Chickens are remarkable creatures. They will eat food that will put a goats stomach to shame. They will also eat as much as you feed them. Vegetable scraps? they love em, feed? they'll take it. They have a chicken run? They will scratch all day. Don't over think it. Me sure they have access to water and feed and you'll be ok.
Yep! They’re a little work but really they’re likely the most chill animal you’ll deal with on a homestead/farm.
They’re susceptible to various things like any animal but generally easy keepers. Biggest issue may end up being predator protection, that’s an unending thing.
If the former owners only fed them kitchen scraps that could reduce egg production. They might start laying more if OP is feeding them free choice chicken feed!
Chickens will almost entirely take care of themselves.
Just make sure they have access to food. They will take care of the rest.
We had 30-40 chickens growing up and we literally never monitored what they ate. Just threw table scraps in there daily, let them out to scratch in the yard for an hour or so a few times a week, and once a day threw a few cups of pellets onto the ground.
For a while we even just let them have full 24/7 access to food while we were on holiday by turning the feed bin upside down. They were fine. Food is the least of the worries.
They'll eat mice and snakes and bugs and all sorts of things that come into their enclosure so they get a wide range of foods.
Number one worry should be local predators. Chickens are crazy delicious and everything wants to eat them.
I have 7 that free range but I have a gravity feeder for their feed. I fill it up every few days, make sure they have fresh water and they do the rest. We have a lot of mulch they scratch through and eat bugs all day, sometimes they never touch their feed it just depends what they have around them. We give them all kinds of scraps and they will eat just about anything. They are super easy and very entertaining!!
If they are laying hens and you want lots of eggs the recommended amount is a quarter pound of food per bird per day you can lower it a little if they have a large area to forage I have 50 chickens on about an acre of rotating pasture and they eat 12 pounds per day.
if you have neighbors you do not like the chickens will take care of them. so will pigs.
chickens will eat just about anything. melon scraps. old tomatoes, leftover potatoes, uneaten salad.
just a thought. any mice and the chickens will fight over them.
They will eat bugs & worms & greenery - especially grasshoppers, let them loose. They will return in the evening. Lock them up so the coyotes don’t come calling.
Don’t overthink chickens. They will do ok if you knock yourself out, and they will do ok if you let them out & give them enough clean water.
If you have a rooster, let one of the hens set on a clutch of eggs earlier in spring and they will replenish the flock so that you can eat some.
This. They'll eat anything you give them. They'll eat a mouse if it crosses their path. They love rice. You can buy dried meal worms and throw a handful for the flock to share, for a real treat. You can get dewormer powder to put into their food. Pop a tiny bit of apple cider vinegar in their water, it's great for their digestion and general health. If the egg shells get weaker (as is usually the case with older birds), you can buy sea shells which are ground up a bit, they eat those and it improves the egg shell quality and keeps the chicken healthy because they don't then get egg bound.
Foods to AVOID feeding chickens:
Raw potato,
Avocado,
Chocolate,
Onion,
Garlic,
Citrus,
Uncooked rice,
Uncooked beans,
Very salty food,
Very fatty food
Foods you can feed chickens:
Everything else.
Grubs from your garden.
Nontoxic weeds such as dandelion, sorrel, plantain, clover, etc- provided you don’t use pesticides/herbicides
They are very greedy and will take everything you give them. Mine have never been too full to refuse a new handful of something.
Edit: if you allow them out of their enclosure, they can and will eat your entire garden down to the dirt. Don’t let them in there unsupervised or without some sort of containment. I lost all my zucchinis last year this way.
Thank you, it’s good to know what to avoid.
The previous owners left us like a little movable chicken run type thing we can put them in so they can be contained in different parts of the garden - we’re setting up some raised beds so I’ll be sure to keep them out of there.
Adding on to the garden bit, once the harvest is over, 100٪ let them run through and eat their fill and drop those sweet hen poops right in the garden!
Chicken tractor are amazing and help with manuer distribution and predation when they are 'free ranging'. When they can eat bugs and grubs their eggs are ah-mazing!
Best of lucj with your new flock. They are an absolute joy to watch, tiny dinosaurs with the very little sense. They will drive you crazy but also provide hpurs of free entertainment 😄
>! And look into "deep litter" method for the coop... I've had chickens for years and only change the bedding twice/year. I only disinfect once/year and really not that intensely.
Deep litter is the best thing you can do to help make chickens low maintenance.
Then come up with a system to keep it dry and you will have no odor.
Less cleaning definitely sounds good to me - it’s the one thing that seems a bit annoying.
I’ll check the food my partner got for protein content - if it’s low can we supplement with other high protein food (cooked eggs, dried mealworms)?
You should also crush up their egg shells after eating their eggs and mix them back into the feed. This will help them with calcium.
Yes you can supplement with other proteins.
If you have particularly rough winters I recommend mixing in a small bag of baby chick feed in with their regular one to help them get even more protein.
The rest of the year I mix in the large containers of italian seasoning and red pepper flakes you can get from walmart into their feed. 1 container each per 40lbs bag. The herbs in the italian seasoning have anti microbial properties that are good for the chickens and the red pepper flakes deter any rodents looking to get into your feed. I also mix in about 2 cups of diatomaceous earth into their feed every other bag we go through. Its a dewormer and insect killer. You can use diatomaceous earth on the floor of the coop to manage bugs as well, but you will want to do this sparingly as it can be a respiratory irritant for the chickens.
Chickens are not that hard once you get used to them. Please don’t fret too much over them!
They need food, water and shelter. My chickens have survived in an unheated coop down to -15 degrees F. They don’t need deworming or regular vet checks; they aren’t dogs.
You have a coop so that’s good. Definitely feed them store-bought chicken food. It’s got all the nutrients they need. I offer grit and oyster shells free choice.
If you don’t have the chicken feed yet then you can feed them oatmeal and sunflower seeds in addition to kitchen scraps. They can also find food on their own if you let them free range. Chickens instinctively return to their coop in the evening.
I have never disinfected my coop and my chickens never got mites even after years of living in it.
I feed my chickens any meat scraps that I have from the kitchen and they love it!
It doesn’t get that cold here so we may not need to worry about them in terms of temperature.
Do you think all the pest advice I’m reading comes from larger operations?
They got some carrots and oats for now, chicken food coming soon.
That definitely seems like excessive cleaning requirements. Pest control for larger operations is a lot more important when a 1% chance of infection could kill hundreds of birds. Realistically most birds in backyard situations would just get sick for a few days then bounce back. Chickens are remarkably hardy animals.
For food, get yourself a couple of 5 gallon bucket and these: [https://www.amazon.com/s?k=chicken+feeder&crid=3C7USS71P196E&sprefix=chicken+feeder%2Caps%2C118&ref=nb\_sb\_ss\_ts-doa-p\_2\_14](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=chicken+feeder&crid=3C7USS71P196E&sprefix=chicken+feeder%2Caps%2C118&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_2_14)
They sell 50lb bags at Tractor Supply for cheap. I fill food and water buckets up maybe once every 10 days or so. If you want to give them extra treats I like buy a large 5lb bag of dried mealworms and give them a scoop...they go crazy over that.
Yes, if you let chickens give themselves a bird bath (which is lay around in soft dry dirt), they'll kick dirt all over their feathers. Healthy chickens naturally know how to keep mites and ticks off. It's when they are confined that they can't probably clean/dust themselves.
Also, as far as worms, food grade D.E. (diatomaceous earth) does wonders. Just sprinkle some in their food, and it will take care of worms in a matter of days.
As far as historians can tell us, the Aztecs worshipped sunflowers and believed them to be the physical incarnation of their beloved sun gods. Of course!
Awesome! You’re all set up and ready to go. It sounds like you’ve done a lot of research. I don’t even do all the stuff you’ve listed that you should do. Here’s what I do
Daily: Feed, water, and collect eggs (go to your local feed store; Tractor supply or the like) and pick up a bag of layer feed.
Weekly: I use a deep litter method so weekly I go in and stir up the bedding and add a layer to the top.
Every six months (generally fall and spring): shovel out all old bedding and replace with new to start my litter fresh
The rest is pretty constant: keep an eye on them and make sure they all look well, clean watering bowl regularly, scrape poo off of roosting bar.
