Lots of hatchery owners probably know just how important caring for chickens is for the success of their business. These guys have years – for some, decades – of experience in the field, and they’ve probably gone through a series of trials that have helped them fine-tune the way they take care of their brood.
In contrast, you aren’t.
As I’ve pointed out time and again throughout these tutorials,you wouldn’t be here if you knew what you needed to do – in this instance, you wouldn’t be here if you knew how to take care of chickens.
And while it may sound like the easiest task there is – people always say that with enough experience, you can actually leave chickens to go about their business on their own – if you’re uninformed on what you need to do with the chickens at a certain juncture, there’s a big chance that you’ll end up killing your brood without meaning to.
Leave them alone – but don’t leave them
The concept that you can leave your chickens alone and they wouldn’t know the difference isn’t that far off the mark. The truth is, you can leave your chickens for extended periods of time without having to worry about their health and safety.
So long as you leave enough food and water to last them for as long as you’re away, caring for chickens while you’re absent is very possible.
But then again, you don’t really want to do this too much. This is because of the natural tendency of chickens to wander about.
These animals are smart, but they’re not brilliant. It’s rather easy for them to do stupid things like fly out of the chicken coop on a whim. If you happen to live in an area that’s heavily populated with chicken predators, a breach in your chicken coop can be deadly for your brood.
Another reason why you don’t want to neglect caring for chickens personally is the same as with dealing with any other living creature: there’s something about being up close and personal that makes a big difference.
If you see them for at least thirty minutes a day, you can see how your chickens are getting along. You can spot the birds that aren’t feeling well earlier, and address the situation in a timely manner. This is also a more efficient way of collecting newly-laid eggs.
What routine should you follow?
Ideally, the daily routine should involve you going to the coop to refill their feed and water boxes. This is of utmost importance; a happy chicken is a well-fed chicken. Make this the very first thing you do upon entering the chicken coop.
Caring for chickens also entails checking their status on a daily basis. Do any of your birds look sickly or sad? Learn how to tell your chickens apart, and spend some time trying to understand their moods.
To make sure that the chickens are laying eggs regularly, you want to make sure that your hens are healthy and happy, and once you miss out on a hen that isn’t feeling as chipper as it should, your supply of eggs will drop noticeably. Once this happens, find out which chicken is producing less eggs, and observe it for a period of time.
I personally recommend cleaning out the coop on a daily basis, even if it’s just picking up after your birds. But normally, general coop cleaning should be done on a monthly basis.
Don’t worry, just because you’re skimping on the clean-up doesn’t mean that you’re not caring for chickens well enough. But the rule of thumb here is – the smaller the coop, the more often you’ll have to clean up after your birds.
You’ll probably have to get used to getting all these things right for some time. Don’t worry – Rome wasn’t built in a day, and chances are that you won’t perfect your own style right away.
Just keep at it, and you’ll soon have things figured out. If you’re still having a hard time, get in touch with your local hatchery, or shoot me an email – I’ll see what I can do to help you out.
