Chicken Keeping & Dogs with Chickens!

Chickens are a big craze...loads of people have them now, even those like us that dwell in the city. Laws are generally favorable, just check your local ones before you start! We can have as many as we desire here, but chose to start with 4 teenager birds, all girls. We value the neighbors we have and a rooster, though legal, would be a pain to them!! We prefer to keep the peace where we live and be respectful.

 We got our girls from a chicken breeder (is that what they are called?!?!) Apparently due to the move & the adjustment, our girls waited about 5 months to begin laying, vice the two they should have taken. Chickies take about 6 months to begin laying if you get a baby.They are lovely creatures, but have managed to escape their spacious coop and tear up our newly landscaped yard....repeatedly! So we are still deciding as to how to handle that situation. 

We began our chicken keeping by ordering a coop...it was expensive. If I had it to do over again & the time (we were moving,remodeling, and my husband was away on his job for 6 months in the time surrounding )  I would build one of some type. I am happy with what we have though. This spring we plan to get some baby chicks for our hens to raise.

I have found chicken keeping very easy and inexpensive. They have consumed about one round of feed (a bag of layer & a bag of whole corn) over the 5 months. We also feed them veggie scraps, fruit scraps, some oats (I just pick up a can at the grocery store when on sale and feed it to them from time to time) and oyster shell. The oyster shell lasts for a very long time....with just four chickens, I think that we our bag would last for two years, at least. We have changed to cracked corn and a grain mix  in addition to the layer since they have begun to lay eggs. They have gained a lot of weight and all of our eggs have been intact (no soft shells). They are pretty easy as far as day to day care goes also...we clean the coop when needed, change nesting box material when needed (not too often), and they have a hanging feeder for the layer and two waterers. We just give them a toss of the grains about every day.
Our dogs (a beagle and a morkie) would get a little intense with the chickens at first. But after several months and some chats with the dogs, all is peaceable and we can even leave them all out together. We had to watch and correct the dogs for a while when the chickens were out.It was a bit of work, but worth it to have all the creatures live in tandem. If in doubt, do not allow them to be together. Once a dog kills a chicken, you have harder issues to deal with and that will upset your hens...thus hindering egg production, which can last for months.  Give it time!