Raising chickens can be a fun and rewarding experience, but it comes with responsibilities. This guide will help you navigate the ins and outs.
Chickens don’t only do well on farms, although if you live the farm life, you should raise a few chickens for all their benefits. Raising chickens is a wonderful experience to have under your belt and can be a lot of fun as well. If you have small children, teaching them how to care for chickens is a great lesson on hard work and animal love.
Some choose to raise chickens to show at a fair. Others raise chickens for the eggs and gardening benefits. What will you raise your chickens for?
Know why you want to have some chickens of your own in the first place and then continue reading below. Here’s our guide on raising chickens for beginners!
The Homework
Your first step is to do some homework on the area you live in. Some places allow homeowners to raise chickens while others do not. Have you looked into the restrictions for where you live?
Purchasing chickens, their care items, food, and shelters can get costly. You should be sure that you’re allowed to have them on your property before you spend the money and become disappointed. If you’re given the green light, then you’re good to go and can move on to the next step!
The Shelter
The shelter that you build for your chickens should be sturdy enough to keep predators out. Even if you don’t live in a rural area where bigger predators hide in the distance, your chickens can still become prey to cats, dogs, and other common animals in your area.
The chicken house should be big enough to allow the chickens to roam with ease. If they’re too cramped inside the shelter, this could lead to disease and other issues.
There should also be one nesting area for every 3 chickens you have. The house should supply the chickens with food and water as well.
Make sure the door on the chicken house or coop has a lock on it for their safety.
The Daily Chores
Daily chores include ensuring they have enough food and water and keeping the coop clean. The water bowls can get dirty quite quickly. If it’s too dirty, some chickens won’t drink and will become dehydrated.
Fresh water and fresh food, such as a feed from organicchickenfeed.com, should be provided daily. If temperatures drop, ensure the water does not freeze.
Collect your eggs every day to prevent the chickens from laying on them. You will need to gently clean off dirt and feces from the eggs, but don’t scrub them clean as you can damage the egg membrane. Feces will need to be removed from the coop regularly but can be used as a composite for the garden.
Check all chickens for good health each day. If a chicken appears sick, remove her from the others immediately, and schedule an appointment with the vet. Illness can spread rapidly in a chicken coop.
Change the bedding and wash the coop out each month to reduce illness.
The Benefits
Once you get the hang of it, chickens are quite simple to raise. They’ll provide you with eggs almost every day sometimes twice a day. They also do wonders for gardens.
Install chicken wire to keep the chickens in and predators out and then let them roam the yard. They’ll find all of the small pests in your garden and gobble them right up. They’ll also clean up any leftover pieces from your fruits or veggies!
Raising Chickens Like a Pro!
With this guide handy, you’ll be raising chickens like a pro in no time! Follow these tips and prepare yourself for a few new friends!
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