Keeping Poultry in Your Back Yard or Garden

Perhaps you have ever considered keeping chickens both for eggs or as pets? Possibly not, though there are many good good reasons to do so as they make surprisingly good domestic pets and ones that actually give a little back in the form of fresh eggs on your breakfast table.

Keeping Poultry can be reasonably in-expensive and very gratifying providing you follow a few simple rules of thumb. Have the kids been badgering you for a pet? Then chickens may well just be the solution. Most hobbyist chicken farmers will tell you that they really like it and wouldn't go back to not keeping chickens.

Here are my top 7 tips for getting the most out of your hens and the most effective ways to guarantee their longer life and fruitful egg making. Based upon the amount of chickens you propose to rear really can make a difference to how you keep your chickens, this guideline discusses attempting to keep 3 to 4 chickens in an regular sized backyard trying to keep to a small allowance:

1) The Chicken's Home or Hen house: If you are presently considering keeping chickens then you possibly by now have a notion of what your hen coop ought to look like, some people imagine a picturesque hen house complete with weather vain, chicken run and a loyal family pet dog standing watch over your new brood. This can be a reality for less cost than you might imagine.

Make sure your chicken coop is sturdy, secure and weather proof, hens like nothing more than being kept cozy and not damp.

2) The Chicken Run: Any self respecting urban chicken farmer will have a chicken run, we have all seen the film so there are no excuses. Your hens are active creatures and delight in a bit of yard to wander around, scratch, peck and in general to be a chicken in. It is quite safe to let them roam around your backyard garden, you will take pleasure in putting some feed on the garden and seeing them potter around. Though, if you are a keen gardener, hens definitely do really enjoy the taste of flower petals, I get the sense that the more colorful the nicer they appear to the chicken.

3) Your Chicken's Welfare: To keep them cozy and give them somewhere to slumber, place a good amount of straw or hay on the base of the coop, you can get this at any pet shop or superstore. They will make their own nests with it and it will keep them warm and dry. Make sure they have a continual supply of food and standard water, your eggs will run dry if they are not kept well fed. Chickens, like any furry friend, may (very rarely) get ill, do not let them go through it take them to a vet.

4) Nutrition and Water: We use a sizeable pet water drip feeder, the sort you might use for a bunny or hamster. The chickens quickly peck on the shiny ball at the end and soon understand that they can get water from it.

5) Eggs: Your hens lay eggs frequently, when they are laying well you can anticipate a minimum of one egg each day from just about every laying hen. Their contentment is of great importance to their laying, an un-happy chick will not lay eggs.

6) Do They Make Great Pets?: In a word, yes. Considering the volume of their mind they seem interestingly clever and absolutely have their own character. I used to work in the poultry business and my thoughts and opinions of these feather brained critters has significantly adjusted from a foolish thoughtless creature to ones with their own identity and quirks.

7) Common myths and Misconceptions: Your family pet you call a chicken is not actually a chicken, it is a hen. More commonly a brown hen, a chicken is what you see in the superstore and roast on a Sunday. One of your chickens (I will continue to call them chickens as i prefer it) would not taste very nice roasted, besides the amount of edible meat on one would not make it very rewarding unless you were particularly desperate.

If you do get tempted to eat your family pets then you would need to boil it after plucking, gutting and washing it. Do not be too shocked to get little gratitude from the spouse and children after offering up their beloved Beatrice on a platter for Sunday lunch though.

All in all I find chickens make a great addition to the family members and are a wonderful pet, they supply a means to explain to your youngsters the requirement to look after them and teach them a bit of responsibility whilst having an amusing pet and one that rewards you for your good care. I would highly suggest having chickens as pets. Keep them warm, dry, fed and happy and they will give you continual entertainment and a nourishing and good source of breakfast every day.

The next guideline on Keeping Poultry.