3 Tips For Raising Happy Healthy Chickens!

Have you recently been thinking that it might be a good idea to raise chickens in your own backyard? In fact, building a chicken coop and rearing hens in your garden is much easier and more rewarding than you might think. They are inexpensive to keep, easy to look after and they provide you with fresh eggs, eat your weeds, eat bugs and insects found in your garden and make great fertilizer as well. They also have tons of personality!

There are many ways to get young chicks (for the beginner, they're the best choice). If you are interested in raising chickens from small chicks you may find day old chicks at farmers markets or feed stores or you could even hatch them at home from fertilised eggs. There are all kinds of different breeds available, from the standard to the specialty, but you'll need to know how to take care of them. There are a few common misconceptions about raising chickens that can result in disaster. Let's take a look at three tips that will help you have a successful backyard chicken coop.

Enough Space: Battery hens are often kept in cages that are much too small for the chicken and so cause ill health and stress. Most people know that raising chickens in a space smaller than a piece of typing paper is not the right thing to do, but they don't really know how much space a chicken needs. They may over crowd their coop. This will result in stressed chickens that hurt one another, get sick easily, and are unfriendly to you. Providing the right amount of space - a minimum of two to three square feet per chicken in the coop and another four to five square feet per chicken in an outside run - will prevent this and help you be more successful in raising chickens.

Socialize Your Chickens: Many people think of chickens as unfriendly, unintelligent creatures without personalities, and raising chickens without any real human interaction will result in animals that can seem like this. However, if you take the time to socialize your chickens and get them used to you being around, they can be very friendly pets. This also makes them easier to handle when you need to gather eggs or give your animals veterinary care. When your chickens are young it's a good idea to spend time with them and handle them often. You'll be amazed at the difference it makes.

Feeding Your Chickens: Layer feed or pellets are well and good, but for truly healthy chickens and great eggs, you need to do more. While layers are good food for your chickens, it is also important that you don't just feed them layers alone. Neither do you don't want to keep them confined to the one space all the time. Let yours out of the chicken coop and into a space in the yard from time to time. They'll eat young weeds and insects, cleaning up your property and improving their health. They love to eat pasta, bread and vegetable peelings.

By: Amanda Boyd

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If you would like an easy to follow step by step guide for building the perfect (and inexpensive!) chicken coop visit www.chickendiyguides.com. You will also find tips on selecting the right chicken breed for you plus valuable information on raising healthy and happy chickens.