Keeping chickens might be one of the most pleasurable things you ever do , but you also will make some mistakes . In fact , we in all probability all would have done certain things differently had we sleep with well . Whether you ’re a decennary - long chicken - keeper or a comparative entrant , there ’s always more to discover . In this article , chicken lovers admit their regrets and share some sage wiseness on chicken - guardianship .
Starting Out
Sandra Bontempo of FreeRange SkinCare , a brand of natural skin care mathematical product made with gratuitous - compass , browse eggs , recommend build the coop before buy your birds . She buy her six Brahma chicks five months before the coop was ready and restrain them in a plastic storage ABA transit number in the living room .
“ By the end of the five month , the birds were bragging than the bin and were ready to explore the star sign , ” she says . “ This is how I hear about their empathic ability and gained a better understanding of how individual they truly are . It is also why I started giving them bubble bath once a week and learned how much they hump the hair dryer . ”
Julie Wininger of California has kept chicken for a decade and offers some another chicken steer . “ Tending to baby chick means oestrus lamps until the little ones have their plumage over fluff , ” she pronounce . “ But , if you find out around local feed storage , you may find chicken already with plume . They might cost a bit more , but you ’ll save on that estrus - lamp electric card . And you are much more likely to know for sure whether they are hens versus roosters . ”
Endless Excrement
Jenny Passmore begin keeping chickens in Austin , Texas , a couple of year ago . She did n’t realise how mussy chicken could be . “ There’sa lotofpoop , ” she says . “ I bed that it would be a responsibleness to clean up , but I did n’t anticipate how undue it would be . ” Her chicken tip for keeping it clean : “ I would definitely recommend investing in a power washing machine if you let your chicken on the patio . ”
Lacy Jansson , also in Austin , had the same problem : She , too , did n’t know how much poop there would be before she got chicken . On the positive side , she was thrilled that the manure is so good for hercompost .
Farm blogger Annie Bernauer atMontana Homesteaderhas keep open Gallus gallus for four years and also did n’t anticipate the mess hall . “ I remember looking at web log andPinterestpictures of volaille eggs , ” she say . “ All I saw were baskets of beautiful , clean chicken eggs . I imagine myself proceed out to a chicken coop every solar day and pick pretty brown or blue eggs out of the coop . It was so charming and idealistic . ”
Reality attain her that springiness with her first chickens . Spring warming in Montana means a muddy henhouse and messy chickens , which is why her family calls it “ mud season . ”
“ When the snow melting , it turn the ground around the chicken coop into a mud endocarp , ” she says . “ The Gallus gallus ca n’t do right junk baths in the muck , and their arse feathers become coat with poop and mud . The testicle are filthy . ”
Her trick to keep eggs and chicken cleaner is to spread stalk or woodwind instrument french fries on the undercoat around the chicken coop . This ensue in less clay and stern sticking to the chickens and slightly cleaner eggs during that metre .
Health Hardships
Bill Cameron of Oregon wishes he knew how proficient chickens were at hiding illness until it ’s too late . One of his hens had a sudden death . “ Earlier in the day , [ my hen had ] been goggle — something all poulet might do from time to prison term , especially when it ’s red-hot . Because she only did it a few times and otherwise seemed her usual ego , we did n’t think much of it . ”
He wish well he examined her more closely and treated her for impaction . “ Perhaps we would n’t have been able to save her anyway , but I suppose we lease her demeanor lull us , ” he says .
Kelli Wefenstette of Portage Park , Illinois , advises that sick or injured hen must be segregated from the flock to “ quarantine the illness while it ’s being deal so as not to taint the rest of the batch and to also protect any wounds . ” Ill or injured hens are vulnerable to attack by other plenty mate or predators as well as affair such as fly work stoppage , particularly if they have diarrhoea during live atmospheric condition . She recommends a separate penitentiary or a large fauna immune carrier where the sick or injured bird can cure in peace .
Wefenstette also notes that chicken - keeper need to settle what malady and injuries to treat themselves and when they want to take the fowl to a vet .
in person , I learned this the hard style when I tote up new chicks to my flock with no quarantine a few age ago . The whole lot develop upper respiratory issue . They sounded very wheezing , and I fear they would drop dead . I used VetRx Poultry Remedy every dark , and , luckily , they all recovered .
I ’ve also had chickens with more serious and obviously afflictive issue such as internal laying , and in that case mercy killing at the local shelter was the proficient option .
Bontempo also wish she hadbetter understood what affects chicken health . She loves let her hens costless - range but did n’t see the dangers that untamed bird present to their health .
“ I lose one-half of my flock tococcidiosis , which is passed from barbaric birds eat and contaminating the food supply , ” she says . “ Now I vaccinate my babies and no longer have the payoff , but knowing this in advance would have saved tremendous grief . For a few months , we lost one bird a week and did not empathize the cause . It was horrible . ”
She has a crybaby tip for other keepers on how to quash the same destiny . “ If your wimp start march signs of being sick [ lassitude , droopy tail end , slumber too much , not eating , washy stool ] , you want to act fast . Give them honey water and start on Corid . You will most in all likelihood drop off the birds that are afflicted , but you might not lose your entire flock . ”
Clever Contraptions & DIY
Jill Winger , who blogs atPrairie Homestead , has a solvent for keeping wild birds out of the chicken cage : an old compact disk and baling twine .
