A Beginner’s Guide to Backyard Chickens

There’s no single way to raise backyard chickens, but this comprehensive guide will help get you started, and provide some fresh tips if your flock is already established. From chicken coop recommendations to first aid, expenses and even which types of chicks to consider and where to buy them, The New York Times’s Wirecutter has collected expert recommendations in “The Best Chicken Coop and Accessories”. Among the experts consulted are Michelle Hawkins, VMD, DABVP (Avian Practice), an avian specialist and professor of companion avian and exotic animal medicine and surgery at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine who treats backyard chickens at the veterinary hospital and Maurice Pitesky, DVM, MPVM and DACVPM with a faculty appointment in poultry health and food safety epidemiology.

The Best Chicken Coop and Accessories by Jackie Reeve, Wirecutter, May 26, 2021