Raising Chickens for Beginners Part 1: How Do I Start My Backyard Chicken Flock?

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Interested in having a backyard chicken flock for the first time but not sure how to start? In this post, we’ll go over everything you need to know before getting your birds: navigating local chicken ordinances, how to choose the best breed for you, whether to hatch yourself or buy chicks or adults, and where to source your first flock. If you’re starting from scratch with backyard chicken keeping, this post is for you.

How Do I Know If I Am Allowed to Have Chickens Where I Live?

First, before you bring home your new flock, it’s absolutely crucial to find out if your community allows you to have backyard chickens. Otherwise, you might find yourself in an unexpected legal predicament with your neighbors or local officials insisting your beloved birds have to go.

How To Find Your Local Chicken Laws
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If Googling “[your town] backyard chicken laws” or similar doesn’t yield results, call your town or city hall. Try the local health or planning departments first–these are most likely to cover health or zoning rules related to backyard poultry.

If backyard chickens are allowed in your community, make sure to ask about the details. Local ordinances may have specific requirements for:

• How many chickens you can have
• If you can have roosters
• Acreage requirements
• Distance of chicken coop to residences
• Application process
• ​Fees

You may discover, while checking on local ordinances, that your community is “right-to-farm.” Right-to-farm laws protect farmers from nuisance lawsuits being filed against them for natural by-products of farming: dust, noise, smells, etc.

​Keep in mind that even right-to-farm laws may require property owners to have a certain amount of acreage for their place to be considered a farm, and therefore protected by right-to-farm laws. Even if your community is right-to-farm, there may still be restrictions or guidelines that apply to having chickens on your property.

If you live in a community covered by an HOA, make sure to look into any rules your HOA has about backyard poultry.

If your local ordinances don’t allow for backyard poultry, you might want to consider lobbying for a change. Here's a resource to get you started. 

Some folks where backyard chickens are not allowed decide chicken keeping is worth the risk of going a-fowl of the law to raise their own flock. They might get their neighbors on board with the idea, or build a “stealth coop” in a spot with plenty of backyard privacy.

Whatever route you choose, the bottom line is to do everything you can to make sure that your beloved chickens will have a place they can call home for the long run while being a good neighbor.

Which Chicken Breed Should I Get?

If after looking into local ordinances you’ve decided to move ahead with getting chickens, you’ll have a difficult question to answer: what breed should I get?

Here are some key factors to consider when choosing chicken breeds:
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• Your climate: Most chicken breeds can tolerate seasonal changes, but if you live in an area that experiences extreme hot or cold, look for heat or cold hardy breeds. 
• Size and space: If you have very limited space, perhaps a bantam breed is the right fit for you. Bantams are smaller chickens that lay a smaller (but still decently sized) egg. 
• Ability to tolerate confinement: If you anticipate keeping your birds confined in their coop and fenced run, as opposed to free ranging, look into breeds that tolerate confinement well.
• Temperament: Chickens’ temperaments vary between individuals, but also pretty consistently between breeds. 
• Productivity: If you’re raising poultry for food as well as companionship, make sure the breed you choose will meet your needs. How many eggs will they lay per week, on average? Are they good meat birds? Some breeds are better for meat production, some for eggs, and some are great dual purpose birds.

​Starting the Flock: Choosing Between Incubating Eggs, Brooding Chicks, or Buying Pullets or Adult Chickens

Incubating Hatching Eggs:

Incubating hatching eggs is more labor intensive than just purchasing chicks, but gives you the opportunity to witness the hatching process. There’s a little bit of a learning curve, but a quality incubator makes the process simple enough even for total beginners to have successful hatches.

If you plan on maintaining a rooster in your flock, learning to incubate also gives you the freedom to hatch from your flock whenever you wish, without waiting for a hen to go broody. 

On the flipside, if you don’t plan on keeping a rooster in your flock, you’ll need a plan for the roosters that you do hatch (chickens hatch, on average, in a 50/50 male-female split).

If hatching eggs are being shipped to you, the success of your hatch will depend in part on how they were handled in transit. The upside of taking that risk is that you avoid shipping chicks and the stress that can put on day-old birds.

