How To Keep Your Flock Happy

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You’ve finally set up the chicken coop of your dreams. Your chicks have arrived, your chicken run is clean and ready for action, and your mind is brimming with idealic thoughts of pecking backyard fowl dotting your perfect backyard. Likely your visions don’t include sickness and death, birds who will not eat or can’t stop fighting, or sneaky predators taking out your favorite birds. Yet these are dangers every backyard farmer faces. Here are a few handy hints to keep your flock happy and avert hen heartache.

Who Wants Chicken For Dinner?

Dogs love to chase chickens. Cats love to catch them too. Coyotes, raccoons, foxes, opossums, bears, weasels, hawks, owls, fishers, and snakes all enjoy a good chicken dinner too. Make sure that your property is securely fenced, if possible. Your chicken coop must be securely built to keep predators out. Holes invite snakes and rats inside. Poor fencing risks dead or injured fowl. If birds of prey are a threat, consider a covered chicken run. It’s highly beneficial for your chickens to have plenty of room to roam, but that area must be safe from animals and birds who wish to turn them into a tasty meal.

Plenty of Space Makes For Friendly Neighbors

Factory farms may keep their birds in tight, confined quarters, but this is terribly unhealthy. Give your flock plenty of living space. The bigger the better. Aim for at least 4 square feet in your chicken coop for each bird but if you can provide 8-10 square feet per bird, that’s even better. Provide each of your birds with a roost too. In addition to a spacious, ventilated coop which you’ll clean frequently  (of course), give your chickens a safe, enclosed chicken run so that they can walk about outdoors and enjoy some fresh air and sunshine. A chicken tractor is an excellent option; one can move the enclosure frequently to provide the chickens with fresh ground to peck and forage. Fresh bugs, anyone?

Good Food and Fresh Water Does a Body Good

Along with a clean, ventilated living area, some sunshine, and room to roam, chickens thrive when given good food and a constant supply of fresh water. High quality feed and good table scraps create a healthy bird. The statement “You are what you eat” can apply to your birds just as it applies to your family. Quality chicken feed and a variety of table scraps does well. Don’t over feed either. Too much food isn’t healthy for any species. Also avoid giving your chickens rotten food, raw potatoes and potato sprouts, chocolate, and raw meat. Keep their water container full of fresh water and make sure it doesn’t freeze in the winter. These simple steps will go a long way toward a happy, healthy flock of birds you’ll enjoy for years to come.

Keeping Chickens as Pets

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It’s popular to keep chickens for eggs and for meat, but what about keeping a chicken as a pet? In some countries, this is actually quite popular. Cat, dog, or chicken? Any chicken can ideally be a pet if raised gently, but some breeds make much better pets than others. Keeping a chicken as a pet isn’t much different from regular chicken husbandry, but there are a few things you should keep in mind.

Start From the Beginning

There are few things quite as rewarding from raising a chicken from an egg, or at least a very young chick. One can purchase young chicks online or from their local farm supply store and must keep them in an incubator for the first several weeks. The more you handle them and the gentler you are with them, the more your chicks will trust you and respond well to human touch. Squat down to handle your chicks, don’t make fast motions, feed them from your hands, and make sure that small children don’t run around them or handle them roughly. Teach your children to handle them gently, to feed them, and to treat the birds well. This is an excellent chance to educate your children and sure to create a lasting relationship between your kids and your family’s new pets.

Some Breeds Are Better Choices Than Others

While all chickens can make decent pets, some are naturally better tempered than others. Hens are the best choice and quiet, gentle breeds make the best bets. Bantam chickens are much smaller than regular breeds, making them easier to hold. Looks, coloring, and size are all a matter of preference.

Silkie Chickens make excellent pets and their silk-like feathers make them appealing to hold as well. Docile, soft, and easy to carry, the Silkie Chicken is the ideal pet. They are friendly, especially if they’re been handled frequently from the time they were young. Silkie Chickens also make excellent mothers, so if you want to increase the size of your flock this breed may be just what you’re looking for.