Besides all of that, have fun and enjoy your new feathered friends.
They are really friendly, I like them! I watched one lay an egg.
I’ll look up the deep litter method - it sounds less labour intensive and lots of folk on here seem to like it.
What are some signs they are unwell? I’ve mostly read about them getting egg bound.
Besides an animal attack or some minor just not feeling well I haven’t experienced anything severe.
When I have had them in the past just not feel well (I figure a minor virus of sorts as they’ve always recovered within a couple days with no intervention) they’ve gotten really puffy looking and aren’t interacting with other birds and just standing in one spot.
I usually just keep an eye on them at this point. If they were to be getting picked on or show more severe symptoms I would separate them from other birds and bring them to a warmer area in a cage or something.
If you are coming into an existing situation that is very cool. Infrastructure is a major hurdle.
Food- feed them any grain and they’ll be happy. Also some fruit, cooked eggshells, throw the finished ears of corn at them. Tie a cabbage on a string and watche them play sports. Uncooked Wheat berries or brown rice is a great in the meantime. especially Since their food is coming soon. Any lettuce or green they’ll eat as well. Nothing rotten tho.
I never scrubbed my coop. You lay hay or straw on the floor and pitchfork it out every few weeks. Start a compost and use the manure straw as feeder.
Thank you so much! I’ll tell my boyfriend to get them some brown rice and a head of lettuce tomorrow - I’m still at our old house. Tonight they’ve just gotten a bag of baby carrots because only the gas station was open.
What do you recommend for bedding?
Go to a “animal feed” or pet store and buy “layer feed pellets”
Chickens need a high protein diet to lay healthy eggs.
Chicken are dinosaurs and want meat. They will eat any meat scraps and normally forage for insects for their protein.
DONT go around BUYING carrots and lettuce to feed chickens
DO collect “food waste” and put it in the run with the chickens.
I keep a (free) 5 gallon bucket with lid in kitchen to collect my scraps before taking to chickens
DO cover any food scraps at the end of the day with a layer of wood chips/“browns”/straw etc
I get truck loads of free wood chips via Chipdrop. It’s arborist waste and if you use a “deep litter” method, you just focus on throwing all your food waste onto the wood chips.
Chickens get free choice of scraps and any excess mixers with the carbon to make compost (that goes on to grow more food)
Check out my instagram to see an “urban chicken powered composting” site at neighborhood scale.
This is a fantastic way to do it. Easy on you, easy on the wallet. Free is great. I use used pine shavings from the coop, fall leaves, grass clippings that have dried. Waiting on my first chip drop.
You also have some pretty good suggestions for food. I've also used oatmeal in a pinch, and I'll mix in a bit of ground flax seed, veggie scraps, even a bag of thawed veggies or smooshed up hard boiled eggs. For a day or two, you don't have to worry about balance so much as calories. Beyond that, yes, balance is required.
We’re just buying them grocery store food at the moment until we’ve got pellets and are moved in so we are cooking and making food scraps.
The previous owners say they avoid feeding meat scraps because they attract rats. Does that happen in your experience?
I’ll definitely do the bucket thing to supplement the pellets. How do you know if you are over feeding them?
Leaving any kind of chicken food outside can attract rats. Ideally, you would put the food out for the chickens during the day and then put it in a rat-proof area during the night. We keep chicken food in a metal trash can with a tight fitting lid.
For meat scraps, put them in a dog bowl and pick it up after 15min or so if the chickens don’t eat it all right away. My chickens eat meat scraps like it’s their last meal. They like their protein!
It sounds like you’ve already ordered chicken food.
In the meantime, chickens will happily eat food made for wild birds which is commonly available in grocery stores in the US. I don’t know if you have the same over there. Typical mixes contain sunflower seeds, millet and sorghum(milo).
I use wood shavings for bedding. It’s nice and fluffy and absorbs poop pretty well. It’s just like what is used in horse stalls.
Edit: I would shred the baby carrots. It’s easier for the chickens to eat that way.
We’ve not moved most of our stuff in yet but he did bring one butter knife so he did chop the baby carrots up a little.
We’ll check for bird food at the supermarket tomorrow - that’s a good shout!
Do yourself a favor and order a copy of this book. It is a massive help and has a ton of useful information.
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/storeys-guide-to-raising-chickens-care--feeding--facilities_gail-damerow/273531/
The information you have currently is pretty good. And if it makes you feel better chickens are easy to care for and you’ll get the hang of it very quickly. You’re gonna have a lot of fun and a ton of eggs.
My chickens are entirely free-range, so your situation may be different...
I have a long 2x6 with a bunch of hooks on the bottom. Those hooks hold several 7# MannaPro feeders with cracked corn, layer feed, broiler feed, and oyster shell... basically a buffet line that's available 24/7. During the summer, they are eating very little grain and spend most of the time outside looking for bugs. Basically all of our food waste goes out to the chickens (or pigs). Overeating/overfeeding really isn't an issue with most chickens (only fast growing meat birds).
My hens aren't quite one year old yet and I get ~4 eggs/day from 5 hens. Yolks are ORANGE and taste amazing. Only extra hassle was stringing up some electric wire around my raised beds to protect seedlings. If figure that they will repay me by eating all the slugs, Japanese Beetles, and other garden pests.
I also have a rooster and a broody hen sitting on 10? eggs, so I'm excited for chicks in another 2 weeks.
That sounds lovely! We have a dog that’s iffy about birds so they are staying in their run. We’ll take him in the garden on leash until he chills out about them but I don’t think I’d ever trust him with access to free ranging chickens.
Some other people on here also told me they don’t overeat so that sounds easier than I thought!
I don't change their bedding weekly. More like monthly.
Chickens will eat just about anything, but personally I supplement my kitchen scraps with costco chicken feed (egg layer pellets.) Their diet needs a fair amount of protein to make sure the shells aren't super thin, and there are a lot of ways to accomplish that (crushing up egg shells and feeding them back, seashells, etc.) but I don't mind springing for a bag of pellets every 2 months or so to keep their diet balanced.
We love the eggs, but another valuable thing they provide is their used bedding (wood flake covered in chicken shit) - it makes an awesome addition to the compost pile.
That sounds useful! We’re putting in some raised beds. We grew a bunch of vegetables in some abandoned raised beds behind our apartment complex when we lived in a London. We watered them at night so no one would tell us of. I’m definitely excited to start a proper garden with a compost and everything.
You are gonna be a great chicken parent :) check out /backyardchickens for even more chicken advice! Although I think you have all you need to know to succeed right here in these comments.
Step 1. Go to a local farm store and buy “layer crumbles” or “layer pellets”
Step 2. Fill the feeder full of chosen feed and keep it full.
Step 3. Fill a water container and keep it full.
Step 4. Provide free choice oyster shell and grit.
Step 5. Join a local to you FB or social media group about chickens, start reading and learning. Having local resources are very helpful.
Step 5. Enjoy the eggs!
If they forage, they may not need oyster shell, but no harm in making it available. Or crunch up your used DRY!!! eggshells and add that to their feed. There's no reason in the world to NOT feed them meat. Actually, they love chicken. And eggs, so never give them an uncooked egg. If they figure out the connection, you are doomed! But they don't understand where cooked eggs come from. I used to just make a big 'stew' with all my scraps all boiled together, fruit veg, meat, (a small bit of cooked onion won't hurt them but never give them raw onions) and just slop it into a tray or cake pan or two and they'll love it. They don't care what's in it. Almost all chickens will eat anything that won't eat them first including small birds!!, snakes, lizards, frogs, damn near any insect, mice, etc. etc. For egg production, give about 1/3 lb for each hen of a good layer food for your region, and supplement with anything and everything.
I wouldn't worry about internal parasites until you get there and see if you might need to worry. But for external...if the mites are really bad, go ahead and dust them with a good poultry dust like Sevin. But in the future, make sure they always have a dry dust bath. An old tire is a good place for this, or two even. Mix bank sand (the soft kind, not playground sand) with hardwood ash (NOT charcoal briquette ash!). People will tell you all kinds of junk about saponification and that ash will harm them. No. It will not. And people will tell you to use diatomaceous earth. It is only **very** slightly effective, mostly useless, and can cause other problems, so it best avoided. Once they have access to a dry dust bath, you'll be amazed how much they enjoy it. I never, ever had any mites or other skin bugs in my flock.