Buying Day-Old Chicks

Buying day-old chicks gives you the full-on cuteness experience without needing an incubator. Whether you hatch or buy chicks, they will need a dedicated indoor brooder space with a safe heat source, food, water, and protection from family pets and predators.

You have the choice of purchasing straight-run or sexed chicks. Straight-run chicks are not separated by sex, so if you buy straight-run you’ll receive a mix of male and female chicks and will need a plan for roosters. Sexed chicks will give you all females, but the sexing process itself is problematic.

Purchasing Pullets and Adults

While harder to source and pricier, purchasing pullets (juvenile hens) or adult hens saves you the work of incubating and brooding chicks, and gives you a flock that’s already laying or on the verge. It also guarantees that you’ll get all female birds, if that’s your goal.

Factors to consider when deciding between incubation, chicks, or older birds:

• Are you allowed to keep roosters? Are you willing to process roosters if needed?
• What’s your comfort level and capacity for incubation or raising chicks?
• What’s available for you to purchase online or locally?
• What’s in your budget?

Where Do I Buy Backyard Chickens?

You have several options for sourcing your new flock: large mail order hatcheries, Tractor Supply or a local feed store, or from small scale breeders. Here are the pros and cons (as we see it) for each:

Mail order hatcheries

Pros:

• Convenience: large hatcheries have a lot of breed choices, and it’s usually easy to order birds for exactly when you want them
• Affordability: Day old chicks from hatcheries generally cost far less than those from small scale breeders

Cons:

• Day-old chicks will have to go through the shipping process
• If the Standard of Perfection is important to you, note that large scale hatcheries don’t breed with the same attention to the SOP that small-scale breeders often do
• Large scale hatcheries practice chick culling
• Often only have day-old chicks, no pullets or hatching eggs

Feed stores

Pros:

• Convenient, but limited breed choices
• Affordable

Cons:

• Birds come from large scale hatcheries to the feed stores (usually), so will have the same issues with SOP and chick culling
• Day-old chicks only

Small scale breeders

Pros: 

• Breeding flocks are typically given far better treatment than you’ll find at large scale hatcheries, including pasture access
• Small scale breeders are more likely to be breeding to the Standard of Perfection, for health and temperament, and even for egg color goals. You can reach out directly to see if a breeder’s priorities align with your goals.
• More likely to offer hatching eggs and pullets
• Typically offer straight-run only (no chick culling)
• Choosing a local breeder allows you to get chicks without shipping!

Cons:

• Costs typically higher than other options
• Most breeders only work with a handful of breeds at most
• Limited availability, sometimes sell out fast

Tips for Buying from Small Scale Chicken Breeders

If you’re interested in purchasing from a small scale breeder, here are some things to look for:
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Are they NPIP participants?

NPIP (National Poultry Improvement Plan) is a government program created in the 1930’s to prevent the spread of poultry diseases, and is a requirement for shipping hatching eggs or live poultry across state lines. Breeders often list their NPIP number on their website. You can also confirm a breeder’s participation on this website.

Do they breed to the Standard of Perfection?

The Standard of Perfection describes the desired appearance, coloring, and temperament for each breed, and while these details may not matter to you if you just want a lot of eggs, breeding to the Standard is a best practice and an indication of a dedicated, quality breeder.

What are their biosecurity practices?

When breeders protect their flock with good biosecurity practices, that means your flock (those chicks and eggs you’re ordering!) will be protected too. One sign of a good biosecurity plan in place: you won’t be allowed to visit the farm and see the flocks. Avian diseases travel easily on shoe soles and tire treads, so limiting traffic to the farm is a great way to practice biosecurity. 

If the above information isn’t on a breeder’s website, just ask!

Here are two small scale breeders that we highly recommend (check out The Flock Directory for even more options):

Alchemist Farm in California
Open Gate Poultry in Massachusetts

We hope this post helps you navigate the first steps of creating your own backyard chicken flock!

For information on how to hatch and raise chicks, check out our Complete Chick Guide.​