8 Lessons From a Year of Chickens

In March of 2022 I bought three Rhode Island Red chickens and set them up in a plastic tote in my basement. I was so excited to raise chickens in the backyard of my city lot and had spent all winter reading and taking notes on what to do or not do. Now that I’m one year into my backyard chicken adventure I thought I would share 8 lessons I learned in year one. In writing this though, I thought of so many minor details that this post could go on for awhile. I’ll keep it to just 8 key lessons and a brief summary of each.

Three chicks a few days after arriving home

1) Store bought eggs will never compare. I knew this already having been the beneficiary of eggs from my moms chickens every few months when she was in town. There are numerous videos out there showing the visible difference between the milky store bough yokes and the bright yellow yolks of a backyard chicken. I have also found they cook up so much easier as a sunny side up and the most important of all benefits especially this year, I haven’t paid for eggs since last July. I did some rough calculations and with my small flock I actually come out ahead with the bag of feed and bedding I buy every two or so months.

2) Chickens are hearty birds. This was a really hard lesson to learn, not so much that anything bad came of it, but it really tested my willpower. Living in the Midwest, we get some pretty cold temps in the middle of winter. I read about the dangers of having a heat lamp on in a coop as well as the side effects of the lights forcing the chickens to lay year round. I also read plenty of advice about how hearty chickens are and to allow them to adapt. While I sealed up the coop as much as possible, checked on them often when the temps hit -10 for a high one week, and even took out warm oatmeal for them, they did just fine. There was no need to bring them inside like I saw some people do on various chicken message boards. Nature took over and they grew extra fluff to keep themselves warm and huddled together at night on their perch.

3) Chickens are incredibly entertaining. This is probably the most overlooked reason to get chickens. I was in it for the eggs at the beginning and the cute fluffy chicks, but hanging out with them all summer I found out how entertaining chickens can be. They are simultaneously smart and dumb and develop such quirky habits. They are also incredible good gardeners and have tilled up a portion of dead weeds next to the house I plan to turn into a garden bed this spring.

4) Dogs and chickens can co-exist. This was not nearly as hard as I thought it would be to overcome. I wanted my dogs (husky and shepherd mix) and chickens to roam together, partially for the added protection the dogs could provide from predators, but also because we like to leave the door open in the summer and allow the dogs to go in and out. I watched several videos of people slowly introducing their dogs to their chickens, keeping the dogs on a leash, and spending weeks getting them comfortable. I spent about two weekends sitting between the dogs and chickens, giving them some time to get used to each other and then one day they were suddenly fine. They now roam around together and occasionally the shepherd tries to herd them, not realizing the chickens want their space.

5) Predators are a real threat, even in the city. This was the saddest lesson I had to learn. I started off with three chickens—Bess, Willa, and Charlotte. Over time I became really comfortable letting them out in the yard by themselves, giving them hours of scratching and roaming to entertain them. And after the dogs became comfortable with them I would let them roam together without me there. I pushed my luck too far last fall, letting the chickens free range while I was working in my home office. I let the dogs inside and within minutes a fox ran through the yard, puncturing the lung of Bess. I was able to chase it off, but unfortunately she only survived another few hours and then died. Fortunately though, the foxes in town seem pretty lazy and have never tried to dig into the enclosed run which I spent the time to fortify well. They are only willing to go for an easy kill.

6) Protein is important, especially in the winter. I bought my chickens in March and most of the summer let them free range, getting all sorts of bugs on their own. I also supplemented with extra veggies from the garden along with their layer crumbles. When I was reading about how to care for them in the winter I stumbled across the need to give them protein to help them keep warm. They absolutely love the mealworms they get every other day, but man are they expensive! I’m looking forward to spring.

7) Power is really nice to have. I was fortunate to have an outlet already in the shed I put the chicken coop in. This meant I had a light to see when going in early or late, a plug for a fan in the hot summer months, and a plug for the electric waterer in the winter to avoid going out every morning to break up the frozen water.

All three chickens showing me the necessity of having a roof on your coop.

8) The coop will likely need modifications. Unless you buy a ready made coop, you are likely going to need to modify. I retrofitted the small shed that was in my backyard when we bought the house and built a little raised coop with enclosed run off of one of the doors. I spent one weekend building it and another three modifying it. Partly due to my lack of knowledge on building a coop and partly because my chickens seemed to find it entertaining to thwart me, I had to make several adjustments. The first was to slant the roof on the nesting box to keep them from roosting on it. Then I had to build a second nesting box over the first because one chicken refused to use the first one if there was already two eggs in it. I also modified the roosting bar, adjusted the water container, and had to fix the feed bin to keep them from throwing it all on the ground. But, after reacting to each of their new challenges, the coop has been modification free for the last six months.

The latest iteration of the coop, with the summer version of their water container.

Having chickens has been so rewarding this past year. I have learned a lot, been entertained, and had a steady supply of fresh eggs. Willa and Charlotte are great additions to my urban homestead and while they aren’t coming inside to hang out (they certainly sneak in when the door is open though), they’re more than just a farm animal. After an entire year I feel like I finally have a handle on caring for chickens.