How to Earn Money by Keeping Chickens

It is definitely not difficult to earn extra money or income for your family by keeping chickens. You can raise chickens easily at the backyard of your house.

But how can you make money by raising chickens? Its a good idea to engage your children in this activity. If they know for sure that they will get extra pocket money, don't you think they will help you in raising chickens?

Here you go...

1. How about selling those eggs in the market and earning an extra income? You can earn up to $2 or $3 for a dozen of eggs. Just think how much you can earn a day with a dozen of chickens at home and each laying a maximum of 2 eggs a day. It is definitely not huge money; however, an added or extra income for your family.

2. Rather than selling eggs you may sell baby chicks to local farmers for a good price.

3. Composted manure that you get by keeping chickens can be sold to gardeners as this is a form of natural manure.

4. You may even raise the chickens and sell them for meat.

Once you decide to make money by keeping chickens, take into consideration the space available for raising chickens and the amount of chickens you will be able to raise. Once this is decided, build a chicken coop. There are many ready-to-use chicken coops and runs available on the market or you may go in for a DIY chicken coop.

Jack Corrigan
jack.corrigan@chickens-at-home.co.uk
Articles, products and advice for keeping your own chickens at home.
http://www.chickens-at-home.co.uk

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jack_Corrigan

Keep Your Chickens Laying For an Amazing 12 Years

If you want to raise happy, healthy and productive chickens, your main concern should be the quality of feed you offer them. With all of the options for feeding your flock, it can be a daunting task to select the right method for you. One solution is to let your chickens roam around the yard, hunting for their own bugs and wild plants. This approach however, will drop their egg production to oblivion due to filling their stomachs with protein-lacking grasses instead of high-protein foods. Another choice is to use a premixed vegetarian diet, possibly this same type of diet with the addition of animal proteins. The last method that we will be covering is mixing your own feed grains.

Before we get into our lengthy discussion on chicken feed, let us first mention another important element, which is an integral part of feeding your chickens; hen houses. The reason I bring this up now is because, as you will soon see, hen houses also play a major part in feeding your flocks. Whether you call them poultry houses, chicken coops, hutches, pens, runs, or any other name, they are all the same. And properly constructed portable hen houses can provide valuable protein which can help keep your chickens healthy while saving you money on store bought feed at the same time.

The mass producers use a strict vegetarian diet due to the fact that their old style of feeding, using feed that included animal proteins, had the potential to pass animal diseases to their flocks. The no-animal-protein diet eliminates the risk of these serious diseases, which have been known to kill thousands of birds in a flock. The negative side to this diet is that it is possible for the birds to end up with protein deficiencies if care is not taken to mix the feed properly.

The mass producers obviously want their chickens to be as healthy as possible, but that is not their main objective. They are driven by the questions "how many eggs am I going to get and how much is it going to cost me?" Since they typically replace their laying hens every year they are not as worried about keeping them active and healthy for 10 or 12 years as they are getting the most production at the cheapest price. The home grower of chickens on the other hand, can use feeds containing animal protein relatively risk-free, so it is not as worrisome for the backyard enthusiast raising just a small number of birds. Backyard farmers can also let their flocks graze around the chicken coup for a portion of their protein in the form of bugs and insects, which has the added advantage of lower their feed bill.

The simplest and quickest approach is to get feed that is already premixed for you, where the feed is already packaged and bagged, ready to distribute to your birds. This approach saves time and work, but it also means higher feed bills. You can save money while still getting the same results mixing your own feed. You buy the individual elements and mix them on your own. It does not take a lot of work to do.

The final alternative we will mention is allowing your chickens to forage for their own food, but there are two potential problems here. One, if they roam unconfined they can quickly become the prey of a predator or neighborhood pet. Also, they can end up eating too many grasses and too little protein, and this will dramatically decrease egg production. Both of these problems can be solved with the help of portable hen houses.

As I said previously, portable hen houses are a terrific way to help you save money on feed. With poultry houses that are movable there are inside and outside sections, and your flock can find a portion of their food in the outdoor area. When your birds have eaten most of the grasses and plants in one area, you simply drag the portable poultry housing over to a new area where there are plenty of new plants for your chickens to feast on. It is the circle of life, simply moving your hen houses to new vegetated areas, so the recently used areas will have a chance to grow back their greenery. This is the best way to lower your feed bills while still giving your chickens a reason to be happy and healthy.

