Taming will likely be your first priority after providing safe housing and stocking up on food for your new pet chickens.

So, how do you tame a chicken?

Chickens can be flighty and excitable, so you’ll want to avoid forcing yourself upon them. Let them get used to their habitat first. It’s easier if you’ve gotten them as baby chicks, as you can start handling them after just a few days.

Though baby chicks love to be held and gently petted, the same will not likely be true if you’ve gotten your pet chicken(s) after they’ve grown up.

Follow the tips below to turn that beautiful, but flighty, bird into a pet you can enjoy interacting with:

• Move slowly when approaching your newly acquired chicken(s)

• Talk, sing, or whistle a tune - chickens have excellent hearing and will cock their heads in interest. Soon they’ll realize you mean no harm and will get used to your presence.

• Crouch down and slowly extend your hand with a treat in it - the first few times they may not come close, but you can drop the treat down and back up while they investigate it - soon they’ll eat it.

(more…)

If you like the thought of waking up to a breakfast of freshly laid, free-range eggs at a fraction of the cost and inconvenience of traveling to the nearest store to buy some, then building a backyard chicken coop and hosting your own egg laying team could be just the thing for you. Join the increasing number of families across the country who are doing just that.

Eggs
Consider this: everything a chicken eats goes into producing an egg, right? When you purchase a carton of eggs from the supermarket, do know what went into the making of those eggs? If your chickens are fed nothing but good quality chicken food and your own table scraps, you will have tasty, nutritious eggs for your plate. Also, by letting your chickens run free during the day, (in some urban areas this may not be appropriate) you will find they will mostly be able to feed themselves.
Another bonus of a backyard chicken coop is if you are a gardener. Think about it! There will be a weekly allotment of fresh, free manure for your garden.

How Many?
How many chickens you need will depend largely on you and the space you have available. If you only want a handful of chickens for a relatively small area and just a few eggs per day, you will require only a small coop. If you would like a bigger supply of eggs, or want to raise more chickens yourself, then a larger coop with an attached run will be needed. Do check regulations in your area. There may be a limit to the number of chickens you can keep. Be aware - roosters do like to wake up early!

(more…)

Not sure what this slogan means. But global warming issue maybe the main idea. So, these tips are aimed to reduce your pet carbon, keep the balance wildlife and so on. Here are some ideas for you, pet owners.

1) You are recommended to adopt the pet from a shelter than buying your pet.

2) Spay your pet for reducing the animal population.

3) Keep your pet indoor, so they don’t disturb the native wildlife.

4) Avoid the junk food for your pet and choose the organic and natural pet foods, those contain of meat without drugs, hormones, minimally processed and using natural preservations.

(more…)

A nonbreeder chicken will naturally get broody every spring. They’ll begin to fuss and cluck more than usual, refuse to leave the nest and generally get maternal. Usually they lay a clutch of about a dozen eggs over a two-week period and settle down to brood them so that they hatch at the same time. After the chicks have grown, the hens usually molt their feathers and begin laying again until the following spring. Because of the mother hen’s body warmth, the chicks don’t stay too far from her during their first week or so.

You could gather about a dozen large eggs and incubate them yourself. You then have the trouble and bother of purchasing or making an incubator and brooder. Then you must keep it properly heated so the eggs hatch. You also could purchase newly-hatched baby chicks from a hatchery. Just make sure it is a reputable hatchery whose flocks are registered and guaranteed.

Chicken Feed - Chickens receive calcium-rich egg shells and clam shells smashed up real fine. Also coffee grinds, herbal tea leaves and citrus rinds. Chickens will eat your regular garbage leftovers from raw vegetables, suet and meat scraps.

(more…)

As the owner of backyard chickens, you will no doubt be familiar with the concept of a ‘pecking order’ in chicken society. Many people however, do not realise the implications of adding new chickens to an existing flock, who have previously established their place within the chicken hierarchy.

You might not realise it, but each chicken knows who they are allowed to pick on (those beneath them in the hierarchy) and which other chickens they must be submissive to. Adding new chickens throws the hierarchy into confusion, with a new order needing to be established. During this phase, fighting will occur amongst the chickens in order to determine who is submissive and who is dominant, and in the end, who will be the ‘top chook’.

So here are 5 tips to make the transition process as easy as possible for you, your older hens and the new additions.

1. Use two coops side by side

If you happen to have two coops or are able to borrow a small coop for a week or two, you have the option of putting your new chickens in this second coop, which can then stand alongside your main coop. This gives both groups of chickens the opportunity to get familiar with each other, without any physical contact. After a week or so, you can then integrate the new chickens into the main coop. While it’s likely that there’ll be some fighting, it will be less intense due to the precautionary, ‘familiarization’ phase that you’ve undertaken.

(more…)