Backyard Chickens (for Beginners)

Your Chicken Questions Answered!

Chickens have always been a great place to start for beginning homesteaders, and with the price of eggs, they’re making even more sense.

If you’ve never kept chickens, it’s hard to know where to start…but I’ve put together a few beginner’s guides to help you out:

• How to Raise Chickens (Beginner’s Guide)

• How to Raise Baby Chicks into Adult Hens

• 12 Best Egg Laying Chickens for Beginners

Backyard Chickens FAQ covers dozens of questions from beginner to advanced chicken raising. If you don’t see your question answered there, let me know in the comments, and I’ll add it for you.

Once you have chickens, you’ll inevitably have eggs…lots of them. Most chicken keepers end up with more eggs than they can use, at least in the spring and summer months. You can always share them with neighbors, or you can store them to make up for when your ladies aren’t laying as heavily (during molt or in the winter).

• How to Store Farm Fresh Eggs

• 30+ Ways to Preserve Eggs

• Freeze Drying Eggs

• Storing Eggs in Limewater (Keeps 12+ Months)

Of course, if you have eggs, you’ll also have eggshells, and here’s how to make eggshell powder (and 10 ways to use it).

Since I have little ones at home, bringing in a rainbow of colors in the egg basket makes things even more exciting. Here are a few guides that cover which chickens lay which color eggs:

• Beginner’s Guide to Chicken Egg Colors

• Easter Eggers: Which Chickens Lay Blue Eggs?

• Olive Eggers: Which Chickens Lay Green Eggs?

• Chocolate Eggers: Which Chickens Lay Dark Brown Eggs?

• Which Chickens Lay Pink Eggs?

• Which Chickens Lay White Eggs?

• Which Chickens Lay Brown Eggs?

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I know y’all are going to ask, the picture above is a “first in, first out” egg tower that my kids affectionately call the “egg ride.” They love putting the eggs on and watching them slide slowly around the little roller coaster when they come off. Fresh farm eggs are stored at room temperature (if not washed), so this is great for keeping a couple of dozen eggs in rotation.

Our exact one isn’t for sale anymore, but there are some that are similar available on etsy.

My littles take chicken keeping seriously, and they actually put time into training our chickens (like you’d train a dog). My daughter has a rooster that comes when she calls, and others that jump or even “sit.” It’s not all about serious egg production, and sometimes, having a chicken that will nuzzle your leg like a cat is what gets a little girl excited about this lifestyle.

These are some of the friendliest chicken breeds, and they also happen to lay fun egg colors too. (And, specifically relevant here in Vermont, they’re all extremely cold hardy chicken breeds.)

• Bielefelder Chickens

• Salmon Faverolle Chickens

• Barnevelder Chickens

• Orpington Chickens

• Barred Rock Chickens

• Cochin Chickens

If you’re looking for cuties to fill your coop, and hey, I get it, they’re some of my daughter’s favorites…here are some of the fluffiest chicken breeds.

For a self-maintaining flock, you’ll want to choose broody chicken breeds. Or, if you don’t want to battle a broody hen, you can hatch chicken eggs at home in an incubator, too.

More chicken breed guides are coming soon. If there’s a breed you’re specifically interested in, leave me a note in the comments, and I’ll add it to my list.

(And make sure you’re subscribed, so you don’t miss them.)

My littles playing around in the truck bed with one of our Barred Rock Hens.

If you’re looking for more guides, I’d suggest checking out the chicken-keeping archives on Practical Self Reliance, where you’ll find even more info.

What chicken-keeping questions do you have? What did I miss? Leave me a note in the comments.

(Similar guides are coming soon for keeping ducks, geese, and turkeys…so drop those questions in the comments too, so I make sure I cover them.)

Until Next Time,

Ashley at Practical Self Reliance