Keeping chickens as pets can be a wonderful and often rewarding experience for you and your family.  Do you live in the city and are looking at getting chickens, but are just a little bit unsure whether it is right for you?

Well, here are 10 fantastic reasons to help convince you.

 

1. You don’t have to live in the country to keep chickens.

You don’t need as much space as you might think to keep chickens. As long as they are free to roam around and have access to warmth, shade, fresh water and vegetation to rummage around in, they don’t mind too much about not having a large space.

 

2. You’ll have a plentiful supply of fresh eggs.

Depending on how many hens you get, a supply of fresh eggs is generally assured. You might even end up with a surplus like many hen owners and be able to make some money by selling excess eggs to friends!

(ps. You might want to start collecting those empty egg cartons now!)

 

3. The eggs that you get will be fresher and healthier than anything you can buy in the supermarket.

Ask anyone who has ever had hens and they will tell you the same thing. The quality of the fresh eggs and the bright golden yellow color of the yolks from backyard hens is completely different from the stale orange yolks of supermarket eggs. The fresher the eggs, the healthier and tastier they are for you. It has been scientifically proven that fresh eggs are lower in cholesterol and higher in omega-3 fatty acids than old and less fresh eggs.

 

4. Chickens can be good pets and are easy to look after.

Compared to more conventional pets such as cats, dogs and fish, chickens are very easy to look after. For one, the cost of food is substantially cheaper. Furthermore, chickens are relatively independent and don’t require much looking after or any supervision. As long as you feed the chickens and put them back in their coop at the end of the day, they will be live just fine.

 

5. They are very child friendly as long as you choose the right breed.

Chickens are surprisingly child friendly and pose no more danger to a child than a cat, rabbit or dog. Hens aren’t known to attack humans and are generally fine minding their own business and pecking away at grass.

 

6. Chickens can add greater meaning to your life.

Like a lot of pets, just coming home to a flock of hens can make you feel that just bit special. That’s not even mentioning the feeling that you get when collecting the eggs each morning.

 

7. You know where your food is coming from.

These days, with the increasing commercial farming methods, many people are wanting to simplify their food sources and know where their food is coming from. And what could be more local and reliable than the hen house in your backyard!

 

8. You’ll save on food waste.

Chickens will eat most fruit, vegetable and table scraps that would otherwise be composted or thrown away, saving on your waste bill and bringing the cost of feeding your pets down.

 

9. Chickens can teach you and your children to be responsible.

Having to feed a family pet can help teach you or your children vital responsibility skills. Chickens are generally easier to feed than cats or dogs in terms of preparing their food, and as an added bonus you can collect the love of your labor (the eggs) while you are feeding them!

 

10. Chickens can help control backyard pests and weeds.

Do you have a problem with bugs or weeds in your backyard? Are you sick of using pesticides and want an organic solution to your problems? Chickens absolutely LOVE picking at worms and bugs. And that sounds like a win-win situation to me.

 

Are you convinced to go out and get your own chickens today?

Or do you know of any other reasons to keep chickens as pets in your backyard?

That’s right. We are eggcited to announce that one of our additions to the farm for 2014 is Tolbunt Polish chickens. We have managed to acquire our breeding flock that consists of genetics from three different lines. Our flock comes from a mix of Greenfire Farms, Bare Necessities and Green Acres lines. We also have a mix of smooth and frizzle. We believe our mix of lines will give you the best genetic diversity available.

Below are a couple of pictures of our new chicks. We expect to have eggs and chicks available late summer.

We have many other new additions coming this year so keep checking back.

Do you find yourself waking up in the middle of the night to look out into the backyard to make sure everything is okay? Sure, maybe a lot of people do this, worried about prowlers, whether the dog was tied up or just want to check on the weather and see if the windows are closed, but do you do it because you are concerned about the chickens in your chicken coop? Believe it or not, many people are going through the exact same thing as you. They have been raising chickens on their own and have quickly developed chicken addiction, something that happens quite easily to people who start raising the birds. Here are 10 ways to get your chicken addiction under control and try to get your life back.

1.     Avoid the cuteness – it is the cuteness of the chicks that seems to suck in so many people. It can be really difficult to look the other way when you have one of those cute and fuzzy things in the palm of your hand and they start chirping at you, so you need to avoid doing that as often as you can or you will end up with more birds than ever.
2.    Stay away From Feed Stores – Keeping clear of the feed stores might help you to avoid stockpiling even more, not just feed, but more chickens! It might be hard for you to try to stay away, but remember it is for your own good.
3.   No more catalogs – Who knew there were so many catalogs associated with raising chickens? Is your mail more catalogs regarding feed, coops and accessories than it is letters or bills? Then it might be time for you to cut back and stop checking out every catalog that comes along.
4.  Carry pictures of your family – The pictures of your family need to go back into your wallet or purse and not the pictures of the chicks that were just born. If your social media page has more pictures of the chickens than your spouse or kids, you need to try and get things under better control.
5.  Avoid chicken paraphernalia – Just because it has the picture of a chicken on it does not mean that you need to own it. All of the other things you already own are probably more than enough to open your own store, so put down the chicken pot holders or salt and pepper shakers and move on to something else.
6.  Enjoy your vacation – When you go away for the weekend or even for the week, there is no reason for you to call home to check on the chickens. Odds are they are not going to answer the phone and talk to you anyway, so go back to your day at the beach and let the chickens be for a few days.
7.  Use your carpentry skills in other ways – Before the chickens, you barely knew how to handle a hammer and nails and now all of a sudden you are sharper than some of the guys on TV who build houses, but the problem is it is only on the chicken coop! The chickens do not really need luxury accommodations; try using the carpentry skills for your home, the kid’s treehouse or something else.
8.  Learn another language – Chicken does not really count as knowing a second language, yet you seem to understand exactly what the birds are saying and feeling all the time. That might be a sign that it is time to take up another language that you can use to talk to people, not just chickens.
9. Remember your family – If you have kids, remember that they are your real kids, not the chickens. If you have found yourself giving the kids dirt baths or haircuts that look suspiciously like the hen brooding in the coop, it might be time to take a break from the birds and spend more time with the family.
10. Go cold turkey – There was no way that this particular pun could be resisted when making a list like this. Besides, you could never just quit your chicken addiction that way, you love those birds!

