive. It is very hard to raise a bird and see it die for no good reason. It would be one thing if they died for a purpose like feeding my family, but they did not. It breaks my heart! I say that to let you know my opinions may be biased to some degree, but I will do my best to remain factual from here on out.

My neighbors keep quail and they maintain a beautiful flock of them and their quaint tiny blue eggs. So I know owning a flock of these delicate birds is possible. That being said; they are a different monster than chickens. Quail are very small and need very little space. In fact you have to be more concerned with giving them too much space rather than too little. Quail are flighty and will hurt themselves if given too much room. A quail cage is necessary for raising and maintaining a healthy flock. Because quail are so small it is not safe to have them in a coop with chickens. Chickens are going to pick on them and the quail will not be safe with so much room to spare. They will hurt themselves attempting to take flight to escape the coop/run/chickens. Quail, like turkeys, need a high protein feed.

Quail are perfect if you want to have an egg producer, but do not have enough room for chickens. Quail lay an egg a day and while the eggs are significantly smaller you only need 2-3 eggs to make up a regular chicken egg. Quail are also more cost effective for the causal owner. Quail consume significantly less feed than one hen. So to have an egg a day you would need 2-3 quail; which could be kept in the quail cage I linked to. Those quail would eat around 6 oz of food a day while a single hen will eat 2 pounds of food a day. 3 quail will cost you around $0.69/day and 1 hen will cost you about $1.20/day. The final total is dependent on the feed you use, by totals are based on the Purina game feed and Kalmbach layer feed I linked to earlier.

While you cannot keep quail and chickens together they are both valuable additions to your homestead or backyard farm.

Please let me know if you have questions or comments!

Have a blessed day!

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