How to Raise Chickens

Learning how to raise chickens is surprisingly easy – and the benefits can be awesome. Besides daily eggs that are better than anything you can ever get from the store, chickens are amusing, curious pets that anyone would appreciate.

To get started on learning how to raise chickens, keep in mind that they only need a couple of things.

First, chickens need access to fresh water and food at all times. Luckily, there are feeders that take care of that so you only have to fill them up every couple of days.

Second, chickens need a coop. The coop serves functions, with the most important being a comfortable place to nest and lay eggs, a place to roost at night, and protection from predators (even in an urban setting, chickens can be prey for raccoons). A coop can be easily obtained for a few hundred dollars or built from materials you might already have around your yard.

Depending on how you want to raise your chickens, you may want to have a yard for them to roam in during the day. My chickens have a small run on their coop, but I also let them out into the yard every morning, and put them back up safely at night. This is the most work that is involved in learning how to raise chickens, which isn’t that bad to say the least.

You will also need to harvest your chicken’s eggs. But don’t fret. This just means going and getting them from their nesting area. The eggs are even fine if you skip a day or two. And, of course, if you like to eat eggs, this is an easy step to take to have daily access to these healthier-than-average eggs. It’s not a bad idea to rinse them off before putting them in the fridge, and they can last for several weeks (store bought are up to a month old before they even hit the shelf).

On about a monthly basis, it’s a good idea to clean out your chicken coop. If you have easy access into the coop, this can be as simple as taking out a few shovel loads of waste and sprinkling back in a few shovel loads of wood shavings. As far as the messy factor goes, this is as bad as it gets whem learning how to raise chickens.

The only other attention your chicken needs is a heat lamp in the winter. It may not even be necessary, but I put a heat lamp on a timer in the chicken coop during the winter. During the freezing weeks or months (depending on the weather), then I leave the lamp on all night to keep the chicken’s water from freezing. When it isn’t as cold, a heat lamp actually tricks your chickens into laying eggs all throughout the winter, when they would normally stop because the days are shorter. But once the timer is set and the light is set up, it’s mostly a set-it-and-forget-it task.

I hope I’ve illustrated just how simple learning how to raise chickens can be. I’ve had mine for about a year and a half and they really have been a joyful addition to the yard. The only daily tasks are checking for eggs and letting them in and out of their coop, and they would be fine if I left them in for a few days at a time if I had to. Other tasks for how to raise chickens are weekly or monthly, and all of it is worth having them as pets and having a fresh supply of eggs every day. So, by all means, find out more about having chickens as pets if you are interested. I highly recommend them.