Backyard Chickens....

I've got a small amount. 3 hens.

Clean up the coop as much as you can. Make sure they are secure from wild critters (bury the fences for the run/coop so things don't dig their way in).

If it is really backyard chickens and you're not planning on selling eggs, think of them as pets that give you eggs more than a money saver. Unless you've got a lot and you need a lot of eggs, you aren't saving much of anything besides a trip to the store.

Other than that, enjoy. We enjoy ours. They're fun little things to have around.

I also will point out, we do everything pretty low tech and we've had good results with it. We have two golden comets and one leghorn. All are very hardy, have never molted, and produce eggs very consistently all year round.

My parents one block over, have 4 Rhode island reds and they seem to have a revolving door of molting, low production, and pesky behavior (eating their garden plants). They have heaters, fancy waterers/feeders, more overall space for the run and coop, and yet ours in our small space and small coop do just fine. We try to let ours out in the yard as much as we can, but it's not like its a huge piece of property.

"think of them as pets"

My wife loves animals. If it were up to her we would have chickens, goats, a cow and who knows what else.

I told her that I'd agree to chickens if she agreed that she would not take them to the vet if something was wrong.

Sooo, we don't have chickens, goats, cows, pigs...

I’ve got a bunch. Fresh eggs coming out of my ears. Can’t imagine people keeping them, “in town”, unless you dislike your neighbors. 

Mine make some noise, but not all that much. Town ordinance doesn't allow for roosters kept at residential property, so that helps keep noise down, obviously.

It helps that one neighbor also has chickens, the bad thing is she also has ducks and those f'ers never shut the hell up.

My wife loves them too. When we were younger she was all about nice clothes and shoes. Shit was expensive. Now that we’re older, she’s into gardening and animals. I wish she was still into clothes and shoes, it was much cheaper. 

Someone in my neighborhood put a fence around the bottom of an old trampoline and used that as their chicken coop area. It looked funny and didn't last very long not surprisingly.

My wife has always been an animal lover, it's who she is and I love her for it. However,

I'm pretty sure the purchased eggs are much cheaper than the "free" eggs would be in my case.

She once spent $300 on my daughter's hamster at the vet, but that's who she is. So I know in advance

what the chickens would cost. But having said that, I could go spend $300 on whatever makes me happy

and she would not complain at all so there is that.

My town just allowed us to have up to 5 . My wife's cousin has a bunch and keeps us loaded with eggs. She said if she gets an abundance of eggs piling up she just scrambles them and feeds them back to the chickens LoL.

It's weird...back yard roosters ALWAYS seem to draw the attention of dogs that...

East them.

chooks roost!

Had them, apparently we aren’t good chicken ranchers. I believe we didn’t allow them enough movement out of the coop. There are better ways to set up feed and water than the way we did it. We tried feed and water set ups that were commercially manufactured. I’ve seen much better set ups that are home made, much less daily work and overall cleaner water longer. 
As most people have all ready stated, cheaper to buy store bought eggs. My wife and girls wouldn’t go into the coop so that left me and the son to do it all. He moved out shortly after we got chickens so it was all me. Given my poor set up and the amount of daily work involved plus the amount of money spent to get “free” eggs, I was happy when they were gone. The eggs were awesome though, better than even the expensive store bought eggs. 

This is a funny and informative thread.

I've often longed to have a farm with animals but realize it's not like the 60's sitcom Green Acres.

 And like the guy who mentioned his wife is a animal lover that would be me as well and I don't think I could put a bullet in Arnold the pig then smoke him in a pit and eat him....😳

Got them by proxy.  Neighbor (a tenant, Hispanic) has them, free range it appears.  Has a coop, but apparently no door to it.  Can't count the number of times they've been in our yard eating bugs I guess, on the fences, on our roof.  Didn't see it but I'm guessing our scrappy little dog tried chasing them away one time.  Doesn't mess with them anymore.  Don't know enough about them to kill them or just let them be, goes for the chickens too. 

might sound a bit disgusting, but if you don't wash the eggs when you gather them, they will last much longer.

How Long Do Farm Fresh Eggs Last and How to Store Your Egg Bounty - Outdoor Happens

Grew up on a farm with a couple dozen chickens always . Hard pass on chickens now . Lol . To each their own … 

I have 2 hens, used to be 3, and 3 pullets right now. I just got done building a coop for them after getting tired of the cheap ones from tractor supply. Are you going to let them free range or are they in a run? I found out from experience that chickens are very curious and will go anywhere and get into just about everything if you don't have a big property. I free ranged mine for about a year and had to pen them up because they would end up in other people's yards and literally would hang out at this bar at the very end of the street here lmao. They would hang out in the garage when I was working on my bikes too, which seems cool but they shit non stop. Keep the coop and nesting boxes clean so you don't have dirty eggs. Keep their food in a metal trash can with a lid to keep it fresh and from mice getting to it. I built a coop big enough I can put a little heater and a fan for extreme hot and cold days. They tolerate temperatures fairly well though. You will find over time they get close to you and pretty much become pets. 

Yeah, they'll last weeks just sitting out.

We had them in Oregon. They were fun, laid lots of eggs, lost some to critters, they called in Turkeys all the time, they destroyed the backyard, they got in the house through the dog door often, but the kids and wife loved them!