Raising Chickens for Egg Production   June 2010

Raising a small flock of layer chickens can be an enjoyable and profitable hobby.  However, before you order your chickens there are several things you need to consider.  Do the local zoning laws allow you to raise chickens on your property?  Do you have a building that will be adequate to house chickens in all types of weather?  Is the building suited to all ages of poultry?  Which breed of chicken do you want to raise, Heritage or modern?  Do you want a Dual Purpose chicken where the males are grown for meat and the females are raised for egg production?  Do you want a white egg layer, which lays more eggs, but is not as hardy?  Or do you want the more hardy brown egg layer that may lay fewer eggs and eat more feed?  What age of chicken are you going to buy; day old chicks, ready to lay pullets or hens that are already in lay?  If you are not sure, your chick supplier, feed store and other back yard poultry growers are able to help you make these decisions.

To be successful in raising your flock, it is important that you provide the chickens with proper housing, environment, feed and water.  This article will give you tips on how to set up, manage and feed your flock to give you healthy birds and the top production. 

Housing - The hen house needs to be clean, warm, dry and free from draughts.  It should be large enough to provide 2 square feed of space per mature hen.  This means a flock of 50 hens will need an area of at least 100 square feet.  If you are using a house that has housed poultry before, make sure you clean and disinfect the barn before bringing in the new flock.

The floor of the house should be covered with 2 – 3 inches of an absorbent bedding material, such as shavings or straw.  Avoid sawdust bedding for chicks as they tend to eat it in place of the feed, which may result in an impacted crop.

The air in the barn should be fresh, at the correct temperature for the age of the bird and without draughts.  Later in the growing period there needs to be enough air movement to prevent the litter from becoming caked and wet.  Wet litter causes the ammonia in the barn to build up which can damage the lungs of the birds.

When the pullets reach 19 or 20 weeks of age, they will start to lay eggs.  Before the eggs appear you will need to give them 12” x 12” nesting boxes lined with straw or shavings.  There should be one box for every 4 to 5 hens.  Place the nest 2 feet above the ground and put a 4” perch in front of each box for ease of entrance and exit.  A-frame perches can be provided for both the pullets and the hens to prevent piling.  Place the perch rails 16” apart, two on one side and one at the top with a slope of 45^o.  The length of the perch will depend on how many birds are in the house, but a rule of thumb is to provide 1 inch of length per bird housed.

Breeds -  The breed of chicken you choose will depend on if you want to raise males from the same flock for meat and keep the females for eggs,  if you want hybrid hens or heritage hen and if you want brown or white eggs.  If you want the high production, buy hybrid hens, either white egg layers or brown egg layers.  The white egg layers are a smaller bird and are not as suited to being outdoors.  Brown egg layers are larger, tend to be hardier and will do well under less than ideal conditions.  If you like a colourful large hen and are not as concerned about high production, choose one of the heritage breeds.  These birds are very hardy and live long and can provide a nice addition to your backyard farm.

Chicks -  If you are buying day old chicks the house should be 35^oC when they arrive.  Heat the house for 24 hours prior to the arrival of the chicks to make sure the whole house including the floor is warm.  Observing how the chicks are spread throughout the barn will indicate if temperatures are correct.  Chicks that are noisy and huddled under the heat source are not warm enough.  Chicks that are noisy and are crowding the walls are finding the barn too warm.  As the chicks grow, drop barn temperatures according the following chart.

Day 1 35 C 1st Week 32 C  2nd 29 C  3rd 27 C  4th 24 C  5th 21 C  6th 20 C  7th 20 C

New chicks need water as soon as possible. Placing waterers and the feeders near the heat source will help chicks find them quickly.  If you have nipple drinkers provide one nipple for 10 birds and put them at eye level.  Reduce the water pressure in the lines for the first few days so that a drop of water forms on the nipple to attract the birds.  If you are using manual drinkers, provide a gallon waterer for every 10 chicks.  You may want to add marbles in the drinker to attract the chicks and to prevent them from falling in.

Buy a crumbled 20% Starter Feed for the chicks as a mash feed can paste on the beak, reducing feed intakes.  Place some feed in shallow cardboard boxes or on paper on the floor so the chicks find the feed easily.  After the first week they should be able to eat from the feeders.  Make sure that there is enough feeder space - 2 inches per bird is enough.  During the first week a chick should eat about 13 grams per day or 91 grams per week.  If they are not eating enough they will be very noisy.  Observe them for a while to see if they have found the feed and can reach it in the feeders.  At 8 weeks of age change from the starter feed to a 19% Poultry Grower.