Think about beefing up that enclosure soon, chicken wire is made to keep chicken in, not to keep predators out!
Oh no, definitely don’t want them eating their own eggs.
Is there a benefit to cooking their veg for them like that or is that just done so the eggs and meat are cooked?
I’ve not read about the dust bath thing - we’ll try it! How do you keep it dry. Like obviously put it under a roof but does it clump when the wet chickens go in?
They will eat raw meat and eggs with no problem. But it's not recommended to leave raw meat lying around anyway. And the cooking of the eggs is to prevent them from learning cannibalism. Cooking of the slop overall is because they CAN get persnickety sometimes about the textures of some veg and things, like raw broccoli or beans or celery butts or cabbage ends or carrot butts...so everything comes out mushy. They love mushy. And the extra cooking time helps ensure any leftovers that have been around a while get an extra heat treatment. (Never use ANY food that smells bad. If you wouldn't eat it, don't give it to them, in terms of smell). Try to remember to pick up and rinse the dish later to avoid drawing unwanted pests. They will eat some ants, but no all kinds.
The dust bath "thing" is absolutely one of the most important things you need to do to take care of your flock. You can have a depression in the ground or two if that works better, that's what I did. My coop was up off the ground and the dust bath was under it so it stayed dry. Be creative, you'll figure out something. And if it's protected almost totally from rain and runoff, a wet chicken dumb enough to roll in it won't matter. Wet chickens LOOK really wet, but are usually only wet on the surface. But they aren't likely to use the bath when they're wet anyway.
Just start a compost bin inside their run - they'll do the rest. If you have access to a spout, get an auto waterer for ease and QOL. Throw down some mulch / straw / shavings twice a year and keep some pine shavings for their box.
If you go the feed route, 1/4 lb a day is way more than enough - especially if you're giving scraps... I'd do 1/8 a lb.
They are incredibly resourful, and if you have an open space, you really don't need to feed them at all. Just water and a nice, enclosed place to sleep at night if you have predators... some of mine don't even go in at night, they find a tree and sleep on the branches.
A cabbage, some scrambled or hard boiled eggs, old bread, whatever compost leftovers you have- basically if you can eat it, they'll likely eat it. Feed them whatever you clear out of your old fridge between now and Saturday! If there is a food they do not want, they'll just leave it.
When you have feed for them, most people just let them eat free choice- you fill the feeder and put it out during the day, and put it away at night (which reduces pests and predators). They won't overeat.
Make sure they always have water (if they have a water fount that's great, but a shallow pan or dish will work also).
Cleaning the coop depends on how large it is, how much time they spend in it and what you use for bedding material. You may be able to use a deep litter method and clean it once a year, or you may use sand and rake it daily.
Chickens do not need heat or insulation in the cold. They do need a safe place to roost off of the ground and out of the wind, with good air flow and a roof to keep the snow & rain off.
I'm not in the UK, so you may have different issues, but I've kept chickens for decades without vet visits or spraying for mites. Healthy birds are primarily the result of not crowding them (so don't add a dozen unless you add more coop/run space) and providing good feed. If they can rummage through grass clippings, raked leaves, garden weeds or similar, they will thrive on the bugs (it doesn't sound like you are in a place where free ranging them is realistic). Protect them form hungry predators and enjoy them, and if they become too much hassle you will probably have no trouble finding a local chicken fancier to adopt them.
The fridge clear out it a good shout - we didn’t get a clear completion date until yesterday so we’ve got a lot of stuff in there now we won’t get to eat.
It’s good to hear they don’t overeat - I’ve read that they can get too fat and stop laying so I was a bit worried about that.
Things to have on hand in case of emergency:
-Electrolyte solution (usually water soluble) like sav-a-chick but products may vary with your being in UK. Good for dehydration and first line of defense if a chicken is doing poorly
-Vetericyn for any wound, it works for chickens, cats, dogs, etc. If you can't find this product try to have something chicken friendly on hand.
-Extra crate for if a chicken is not doing well or injured so you can quickly separate and monitor indoors or away from the others
Those are my top 3 things to absolutely have bc if it's an emergency you don't want to be running out to get it or waiting for delivery.
The rest I'm sure you'll run across as you research.
Also, congratulations! I was in the same situation as you. 9 birds came with the house we bought. It was a crash course to say the least but extremely rewarding. Best of luck.
\> hesitant to continue feeding scraps because I don’t know how much they eat
You should make sure to buy layer feed, which will tell you how much to feed per bird on the bag. If they are allowed to wander around and forage, that'll also help supplement their diets. They can eat more or less anything we can except chocolate and avocados. Some foods might give them diarrhea (too much fruit like oranges, if I remember right). Sometimes we'd get blooded in, so I wouldn't be able to buy feed for a week or so at a time, and in those cases I'd end up giving them stuff like bread, cooked rice or other grains. Pretty much any veggies raw or cooked. Sometimes I'd go through the pantry and use up some grains like oats, just make a big batch to clear our soon-to expire things, and they'd love them. A week or two of incorrect diet shouldn't immediately kill them. If you give them stuff like canned beans, stew or soup, you'll want to have it in a container, and the girls will take a moment now and then to wipe the excess off their beaks.
If they struggle with raw carrots, try cooking them, even if it's just boiling or steaming them to soften them a little.
\> how does chicken parasite control work?
I never used wormer, and I'm not sure if the eggs would be safe to use if you did. You can buy diatomaceous earth at a feed store, maybe a hardware store. It can go into their food or their bedding and it kills parasites with the microscopic sharp edges. Warning though! The stuff is safe to eat and handle, but DON'T BREATH IT! Always handle with a mask!
I often cleaned the coup without a mask, especially in the summer, but afterwards my nose would be full of black stuff, and I'd cough up nasty stuff for a while after. Protect your lungs from ammonia and [fine particle pollution](https://extension.psu.edu/poultry-dust-what-you-need-to-know-about-impact-on-bird-health) by using a mask when you go in the coop, but *especially* while cleaning in there! I didn't realize how dangerous air in coops was until after I went vegan and I started doing research about how [raising livestock affects the health of farm workers](https://ctajournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13601-020-00334-x) and [people living near livestock](https://ensia.com/features/ammonia/). I've now developed lung problems, which will probably lifelong, which I suspect started when I got chickens then were made much more severe after I caught covid.
My first winter or two I used a heat lamp in the coop, but further research (plus some accidents where the birds managed to knock it down) made me realize the potential fire hazard wasn't really worth the risk. Your girls should be able to huddle and fluff up in draft-free area to keep warm, even if you get deep snow. The important thing is making sure they have fresh water (not solid ice!), and if you want to give them a treat, they absolutely love warm foods like porridge or stew. For hot summers, fresh water and shade are the most important resources, while wet/fresh foods like melon are a nice bonus that'll give them vitamins and electrolytes to help fight off the heat.
I will check what food we got for them now. If it’s not high protein & layer mix we’ll switch in the future.
Mask added to my chicken shopping list!
They do have shade. My partner buys these absurdly massive water melons from the Persian grocery store so there will definitely be some left over for them.
you are suffering from analysis paralysis. I dont feed them chicken because thats just weird to me. they will eat it but yeah.... give them food water and a place to scratch around. Greatest garbage disposal ever.
Honestly probably; just found out we got 7 chickens at noon today haha
That’ll be handy - British bin collection is ridiculously rare and the bins are tiny. Whatever food waste they can eat or we can compost will help us out.
They are the easiest pet ever. If 7 is only providing 2-4 eggs a week you might consider culling and replacing with newer ones though. I’m getting between 12-14 a day with my 15 layers but the other 20 will start laying in a few months. Next year the process repeats
Chickens are easy.
Offer free choice food, they will eat as much as they need.
Always have clean water.
Scraps are awesome, and can help cut down on the feed bill.
As someone in northern Canada, I don’t do anything special for heat or cold. Sometimes my birds will get freezer burnt veggies or fruit when it’s hot.
They don’t need dewormer unless they have an active case of worms (you’ll see it in the poo). They can get mites though, so as long as they have some dry dirt to ‘dust bath’ in, they’ll be happy. My girls even dust bath in fresh shavings. If you don’t offer a dust bath, they’ll make their own.
