Raising chicken from a chick to a full grown hen is not exactly a walk in the park, but it sure can be fun and maybe even growth for both you and the chickens.
Commonly, a chicken’s lifespan extends up to about eight to ten years. However, there have been reports of chickens that have lived more than ten years.
In their lifetime, your chickens will undergo quite a number of changes that are quite noticeable; Most of these changes happening in the first year of their life.
When in the chick stage your time is one of the most needed resources, as you’ll be checking up on them regularly – checking water food levels, and the heating lamp position and cleaning there environment.
It is during the first four-to-five weeks that raising chicken is sort of hectic, since the little chicks are still very much ill equipped to take on the world.
So, you’ll need to be extra careful and extra protective of them. But, within about 5 weeks they should be able to move in to their coop.
You will also be able to notice their first major change when they get around three to six weeks old.
This is when they first shed their fuzzy covering and replace these with mature feathers. As they mature further, their wattles and combs will grow and become red in color.
The next major change occurs when your chickens are about twenty weeks old
This is when your hens will start laying their first eggs. Don’t worry if these first eggs are small and weak-shelled; it’s normal. As they grow, their eggs will become larger and the shells will become stronger.
At this point you can check on your chickens once a day collecting eggs and checking food and water levels inside the coop.
Collecting the eggs daily is important, so that none of your hens get in the mood to brood. It might become a little problematic when one or more of your hens start brooding; basically becoming cranky when you try to collect the eggs and might even peck you.
A brooding hen might also become unhealthy since it will stay on its nest for longer periods of time, and won’t go out to eat, drink and exercise like it used to.
After about 6 months, your flock would have established their “pecking order” to govern which hen is the top of the flock, and who’s next in the hierarchy and so on. This is also perfectly normal, and is established just so they can avoid unnecessary squabbles over rights.
After this, things will be an even routine.
It should be easy for you to fall into the rhythm of chicken raising at his point doing the needed chicken care chores on a regular basis; keeping your chickens well fed and happy, checking to see if they are all healthy, and if their surroundings clean.
