Lessons I've Learned as a New Chicken Parent

My wife and I acquired six adult laying hens a little over a month ago. I had my reservations, as winter is not the most ideal time to adopt chickens. This was also when we had that long stretch of subzero temperatures and I was seriously concerned about the flock’s safety living in Willow. But so far, all six have survived, with some injuries and illnesses that have been addressed, and we are harvesting eggs everyday. Here are some of the lessons I’ve learned in my short time as a “chicken tender.”

When I first found out that we would be adopting these chickens, I had a week to hastily build a coop. Thankfully I was able to utilize scraps that I had laying around from previous house projects. I had no idea what I would be building and pretty much came up with the design on the fly. With how cold it gets in Willow, I knew that I would have to insulate the coop and reused excess insulation from our crawlspace. An added heat lamp has kept it fairly warm, even at temperatures down to -35.

The coop was long and narrow with a single-pitch roof. It was tall enough for roosting bars where the chickens could sit higher where heat would rise. The first issue I found with the coop design was access. If I had to do it over again, I would have made my opening from the middle of the long side of the coop rather than from one of the shorter sides. I have a difficult time accessing the far side of the coop to clean or to snatch the hens when I need to inspect them closely. I also built the coop on top of 4x4 posts, hoping to create a space underneath for the ladies to move around. They haven’t seemed to enjoy the trapdoor and the ramp I built and will have to be an issue to address come spring. For now, they strictly stick to their warm coop, which I don’t entirely blame them for doing.

We’ve had two ladies that have needed medical attention. The first, Karen, injured her leg causing it to bleed. The other chickens took an interest in the injury and began pecking at it making it even worse. Emily and I pulled her out to clean and bandage the injury using some of Emily’s nursing skills and supplies. Karen made a quick recovery and hasn’t had any issues since.

The second chicken to require medical attention was Uniqua. Named after the Backyardigan’s cartoon character for her unique comb, this poor girl has been recovering from a bout of coccidiosis. This protozoa infects the digestive system of the chicken causing them to have runny bowel movements, a loss in appetite with weight loss and lethargy that eventually leads to death. We snatched her from the coop with what I assume was only hours to live, gave her a bath, used a syringe to force her to drink fluids and isolated her from the flock inside the house to recover.

Uniqua started off in her cage in our shower upstairs. She made a strong recovery but after moving her back and forth every time we needed to use the shower, we decided it was time she needed to go. She now resides in the garage with a heat lamp directed at her and will stay in there for a few more days as she continues a diet high in protein and a concoction of probiotics and electrolytes.

One of the other issues I have been addressing is the ventilation within the coop. I left a small gap along the top of the single-pitched roof for moisture and smell to escape, but that didn’t seem like enough. The ammonia smell lingered in the coop more than I liked and there was some moisture that seemed to collect on the sides. I drilled three small holes along the top and could immediately tell a difference. Our chickens more than doubled their laying over the next couple of days as I believe they had been a bit too stuffy. I plan to add more ventilation this spring when things are a little easier to work on.

I’m sure I have much more to learn in the coming weeks, months and hopefully years of owning chickens. I know I have only scratched the surface of becoming a successful chicken owner and brace myself for the road ahead.