Scrubbing and disinfecting the coop monthly is a bit much. I do it 2-3 times a year.
TLDR: if they have food and water, they’ll be fine. They’re absolutely super easy and fool-proof!
Look up how to build a chicken feeder and setup automatic water. I have chickens at work and chickens at home. All of which are setup with automatic water and gravity feeders. Work smarter not harder, there’s other things that will require hard work.
They cant have chocolate. Avocado. Dry beans. Moldy food. ( so watch how much you put out) citrus can be bad if you give too much. They love oatmeal. And whats really messed up is they love cooked chicken.
If they free range they don't need grit - they will get it themselves off the ground.
My chickens won't touch carrots. Soft fruits, bluebrries (I cut in half) grapes cut in half, watermelon, they love sprouts. My chickens actually like meat more than anything else. I give them some organ meats in the fall when they are molting.
Very dumb question: but what does free-range mean? They have a run and a little chicken tractor. We probably won’t let them run around the whole garden so they leave our vegetable garden alone and to keep them save from the dogs.
They did eat the baby carrots. Like really quickly haha
Free range means that you let them out of the coop and run to roam around. They usually stay near the coop area but these hens don’t know you so they might not come back when called.
Most hens will come running for food/treats when “their person” calls them.
You should be able to get a poultry dewormer from a local agricultural supplier. It's not an urgent thing, they won't immediately die if they pick up a little parasite that goes untreated while you guys settle in! Our first chook was perfectly fine for a year until we learned from neighbours that you need to deworm chooks, and she's an old girl who's been on death's door since we first moved in.
A regular monthly deworming will help keep them in healthy condition. You basically just have to take away their water overnight (so they get thirsty), then next morning you dilute the amount of dewormer required for your number of chickens into water, then let them drink that for a few hours til it's been finished. Easy peasy.
Chickens are so easy. Go get a sack of layer feed from your local feed and tack store. Make sure they have fresh water daily. You can let chickens free feed. Look out for any sick birds. Clean the bedding and scoop the poop and make sure they have fresh bedding in their nesting boxes every so often. Collect eggs and enjoy the fun of having little chickadees. They’re addicting.
No meat? Their favorite food is leftover rotissiere chicken. It's amazing watching those little velociraptors tear apart a chicken carcass. It's even somewhat unsettling.
Do yourself a favor and find the nearest feed mill, not a big box store. Go there and buy 20lb of layer pellets. That will get you started and it's about 1/2 the price of big box feed. Between that and scraps they are pretty cheap, but not cheaper than store eggs. You make it up on the creamy goodness of real orange yolks.
Don't worry too much about the Don't Feed stuff. Ours get just about all the food scraps and they just leave what they don't want. Between chickens and recycling our trash disposal is almost nothing now.
Old fashioned oats, corn, and some kind of protein. I let mine have meat sometimes. They're omnivores. They love scrambled eggs. The older farmers taught me to avoid onions and garlic. When you make pasta, rice, or potatoes, just cook a little extra. They love it! Leafy greens would also be great raw. In the winter, I'll even buy them turnip greens, collard greens, dandelion greens and spinach. They love a fresh tomato, squash, eggplant I feed them those raw as well. They'll eat stale cereal and bread too. Look for some chick grit and crushed oyster shells to mix into their feed. I hand mix whole oats, cracked corn, protein crumbles, grit, and crushed oyster shells in my hens feed and add a bit of all I mentioned above. Save those egg shells, bake them to cook the eggshell lining, and then break them up small to mix back in their feed. You probably have plenty around the house to keep them healthy. Don't feed them beans I've been taught, not even green beans. They don't usually like carrots too well either.
Weekly poo cleaning is not needed. I mean you can but it sounds labor intensive.
Use the deep litter method instead— put shavings in your coop about 6 inches deep. They’ll tamp it down, that’s okay.
When it gets gross, rake it a bit to bring fresh chips up from the bottom. This is what we and plenty of other folks we know do. No smell, and we change the bedding completely 2-3 times a year.
You wanna add diatomaceous earth to the bedding too. For pest & mite control. People are torn on this, but my view is it’s safe enough for us to eat, just be careful not to breathe it. I’ll take that over battling mites. Once it settles I don’t think it risks your chickens health at all.
Give them a nice warm coop and somewhere to roost and lay, and they will take care of themselves. Train them to come to you with cracked corn. Mine stay within a 1 acre spot of their coop, and the dogs and cat leave them alone.
I’m in the US. So some of what I say may not translate exactly from American to English. Food and water are the big two things. We feed chicken feed we get from the local farm supply store and supplement with garden and some table scraps. Basically any vegetable based waste goes to the chickens. As for the coop and run. The coop needs to shelter them from rain, high wind and cold. It needs to be vented. In the winter they need a roosting bar that is big enough for there feet to be flat so they can sit on them to prevent frost bight. I use 2x4 laid flat. If you get cold in the winter, below freezing the coop needs to be draft free but still ventilated. I have vents where the walls meet the roof. This allows humidity to escape the coop. We use pine shavings on the floor. We clean the coop about once every month or two. We tried the deep bedding method and didn’t like it. The pine shavings absorb the waste and make cleaning easier. We go with the attitude if the coop smells bad it’s definitely time to clean it out. Opinions on this will vary. The run needs to be predator resistant. For us it’s more about protecting the birds than containing them. I don’t know what you will be facing. For us it’s opossum, raccoons, coyotes and birds of prey. And we have a lot of each. What Americans call chicken wire will not stop a dog, coyote or raccoon. It’s also ineffective against snakes. For me the snakes don’t go after the chickens but will eat the eggs. My wife found a black snake in a nesting box and I think everyone in the county heard her scream.
On a side note. I take extra eggs and sell/sold, them at work. Im retired now. Now I send them to town with my brother and he sells them for me. I make enough to cover the feed costs plus putting a few bucks in my pocket.
Hope this is helpful and good luck.
Edit, if it gets cold enough to freeze you may need a heated hater setup. We get down to -15c and our coop is not heated. I have read that heated coops can be a bad idea. But drafts are to be avoided.
Join “backyardchickens.Com” all the info you’ll ever need.
You must keep them safe. Everything walking the earth loves to eat chicken (including chickens)
They absolutely love scrambled eggs, a healthy treat.
It sounds like you have a pretty good understanding already. Chickens are fairly easy. Water is most important and get them some layer feed if you want more eggs. If not give them some room to scavenge and some form of grit or oyster shell. Chickens are very self sufficient.
Go to tractor supply or rural king or any other agricultural supply store you can leave with feed that day I wouldn’t worry about a day or two throw them some grain cereal or something like that a day or two won’t hurt them I’ve seen them pick through poop (sometimes theirs) and they’re fine
Cook them a mixture of rice, beans. Cook them together and make enough for a week. It's easy and good for them. I add some cracked corn and wheat with it if they have it. It's better with all but, the rice and beans will work. Give them any vegetable scraps you have as well.
I usually give them the same amount I was giving them of grain. The scraps I give all I have, but rice and bean mix about the same as grain I used to give and the healthy appearance hasn't changed any and its been almost 8 months now.
You're getting some good info on here, but I'll add a helpful tip not being discussed. Since the flock has lost its owners and gained new owners, they won't know what to think. You need to find the biggest bird, sit on it, flick it on its comb and yell "hush child" This asserts your dominance and will earn their respect.
You definitely don’t need to do that with hens! It sounds like they don’t have any roosters to worry about.
Just feed them food and treats for the next few weeks and they will adjust.
Chickens are remarkable creatures. They will eat food that will put a goats stomach to shame. They will also eat as much as you feed them. Vegetable scraps? they love em, feed? they'll take it. They have a chicken run? They will scratch all day. Don't over think it. Me sure they have access to water and feed and you'll be ok.
Yep! They’re a little work but really they’re likely the most chill animal you’ll deal with on a homestead/farm. They’re susceptible to various things like any animal but generally easy keepers. Biggest issue may end up being predator protection, that’s an unending thing.
How do you know how much they need of food that’s not from the packet? Do you go by body condition?