“ I tied a length of baling twine through the [ disc ’s ] fix and attached the other remainder to the ceiling of my chicken coop , and voila ! ” she says .
Within 24 hours , the true sparrow that had repeatedly entered the hencoop to slip food were gone and did n’t return , according to Winger .
Robert Wax , of Oxford , Michigan , has had five chickens for three years . For Gallus gallus eating , he recommends using a gravity self-feeder . “ It ’s simple , and I fuck it , ” he says . “ Using turgid premature ventricular contraction tobacco pipe , connect to a rod a upright piece of pipe with a cap resting on top . On the bottom , add a couple of 45 - stage turn . Fill the thermionic valve with provender and let graveness do the rest . I fill the thermionic tube once a calendar week . ”
For crybaby that annul going back inside the coop to rest and instead fly over the fencing to the neighbour ’s place or onto the top of the coop , Passmore urge wing - clipping . But she also charge out there ’s a downside to this chicken confidential information : “ [ They ] ca n’t readily wing away in display case a predator come around . ”
Another chicken tip for training is a canine nail trimmer . When I had a cock , I used one to grind down the oddment of his spine so they were n’t so sharp .
Feeding Frenzy
Bontempo recommends feeding volaille calendula powder ( marigold ) . “ Adding this to your boo ’s food for thought will double the xanthophyll content of the eggs and aid keep your feathered friends goodish and glad , ” she says . marigold are also a good plant to acquire around the chicken coop .
Barb Hudson of theMaking It Homeblog has raised backyard chicken with her husband , Aaron , since 2012 . Her poulet tip is to turn their feed : “ We use mash that you put in a bucket of water system and it sits for three days to ferment . When we flip to this method , the chicks we got that year were feed entirely by ferment feed . Our senior chicks were raised on organic pellets until the switch this year . You know you ’re doing it aright if it smack sour , not moldy . ”
Barb detect healthy chickens after switching even provender for work . “ Our new chicks started laying earlier than any other batch we ’ve had , they are healthier ( and ) it also appear that they produce a little quicker . ”
She plans to continue the practice . zymosis feed provides probiotic flora , increases nutrition and salve money as the chickens eat and waste less feed .
To save money on wimp feed , Winger recommend :
However , cheaper feed can mean lower lineament , and Winger says that one should “ never sacrifice your chicken ’ wellness just to save a buck . ”
Chicken Math
When Wax began , he contrive everything around his four chickens . Unfortunately , one chick died on the second day . Wax then fell victim to chicken math ( which is basically , “ Once you protrude , you ca n’t stop ” ) . His chicken tip ? Do n’t do the same .
“ I had special - arrange Barred Rock chickens from a local supplier and hop he had some left , so my married woman cash in one’s chips to pickoneup , ” he says . “ Of course they were out , so she selected an Easter Egger as a replacement but did n’t desire it to feel single out or lonely , so she ‘ needed ’ to get two . Now we have five chickens — chicken math . ”
Cameron has also fallen victim to chicken math . He had four chicken but had to rehome two that turn out to be roosters and were n’t allowed in his expanse . Then , one of the remaining couple have fed up and passed away , so he had to get his rest hen a new friend .
“ We then acquiredthree10 - week - former frier that had been raised from chicks by a acquaintance , ” he tell . “ We also learned about ‘ chicken maths , ’ whereby if you fall behind onechicken you replace her with three . ”
Life & Death
ballock production usually decline in each hen after two to three years , but hen can live for a decade or more . Some chicken continue to lay some eggs at 10 years old , so it really reckon on the bird . However , Wefenstette ’s chicken pourboire is to always have an end - of - life program quick your boo .
If you ’re keep chickens primarily for eggs or meat , she tell , you want to exchange the flock every couple of years . If space is limited , you also need to decide whether to keep the hens as favorite , butcher them for intellectual nourishment , take them to be slaughtered or have a beginning where they can last out the remainder of their non - producing lives .
Wefenstette also note that all chicken - keepers should have it away local ordinance regarding animal care as well as right electric pig of deceased animals ; some jurisdiction do n’t allow entombment in residential areas .
Whether they lay eggs or not , chickens still make great companions . Chickensmagazine ’s Flock Talk editorialist Lisa Steele ofFresh Eggs Dailyruns a no - kill farm . “ Older hen still are nifty bug - catchers , they still make tons of nice manure for the garden and they often make far proficient brood hen and mother than younger hens , ” she enounce . Steele says older hens are also far more aware of predators and secure at learn younger flock members . Experience leads to wisdom — for hens as well as biddy - keepers .
Sidebar: Endless Eggs?
Jill Winger dwell in southern Wyoming . She wishes she had better planned for eggs being a seasonal food for thought . Egg product often slow up or stops in the winter . Winger ’s tips for take with this : run through few eggs , save eggs during peak product times ( methods let in immobilize , dehydrating or pickling ) , buy from neighbors whose hens are still laying , get originative with your feed bank note , and employ testis alternatives for eating and baking .
Ruth Marvin Webster , a California Gallus gallus - keeper , has also noticed that hen do n’t lay during certain times , such as when they are accent , when they ’re broody or moulting , or when the weather is really hot .
This account in the first place appeared in the March / April 2019 topic ofChickensmagazine .
