Back Yard Chickens - OT

Anyone here raise chickens in your back yard? I used to have a few friends on here that raised chickens but have not seen them here in a while?

I really just want friendly chickens that are good layers. I want then to be good pets. They won't just be put in the back yard and left alone.

Any info would be appreciated. I have utubed and googles and all that but would like some pointers from people that have BTDT.

We are wanting to make a chicken tractor. I want no more than 3 or 4 chickens.

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I am a bit of a bird nerd and

I am a bit of a bird nerd and have a flock. Feel free to pm me.

We have back yard chickens,

We have back yard chickens, we have a fenced back yard that we let them out in every few days, but not a chicken tractor.

Few thoughts from my experience:

1. Rhode island reds are the friendliest while being awesome layers

2. If you literally want to be able to pet them and pick them up, you need to get baby chicks and handle them EVERY day to get them used to you

3. If they will ever be out in the open outside, the more chickens the better...we used to only keep 4-6 chickens, but any time we let them out in the yard they'd get plucked off by hawks, racoons, etc. We now have 8 (intentionally more because we figured they haven't been lasting long) and this is the longest we haven't had a missing/dead one. I think it's the "safer in numbers" concept

4. If you do let them out to freely run around during the day, they will crap ALL OVER the place, including your back porch, it's not ideal

Let me know if you have any specific questions!