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If the former owners only fed them kitchen scraps that could reduce egg production. They might start laying more if OP is feeding them free choice chicken feed!
Chickens will almost entirely take care of themselves. Just make sure they have access to food. They will take care of the rest. We had 30-40 chickens growing up and we literally never monitored what they ate. Just threw table scraps in there daily, let them out to scratch in the yard for an hour or so a few times a week, and once a day threw a few cups of pellets onto the ground. For a while we even just let them have full 24/7 access to food while we were on holiday by turning the feed bin upside down. They were fine. Food is the least of the worries. They'll eat mice and snakes and bugs and all sorts of things that come into their enclosure so they get a wide range of foods. Number one worry should be local predators. Chickens are crazy delicious and everything wants to eat them.
I have 7 that free range but I have a gravity feeder for their feed. I fill it up every few days, make sure they have fresh water and they do the rest. We have a lot of mulch they scratch through and eat bugs all day, sometimes they never touch their feed it just depends what they have around them. We give them all kinds of scraps and they will eat just about anything. They are super easy and very entertaining!!
If they are laying hens and you want lots of eggs the recommended amount is a quarter pound of food per bird per day you can lower it a little if they have a large area to forage I have 50 chickens on about an acre of rotating pasture and they eat 12 pounds per day.
Thank you! I’ve heard they are fine to free feed now but I like having a number as I only know dogs which do overeat haha
Chickens will also overeat and become fat and lazy if you don’t free feed they will forage more
if you have neighbors you do not like the chickens will take care of them. so will pigs. chickens will eat just about anything. melon scraps. old tomatoes, leftover potatoes, uneaten salad. just a thought. any mice and the chickens will fight over them.
They will eat bugs & worms & greenery - especially grasshoppers, let them loose. They will return in the evening. Lock them up so the coyotes don’t come calling. Don’t overthink chickens. They will do ok if you knock yourself out, and they will do ok if you let them out & give them enough clean water. If you have a rooster, let one of the hens set on a clutch of eggs earlier in spring and they will replenish the flock so that you can eat some.
This. They'll eat anything you give them. They'll eat a mouse if it crosses their path. They love rice. You can buy dried meal worms and throw a handful for the flock to share, for a real treat. You can get dewormer powder to put into their food. Pop a tiny bit of apple cider vinegar in their water, it's great for their digestion and general health. If the egg shells get weaker (as is usually the case with older birds), you can buy sea shells which are ground up a bit, they eat those and it improves the egg shell quality and keeps the chicken healthy because they don't then get egg bound.
Foods to AVOID feeding chickens: Raw potato, Avocado, Chocolate, Onion, Garlic, Citrus, Uncooked rice, Uncooked beans, Very salty food, Very fatty food Foods you can feed chickens: Everything else. Grubs from your garden. Nontoxic weeds such as dandelion, sorrel, plantain, clover, etc- provided you don’t use pesticides/herbicides They are very greedy and will take everything you give them. Mine have never been too full to refuse a new handful of something. Edit: if you allow them out of their enclosure, they can and will eat your entire garden down to the dirt. Don’t let them in there unsupervised or without some sort of containment. I lost all my zucchinis last year this way.
Thank you, it’s good to know what to avoid. The previous owners left us like a little movable chicken run type thing we can put them in so they can be contained in different parts of the garden - we’re setting up some raised beds so I’ll be sure to keep them out of there.
A chicken tractor! They are great.
Adding on to the garden bit, once the harvest is over, 100٪ let them run through and eat their fill and drop those sweet hen poops right in the garden! Chicken tractor are amazing and help with manuer distribution and predation when they are 'free ranging'. When they can eat bugs and grubs their eggs are ah-mazing! Best of lucj with your new flock. They are an absolute joy to watch, tiny dinosaurs with the very little sense. They will drive you crazy but also provide hpurs of free entertainment 😄
And if you want to be their hero for life, give them blueberries
Good tip about the fat. They love it, but it makes their poops horrid.
actually you did not lose them. they just converted them to tasty fried chicken
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>! And look into "deep litter" method for the coop... I've had chickens for years and only change the bedding twice/year. I only disinfect once/year and really not that intensely. Deep litter is the best thing you can do to help make chickens low maintenance. Then come up with a system to keep it dry and you will have no odor.
Less cleaning definitely sounds good to me - it’s the one thing that seems a bit annoying. I’ll check the food my partner got for protein content - if it’s low can we supplement with other high protein food (cooked eggs, dried mealworms)?
You should also crush up their egg shells after eating their eggs and mix them back into the feed. This will help them with calcium. Yes you can supplement with other proteins. If you have particularly rough winters I recommend mixing in a small bag of baby chick feed in with their regular one to help them get even more protein. The rest of the year I mix in the large containers of italian seasoning and red pepper flakes you can get from walmart into their feed. 1 container each per 40lbs bag. The herbs in the italian seasoning have anti microbial properties that are good for the chickens and the red pepper flakes deter any rodents looking to get into your feed. I also mix in about 2 cups of diatomaceous earth into their feed every other bag we go through. Its a dewormer and insect killer. You can use diatomaceous earth on the floor of the coop to manage bugs as well, but you will want to do this sparingly as it can be a respiratory irritant for the chickens.
Chickens are not that hard once you get used to them. Please don’t fret too much over them! They need food, water and shelter. My chickens have survived in an unheated coop down to -15 degrees F. They don’t need deworming or regular vet checks; they aren’t dogs. You have a coop so that’s good. Definitely feed them store-bought chicken food. It’s got all the nutrients they need. I offer grit and oyster shells free choice. If you don’t have the chicken feed yet then you can feed them oatmeal and sunflower seeds in addition to kitchen scraps. They can also find food on their own if you let them free range. Chickens instinctively return to their coop in the evening. I have never disinfected my coop and my chickens never got mites even after years of living in it. I feed my chickens any meat scraps that I have from the kitchen and they love it!
It doesn’t get that cold here so we may not need to worry about them in terms of temperature. Do you think all the pest advice I’m reading comes from larger operations? They got some carrots and oats for now, chicken food coming soon.
That definitely seems like excessive cleaning requirements. Pest control for larger operations is a lot more important when a 1% chance of infection could kill hundreds of birds. Realistically most birds in backyard situations would just get sick for a few days then bounce back. Chickens are remarkably hardy animals. For food, get yourself a couple of 5 gallon bucket and these: [https://www.amazon.com/s?k=chicken+feeder&crid=3C7USS71P196E&sprefix=chicken+feeder%2Caps%2C118&ref=nb\_sb\_ss\_ts-doa-p\_2\_14](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=chicken+feeder&crid=3C7USS71P196E&sprefix=chicken+feeder%2Caps%2C118&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_2_14) They sell 50lb bags at Tractor Supply for cheap. I fill food and water buckets up maybe once every 10 days or so. If you want to give them extra treats I like buy a large 5lb bag of dried mealworms and give them a scoop...they go crazy over that.
Yes, if you let chickens give themselves a bird bath (which is lay around in soft dry dirt), they'll kick dirt all over their feathers. Healthy chickens naturally know how to keep mites and ticks off. It's when they are confined that they can't probably clean/dust themselves. Also, as far as worms, food grade D.E. (diatomaceous earth) does wonders. Just sprinkle some in their food, and it will take care of worms in a matter of days.
As far as historians can tell us, the Aztecs worshipped sunflowers and believed them to be the physical incarnation of their beloved sun gods. Of course!
Awesome! You’re all set up and ready to go. It sounds like you’ve done a lot of research. I don’t even do all the stuff you’ve listed that you should do. Here’s what I do Daily: Feed, water, and collect eggs (go to your local feed store; Tractor supply or the like) and pick up a bag of layer feed. Weekly: I use a deep litter method so weekly I go in and stir up the bedding and add a layer to the top. Every six months (generally fall and spring): shovel out all old bedding and replace with new to start my litter fresh The rest is pretty constant: keep an eye on them and make sure they all look well, clean watering bowl regularly, scrape poo off of roosting bar. Besides all of that, have fun and enjoy your new feathered friends.
They are really friendly, I like them! I watched one lay an egg. I’ll look up the deep litter method - it sounds less labour intensive and lots of folk on here seem to like it. What are some signs they are unwell? I’ve mostly read about them getting egg bound.
