Have You Considered Chickens As The Perfect Family Pet?
Having a pet is a wonderful thing for any family, but pets do have some problems. Some can be very expensive, including the veterinary bills, some tear up the garden, dogs bark at the neighbours and scare visitors, and what do you do with your pet when you go away on holidays?
The perfect pet for a family may well be chickens. Chickens don’t bark at the neighbours, they aren’t expensive, they rarely get sick and if you work it right it’s not a problem having chickens when you go on holidays.
And as well chickens are productive. They will provide your fridge with wonderful free range eggs from which you can cater to the family with healthy tasty food like fresh omelettes. There’s good reasons why you could consider that chickens are the perfect family pet.
And whilst it is true that you can’t sit a chicken on your lap to pat at night we still find that adults and particularly children adore chickens.
Like all pets however you need to make a little effort to learn about keeping chickens. They will need a place to live, which is variously called a chicken coop, or chicken house or henhouse, and you will need to find a good place to buy one or else learn to make it yourself. The latter can be the cheapest method.
Your choice of chicken coop is all important.
The chickens will sleep in the coop at night but generally are allowed out of the coop during the day, in many cases to run free around your garden. If they do this they will clean up many of the nasty bugs in your garden, though they may scratch the soil and peck at your flowers as they do.
They particularly love to peck at ripe tomatoes.
And if you prefer not to allow your chickens to free range around the house you can build a chicken run around the coop to allow them to roam there.
A chicken run around the henhouse is ideal.
It’s important, if you plan on keeping chickens, to understand some of the feeding requirements. To ensure an adequate supply of eggs they need plenty of calcium and protein. You can supply the protein from any source, though it’s possible to get dedicated high protein feed, and calcium can often come from shell grit added to their food. You will need a good feeding and watering device.
And if you want to go away on holidays leaving your chickens to their own devices, as we do, you will need to make sure that you can provide sufficient food and water for a week or 2 at a time.
There is no doubt that keeping is a wonderful occupation for young children, and for adults. There is lots to learn but the learning process is enjoyable and rewarding. Begin your learning before you buy your first chicken, spend some time researching the requirements for chicken housing, and familiarise yourself with the correct feeding of chickens. Then get out there and buy your first hen.
And when you have it all sorted and have bought your chickens sit back and enjoy your omelettes.
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