Make sure the house is bright enough so the chicks can find the feed and water.  Give 22 hours of light a day for the first week at an intensity of 30 lux.  (One lux is the amount of light from one candle measured on meter away from the center of the flame.)  Then reduce the hours of light to 20 and the intensity to 5 lux (you can read the newspaper 8” away from your eyes).  If the house is light proof, reduce the light duration by about an hour a day to reach 10 hours of light per day by 3 weeks of age.  Keep the duration of light constant until the pullets reach 19 weeks, when the light duration should be increased.  If the house has windows, try to keep the amount of light constant as much as possible.  Pullets will start to lay with increasing day length, so around 19 weeks the total amount of natural and artificial light should be increased gradually (1/2 hour every week) to 16 hours per day.

Ready to Lay Pullets and Laying Hens – If possible, try to get information on the type of housing as well as the watering and feeding equipment that the pullets and hens have been using.  Also try to find out if they have been fed a mash, crumbled or pelleted feed and try to keep them on the same feed form as this will make if easier for them to adapt.  If the pullets are close to the start of lay, gradually increase the light duration (1/2 hour every week) until you reach 16 hours per day.

A house temperature of 20^oC is ideal for maximum egg production; at lower temperatures the hens will use the feed to keep warm and will produce fewer eggs.  At higher temperatures the hens will use the feed to keep themselves cool.  This means during the winter you may need to provide a source of heat and during the summer it may be necessary to have a fan to keep the birds cool.

If the birds are to be given access to an outside run, make sure there is good fencing around the area to prevent predators from entering.  Chicks should not go outside until they are older, about 18 weeks of age.  All chickens should be brought into the house for the night.

When the first eggs appear at around 20 weeks, start to feed an 18% Layer feed.  Continue to feed the 18% feed until the eggs get too big then change to a 16% Layer feed.

What to feed -  The table below gives which feeds to give and the approximate amounts that chicks will eat of each feed.  If you are buying chicks that have been vaccinated for coccidiosis at the hatchery, make sure you feed non-medicated chick starter.

Feeding Chart for Egg Laying Chicks and Hens

Feeding Scratch – Hen Scratch is a blend of whole grains that is usually thrown on the floor of the house or on the ground.  This encourages the natural scratching of the hens and has the benefit in the house of “turning” the litter, keeping it dry.  If you are feeding whole grain scratch give access to a source of grit so the hens can grind the grains in their gizzard.  You can buy #2 size “insoluble” granite grit or “soluble” calcium grit.

Diseases – If the hens are raised and housed in a clean, well ventilated environment there should not be many health issues.  However, there is always a threat of disease that may come from wild birds and human visitors.  Chicks should be vaccinated for Marek’s at the hatchery.   If you do not want to feed a medicated feed, vaccinate the chicks for coccidiosis.   If you have two ages of birds at the same time, try to go to the younger flock before going to the older flock.

New Choice in Equine Feed Offered to Island Horse Owners.

Island horse owners have a new choice when it comes to feed for their horse. Island Horse Equine Feed has introduced four feeds designed to meet the needs of mares and their foals, performance horses, senior horses and “retired” or non working horses.

While there are many horse feeds available, only Island Horse Equine Feed is formulated with Island forages in mind. “When we developed Island Horse Equine Feed, we had the Island horse owner in mind”, explains Robert Davison, creator of Island Horse. “We looked at the horse feed market and saw that for the most part, the feed was coming from off the Island with no consideration for the challenges Island horse owners face.  They are good feeds, but are not tailored for our local conditions.  For example, just as the climate on the Island is different from that in the Fraser Valley or the Mid West United States, the grasses grown here on the Island are different.”  From this local perspective came the idea for Island Horse Equine Feed.

“One needs to remember that forages, generally pasture and hay, are the foundation of the horse’s diet. The concentrate portion should complement the forage by providing those nutrients that are low”, added Nutritionist Everett Dixon. “For example, soil selenium on Vancouver Island is very low, which means that the forages grown here are low in selenium. To address this deficiency, we supplement our Island Horse Feeds with a more available yeast based source of selenium.”

There are four Feeds that comprise the Island Feed line:
13% High Performance Horse Pellets for hardworking horses and horses in training.
14% Senior Horse Pellets for the mature horse with a light workload.
12% Maintenance Horse Pellets for horses that are occasionally worked and barren mares.
16% Broodmare and Foal Pellets designed for breeding mares and their foals.

For pricing and availability of Island Horse Equine Feed contact South Country Feed. (250) 897 3302