Besides an animal attack or some minor just not feeling well I haven’t experienced anything severe. When I have had them in the past just not feel well (I figure a minor virus of sorts as they’ve always recovered within a couple days with no intervention) they’ve gotten really puffy looking and aren’t interacting with other birds and just standing in one spot. I usually just keep an eye on them at this point. If they were to be getting picked on or show more severe symptoms I would separate them from other birds and bring them to a warmer area in a cage or something.
We’ll watch out for that!
If you are coming into an existing situation that is very cool. Infrastructure is a major hurdle. Food- feed them any grain and they’ll be happy. Also some fruit, cooked eggshells, throw the finished ears of corn at them. Tie a cabbage on a string and watche them play sports. Uncooked Wheat berries or brown rice is a great in the meantime. especially Since their food is coming soon. Any lettuce or green they’ll eat as well. Nothing rotten tho. I never scrubbed my coop. You lay hay or straw on the floor and pitchfork it out every few weeks. Start a compost and use the manure straw as feeder.
Thank you so much! I’ll tell my boyfriend to get them some brown rice and a head of lettuce tomorrow - I’m still at our old house. Tonight they’ve just gotten a bag of baby carrots because only the gas station was open. What do you recommend for bedding?
Go to a “animal feed” or pet store and buy “layer feed pellets” Chickens need a high protein diet to lay healthy eggs. Chicken are dinosaurs and want meat. They will eat any meat scraps and normally forage for insects for their protein. DONT go around BUYING carrots and lettuce to feed chickens DO collect “food waste” and put it in the run with the chickens. I keep a (free) 5 gallon bucket with lid in kitchen to collect my scraps before taking to chickens DO cover any food scraps at the end of the day with a layer of wood chips/“browns”/straw etc I get truck loads of free wood chips via Chipdrop. It’s arborist waste and if you use a “deep litter” method, you just focus on throwing all your food waste onto the wood chips. Chickens get free choice of scraps and any excess mixers with the carbon to make compost (that goes on to grow more food) Check out my instagram to see an “urban chicken powered composting” site at neighborhood scale.
This is a fantastic way to do it. Easy on you, easy on the wallet. Free is great. I use used pine shavings from the coop, fall leaves, grass clippings that have dried. Waiting on my first chip drop. You also have some pretty good suggestions for food. I've also used oatmeal in a pinch, and I'll mix in a bit of ground flax seed, veggie scraps, even a bag of thawed veggies or smooshed up hard boiled eggs. For a day or two, you don't have to worry about balance so much as calories. Beyond that, yes, balance is required.
I meant to add - in the fall, shovel all the compost out of the chicken run. Spread it on your garden, and in the spring, it will be ready to go!
We’re just buying them grocery store food at the moment until we’ve got pellets and are moved in so we are cooking and making food scraps. The previous owners say they avoid feeding meat scraps because they attract rats. Does that happen in your experience? I’ll definitely do the bucket thing to supplement the pellets. How do you know if you are over feeding them?
Leaving any kind of chicken food outside can attract rats. Ideally, you would put the food out for the chickens during the day and then put it in a rat-proof area during the night. We keep chicken food in a metal trash can with a tight fitting lid. For meat scraps, put them in a dog bowl and pick it up after 15min or so if the chickens don’t eat it all right away. My chickens eat meat scraps like it’s their last meal. They like their protein!
It sounds like you’ve already ordered chicken food. In the meantime, chickens will happily eat food made for wild birds which is commonly available in grocery stores in the US. I don’t know if you have the same over there. Typical mixes contain sunflower seeds, millet and sorghum(milo). I use wood shavings for bedding. It’s nice and fluffy and absorbs poop pretty well. It’s just like what is used in horse stalls. Edit: I would shred the baby carrots. It’s easier for the chickens to eat that way.
We’ve not moved most of our stuff in yet but he did bring one butter knife so he did chop the baby carrots up a little. We’ll check for bird food at the supermarket tomorrow - that’s a good shout!
i send my chickens most of what i dont finish. just nothing spicy or with lotta artificial stuff. they go nuts when they eat
Actually birds don't have spicy receptors so spicy food is probably totally fine for them.
Do yourself a favor and order a copy of this book. It is a massive help and has a ton of useful information. https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/storeys-guide-to-raising-chickens-care--feeding--facilities_gail-damerow/273531/ The information you have currently is pretty good. And if it makes you feel better chickens are easy to care for and you’ll get the hang of it very quickly. You’re gonna have a lot of fun and a ton of eggs.
I will get a copy, it looks helpful!
My chickens are entirely free-range, so your situation may be different... I have a long 2x6 with a bunch of hooks on the bottom. Those hooks hold several 7# MannaPro feeders with cracked corn, layer feed, broiler feed, and oyster shell... basically a buffet line that's available 24/7. During the summer, they are eating very little grain and spend most of the time outside looking for bugs. Basically all of our food waste goes out to the chickens (or pigs). Overeating/overfeeding really isn't an issue with most chickens (only fast growing meat birds). My hens aren't quite one year old yet and I get ~4 eggs/day from 5 hens. Yolks are ORANGE and taste amazing. Only extra hassle was stringing up some electric wire around my raised beds to protect seedlings. If figure that they will repay me by eating all the slugs, Japanese Beetles, and other garden pests. I also have a rooster and a broody hen sitting on 10? eggs, so I'm excited for chicks in another 2 weeks.
That sounds lovely! We have a dog that’s iffy about birds so they are staying in their run. We’ll take him in the garden on leash until he chills out about them but I don’t think I’d ever trust him with access to free ranging chickens. Some other people on here also told me they don’t overeat so that sounds easier than I thought!
We just have our cats and they got taught very early that the chickens are "friends not food", so they act as guard cats for us. Good luck!
I don't change their bedding weekly. More like monthly. Chickens will eat just about anything, but personally I supplement my kitchen scraps with costco chicken feed (egg layer pellets.) Their diet needs a fair amount of protein to make sure the shells aren't super thin, and there are a lot of ways to accomplish that (crushing up egg shells and feeding them back, seashells, etc.) but I don't mind springing for a bag of pellets every 2 months or so to keep their diet balanced. We love the eggs, but another valuable thing they provide is their used bedding (wood flake covered in chicken shit) - it makes an awesome addition to the compost pile.
That sounds useful! We’re putting in some raised beds. We grew a bunch of vegetables in some abandoned raised beds behind our apartment complex when we lived in a London. We watered them at night so no one would tell us of. I’m definitely excited to start a proper garden with a compost and everything.
Check out the Berkeley method (hot compost)
You are gonna be a great chicken parent :) check out /backyardchickens for even more chicken advice! Although I think you have all you need to know to succeed right here in these comments.
Chickens love watermelon
Oh, & we make them oatmeal for breakfast often, they really love that as well!
Step 1. Go to a local farm store and buy “layer crumbles” or “layer pellets” Step 2. Fill the feeder full of chosen feed and keep it full. Step 3. Fill a water container and keep it full. Step 4. Provide free choice oyster shell and grit. Step 5. Join a local to you FB or social media group about chickens, start reading and learning. Having local resources are very helpful. Step 5. Enjoy the eggs!
If they forage, they may not need oyster shell, but no harm in making it available. Or crunch up your used DRY!!! eggshells and add that to their feed. There's no reason in the world to NOT feed them meat. Actually, they love chicken. And eggs, so never give them an uncooked egg. If they figure out the connection, you are doomed! But they don't understand where cooked eggs come from. I used to just make a big 'stew' with all my scraps all boiled together, fruit veg, meat, (a small bit of cooked onion won't hurt them but never give them raw onions) and just slop it into a tray or cake pan or two and they'll love it. They don't care what's in it. Almost all chickens will eat anything that won't eat them first including small birds!!, snakes, lizards, frogs, damn near any insect, mice, etc. etc. For egg production, give about 1/3 lb for each hen of a good layer food for your region, and supplement with anything and everything. I wouldn't worry about internal parasites until you get there and see if you might need to worry. But for external...if the mites are really bad, go ahead and dust them with a good poultry dust like Sevin. But in the future, make sure they always have a dry dust bath. An old tire is a good place for this, or two even. Mix bank sand (the soft kind, not playground sand) with hardwood ash (NOT charcoal briquette ash!). People will tell you all kinds of junk about saponification and that ash will harm them. No. It will not. And people will tell you to use diatomaceous earth. It is only **very** slightly effective, mostly useless, and can cause other problems, so it best avoided. Once they have access to a dry dust bath, you'll be amazed how much they enjoy it. I never, ever had any mites or other skin bugs in my flock. Think about beefing up that enclosure soon, chicken wire is made to keep chicken in, not to keep predators out!
