Only two things are absolutely necessary for keeping chickens—a good sturdy coop and a well-developed sense of humor! The coop will keep out predators and provide protection from the elements, and your sense of humor will let you enjoy all the silly things your chickens will do.
Deciding on what breed or breeds to have can be either very interesting or very daunting. There are several good books on poultry, as well as web sites. Suggestions on both are included at the end of this paragraph. Please consider the size, the heat/cold tolerance, and the purpose of your chickens. We have Black Australorps, a cros
s between a Buff Orpington and an Australian breed, because they are heat tolerant, sturdy, good egg layers, and cute as the dickens! Leghorns are known as great egg layers, but can also be aggressive. Bantys of any breed are darling little birds, who lay darling little eggs. Guineas will clean your yard and pasture of bugs, but drive you nuts with their constant chatter. There are “show” breeds like Silkies that are kept more as pets than for eggs (they actually need a bath every now and again—ever tried to bathe a chicken?). Do your homework and decide on a breed you like, and that will like the conditions it will live under. A bit of reading really pays off in the long run!
Suggested books:
Chickens in Your Backyard: A Beginner’s Guide by Rick and Gail Luttmann
Choosing and Keeping Chickens by Chris Graham
Suggested web sites:
Velvet Sparrow’s Chicken Information Page
Oklahoma State University has photos and descriptions of various breeds
Getting your chicks is a happy day for the chicken owner. If you must order your chicks and have them delivered through the mail, find out from the supplier when they will be sent out and notify your post office that you will be 
getting live chicks and would appreciate being notified as soon as they come in. Go pick them up from the post office so they won’t spend a half-day being jostled in a delivery van. If you can manage it at all, pick up your chicks directly from the supplier. Besides making sure that the order is correct, you get to ride home, peeking into the box to see your little fluff balls. Suppliers send an instruction sheet with the chicks, telling you what to do when you get them home. Incubating eggs and raising the chicks yourself is not recommended for first-time chicken owners. You will have enough to do without messing with an incubator!
The coop is extremely important if you want to have happy, safe chickens. There are a myriad of plans for chicken coops. Do some research and see what fits your needs and space and skill level. A purchased coop may be the answer for you. Just keep in mind that the coop needs to be covered to keep out predators; it needs a barrier around the bottom (we have chicken wire buried 12” deep with bricks on top) to keep out predators, and it needs good ventilation without being drafty. Providing warmth in cold weather and cooling in hot is important, too. We have a heat lamp that we can hang and aim toward the roost when the temperatures drop to the 20’s, and a large fan that we turn on low when the temperatures get into the 90’s. Chickens like to roost high at night, so you will need a wooden beam or rod that will accommodate your flock. Nest boxes need to be in the coop, 
and bedding of straw, hay, wood shavings or shredded paper will provide your chickens with nesting material to play with. Our chickens love to have fresh shavings in the nest boxes—they spend most of the day tossing it out!
Food and water need to be provided in sufficient quantities. Chicks are fed starter feed until they reach a certain age, and then they go on to layer feed if they are to be kept for eggs. You can free-range your chickens, but still you need to provide some commercial feed so they get the medication, minerals, and vitamins necessary to good health, in addition to the grit needed for digestion.
Chickens are heavy drinkers. You would be amazed how much water a flock goes through in a day! We have a three gallon large dog waterer (a three gallon container that flows into a reservoir) and I fill it twice a week for seven hens. Do not use a big waterer with chicks—they will fall in and drown. A shallow bowl is best for chicks. You have to fill and clean it more frequently, but the extra effort is worth it. The water needs to be clean—which isn’t easy considering the sanitary habits of chickens. However, a once-a-week thorough cleaning of the reservoir is sufficient. We use rain water on plants, but the hens get tap water that we let set out for 24 hours to dissipate the chlorine and fluoride. No, we don’t spoil our hens.