Mr. Harding has raised chickens and many other types of poultry since 1981. Feel free to visit his fun for more information about chicken feed along with exciting details about building your own hen houses. Also find entertaining reviews of products regarding poultry housing. You can visit his web site at hen-houses.org.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joshua_Harding

The Right Way to Keep Chickens Happy, Healthy and Productive

Keeping chickens has become a very popular pastime because apart from the obvious advantage of getting a regular supply of fresh eggs, it is a lot of fun. If you are considering keeping chickens then you won't be disappointed as long as you realise that there is a right way to keep chickens. Follow some basic guidelines and you should benefit from having a happy, healthy and productive flock.

Chickens do make good pets and generous ones at that. But whether you want to keep chickens as egg producing pets or see them as a potential succulent roast dinner, you really need to plan, organise and care for your flock carefully.

So, what is the right way to keep chickens?

• Firstly you need to be aware of any local regulations covering the raising and keeping of poultry and it is probably worth letting your neighbours know about your project before you begin.

• Then you need to decide on how many birds you want to keep. Available space will obviously be a deciding factor but a minimum of three is recommended. As a rule of thumb, one square metre of space should be allowed per bird, so that they have sufficient room to forage, exercise and nest comfortably.

• A substantial chicken house or coop is essential so that hens have somewhere to roost safely at night and to shelter from the sun and rain. The coop should have perches and nesting boxes and have easy access, so that you can clean the coop and collect eggs without causing too much disturbance for the hens.

• Security of the hen house is paramount as there are many predators just waiting for the chance of an easy meal. Foxes, rats, weasels, birds of prey and even snakes are the enemy that needs to be prevented from getting into your chicken sanctuary. So all round protection of the coop is essential.

• Hens are quite easily stressed and stressed chickens are not good layers of those delicious eggs, so keep Rover at a good distance away from the coop so that he cannot worry the birds.

• Of course the correct feeding of your pets is vitally important and a well balanced diet including protein, greens and grains plus a constant supply of clean water should be provided. It may sometimes be necessary to supplement their food with added proteins and grit but these they normally get from their own foraging.

• Apart from the above the only other thing to consider is the checking on the health of the birds which you can do by maintaining regular contact with them. They do like to visited and spoken to. After all they are providing you with those delicious eggs.

If you remember that there is a right way to keep chickens and that by doing so you will be rewarded with happy, healthy productive pets you cannot go far wrong. You will have a great deal of fun into the bargain.

Finally, as with most projects, expert guidance is invaluable. This is particularly important when planning the chicken coop. So, seek the best advice and guidance you can get. It will certainly be worth it.

Building a backyard chicken coop yourself, will be both economically rewarding and an enjoyable experience. It will also be one of the best investments you can make. However, although you do not need any special skills you do need expert guidance if you are to make a success of your project. It doesn't matter if you are a skilled carpenter or a total beginner, if you require a big or small coop, or if you have a small or large budget. "Building a Chicken Coop" will guide you through all the stages of planning, preparation and construction, providing all the plans and instructions that you need to build a professional looking chicken coop.

There is a right way to keep chickens and providing a comfortable, secure home for them is a basic requirement that must not be scrimped on. So visit http://buildachickencooponline.info to get the best information available on the internet.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chester_Warrington

Keeping Urban Chickens VIDEO...

Chicken Coop Heater - Is it Really Important?

While it is true that a lot of people keep their chickens for business purposes, there are also some who dedicate their time, money and effort because it is basically their hobby. It's always nice to wake up in the morning and have fresh eggs waiting for you. Hens need the right amount of warmth inside the coop so you can maximize egg laying. One way to have an assurance that your chickens are warm all year round is by getting a chicken coop heater. I visited a lot of forums and people can't seem to agree whether it is necessary or not. Well I guess if you are tired of dealing with frozen eggs and frozen water dishes then a heater is for you but if you live in an area where it's always hot (like where I live) then it's common sense that you don't need one.

Some owners have problems in getting more eggs during the winter. The truth is your hens can lay more in the winter and live longer if you can provide the right heating element and I'm talking about a chicken coop heater. If you have a small coop, you may want to consider buying a flat panel coop heater. If your main problem is freezing eggs then opt for a small poultry nesting box heater. You can easily lay this in the nesting box or right where the chickens sleep.

If you are housing a huge number of chickens then you must get a large chicken coop heater as well or this might mean that you're going to need a combination of lamps and flat panel heaters or other items that will keep the chickens warm and comfortable not to mention water defrosted. How does a flat panel heater work? It radiates heat throughout the building and it will keep waterers defrosted. Don't worry because it's not that expensive to run and the good news is it only used 400 watts of power and it has the ability to emit plenty of heat.

To read more information and to know if you need a chicken coop heater, feel free to stop by http://cheapestwebdeals.com/chicken-coop.php

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Travis_Shermand