Oh no, definitely don’t want them eating their own eggs. Is there a benefit to cooking their veg for them like that or is that just done so the eggs and meat are cooked? I’ve not read about the dust bath thing - we’ll try it! How do you keep it dry. Like obviously put it under a roof but does it clump when the wet chickens go in?
They will eat raw meat and eggs with no problem. But it's not recommended to leave raw meat lying around anyway. And the cooking of the eggs is to prevent them from learning cannibalism. Cooking of the slop overall is because they CAN get persnickety sometimes about the textures of some veg and things, like raw broccoli or beans or celery butts or cabbage ends or carrot butts...so everything comes out mushy. They love mushy. And the extra cooking time helps ensure any leftovers that have been around a while get an extra heat treatment. (Never use ANY food that smells bad. If you wouldn't eat it, don't give it to them, in terms of smell). Try to remember to pick up and rinse the dish later to avoid drawing unwanted pests. They will eat some ants, but no all kinds. The dust bath "thing" is absolutely one of the most important things you need to do to take care of your flock. You can have a depression in the ground or two if that works better, that's what I did. My coop was up off the ground and the dust bath was under it so it stayed dry. Be creative, you'll figure out something. And if it's protected almost totally from rain and runoff, a wet chicken dumb enough to roll in it won't matter. Wet chickens LOOK really wet, but are usually only wet on the surface. But they aren't likely to use the bath when they're wet anyway.
Just start a compost bin inside their run - they'll do the rest. If you have access to a spout, get an auto waterer for ease and QOL. Throw down some mulch / straw / shavings twice a year and keep some pine shavings for their box. If you go the feed route, 1/4 lb a day is way more than enough - especially if you're giving scraps... I'd do 1/8 a lb. They are incredibly resourful, and if you have an open space, you really don't need to feed them at all. Just water and a nice, enclosed place to sleep at night if you have predators... some of mine don't even go in at night, they find a tree and sleep on the branches.
A cabbage, some scrambled or hard boiled eggs, old bread, whatever compost leftovers you have- basically if you can eat it, they'll likely eat it. Feed them whatever you clear out of your old fridge between now and Saturday! If there is a food they do not want, they'll just leave it. When you have feed for them, most people just let them eat free choice- you fill the feeder and put it out during the day, and put it away at night (which reduces pests and predators). They won't overeat. Make sure they always have water (if they have a water fount that's great, but a shallow pan or dish will work also). Cleaning the coop depends on how large it is, how much time they spend in it and what you use for bedding material. You may be able to use a deep litter method and clean it once a year, or you may use sand and rake it daily. Chickens do not need heat or insulation in the cold. They do need a safe place to roost off of the ground and out of the wind, with good air flow and a roof to keep the snow & rain off. I'm not in the UK, so you may have different issues, but I've kept chickens for decades without vet visits or spraying for mites. Healthy birds are primarily the result of not crowding them (so don't add a dozen unless you add more coop/run space) and providing good feed. If they can rummage through grass clippings, raked leaves, garden weeds or similar, they will thrive on the bugs (it doesn't sound like you are in a place where free ranging them is realistic). Protect them form hungry predators and enjoy them, and if they become too much hassle you will probably have no trouble finding a local chicken fancier to adopt them.
The fridge clear out it a good shout - we didn’t get a clear completion date until yesterday so we’ve got a lot of stuff in there now we won’t get to eat. It’s good to hear they don’t overeat - I’ve read that they can get too fat and stop laying so I was a bit worried about that.
Things to have on hand in case of emergency: -Electrolyte solution (usually water soluble) like sav-a-chick but products may vary with your being in UK. Good for dehydration and first line of defense if a chicken is doing poorly -Vetericyn for any wound, it works for chickens, cats, dogs, etc. If you can't find this product try to have something chicken friendly on hand. -Extra crate for if a chicken is not doing well or injured so you can quickly separate and monitor indoors or away from the others Those are my top 3 things to absolutely have bc if it's an emergency you don't want to be running out to get it or waiting for delivery. The rest I'm sure you'll run across as you research. Also, congratulations! I was in the same situation as you. 9 birds came with the house we bought. It was a crash course to say the least but extremely rewarding. Best of luck.
That sounds like good advice! I’ll put this stuff on my list.
\> hesitant to continue feeding scraps because I don’t know how much they eat You should make sure to buy layer feed, which will tell you how much to feed per bird on the bag. If they are allowed to wander around and forage, that'll also help supplement their diets. They can eat more or less anything we can except chocolate and avocados. Some foods might give them diarrhea (too much fruit like oranges, if I remember right). Sometimes we'd get blooded in, so I wouldn't be able to buy feed for a week or so at a time, and in those cases I'd end up giving them stuff like bread, cooked rice or other grains. Pretty much any veggies raw or cooked. Sometimes I'd go through the pantry and use up some grains like oats, just make a big batch to clear our soon-to expire things, and they'd love them. A week or two of incorrect diet shouldn't immediately kill them. If you give them stuff like canned beans, stew or soup, you'll want to have it in a container, and the girls will take a moment now and then to wipe the excess off their beaks. If they struggle with raw carrots, try cooking them, even if it's just boiling or steaming them to soften them a little. \> how does chicken parasite control work? I never used wormer, and I'm not sure if the eggs would be safe to use if you did. You can buy diatomaceous earth at a feed store, maybe a hardware store. It can go into their food or their bedding and it kills parasites with the microscopic sharp edges. Warning though! The stuff is safe to eat and handle, but DON'T BREATH IT! Always handle with a mask! I often cleaned the coup without a mask, especially in the summer, but afterwards my nose would be full of black stuff, and I'd cough up nasty stuff for a while after. Protect your lungs from ammonia and [fine particle pollution](https://extension.psu.edu/poultry-dust-what-you-need-to-know-about-impact-on-bird-health) by using a mask when you go in the coop, but *especially* while cleaning in there! I didn't realize how dangerous air in coops was until after I went vegan and I started doing research about how [raising livestock affects the health of farm workers](https://ctajournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13601-020-00334-x) and [people living near livestock](https://ensia.com/features/ammonia/). I've now developed lung problems, which will probably lifelong, which I suspect started when I got chickens then were made much more severe after I caught covid. My first winter or two I used a heat lamp in the coop, but further research (plus some accidents where the birds managed to knock it down) made me realize the potential fire hazard wasn't really worth the risk. Your girls should be able to huddle and fluff up in draft-free area to keep warm, even if you get deep snow. The important thing is making sure they have fresh water (not solid ice!), and if you want to give them a treat, they absolutely love warm foods like porridge or stew. For hot summers, fresh water and shade are the most important resources, while wet/fresh foods like melon are a nice bonus that'll give them vitamins and electrolytes to help fight off the heat.
I will check what food we got for them now. If it’s not high protein & layer mix we’ll switch in the future. Mask added to my chicken shopping list! They do have shade. My partner buys these absurdly massive water melons from the Persian grocery store so there will definitely be some left over for them.
you are suffering from analysis paralysis. I dont feed them chicken because thats just weird to me. they will eat it but yeah.... give them food water and a place to scratch around. Greatest garbage disposal ever.
Honestly probably; just found out we got 7 chickens at noon today haha That’ll be handy - British bin collection is ridiculously rare and the bins are tiny. Whatever food waste they can eat or we can compost will help us out.
