For those with Chickens?

 

  Wife mentioned that she's re-thinking about getting some chickens again.  We were initially thinking about them at the beginning of the year, but she changed her mind when she heard the neighbors chickens making a lot noise in the morning.
   Well a few weeks back, after returning from a farmers market and spending $$ for some eggs, she mentioned she's thinking about the birds again.
   How much trouble are they? 
  I know I have to have a Bobcat/coyote proof coop for them, (Also coon skunk and possum proof) and the occasional mountain lion proof as well) our land is primarily redwood duff,  but I'm sure they would be able to scratch up something.
  What does feed cost? Precautions during winter? Would you recommend to someone that never had farm animals to go ahead and get a few (3-maybe 4 total)
  Typically, do the hens stay near their coop?  Would I have to "Fence them in"? (Coop included?) I have about 1/2 acre (Relatively flat at the top, with slope down to creek (120' down) redwoods and a few tan oaks.
Any information will be appreciated.
 

Chickens really are very little effort. We have 5 gals. They eat a 50 pound bag of food every month, about $20. I have the coop enclosed in 8x8x6 cube of chicken wire with a corrugated tin roof and a doorway for us to use and a doorway into a shade cloth covered 30x8 fenced run. They spend all day with access to the run and after they go to bed at dusk we close them in the cube. I clean the coop weekly, about 30 minutes and it takes 5 minutes every morning to let them into the run and make sure they have food and water. We get 20-30 eggs weekly. Has slowed almost to a stop now as they are molting. I expect them to start again after December. We have plenty of small predators here, but we have had our girls for 4 yrs and have not lost any.

Give or take Andy has nailed it. 

We stretch our 50 lb bag out to 2 or more months, but supplement with chicken scratch, meal worms, apples from our trees, table scraps and bugs and grass from the yard. 

3-4 females should be easy to handle.  We haven't lost any of ours yet but it is a good possibility if you let them run loose during the day. If you have a little land it would be safer if you put them in a secure chicken house at night but put a fence around that for an added layer of security.  We use a 10x10 dog kennel they run around when we are not there but let them roam the yard if I am outside.  If you could move it across the yard they will have a blast scratching and picking new areas. 

Lots of resources on the Internet.  I think my wife belongs to a backyard chicken Facebook page. 

When ever we are home we let em roam on the back 1/2 acre. Every night close the coop to protect from the night crawlers. All you mentioned. We've lost a few. Twice forgot to close the coop. Opps! One refused to go in the coop. Nature took it's course there, one taken out by a hawk we think. Only mid day casualty. The rest wouldn't come out of the coop for days... Guess they witnessed that one... We are down to two. Biggest pain is getting them in the coop early if you have to leave, and remembering to close the coop every night. An automatic door would be the ultimate solution, but I'm not willing to spend the $ers for that option. If we know we aren't going to be around, we just leave em in the coop. When they free range, they don't eat much from the feeder. Expect an egg a day from em.

We have 13 hens which we keep in an enclosure with a wire roof. The hawks here are awesome but not when they're eating the chickens. I dug down around the perimeter about 6" and embedded 1/4" hardware cloth in the soil up to around 4'. The rest is regular 1" chicken wire. Remember that chicken wire was designed to keep chickens in and not necessarily the predators out. I learned this with our last batch of chickens. The squirrels would chew right through the chicken wire. The hardware cloth is much heavier and no issues as of yet. We supplement our feed as well with lots of table scraps and cracked corn/scratch and go through a 50lb bag of feed in about a month. Be aware that chickens can be very omnivorous and cannibalistic as well. Not only can they start eating their own eggs, but each other as well. We had to separate one hen after the rest almost ripped her head clean off.. She's now in her own run next to the others just to spite them mean bitches!!! She still gives us a huge brown egg a day too.
As for wintertime, just make sure their coop is dry and they will do just fine. Moisture in the coop can cause lots of nasty things to happen in there and chickens will get sick and die from it. Collect eggs as early as they lay, usually late morning, so they wont have a chance to start pecking them. I made some roll away boxes for this that works wonders, eggs stay clean and unmolested. Boxes only need be a bit bigger than the hen. If too big, they will start to sleep in there and shit all over the box, not good. I've seen three hens in a mailbox sized box and seemed totally content. All in all, easy birds to keep and enjoy as well. So far all I've learned is from trial and error so hit me up with any questions, I'd love to help out.

right now we have a dog and he would really ENJOY chickens. at some point we will take the plunge

Don't forget that they love scraps from when you're cleaning fish!

Don't forget that they love scraps from when you're cleaning fish!

Is that a freaking peacock!?

Don't forget that they love scraps from when you're cleaning fish!

Is that a freaking peacock!?

Yeah, they hammer fish scraps too.

 
  Thank you everyone!

I really miss having birds (various chicken breeds and Muscovy ducks). They eat almost all your table scraps and turn them into delicious, nutritious food. If you feed them fish carcasses, the eggs are great.

Where I grew up in the South, there were no zoning regs for X number of birds according to the size of the lot. My parents had a chicken coop set up in the garage (for sheltering chicks) with a fenced-in area outside behind the store for the adult birds to roam. The outside area probably measured no more than 6 feet x 30 feet for as many as 20 chickens. Always had fresh eggs daily and an occasional fresh chicken dinner. Here in Fremont, I think I would be lucky to be allowed one chicken on my typical city backyard lot.

Having chickens is a lot of fun.  They are such cool creatures! Great hunters too!  Get them as chicks and raise them up, dont get older ones.  When they are young it's fascinating to watch them grow so fast, that term night and day applies here, they grow really fast! They are also inquisitive and do really funny things, I can tell you they make me laugh all the time.  Echoing everything that everyone has said before as well, because it all happened to me too.  Do you best to protect them, but in the end there are a lot of predators out there that will eat them given the chance.