Ameraucana chickens are also popular pets and an added perk is that they lay lovely, colorful eggs. They are known for their unique looks and their gentle temperament. They are not the best egg layers when it comes to quantity, but they are good with children, easy to care for, and even-tempered.

Other breeds that make excellent pets are Cochins, Mille Fleurs, Brahmas, Austerlorps, Sussex, Plymouth Rocks, and Buff Orpingtons. No matter which breed you choose, do your research! Each has distinct advantages and disadvantages.

Keeping Your Pets Safe

Before buying your first chicks, take account of the pets you already have. Dogs and chickens often don’t mix well. Certain breeds, like Jack Russell Terriers, have been bred to kill small creatures. A chasing, nipping dog can easily kill a chicken. Training a puppy to be gentle with chicks and chickens is much easier than training a full-grown dog to do the same things. Even when you have trained your dog, it’s never wise to leave your dog alone with your pet chickens. The results can be disastrous. The same can be said for cats. Keep in mind that many creatures prey on chickens and that you must take extra precautions to keep your pets from becoming another animal’s dinner.

What Exactly is a Broody Hen?

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You’ve likely heard the term “broody hen” before. It’s well known within the chicken community that some chicken breeds are excellent broody hens while others are terrible. Yet, exactly what does it mean to be “broody?” Is this something man can influence, or is it something that is genetic?

Broody Chickens Generally Make Excellent Mothers

Broodiness is the natural tendency of a hen to care for her flock of chicks. Broodiness comes and goes in cycles; it is not a constant state of being. When a hen “goes broody,” she experiences a strong desire to care for and protect her eggs. She will rarely leave them, rather sitting on them to protect them.

According to James Kash in his January/ February 2013 Backwoods Home Magazine article “Broody Biddies Make Sense on the Homestead,” “Broodiness is an avian behavior that is frowned upon in the world of agriculture.” Why? Broodiness inhibits egg production. If you want a constant supply of eggs, not chicks, broodiness is not productive.

However, broodiness can also be very beneficial. If you’d like to increase the size of your flock, having a broody hen will do this inexpensively. You also won’t have to worry about incubating your eggs, because the hen will do this. Broody hens can maintain your flock, especially if you use some of your birds for meat. Mother hens are also good protectors of their young and teach them helpful skills, such as foraging. She’ll teach them to eat and drink and keep her chicks warm and safe at night.

How Can You Tell If Your Hen Is Broody?

If you suspect you might have a broody hen on your hands, there are a few signs you can look for to make sure. A broody hen will spend a lot more time at her nest or nesting box and will be very protective of it, fluffing up her feathers, pecking, or even making a growl-like sound. Broody hens tend to be irritable. Allow your hens to nest away from other pets and chickens, because they can be quite mean to any animals (or children!) who come too close. A broody hen may only leave her nest to eat, water, or defecate. She may even pull out some of her feathers. Are you seeing these signs in your birds? If so, you’ve likely got a broody hen on your hands.

Be careful, though, because not all broody hens are good mothers. Some will abandon their eggs or young chicks and if this happens, you’ll need a good stand-by brooder or an incubator to keep these chicks alive.

Some chicken breeds, like Cochins, Silkies, New Hampshire Reds, Australorps, Buff Orpingtons, Dorkings, and Old English Games are very likely to become broody. This is a genetic thing and is much more likely in some breeds than in others. Hens cannot be made to go broody. In fact, broodiness is a trait that has been bred out of many chicken breeds because broodiness inhibits egg production and many in the agricultural business consider this a bad thing. The leghorn is an example of a chicken breed that very rarely goes broody.

If you want to increase the size of your flock, choosing a broody breed may be just the answer. Keep in mind that broodiness varies even within a breed and some birds are naturally better brooders than others. With a little bit of research and some luck, keeping broody hens can be hugely rewarding.