Below is a list of my favorite products that I use for my backyard chickens. I use all these products and recommend them to other backyard chicken keepers. I’ve included links to posts where I talk about some of these products in more detail.
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Chicken Housing
I use both the coop and run from OverEZ. They are relatively easy to put together and have worked great for my chickens.
OverEZ Large Chicken Coop
The large OverEZ chicken coop is designed to hold up to 15 chickens and comes with 2 roosting bars and 5 nesting boxes. It’s made of solid wood and has a metal roof with a radiant barrier in the ceiling to help keep the chickens cool.
My first chicken coop was a DIY disaster. After a few months of using that coop, Steven and I splurged and bought this chicken coop kit. We’ve been very pleased with this coop and found it straightforward to assemble.
When we bought the coop it was on backorder, so it took a few weeks to get delivered. Take that timing into account if you are needing something soon (although I suggest getting your coop ready before you get chickens).
Check out my blog post where I reviewed this chicken coop.
OverEZ Walk-In 16 ft Chicken Run
This chicken run attaches to the OverEZ chicken coop perfectly. It’s made of steel and is a secure place for my chickens to spend the day while I’m at work.
The run is tall enough for me to walk around inside without ducking; however, the header above the door is low and I’ve hit my head several times.
The door swings into the run but will not fully swing out. This might not matter much to most people but was something that we noticed.
The OverEZ chicken run was more difficult to assemble than the chicken coop. It took 3 people a few hours to assemble the run.
Check out my blog post where I reviewed this chicken run.
Supplies for Chicks
When you start out with chickens, there are a few items that are necessary for raising chicks to ensure they are able to grow up healthy.
Beginner Poultry Kit
We used this beginner kit for our chicks. It made things easy for us since it came with just about everything you need to get started with baby chickens.
The one thing I wish they would have included in this kit is a thermometer. Maintaining the correct temperature for your chicks is very important. We bought a thermometer separately, but it would have been great if this kit included one of those thermometers that is specific for chickens and indicates the appropriate temperature at each age in weeks.
Nesting Box Supplies
By taking care of your nesting box, you are helping your chickens lay cleaner eggs and with less breakage.
Chicken Nesting Pads
Before I found these nesting pads, I used pine shavings in the nesting boxes. The chickens would kick the shavings out of the nest boxes and eggs would end up cracked since they didn’t have a soft landing place.
After I added these nesting pads to the boxes, I saw a decrease in the number of cracked eggs. I still get some eggs that are cracked, but the number has definitely dropped.
It didn’t take long for the chickens to get used to these pads and I have not noticed them trying to remove them from the boxes. Overall, I’ve been very pleased with these pads.
The package comes with 10 nesting pads and I change them out every 3 months. You can get a discount by using Subscribe & Save on Amazon. Alternatively, you can buy these same nesting pads at Chewy.com.
I talk more about these nesting pads in this post.
Feeders & Waterers
A good feeder and waterer is essential for raising backyard chickens. Spend some time considering which one will work best for your flock and your coop set-up. Check out this post where I explain the different types of feeders for chickens at certain ages.
Hanging Feeder
This hanging tube feeder is pretty basic but I’m recommending it because it works great for my chicken set-up.
I have a carabiner attached to a rope that hangs from the top of the chicken run. Every morning I will attach this feeder to the carabiner and let the chickens out of the coop. With this feeder hanging about “shoulder” height to my chickens, they are not able to kick bedding or poop into their food. They are also not able to scratch out the feed onto the ground, resulting in less waste and a cleaner run.
My 10 chickens are all able to eat from this feeder at the same time.
Hanging Waterer
We use a hanging waterer that holds several gallons of water to make sure our chickens have plenty of water throughout the day. During the summer, we refill this waterer with fresh water every morning and by the end of the day it’s mostly empty.
I like this waterer because it keeps the water mostly clean since the chickens can’t kick bedding into the water. The chickens also can’t get on top of the waterer and poop into it since it has a closed top. You refill the waterer by unscrewing the base at the bottom when the waterer is turned upside down.
Similar to the hanging feeder, we hang this waterer from the chicken run using a carabiner attached to a rope that hangs from the top of the chicken run.
Since this waterer is plastic, it will be prone to crack after spending time in the sun. However, your chickens will not want to drink hot water so by keeping this waterer in the shade you are keeping your chickens happy and hydrated, while also extending the life of this waterer.
Waterer Nipples
We started using these waterer nipples when our chicks transitioned from the brooder to the coop. We got our most friendly chick, Miss Kay, to use the nipples and the other chickens quickly followed her example.
I like these waterer nipples because they are easy to install on a 5 gallon bucket, are easy to keep clean, and the whole set-up prevents chickens from getting the water dirty.
The chickens prefer to drink water out of a plastic tote that we keep in their run, but they will drink from these nipples when they are in the coop.
Supplements
In some cases, chicken feed does not provide all the nutrients that a chicken requires so their diet must be supplemented.
Grit with Probiotic
I recommend this grit for chicks and chickens that spend most of their day in a run.
Chickens don’t have teeth, so they use grit in their gizzards to break apart food pieces for digestion. This grit contains a probiotic which helps prevent digestive issues, like sour crop.
I offer this grit as free choice to my chickens in a separate feeder.
I wrote about the natural diet of chickens, including why grit is important and how it serves as a chicken’s teeth, in this post.
Electrolytes
During the summer months, we use this electrolyte solution for the chickens nearly every day.
I highly recommend electrolytes for chickens that live in hot and/or humid climates (Texas, California, Arizona, etc.).
I also recommend electrolytes for areas that don’t normally get hot but experience unseasonably hot weather, like a random heat wave. The first very hot day of the year can be the hardest on your chickens so make sure you have this solution ready to go before then.
We add this electrolyte solution to the hanging waterer in the chicken run and offer fresh water in the 5 gallon bucket with waterer nipples. Some chickens might not initially like the taste of the electrolyte solution, so be sure to offer a secondary water source just in case.
Egg Collection Supplies
If you have hens, then you will have a lot of eggs (hopefully!). Look at my blog section that has everything you ever wanted to know about eggs.
Egg Collection Basket
This is a cute and functional wire basket that I use for collecting eggs from the chicken coop. I wanted something that looked traditional and would last for a long time. This basket can easily hold 3 dozen eggs without fear of the ones on the bottom breaking.
The only downside is that this basket is made in China. At the time I was shopping for an egg basket I couldn’t find anything similar that was made in the US.
The black version of this basket has been unavailable for purchase on Amazon, so I would suggest the red version of the egg basket. It has similar features, just in a different color.
Check out this post to find out why it’s important to collect eggs every day.
Bulk Package of Egg Cartons
When my chickens started laying eggs, I couldn’t keep up with storing their eggs. I quickly ran out of the egg cartons I had been saving and then started storing the eggs in boxes.
A better alternative was when I found that I could buy egg cartons in bulk (qty 250). That’s a lot of egg cartons but every time I went to buy them at Tractor Supply, they were out of stock. If you have local chicken keeper friends, you can go in together to buy these to reduce the cost you have to pay for so many cartons.
These are legit egg cartons and work great if you are selling eggs. The one drawback to these cartons is that there is so much writing on the carton. I could do without the instructions indicating to “keep refrigerated” since I don’t wash my eggs prior to placing in the cartons, which means they technically don’t need to be refrigerated.
Check out this post about washing vs. not washing fresh eggs to understand why I don’t wash my eggs.
