oh be aware chickens can live along time we had one that was 13 when she died
I love having a variety of chickens, but some are better layers than others and some are friendlier. I found Buff Orpingtons to be especially friendly. (Ours loved my husband and would run after him…who would have thought I’d be laughing at two blond chicks chasing my husband?) Our Ameraucana was incredibly sweet and would fly up into my arms to be held. She also tagged along after our ancient, blind, toy poodle, waiting for him to squat and using him as her canine Pez dispenser.
As far as buyer appeal, the dark brown eggs of various Marans and Wellsummers are very popular. The egg itself is no different, but people tend to equate dark eggs with better nutrition.
Your chickens will most definitely attack your garden plants, both edible and ornamental, and they will travel to do it. I had one hen who would jump in the air to pick raspberries. Established shrubs and perennials are in less danger, but I would put a fence around any edibles and nursery beds.
One of my pony geldings is besotted with HIS chickens. We put the coop and run between two corrals so that we only had to add one fence line, and he would stand with his head at their level gazing at them. We let the chickens free range during the day, but one day I came out to find Mingus, my gelding, terribly upset, wild-eyed and running the fence line. As I got closer, I saw a pile of feathers on the ground, and the story was clear.
Another horse, my miniature colt, rounds up the chickens. He will slide and spin and perform like a trained reining horse to move the hens where he wants them to go.
One last thing: Be very careful of roosters around your kids. Our first two chickens were Polish bantams, a hen and rooster. The hen was sweet, but the rooster was a holy terror. Wait, that’s too nice of a term. He was a homicidal maniac. This tiny velociraptor would fly from clear across the property, triple talons glinting in the sun, just to rip open my legs. I’m patient and put up with this for a while, but we finally decided he was unsafe. We ended up taking him to our feed store’s giveaway cage — what I called the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Rooster Rehoming Program. I hope he tasted good. After that, we got Russell Crowe, the accidental rooster (we were told he was a hen, but soon his gender became obvious) who embodied the soul of a Labrador Retriever, so not all roosters are bad. But the bad ones can inflict a lot of pain.
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AND …
heavier breeds can be easier to deal with. One day, the store had three of these gals:
https://www.cacklehatchery.com/silver-duckwing-phoenix-chicks.html
I thought they looked cool and took them home. But there’s a reason that Silver Duckwing Phoenix chickens are a rare breed. Once they were integrated with the flock, I let them out with everyone else for roaming
and found out that they can fly. :yes: Right up on the roof of the house.
More than once, I was squirting the hose at them to get them down off the roof, while they look down at me wondering what my problem was.
They went back to the store, and I bought some more substantially built ladies to replace them.
I’d have to measure the kennel. Very tall, I’m guessing 8’ tall and 5x10.’ I think it is narrow enough they can’t get a good run to get over it.
My buff Orphingtons were my friendliest hens, but they always got broodie and would then break and eat eggs–which is the last thing you want someone doing in the hen house. I probably won’t get another after this last one passes. They are a very friendly bird for kids though.
I like my Easter eggers, although they are an assortment of ugly. The Rhode Islands and various production reds (Isla brown, etc.) produce the most eggs. One of my production hens is super social, the rest not so much. Silver laced Wyandottes are pretty, as are my various all-black hens (Australorps, Maran, etc). I’d really like to find another light Brahma, but Mallory was rather stupid for a chicken and succumbed to wild animals as predicted. I always called her hawk-bait. But she was fun to watch.
I have to be careful to select birds that tolerate extremely cold temperature well. Nothing with a huge comb.
I have a mixed batch - the Easter Egger, Golden Comet, Golden Laced Wyandotte and Black Australorp are consisent layers (but the EE has taken a couple of breaks). The Cuckoo Marans is a very inconsistent layer but the eggs she lays are very big. I also have a retired California White. She was an egg laying machine in her prime.
Don’t keep them IN the horse barn. They’ll invite burrowing rats, coons, etc.
Is your land flattish? Research Chicken Tractors- you can them move them around so you spread the waste and fertilize as you go, and they get fresh grass and bugs to nibble on.
When we bought our farm, two of the stalls were converted to chicken coops. They put wire mesh over the opening in the stall front (open top half) and a wire mesh over the top of the stall.
IDK if that much is required, but that is what was there when we bought it. I detest chickens, it’s all now horse stalls.
OP: vermin might not use the flap door now, but if you put chickens there I guarantee it will become a Takeout window.
Chickens need a lockable/vermin-proof door to close up the coop at night. A roosting hen is defenseless.
I was fortunate previous owners converted a metal garden shed & left behind homemade wire partitions that I setup.
It is a pleasure to have a coop I can stand up in to clean.
They also had a scaled-down screened door to the fenced yard that is reinforced with hardware cloth so I can leave it open on hot nights.
I fenced the yard with chicken wire & while nothing has reached through, a raccoon did climb in one night & got one of my hens since I had forgotten to latch the screen that night.
