Chickens Make The Perfect Productive Pet , As Long As You Have A Good Chicken Coop
Keeping some chickens at home could just be the best decision you've ever made. There's plenty of reasons why, but the 2 main reasons are that kids absolutely love chickens and that they will produce eggs for you every day so are they are productive.
However before you start buying your first brood of chooks you do need to spend a little time considering how you will house them. Chickens are generally housed in what is called a chicken coop, chicken house or henhouse.
It doesn't matter if you buy your chicken coop or build a chicken coop yourself. It's quite cheap and not difficult to build a henhouse, it's really not a lot more than a garden shed with some modifications.
There are a few specific things that you will need to install in your henhouse before you get your first bunch of chooks. They will need nesting boxes to lay their eggs, and to sit on those eggs if you let them build up, and it is worth having more than one nesting box even if you only have a small number of hens. Make them small so that only one chook can fit in the nesting box at one time or you will find 2 of them are battling for position at the same time to lay their eggs.
And it's also important that they be relatively dark, as chickens like to nest in dark places, and if they aren't dark they will choose somewhere darker, like the corner of the chicken coop.
As well as nesting boxes you will need perches for the chooks to sleep on, as they sleep standing up above the ground, as if they were on a branch. A simple bar around 75 millimetres by 50 a little way off the ground is sufficient, and allow around 200 millimetres of horizontal space for every bird.
And you will of course need to provide both water and food, generally inside the chook shed, though this is not essential.
But if the food or water is placed under the perch it will become fouled with droppings.
Once you've made the decision to keep chickens you are also committed to some regular work, namely cleaning the chicken coop. It will need a soft material on the floor of the coop, I generally use sawdust. It soaks up the droppings well but needs to be cleaned out from time to time. Put it on the garden as it makes wonderful fertiliser.
Collecting eggs every day is the best part of keeping chickens, and your own free range eggs always taste better than the supermarket variety. If you have too many just ask a few neighbours, there will always be some who will buy them from you.
There are many pets that you can consider for the children. However it's difficult to think of a another idea for a pet that will provide you with a useful product as well as being a good companion for the children.
And there is little doubt that children love chooks, ours wouldn't be without them.
So why not research a little about keeping chickens. Decide whether to buy or build a chicken coop, where you will put it and how you will clean it and then get your first bunch of chooks. You won't regret it.
