The American dream frequently features a quiet little home with a white picket fence. But these traditional picket fences weren’t just decorative accents for your yard. They were originally built to keep small flocks of poultry inside the yard. America has a long history of keeping chickens, so it’s refreshing that the urban coop movement has grown in popularity.
The American Poultry Association reports that its membership has doubled since 2006. Raising backyard chickens is a rewarding hobby, but it is important to check with your local municipalities before you buy your first bird.
You need to determine how many chickens your local zoning regulations permit and how many your property can accommodate, given a ratio of roughly one bird per 10 square feet of pasture. If your city allows dogs, cats, and other small pets, then they will most likely allow bantams as pets as well. Bantams are a smaller breed of chicken and will yield smaller eggs. But once your hens start producing eggs, you may find that you’ve got too many eggs to enjoy, so smaller eggs are fun-sized little treasures.
Once you’ve decided which chickens you’d like to adopt, you must prepare a roost for your feathered friends. Texas especially can be host to many natural predators, even in the city limits like snakes, possums and even neighborhood dogs and cats. HOMEFIELD offers a variety of pest-resistant chicken coops that will keep you hens safe and sheltered.
For just a few chickens, a small chicken tractor is a perfect poultry housing solution. A chicken tractor typically combines a roosting area with a screened in run area and can be easily moved throughout your yard or acreage. The run section allows your hens access to fresh grass, weeds, bugs and vegetation while maintaining their safety via a wire perimeter.
The perfect size for up to six birds, a chicken tractor lets hens enjoy free reign of your yard while keeping protected. Hens forage for tasty bugs in their run, clearing the land as if a tractor had plowed up all the vegetation. But don’t worry, because the waste that’s left behind is an excellent fertilizer and the spot will regenerate once the chicken tractor is moved. A portable pen lets you redirect your chickens’ attention to a new track of land, rotating throughout your yard so every patch of green gets its own turn to be pruned and fertilized.
