I have never raised chickens, but my annoying dumbass niggerfaggot of a neighbor does.

He decided that in order to have chickens lay eggs he need to get a loud fucking rooster to all fuck with 'em. I can hear that damn thing 1/8 of a mile away and my other cool neighbor makes fun of it. Well you don't need a goddamn annoying fucking rooster to lay unfertilized eggs. The chickens menstruate eggs on their own.

What a fucking cocksucking niggerfaggot.

Chickens like vegetable and fruit scraps. Used to go crazy for cherry tomatoes. Then they shit out the seeds and we had cherry tomatoes growing

If you live in a northern state, you may need to consider supplemental heat.

I live in Alaska, and found that a de-icer cable normally used for roofs works great when put under the coop & run along the underside of the nesting boxes (mine stick out from the sides for easier egg collection).

They lay in the morning between 5AM and 10AM, so you might need to check a couple time.

My coop had a poop tray that I pulled out and sprayed off with hose every morning.

I had a couple wooden eggs in the coop, for a couple reasons. One, they knew where to lay. Two, they stopped pecking their eggs.

They need calcium supplements in their diet.

Watch out for mites.

They scratch the hell out of the yards, and make large bare patches, and love to bath in dusty dirt.

They LOVE worms. You can get dried worms from the store, and they go nuts.

They can jump about 5 feet off the ground.

I'll keep it simple for you.

They prefer a comfy spot out of the wind and rain to lay eggs

They like to sleep on a stick just like a big ass parrot also out of the wind and rain.

Keep them in the coop the first few months. Let them out eventually and lure them back in the coop in the evening with food. They love people left overs meat especially.

Chickens will never run away if you raise them from chicks predators will eat them if you don't secure them at night and hawks might get them in the day.

Unless you're raising chickens for a living just them out.

Yes, the hens need nesting boxes. Box should be about chest high, large enough for hen to easily turn around in and have a thresh hold to keep bedding inside. Mature hens lay an egg every other day.

Good to start with chicks and have a heat lamp about a foot off the ground. You can buy chick crumbles from feed store. Chicks love noodles and spaghetti. For small chicks cut it up in bits. Keep the chicks in the coop until they are the size of a crow.

Sorted chicks will be mostly hens. You can also get sorted male rejects for cheap to raise for meat. The rejects will be from many breeds with some great keepers as they mature. The rest can be used for food.

Selecting a good rooster: First, you need to cull dude roosters as they mature. Bad roosters are the ones that get ganged up on. Trust me, the other roosters have good instincts on who to eject. I segregated one outcast just out of pity. He was incredibly bad at chicken politics. He never could figure out how to mate or defend himself.

A good rooster will flirt with the hens and offer them food. He will call to them when he catches a tasty bug. A rooster that attacks hens or stands on top of a food pile and drives hens away while gorging himself will certainly get large and meaty so I let one do just that for a time. He ended up at a large party as special guest. Another huge rooster got even bigger but was selfish and got cock blocked constantly by a smaller and smarter rival. He ended up going to another backyard feast. His rival protected the hens and herded them around while always making sure they got fed. A real horndog and the hens seemed to enjoy getting serviced. He was never rough with the hens.

Yes, chickens are great bug catchers. Bugs like crickets and roaches became rare. Even tiny antd were targets.

Downside: If you want a lawn they love eating grass but damage the edges of a lawn by digging out dust baths. For areas you wish to protect you can staple chicken wire over the dirt. The chickens can't get through thick established lawn thatch so I had no problems there. Newly seeded areas I had to protect with chicken wire.

I have a coop and enclosed run, and the chickens are much happier when I let them run around the yard. They do poop everywhere though, but iyou can often just rake it into the grass.

Have a plan for the poop. I use dry leaves as floor covering in the coop and scoop it out every week or two to remove the poop. I compost (and give away some) and the leaves (or wood shavings too) are needed to get a good product.

So much poop. Seriously. It doesn't seem like much at first, but after a year of keeping them locked in a coop/run you'll start worrying what to do with it all. Don't just make a pile in the corner of your yard near the neighbor's house. It will stink badly.

Make the coop serviceable so the eggs are easy to get and it is easy to clean.

Feed the chicks good feed and you will have the best eggs you have ever eaten and more than you know what to do with.

Comment for interest as well.