Q&A for How to Raise Chickens for Eggs

No. Sand and grit are not the same. Grit is more like tiny rocks that chickens need to help digest their food.

If you want a dozen eggs a week, then around 4 chickens is good, but you can start with fewer chickens if you don't need that many eggs.

Chicks require a heat lamp during the winter, and so do the hens if temperatures get too low. Avoid letting the chickens out into the snow as this can cause frostbite. Supplement them with a chicken scratch, too.

No. The only time a rooster is usually handy is to protect the flock and fertilise the eggs. Hens will lay year-round without a rooster around. A rooster will not affect the hens laying.

You can purchase fake eggs online or from certain poultry stores to encourage egg laying. You can also try golf balls.

You could reinforce your coop. Add more bedding, a heat lamp or insulation.

No. If their talons feel or look too long or sharp, you can simply give them a trim. The same goes with rooster spurs.

Chickens need 4 square feet per chicken in their coop and 8 square feet each in the run. It's up to you how much space you have/are willing to give them. The measurements are a rule of thumb, by the way.

It helps strengthen their beaks so they will be able to eat well and remain healthy.

Paper isn't digestible for any animals. Do not feed your animals paper.

There isn't really a way to tell for sure. However, if a hen or rooster is seen sitting on the eggs, they have very likely been fertilized.

It is totally normal to have that. It's just a bit of membrane or blood, and can be eaten safely.

Your chickens have to have salmonella for the eggs to be contaminated. If your chickens appear healthy, you should be just fine. I believe there is a test if you'd like to pay for it. You could ask your veterinarian.

It doesn't matter. You can eat fertilized eggs, but unless you have a rooster in with the hens, the eggs are unfertilized.

A lime solution can be used when cleaning the coop, however vinegar might be more effective. You can still have both in one solution though. Diatomaceous earth is a great and natural solution in discouraging mites and lice.

Unless you have seen your hens chuck the eggs out, it's safe to say that this ''egg-tossing'' ritual may simply be an accident by your chickens. When they lay, they might be pointing their tail out over the nest instead of inside the nest, or simply accidentally knocking them out. Even if it's purposely done, you can avoid this by installing a ''lip'' to each nest box or making the box deeper to make it harder for your chickens to roll the eggs out of the nest.

Yes, but you will have a better shot with small, local grocers.

You could buy them from a hatchery that ships chicks. A really good hatchery that ships nationwide is Murray McMurray Hatchery. Just go to its website.

A few tips are to provide your birds with plenty of shade, cool water, a frozen water bottle in their run, incorporate a mister and ensure they have a ventilated coop.

You don't require a compost pile when raising chickens. However, composting is good for the environment because it quickly and locally recycles organic waste. Chicken waste can be added to compost to increase its usefulness as a fertilizer, because it contains nutrients that plants need to grow.

As soon as the chickens mature, they are ready to be slaughtered. Or you can grow them up a bit more.

Australorps, Rhode Island Reds, Barred Plymouth Rocks, Buff Opringtons and Isa Browns are all large and popular chicken breeds that have the highest egg laying production and some even the longest. Buff Orpingtons tend to lay very large eggs and are large, fluffy chickens that can be culled for meat, too.

It may have been the weather or diet of your chickens. During the colder months, such as winter, hens tend to lay less eggs. If your chicken is suffering from malnutrition, it will also stop laying. Provide your hen with nesting boxes and materials, calcium content and try artificial lighting too.

Pullets begin to lay eggs at the average of 6 months of age. Their laying cycle may be a bit unsteady when they first start laying, which is normal. You can help them when they lay their first egg by switching them to a layer pellet feed, which increases their calcium intake.

If you have a rooster, it is possible that the eggs are fertilized, but if you collect eggs daily then the eggs won't have a chance to start developing embryos. You will need to put them in a cool area such as your refrigerator. They will not hatch if such precautions are taken.

Gloves are just a way to stay sanitary. This isn't a rule of thumb, however, as chickens are sanitary birds that rarely transmit diseases to humans.

Your hens might be missing lacking calcium. You can add crushed eggshells or oyster shells to their feed, or consult your vet.

Possibly if they're kept healthily considering frost can stop a hen from laying. However, they will still go through a molting period.

Chicks can only accurately be sexed by a professional chick sexer. Other than that, there is no proper way to determine whether they're roosters or hens. If you want to know more about determining the sex of a chicken, try reading this wikiHow article .

Yes, as they develop into twins. But it's quite difficult for the survival of the chicks, especially hatching out of the egg. There are very few success stories.