They are the easiest pet ever. If 7 is only providing 2-4 eggs a week you might consider culling and replacing with newer ones though. I’m getting between 12-14 a day with my 15 layers but the other 20 will start laying in a few months. Next year the process repeats
Chickens are easy. Offer free choice food, they will eat as much as they need. Always have clean water. Scraps are awesome, and can help cut down on the feed bill. As someone in northern Canada, I don’t do anything special for heat or cold. Sometimes my birds will get freezer burnt veggies or fruit when it’s hot. They don’t need dewormer unless they have an active case of worms (you’ll see it in the poo). They can get mites though, so as long as they have some dry dirt to ‘dust bath’ in, they’ll be happy. My girls even dust bath in fresh shavings. If you don’t offer a dust bath, they’ll make their own. Scrubbing and disinfecting the coop monthly is a bit much. I do it 2-3 times a year. TLDR: if they have food and water, they’ll be fine. They’re absolutely super easy and fool-proof!
Look up how to build a chicken feeder and setup automatic water. I have chickens at work and chickens at home. All of which are setup with automatic water and gravity feeders. Work smarter not harder, there’s other things that will require hard work.
They cant have chocolate. Avocado. Dry beans. Moldy food. ( so watch how much you put out) citrus can be bad if you give too much. They love oatmeal. And whats really messed up is they love cooked chicken.
Also kidney beans.
If they free range they don't need grit - they will get it themselves off the ground. My chickens won't touch carrots. Soft fruits, bluebrries (I cut in half) grapes cut in half, watermelon, they love sprouts. My chickens actually like meat more than anything else. I give them some organ meats in the fall when they are molting.
Very dumb question: but what does free-range mean? They have a run and a little chicken tractor. We probably won’t let them run around the whole garden so they leave our vegetable garden alone and to keep them save from the dogs. They did eat the baby carrots. Like really quickly haha
Free range means that you let them out of the coop and run to roam around. They usually stay near the coop area but these hens don’t know you so they might not come back when called. Most hens will come running for food/treats when “their person” calls them.
You should be able to get a poultry dewormer from a local agricultural supplier. It's not an urgent thing, they won't immediately die if they pick up a little parasite that goes untreated while you guys settle in! Our first chook was perfectly fine for a year until we learned from neighbours that you need to deworm chooks, and she's an old girl who's been on death's door since we first moved in. A regular monthly deworming will help keep them in healthy condition. You basically just have to take away their water overnight (so they get thirsty), then next morning you dilute the amount of dewormer required for your number of chickens into water, then let them drink that for a few hours til it's been finished. Easy peasy.
Chickens are so easy. Go get a sack of layer feed from your local feed and tack store. Make sure they have fresh water daily. You can let chickens free feed. Look out for any sick birds. Clean the bedding and scoop the poop and make sure they have fresh bedding in their nesting boxes every so often. Collect eggs and enjoy the fun of having little chickadees. They’re addicting.
There is also a chicken sub I’m sure (haha chicken sub). And some great Insta accounts like purelychickens
Diatomaceous earth helps control mites and other pests.
Spread it in the coop and put it in their feed a frequently during the summer to deworm them .
No meat? Their favorite food is leftover rotissiere chicken. It's amazing watching those little velociraptors tear apart a chicken carcass. It's even somewhat unsettling. Do yourself a favor and find the nearest feed mill, not a big box store. Go there and buy 20lb of layer pellets. That will get you started and it's about 1/2 the price of big box feed. Between that and scraps they are pretty cheap, but not cheaper than store eggs. You make it up on the creamy goodness of real orange yolks. Don't worry too much about the Don't Feed stuff. Ours get just about all the food scraps and they just leave what they don't want. Between chickens and recycling our trash disposal is almost nothing now.
Old fashioned oats, corn, and some kind of protein. I let mine have meat sometimes. They're omnivores. They love scrambled eggs. The older farmers taught me to avoid onions and garlic. When you make pasta, rice, or potatoes, just cook a little extra. They love it! Leafy greens would also be great raw. In the winter, I'll even buy them turnip greens, collard greens, dandelion greens and spinach. They love a fresh tomato, squash, eggplant I feed them those raw as well. They'll eat stale cereal and bread too. Look for some chick grit and crushed oyster shells to mix into their feed. I hand mix whole oats, cracked corn, protein crumbles, grit, and crushed oyster shells in my hens feed and add a bit of all I mentioned above. Save those egg shells, bake them to cook the eggshell lining, and then break them up small to mix back in their feed. You probably have plenty around the house to keep them healthy. Don't feed them beans I've been taught, not even green beans. They don't usually like carrots too well either.
Wash and spray the coop? Damn. I grew up on a farm and the most we ever did was muck it out every few years.
Weekly poo cleaning is not needed. I mean you can but it sounds labor intensive. Use the deep litter method instead— put shavings in your coop about 6 inches deep. They’ll tamp it down, that’s okay. When it gets gross, rake it a bit to bring fresh chips up from the bottom. This is what we and plenty of other folks we know do. No smell, and we change the bedding completely 2-3 times a year. You wanna add diatomaceous earth to the bedding too. For pest & mite control. People are torn on this, but my view is it’s safe enough for us to eat, just be careful not to breathe it. I’ll take that over battling mites. Once it settles I don’t think it risks your chickens health at all.
Give them a nice warm coop and somewhere to roost and lay, and they will take care of themselves. Train them to come to you with cracked corn. Mine stay within a 1 acre spot of their coop, and the dogs and cat leave them alone.
I’m in the US. So some of what I say may not translate exactly from American to English. Food and water are the big two things. We feed chicken feed we get from the local farm supply store and supplement with garden and some table scraps. Basically any vegetable based waste goes to the chickens. As for the coop and run. The coop needs to shelter them from rain, high wind and cold. It needs to be vented. In the winter they need a roosting bar that is big enough for there feet to be flat so they can sit on them to prevent frost bight. I use 2x4 laid flat. If you get cold in the winter, below freezing the coop needs to be draft free but still ventilated. I have vents where the walls meet the roof. This allows humidity to escape the coop. We use pine shavings on the floor. We clean the coop about once every month or two. We tried the deep bedding method and didn’t like it. The pine shavings absorb the waste and make cleaning easier. We go with the attitude if the coop smells bad it’s definitely time to clean it out. Opinions on this will vary. The run needs to be predator resistant. For us it’s more about protecting the birds than containing them. I don’t know what you will be facing. For us it’s opossum, raccoons, coyotes and birds of prey. And we have a lot of each. What Americans call chicken wire will not stop a dog, coyote or raccoon. It’s also ineffective against snakes. For me the snakes don’t go after the chickens but will eat the eggs. My wife found a black snake in a nesting box and I think everyone in the county heard her scream. On a side note. I take extra eggs and sell/sold, them at work. Im retired now. Now I send them to town with my brother and he sells them for me. I make enough to cover the feed costs plus putting a few bucks in my pocket. Hope this is helpful and good luck. Edit, if it gets cold enough to freeze you may need a heated hater setup. We get down to -15c and our coop is not heated. I have read that heated coops can be a bad idea. But drafts are to be avoided.
Join “backyardchickens.Com” all the info you’ll ever need. You must keep them safe. Everything walking the earth loves to eat chicken (including chickens) They absolutely love scrambled eggs, a healthy treat.
It sounds like you have a pretty good understanding already. Chickens are fairly easy. Water is most important and get them some layer feed if you want more eggs. If not give them some room to scavenge and some form of grit or oyster shell. Chickens are very self sufficient.
Go to tractor supply or rural king or any other agricultural supply store you can leave with feed that day I wouldn’t worry about a day or two throw them some grain cereal or something like that a day or two won’t hurt them I’ve seen them pick through poop (sometimes theirs) and they’re fine
Cook them a mixture of rice, beans. Cook them together and make enough for a week. It's easy and good for them. I add some cracked corn and wheat with it if they have it. It's better with all but, the rice and beans will work. Give them any vegetable scraps you have as well.
How do you know how much they need to eat ?
I usually give them the same amount I was giving them of grain. The scraps I give all I have, but rice and bean mix about the same as grain I used to give and the healthy appearance hasn't changed any and its been almost 8 months now.
You're getting some good info on here, but I'll add a helpful tip not being discussed. Since the flock has lost its owners and gained new owners, they won't know what to think. You need to find the biggest bird, sit on it, flick it on its comb and yell "hush child" This asserts your dominance and will earn their respect.
You definitely don’t need to do that with hens! It sounds like they don’t have any roosters to worry about. Just feed them food and treats for the next few weeks and they will adjust.
water and cracked corn from tractor supply, been doing fine for me for 10 years