There are several reasons why your chickens aren’t laying any eggs, ranging from the health of the birds to the time of year.

Several common reasons are listed below.

 

1. Lack of daylight
In order for chickens to lay well and regularly, they need at least 14 hours of daylight. This is something that can’t be avoided in the winter months in many places, and something that you will have to come to accept, unless you find a means of adding artificial lighting.

 

2. Improper nutrition
This problem can be a mix many different things. In order to lay eggs, hens need a healthy and nutritionally balanced diet. The hens might not be given enough food to eat, or they may not be eating the best food for egg laying. It might even be as simple as not having access to a fresh and constant supply of water. Whatever the problem, all possibilities will need to be investigated.

 

3. Disease
Diseases can have an adverse impact on the health of chickens and the cycle of laying eggs. If your hens don’t look as healthy as they used to, you might want to investigate any symptoms that they display. A good resource to start with is The Chicken Health Handbook.

 

4. Stress
If hens are handled too much or become frightened by other animals, they can become stressed. Hens need to feel safe in order to be comfortable enough to lay eggs. You will need to wait until the hens are ready to lay if this is the case with your hens.

 

5. They are laying eggs (just not where they should be laying)
This one may come as a surprise to many hen owners. Sometimes hens choose not to lay in a warm nesting nest box, even if they have done it for a long time. For all you know, there may be a stash of eggs somewhere out of sight in your backyard.
(ps. It is best not to eat these eggs, as you do not know just how long they have been there for)

Many people who are raising chicks for the first time are looking for an easy and affordable way to house them.
This article will show you how you can make your own chick brooder for under $30.

Here is the materials list and links to buy them online or you can find them at your local walmart or lowes.

$10 Plastic storage box. Carry thru handle provides a perfect clamping spot for the heat lamp.
The link below to walmart.com is a listing for a set of 6.  That is the only way they sell them online.
Your local store will have them available one at a time.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Sterilite-10-Gallon-40-Quart-Easy-Carry-Tote-Spicy-Lime-Set-of-6/22582944

$6.50 8 1/2″ Clamp Light
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Bayco-8.5-Clamp-Light/14003467

$5 Heat lamp Bulb
http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/westinghouse-lighting-250w-r40-heat-lamp-incandescent-light-bulb-red?cm_vc=-10005

$6 Hardware Cloth
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Mat-Mesh-Hardware-Cloth/20822625

Tools needed:
utility knife
duct tape (not listed in materials because you should have some already)
wire cutters

 

Step 1. Cutting the lid

To cut the lid you want to first score it. You score it by simply scratching the cut line and not cutting all the way through.
It is actually easier to get a straight cut by repeatedly scoring your cut lines rather than trying to cut all the way through in one pass of the knife.

Most lids have an indention or lowered area. This provides the lid more strength when stacking. Since we are not stacking the box, I will usually cut out most if not all of the lowered area.
Just be sure that your hardware cloth is larger than the hole you cut.

Step 2. Cut the hardware cloth.
Measure out the hole cut in the lid and using the wire cutters cut a piece of hardware cloth 2 inches bigger in each direction.
This will give you an inch overlap.

 

Step 3. Attaching the hardware cloth to the lid

Duct tape the hardware cloth to the lid on all 4 sides.  Note that once the heat lamp is on, the duct tape may wrinkle up.  You will just have to press it back down every now and then.
Alternatively you can use wire ties to attach the hardware cloth to the lid. To do this you will need to drill holes through the lid and then run the wire tie through the hardware cloth and lid and zip them.
This leaves the edges of the hardware cloth exposed which it can be sharp and pointy.  So we prefer the duct tape.  Using the zip ties and then duct taping the edges is the best method.

 

 

If you bought the storage box with the carry-thru handles you can simply clamp the heat lamp to the handle and point it toward the hardware cloth.
If not you will need to place the brooder close to something that you will be able to clamp the light on.  A chair or table leg work well.

For the bottom of the box, you will want to fill it with litter.  We prefer large flake pine shavings.
Not the small saw dust size as the chicks can eat it and not cedar as the oil can damage the chicks legs.
If you do not have shavings available then another option is to use fine soft hay.  Just be sure it it not pointy and rough.

For feeder and waterer you can buy them from your local feed store or you can simply use jar lids.  If using a jar lid for a  waterer you will want to put marbles or washed rocks in a jar lid to keep the chicks from falling down in the water and drowning.

It is truly that easy and inexpensive to build your own brooder.