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Here’s the disclaimer: If you scream when you see an insect, this is probably not the activity for you, and you might want to look at some of our other web pages. But, if you’re curious and think it might be fun (it is), read on.
One more thing you’ll want to do before jumping into beekeeping: check with your neighbors. The girls are going to range about 2 miles, so if you have neighbors that are allergic to bee stings, or are petrified of bees (there are some people raised to be frightened of bees), you might want to figure a 
way around these problems. If you’re in an incorporated area, be sure to check the laws and see if zoning permits you to have bees. There’s no reason to get all psyched up over bees only to find out you can’t have them. Now then…
I started keeping bees in 2009, I can tell you that keeping bees is like no other hobby…something comes over you and you stop simply “doing a hobby” and begin to look after your girls and worry about them. That surprised me. They’re insects, and I’m worrying about them. That’s just the way it is!
You don't want to go into beekeeping "cold", it is specialized and has a unique language of “foundation”, “bodies”, supers”, “smokers”, “extractors” and others that can be initially intimidating. I read several books on beekeeping before deciding to get some bees. The books I found most helpful were Beekeeping for Dummies by Howland Blackiston and The Backyard Beekeeper by Kim Flottum. Both seemed to cover a wide range of topics clearly and easily.
I also had looked at several beekeeping supply catalogs before getting my bees. Don’t under estimate the value of catalogs: they’re free and it is to the advantage of the supplier to make sure you know what you’re doing. I’ve gotten clarification 
on hive construction, honey extraction, and medical treatments simply from catalogs. The last thing I got was a VHS tape of beekeeping. Nothing beats being shown the activity. And speaking of that, the Essex County Beekeepers Association has 3 really wonderful videos on You Tube that will be mentioned later. And if you really want first hand, helpful advice, there are many beekeeping discuaaion forums on the web. The folks on these forums usually try their best to answer your questions.
When you first get your package of bees and hive them, you feel like a czar of nature. You’ll be apprehensive before you start, but when you finish, with most of the bees in the hive, and no stings, your ego will be hard to control. The video on hiving bees from the Essex County Beekeepers is exactly what happens. One thing you should be prepared for is how much the new hive will need for feeding. All the books and tapes say to supplemental feed a sugar syrup (1 pound of sugar to 1 pint of water) to get them started. Well, they start fast, consuming about 2 gallons per week per hive and gradually decreasing over a 4 to 5 week period as they find natural sources. They initially eat a lot more than you might think. Af
ter all, from a package there are no eggs laid or brood to be raised. The bees are starting from scratch.
The worry is waiting for your first full hive inspection. By this time you’re confident the girls aren’t going to kill you, but you’re worried that 1 hive may be not doing as well as the other. The thrill is when you get to check the hives and find out that everything is OK. Again, the Essex County Beekeepers do a great job of showing you how to inspect a hive. As you inspect hives, expect to get stung...they're bees...they sting. If you get a little aggressive, or if they want you to go away, you'll get stung. After a dozen or so stings, I've quit swelling up like the "Michelin Man" and actually almost look normal after a stin
g. You develop a tolerance. I feel bad for the bee after I get stung because she dies, and I'm always looking for better techniques so as to not injure the girls.
Of course the reason to keep bees, aside from pollination of your gardens, is for the honey. Here's the Beekeepers' video of harvesting honey and, as usual, it's quite accurate. I used an uncapping knife that was not heated
and it worked quite well. The wax falls into a tub and the extra honey gets drained off. After draining, I place the wax near the hives for the girls to do the final cleaning and take back what they want.A friend loaned me an old extractor that I cleaned up and coated with FDA food grade epoxy, just to make sure everything was as it should be. You can see the results. We're enjoying our honey and so are our neighbors. It's only right; after all,
some of the nectar came from their flowers and vegetable blossoms.One thing that has happened: we and our neighbors are experiencing the difference in honey taste from Spring and Fall, and enjoying the discovery. This is something you don't get with the pasteurized honey in the supermarkets and is quite an added bonus.
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