Answering your most searched backyard chicken questions.

It is one of my deepest hopes that the content I’m creating will help inspire other backyard chicken owners and improve the lives of people and animals. I hope through sharing my experiences homesteading on our tiny farm I can inspire others to seek out more nature aligned and peace inspiring experiences through sustainable living practices. Keeping backyard chickens has led to so many amazing and positive changes for me and my family. I’m so excited to share the wonderful things I’ve discovered so far on our micro homestead journey. I’m always on the hunt for new ideas to create meaningful content that will prove useful to other backyard chicken owners. I thought it would be a great idea to address some of the most searched questions about backyard chickens. While some of these questions I anticipated, others were a total surprise!

1) When do chickens start laying? This question wasn’t a surprise at all. So generally hens will begin to lay anywhere between 6-8 months of age provided that their basic needs are being met and there are no health issues. For some of our ornamental breeds this period was even a slightly longer wait, even up to year old. If your hens are a year old and still not producing there could be a myriad of issues at work, including improper or insufficient nutrition or environmental factors.

2) Can you eat a fertilized egg? Yes, and there is practically no chance of accidentally eating a partially developed chick especially if you collect eggs daily. If you don’t keep a rooster, your eggs are not fertilized. Even if they are fertilized, it takes 21 days of a hen consistently brooding (sitting on in order to hatch) an egg in order for it to develop and hatch. The journey from fertilized eggs to chicks takes 3 weeks! As long as your eggs are regularly gathered, they will not develop chicks inside of them on their own. Collect eggs daily as part of responsible animal husbandry and backyard chicken maintenance.

3) Can chickens eat pineapple? So, this question threw me. Why? Who? Who is feeding their chickens pineapple? Technically yes, you can feed them pineapple, although I wouldn’t recommend it and I genuinely don’t see why you ever would. Where I live pineapples are a luxury and somewhat expensive. Pineapples do contain vitamin C but there are other sources of this such as strawberries, broccoli, kale, and your chicken’s regular nutritiously balanced high quality layer feed. So, yes you can feed them pineapple, although I’m hard-pressed to think of a scenario where that would be practical in any way.

4) How many eggs will a hen lay? This is a really rich topic and is going to depend on a few factors: the time of year, the breed of chicken, and other health and environmental factors. Not all chicken breeds lay the same amount of eggs. Some breeds were specifically cultivated and bred for the specific purpose of being high volume layers while other breeds were cultivated for things like meat, beauty, or temperament. High volume egg layers such as Rhode Island Reds, Leghorns, or Comets can lay between 250-300 eggs per year. A Silkie chicken will lay between 100-120 eggs per year, but again, high egg production is not an emphasis of that breed of chicken rather their appearance and temperament. Hens don’t lay one egg per day rather their production levels are impacted by natural light exposure which changes with the seasons. For high volume egg layers 5 eggs per week during their peek productive season is an average. After two years of age hens will begin to decline in productivity but can still produce eggs for several years, just not as frequently.

5) Introducing new chickens. Also, not surprised by this question and it is one of the more tricky parts of backyard chicken keeping. Chicken flocks organize themselves in a pecking order meaning different chickens have different jobs and status within the flock. Flock balance is achieved when you have a healthy ratio of roosters to hens as well as adequate space for all of your chickens. Overcrowding causes aggression, disease, and other negative effects. Introducing new chickens means the pecking order must reorganize to make space for new members. Pecking order as you will see is quite literal as established chickens within the flock will peck new members. There are several things you can do to make for a peaceful transition but understand that a period of pecking and reorganizing is totally normal and necessary for your flock to incorporate new members.

          This topic is also very rich but I will try to hit the broad strokes here. Never introduce new members suddenly or sneak them in overnight. Whenever introducing new chickens to the flock keep them in an isolation area at first to establish they are healthy and to allow your established flock to interact with them through their enclosure. This can be a large dog crate or other isolation space that has all of the basics covered for your new chickens (food, water, grit, and shelter from the elements) but allows your other chickens to safely interact with them through fencing or a barrier. Between one to two weeks begin to supervise interactions between your new and established chickens ideally while providing them as much space as possible. Start with smaller windows of integration and move up to longer periods of time. Giving your chickens plenty of space to interact with new members reduces bullying and gives them more options when they choose to interact. By the third week your flock and your new chickens should be able to spend longer periods of time together and eventually fully integrate without the need for maintaining separate facilities. Depending on the breed, age, and temperament of your birds some integration may take longer or go more quickly than others. Eventually your new chickens will be accepted by your established flock. You will want to continue to monitor the integration for several days to be sure your new chickens are roosting in the correct areas and that they have discovered where their new food and water stations are located. Remember that flock integration takes plenty of time. Using treats to promote harmony can be helpful. Spread treats over a large area so the new and established chickens can enjoy them together. I hope this was helpful!