Before you purchase your chickens make sure you have organised:
- A comfortable hen house or chook tractor for them to sleep in at night.
- A chicken run, secure from foxes.
- Food hopper
- Hanging water container
- Shell grit tray
- Container to put their kitchen scraps and greens into, out of their own poo.
- (optional) a container to put their morning mash into.
- Straw or other comfortable bedding and to line their laying box
- Chicken food, either pellets or kibble.
- Shell Grit
- Diatamaceous Earth, and lime, for dusting perches and the coup for mites. Pop a half teaspoon of daitamaceous earth into their mash as well.
- A dustbath, for example a covered kitty litter tray filled with sand, until they are old enough to go out and forage beyond their coop.
Planting up in readiness for your chickens
It is a good idea to also begin establishing some varieties of plants with medicinal properties for chickens in or near their coop and free range areas.
Such species include: lavander, rosemary and wormwood to deter mites and lice, rhubarb, thyme, nastursiums, fennel, dill, dandelions, echinacea, garlic, nettles, parsley.
Many weedy plants are excellent food for your chickens. Put those weeds to good use!
Selecting and Buying your Backyard Chickens
Choose an appropriate breed for your backyard. I like to keep a heritage breed, so that you are helping to maintain a diverse genetic poultry gene pool alive and well. The next decision to make is whether you want full sized hens, or bantams, or a mixed flock of both full sized birds and bantams. Bantams are lighter and will make less of a mess scratching around your yard, if this is an issue, or your garden is small. They also make lovely pets for children, especially if you buy small pullets that they can regularly handle and bond with. Standard sized birds make equally good pets for older childern, but don't expect older birds to be trained to be picked up and handled easily!
Some terrific Backyard Breeds

My personal favourites.
They are a dual purpose heavy (feathered) breed, thus good for cold climates, laying eggs and even eating!
Available in both standard and bantam sizes.
The gold and silver laced birds are particularly beautiful.
They have a lovely temperament and are hopeless flyers, so are unlikely to stray from your backyard. They will lay well for many years. However they will stop laying during their moult and until days begin to lenghthen after the winter solstice.

My friend Dora loves her Barnevelders. They lay almost throughout the entire winter. However the breed has a reputation for hiding its eggs.
Available in both standard and bantam sizes.
They are gentle, friendly birds and prolific layers of brown, speckled eggs, over a long period, though do have a dormant period whilst recovering from their annual moult.

The Australorp, as its name suggests, is the only chicken breed to have been developed in Australia.
Available in both standard and bantam sizes.
Black plumage has a lovely green, to blue and purple sheen.
Highly prolific layers that have broken many world laying records.
They are gentle birds but can be a little aloof.

Reputedly the friendliest chicken if you are seeking an excellent childern's pet. Silkies have long silky feathers.
Bantam size only.
Silkies lay approximately 3 eggs a week.
They are known for going broody and being exceptional mothers so are terrific for putting an egg set from other breeds under, when broody.
Their flesh is uniquely blue and they make excellent eating!

Another lovely docile breed for backyards is the Sussex.
They are available as standard or bantams and come in a wider range of colours than just the light Sussex, pictured here.
They are excellent layers and good eating!
- Orphingtons
- Rhode Island Reds
- Plymoth Rocks
- Leghorns
- Favouroles
- Isa Browns (excellent layers even over winter but very short lived)
- Araucaunas
- Old English and Domestic Game Birds
How Many Chickens Should I buy?
Chickens naturally live in flocks and establish a pecking order.
A sole chicken, or even two will not make for a happy flock for those reasons.
Your chickens will bond with both you and your backyard very quickly, unless you select a breed that prefers to range over a wide area and roost in trees. This may be great if you live on a large acreage or farm, but is not appropriate for urban settings.
For backyard chicken keeping 3-5 birds from any of the recommended breeds above is the ideal number.
Check local Council Bylaws to make sure you are able to keep chickens, rooster bans and permitted numbers.
Egg sets, pullets or mature chickens; which is best for you?
The cheapest way of aquiring some pure breed heritage chickens will definately be to hatch your own.
That said, you will need to purchase an incubator, the eggs will need to be turned regularly until hatching time and you have no guarantee that they will not all turn out to be cockerils rather than pullets!
Personally, I would leave incubating eggs and caring for newly hatched chickens to more experienced poultry keepers.
Be very careful if buying older birds. You may get caught like my nephew did, with hens that are too old to lay.
However you may also be able to purchase birds not up to show standards from a poultry fancier, wishing to cull some of his younger birds for very reasonable prices.
Personally I prefer to purchase young pullets, so that they bond both with me and my backyard. There is some risk you may end up with a cockeril or two, when buying heritage breeds as they are slow maturers in comparison to modern hybrids!
Some poultry outlets will exchange any that prove to be cockerils. Otherwise you can look forward to a yummy chicken dinner, or offer your cockeril to breeders of your chosen heritage breed, to increase the gene pool of their own flock, or even show them, should they be shining examples of breed standards.
The day you bring your chickens home and things to check as they grow up:
- Keep your chickens inside your chicken coop until they have settled into your backyard and in the case of very young pullets, old enough to not be easy prey for larger birds or cats.
- Introduce your new chickens to other family pets under supervision. Dogs should be kept on leads until used to their new family members. Keep your chickens secure until family dogs can be trusted with them!
- Ensure your chickens go into the shelter of their chicken house by nightfall, if not you will need to pick them up and physically put them inside, where it is warm, sheltered and safe. It is easy to do this as chickens sleep very soundly!
- As pullets get older they will naturally begin to use their perch. If not you may need to help them to do this once they are fully fledged in their adult feathers.
- Chickens naturally head for their chicken coop at night, so you should never have to chase them around to get them into the coop. However, if they get used to you feeding them in their and you need to lock them up early for some reason, they will co-operatively go into their ight enclosure to be fed during the day. It is worth training them to be fed only in their coop from day one, for this reason!