I know it was a coon, because the SOB decapitated the hen & left the body :mad:
The poster who said freeranging hens are hawksmart is right.
When I had a rooster he had a special Hawk Alert noise - like a rusty hinge - & when he was gone I heard one of my hens making the same noise - translated to: Get Under something!
Roosters are a gamble.
Friend had a HUGE Ameraucana with spurs at least 5" long, who you could carry around like a stuffed toy.
I got a chick from her who became a very handsome rooster, but when he hit puberty - around 1yr - he became a nasty Protector of Hens. Regularly flew at me, spurs outstretched & flogged with his wings.
He was on his way to rehoming when a fox got him. He was pretty torn up, so died defending his girls.
My friendliest hen was a Houdan - not much of a layer, she considered eggs a gift, not an obligation - but always begged to have me pick her up & carry her around. Fox got her too 
My Delawares were pretty friendly, the Black Stars not so much.
I have mutts now - some sort of Barred Rock cross - mostly boring white with a few black feathers here & there.
they are sociable to me - the Giver of Treats - but not petlike friendly.
But they are good layers.
Resurrecting this old thread- @fordtraktor did you ever end up converting the stall in the barn for chickens or build a separate structure for them? I’m contemplating converting an empty area in my barn for chickens and wondering how it turned out.
I have a stall in my horse barn that’s for chickens. The main flock lives in a separate coop, but I use the stall for grow outs and smaller breeding groups. It’s split into three smaller “stalls” and an aisle, so there are really four separate spaces. The stall has direct access to outside via a dutch door, and that space is now covered with hardware mesh. The front stall grill is covered with wire, and the top has chicken wire. At night, I close the bottom dutch door and the large barn door on that side of the barn. If something really wanted in, it could happen–it’s not 100% predator proof, like the coop, but they’d have to come from the other end of the barn, down the aisle.
I usually let those chickens out to free range while I’m outside working in the barn.
It’s worked very well for my purposes.
Hey! I actually ended up finding a 6 by 10 shed on Craigslist for $400, so went that direction. after losing quite a few free range chickens to a fox, we built a fully enclosed Chicken Palace for them to go outside in, with limestone screenings as the footing. Go big or go home, I guess! We have 16 chickens now (some in the Chicken Palace and some in the tractor I mentioned initially, which we fixed up.)
After raising baby chicks in my house, I would not recommend chickens in the barn. They are SO DUSTY.
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They are super dusty and like to wallow out sears for dust baths. They are also messy eaters which invites flies and mice.
I have 2 coops near my barn, but NOT in it.
I actually don’t find my barn birds dusty? Maybe it’s the bedding. I don’t use shavings, I use the same pellets that I keep the horses on. There’s also a ton of airflow, with the door to the outside, the front grill, and the high ceiling.
Cleaning with regularity addresses the potential fly problem. Using mosquito dunks in the water also help with that.
The biggest PITA for me is that the boys are LOUD in the barn. LOOOOOUD. Can really be something when the farrier or vet is there. I’ll often tie out any barn cock birds just so they’re a little further away for appointments.
lol. This is not an issue with my chickens, but my boys’ mini donkey is LOOOOUUUUDDDD too!
I bedded the chicks on shavings, so maybe that was it. their coop isn’t bad as we clean it regularly and I use straw in there, which I like much better.
😂😂😂😂
Definitely don’t keep chickens in the barn… Roosters in a screaming match with the donkey would be a whole nother level of ear splitting!
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:lol::lol: No roosters allowed in my town so no worries of crowing/braying battles there (though we do have a mini donkey jenny! She only brays when my horse is away from her though)
Lots to consider, thanks! Still thinking on it…it’s a big barn with good ventilation and airflow and I plan to put poop boards under the roost bars with sweet pdz and clean daily or every other day…so maybe won’t be too bad?? Straw is definitely another possible option over pellets or shavings!
Are your stalls snake proof? Rat and mice proof? Chickens are messy eaters…
”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹This is the second time you’ve said this. I DON’T find my chickens to be messy eaters, honestly. They do a very thorough job cleaning up under the feeders, to the point of scratching bedding away there so they can pick up any stray fallen pieces.
If your chickens waste a lot of feed, maybe investigate different feeders, or hang them higher, or try a different kind of feed?
FWIW, I use the red and white hanging feeders available at any Tractor Supply, hang them at about chicken back level, and feed Naturewise crumbles. No complaints. No wasted feed.
Agree with @Simkie I have had as many as 7 hens in a smallish coop - repurposed garden shed - and have no problem with them making a mess by the feeder.
I use an old galvanized hanging feeder (holds about 20# feed), hung at their back height, like she suggests.
I feed pelleted feed, maybe they would be messier with crumbles?
Hens & current rooster are very neat eating from the feeder - any stray pellet that lands out of the feeder is quickly retrieved.
Not presently, the area I’m considering is right now an open storage area. I would modify it accordingly if I decide to turn it into a chicken area.
