
Learn how to raise chickens for eggs and meat with a quick guide for beginners and homesteaders.
Learn how to start a backyard flock for eggs or meat, choosing between buying day-old chicks or incubating eggs, and managing incubation conditions.
Set up a brooder box with heat, bedding, and starter feed to keep newborn chicks warm and healthy; move them to the coop once fully feathered.
Discover practical housing options for chickens, from purchasing or building coops to designing space for two square feet per bird, predator protection, and essential water, feed, and nesting arrangements.
Boost efficiency and eco-friendliness with solar fences and mobile coops. Select bedding such as pine shavings or sand, and implement deep litter and automatic door openers.
Learn the basics of raising chickens for egg production, including when hens lay, how daylight and diet affect output, and managing moulting with protein and lighting adjustments.
Choose a meat-focused strategy by selecting hybrid fast-growing birds or dual-purpose breeds, provide adequate space, and master humane slaughter, plucking, and aging for quality chicken meat.
Decide when to butcher nonlaying hens after the first season, test egg production with a week in a chicken tractor, and manage wintering with ventilation, deep litter, and supplementation.
Raising chickens is a fun adventure for a beginning or experienced chicken farmer to embark upon. In doing so, you’ll increase your overall health and have a lot of fun doing so! However, it does require some basic research.
This course will teach you how to:
• Select the best breed of chicken for your needs
• Raise chickens from day-old chicks
• Incubate eggs
• Construct and equip brooders
• Raise chicks
• Troubleshoot health problems in freshly hatched chicks
• Transition pullets and cockerels to an outdoor coop
• Build and equip coops with feed, water, nesting, and roosting systems
• Evaluate whether free-ranging is right for your birds
• Prevent the incidence of predators
• Decide upon the best coop construction for your lifestyle
• Provide proper feed, water, shelter, and bedding
• Increase efficiency and environmental friendliness through helpful add-ons
• Raise laying hens
• Increase and maintain egg production
• Deal with the molting process
• Raise healthy meat birds
• Slaughter, butcher and process meat birds
• Overwinter (or raise birds throughout cold months)
• Maintain adequate egg production during the winter
• Improve meat quality and flavor
• Be a successful and happy chicken owner!
About the Expert:
Rebekah White lives in upstate New York on a small, cozy slice of heaven. She raises chickens, pigs, honey bees, and vegetables to sustain herself and her close family. When she’s not at home with her animals, she is working at her “day job” teaching high school English at a rural school.
In the meantime, she enjoys running, traveling, cooking (especially with fresh produce and homegrown meats!), and writing (ideally about the farm!). She has also published articles on home remedies and recipes, canning and food preservation, and various general interest stories.