Chicken Coop Scoop Straight From The Backyard Chicken Coop

Chicken Raising Tips: Gearing up for your Chickens Arrival

Raising chickens is a very rewarding experience.  You humans have so many differrent reasons for wanting chickens.  One of them we will not be discussing in this post.  My Chicken owner likes to just have us around for the pure enjoyment and relaxation that we bring him as he watches us go about our daily routines.

My special time of the day is when our chicken owner comes out with a can of scratch grains for myself and my flock of laying hens.  As he scatters the grain about the ground we are careful to not miss one peice of grain.  We will scratch about on the ground looking for the last peice.  My guess this is why it is called scratch grain.  I quietly cluck away as I watch the chicken owner relax with a facial expression of pure enjoyment that we seem to bring him as he watches away at our every move.

I remember when I first arrived as a young chick to the Backyard Chicken Coop.  my chicken owner had everything all ready and prepared, just waiting for my arrivle to give me the best start to life that he possible could.

If you are wanting to raise chickens you also will need certain equipments and it must already be present upon the arrival of the chickens in your own backyard. You have to be geared up before presenting your new baby chicks to their brand new  world. The transition period can be quite stressful therefore being prepared can help you rid of half of the stress.

You have to purchase a lot of items for your chicks to stay comfortable in their new home so that you will not experience any regrets.

1.  Brooder

This is like a baby chick’s second pit stop after life inside an incubator. A brooder is sort of an incubator but is bigger. It can be made or bought. The thing about brooders is that you have to provide your own heat lamp and make sure that the temperature is adjustable.

Before putting the chicks inside the brooder, you should have it set at an environment that the temperature is not less than 90 degrees. A 95-degree heat can be a start. You maintain the heat lamp until the 6th week. From a 90-95 degree heat, you can decrease the heat by 5 degrees every week until it reaches about 60-65 degrees by the 6th week.

Once your baby chicks arrive or you put them out of the incubator if you choose to hatch your won baby chicks, you have to make sure that there is already available food and water inside the brooder. Never let these two essentials run out. They should always have something to put their beaks into.

Babies must be fed with dry mash.  Chicken babies love baby chick mash. Solid food like grains is unsuitable,  We will really love it once we are a little older but not as new chicks. Grits aren’t necessary when you choose to use mash feed. You can buy all these in a local feed store.

1. Food

Without this, who will live? The food you will give will entirely depend on the kind of chicken that you have. But to sum it up, just give something that is “complete”. It must contain the right food substance that your chickens will need like carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and minerals and if the budget can still take it, buy them vitamins. There are two kinds of feeds: conventional and organic. Either of the two can be purchased online or at your local agricultural poultry store.  I really thrived on a good 24% protien chick start feed.

If the time has come for your chickens to lay eggs or is about 20 weeks old, purchase a good 16% protien layer feed. But if they are younger than 20 weeks, starter feed is highly recommended. 

2. Waterer and Feeder

Purchase a waterer and feeder that are suspended from the ground. They should hang at least a couple inches off it. A very good advantage when purchasing such items is that they will prevent your chickens from jumping on top of it and smudging off their feet filled with feces inside the container. An automatic refill feature is also included which is very reliable during times when you have to go somewhere and will take you a couple of days before you come back. Worry-free.

My chicken owner is very careful to keep my feeder and my waterer very clean to prevent the spreading of any desieses amongst his flock of chickens.  He is also very careful to keep good clean fresh water in front of us at all times.

3. Bed

Yes, no matter how absurd it seems, you have to provide your young chickens with the proper bedding to keep them warm, comfortable, healthy and happy. But this doesn’t mean that you have to buy them sheets from Best Buy. Beddings can be in the form of a pile of clean haystack, old or used newspapers9Changed regularly), or if you wanted it to be extra special, there are beddings that can be bought online or in a local agricultural poultry store. My owner has always provided us with fresh clean pine shavings.

Beddings are best inside the coop where it can provide chickens a soft surface to roam around with. Beddings are also beneficial for your flock because it absorbs the odor and droppings. You don’t want a foul-smelling coop, right?  Hey I might be a chicken but I sure am not a pig… I want to stay clean and fresh smelling.  I find my chicks dig me better that way.   Another advantage of the bedding is that is saves the eggs from cracking making it an area where eggs are safe to land.  I will have to give you some good nest box building plans and tips one of these days soon.

There are a lot of bedding varieties. But whatever the bedding that you’ve chosen, always make it a point that it is at least two inches thick and is truly absorbent.

4. Dust Baths

After your chickens have graduated from their nice warm housing into the hen house where they will continue to grow until it is time for egg production you may see us doing something that you may consider a little strange.  If you see your chickens digging a shallow hole and creating a mess with dirt, they are dust bathing! Chickens enjoy bathing in dust. But did you know that when chickens take dust baths, they are actually protecting themselves from parasites and those creatures that find it interesting to live inside their legs and feathers. Therefore, it is necessary to have dust baths.

If you have a dry area in your chicken run that has patches of fresh ground, it’s the perfect spot to do their thing. But if your pen consists of entirely cement, worry not, because there are artificial dust baths available in agricultural stores.

Well that is going to be it for today.  I hope you enjoyed my scoop from the coop.  I wish you much success raising your own chickens in your own backayard chicken coop.