My Chicken Experience

USA

Growing up my family always had some chicken.  But we never had very many maybe 15 to 40 at a time.  Most of these were hens but 2 or 3 were roosters.  Our pen was just an old shed we turned into a chicken coop.  In the pictures below you can see where I put in a set of hinging nest boxes that were given to me by a dairy farmer.  The roost next to the nest is some I made from old pieces of wood that were lying around.  We also put in a small door so the chickens could go outside and be locked in at night.  This door can be seen in the third picture.  The outside pen was surrounded by a fence to keep the chickens in and the predators out. 

This next pitcher is of the chicken coop at a distance.  As you can see there I a big window in front.  This is great for the winter time because it helps to keep the coop warm.  Sorry the picture is so far way.

This system allowed my family to have fresh eggs everyday.  Along with that we were able to sell a few eggs to the neighbors.  When the chickens would get older and there egg production would decrease we were then able to butcher them for meat.  Most of the time we would butcher the chicken ourselves.  But a few years ago when we had a larger number to butcher we started taking them to a small meat processing facility. 

From time to time we would also put guineas in with our chickens.  Below are some pictures.  The guineas made great watchdogs.  If a predator was coming they would make a loud noise.  This would either scare of the predator or warn the chickens of the predators approach. The only problem with the guineas is they could fly good enough to get out of the pen and liked to travel.  So they would come up missing.

Germany

Back in 2012 I moved to Germany to live with my boyfriend.  Here we have a medium size chicken farm with about 5000 hens in two large barns.  There is also a roosters for every 100 or so hens.  This type of chicken farming is much different then having a small farm.  Most of it is automated to make the work easier.  The water is given automatically though pipes and feed to sent in on a conveyor belt.  Chickens lay eggs in there box nests and the eggs roll down onto a conveyor belt.  This belt brings the eggs to a sorting room.  Where we use a machine to size and print a number on the eggs.  These eggs are then boxes and taken to a distributor to be put on the market.  We also have neighbors stop by to buy just a few eggs at a time.

The picture to the right is of a barn with no chickens in it yet.  You can see the nest where the red flaps are and the water comes out of the red plastic cups.  This set up also has a lot of room for the chickens to move and roost.  We do not raise the chickens from chicks another farm does that.  We get the chickens when they are about ready to start laying at about 5 to 6 months old.  Then after about a year, year and a half of laying a truck comes to pick up the chickens.  The chickens are then used for meat.
 
The great thing is we are organic.  So the chickens have a lot of room to roam around.  They also are able to go outside almost everyday unless the weather is really bad.  In this system the flocks are large but the chickens all look really healthy and happy.  This is a pretty good way to raise large flocks.  Below it a picture of the chickens enjoying the out doors.

At night I spend a little bit of time with the chickens in the barn.  I give them grain with calcium mixed in, thrown on the ground.  This allows the chickens to exhibit some picking and scratching behavior.  Once I have grained them I use my dog Clara to heard them in for the night.  This keeps the chickens safe by keeping them away from the predators at night.
This is Clara the chicken dog.  She is a 2 year old hovawart.