Feeding Chickens VIDEO...

Raising Chickens Pros and Cons

There are so many reasons why someone would want or wouldn’t want a chicken in their backyard. There are debates about it and here are some: Pros 1. Costs incredibly cheap. When we say cheap, not only does the chicken itself count but also the maintenance of it all. Compared to keeping a dog or a cat for a pet, it is much cheaper to take care of a number of chickens most likely because they are not choosy when it comes to food
. You can feed them scraps and table leftovers and they will happily gobble it up. With as little as $2 a day, you can spend on a bunch of layer mash. 2. You can get something from them. Eggs. Meat. Ornament. Who wouldn’t want it? In terms of eggs, it is seldom that you encounter a chicken that can’t lay eggs. It is a good source of iron, which is good for the brain. You could either sell these eggs or keep them in your fridge. With meat, every part of a chicken can be eaten. Yes, every. In cases of those who don’t want to see their chickens go bye-bye, they raise them as pets and for exhibition purposes. 3. Low maintenance. Unlike dogs who need everyday grooming and cats who need your undivided attention, chickens need none of those. You don’t have to bring them to your vet every once in a while to take shots and doses of vaccines. All you have to do is feed them and supply clean water every day. Their coops must be cleaned at least once a week or twice every month depending on the number of chickens that you own. 4. Fertilizers for free and an instant pest control agent. These are the two things that chicken raisers love about owning a chicken. When you allow your chickens to roam around your backyard, it is in their nature to peck on whatever it is that catches their interest and their hunger. Chickens love anything that came from the ground most especially the ones that are moving. They eat insects, bugs, worms and the like. For them, these are special treats. Furthermore, it is in their nature to eradicate their internal wastes anywhere they please. But their poops are considered as natural fertilizers that the ground needs to grow plants and root crops in a healthy state. Cons 1. They are not the best guard pets to have. While chickens can coo and make familiar sounds, it is not in their nature to bite or coo on anyone they see who looks suspicious. All they can do is grow, eat, and lay eggs. They are also not the ideal pets you would want to have especially if you need a response like waggling of the tail or a purring sound. 2. Chickens are messy. Indeed. Plus, their poop smells terrible that it can reach certain areas in your house. If you’re the type of person who doesn’t want to go through enduring hours of cleaning, chickens aren’t really the pets for you. 3. One for all, all for one. Well, in terms of getting sick this is a con. Because when one catches flu, everyone gets it too. And if one dies because of that flu, it is expected that every single chicken living with that infected chicken who also got that flu is also going to die after a few days. http://how-to-raise--chickens.blogspot.com

Getting Started With Chicken Feeding - The Right Way

Are you at a loss on how you should feed your chickens?

Do you find yourself looking through the Internet for guides on chicken feeding, and feeling more and more confused?

Do you find it hard to believe that feeding your chickens can actually be the easiest part of taking care of them?

That probably means that you're a new chicken raiser. Most newcomers in the field find it difficult to believe that you can simplify the task of feeding chickens into a routine that actually works well enough to keep both the chickens and their owner happy.

While it does involve a little bit of scientific knowledge, figuring out a way of feeding your birds isn't rocket science. Most breeders come up with a feeding routine for their birds within months, usually by trying out a variety of chicken feeding schemes and choosing which works out best for them. I think what daunts most new chicken breeders the most about it, though, is the fact that they can't tell what product to get for their birds.

There are actually three basic ways of feeding your chickens. These methods involve feeding them with store-bought feed, creating your own feed at home, and using a combination of the two methods. Each one is effective so long as you take care to do it with the health of your chickens in mind.

The first method involves buying supplies of chicken feed from your local farm grocery. Depending on the kind of chickens you have, you might want to check on the formulation of the feeds that are available.

The most important thing to remember is that the younger the chickens are, the more protein they need. Older hens, in the meantime, need more calcium because of the calcium drain they experience when laying eggs.

If you decide to go natural and make homemade chicken feeds, you'll still have to take note of the nutritional formulation of the feed you're making.

Chicken feeding via normal human food will ensure that you get to save a little bit of money while you get to feed them stuff that you are 100% confident in. The only drawback with this method is that it takes too long to prepare a single meal, and if you don't have time, this can be a problem.

A combination of feeding methods will help ensure that your chickens' feeding habits are well-rounded. This way, you know that your birds are getting all the nutrition they should be getting (using homemade food as a supplement for their regular chicken food).

Chad B. is an advocate for backyard chicken care and has been involved in raising chickens since he was little boy back in 1986. Find out more about chicken feeding and how you can get a free 10-lesson chicken raising mini-course by visiting Chad's site by clicking here

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What to Feed Your Chickens

So you have got your chickens and now you are wondering what to feed them? A good question, to which the obvious answer is: food.

But what, I hear you cry, do chickens eat? We can answer that question by first of all finding out how they eat.
Chickens are omnivores, which is a Latin word meaning "to devour".

Ominous creatures are in the main opportunistic eaters, which means that they will eat anything that is handy or seems appealing at the time. Very much like you and I really. What ever takes their fancy?

Chickens feed themselves in the wild by eating seeds, bugs, grubs, insects, small mice and lizards. Because of this habit and to keep your chickens happy (which is vital if you want them to be healthy) you should always let you chickens " run about " as often as you can.

By allowing your chickens to do this you will be able to keep your chickens food cost down and also as a side effect, there will be less bugs in your garden to eat your veg!

There are a few questions that you need to ask yourself before you start keeping chickens;

Why do you want to keep chickens?: For eggs/meat/pets

Are you going to spend money on keeping chickens or do it on the cheap?

Make you own food or buy in?

Only you can answer those questions, but lets say that it is a bit of everything: you are going to keep chickens for a few eggs for breakfast, buy a bit of food and feed them your scraps; which I suppose is what most backyard chicken keepers do.

A few tips on buying food: go to a proper shop. By that I mean a farmers shop that sells "feeds" failing that buy your food at a busy pet shop. The reason for this is that you do not want stale or out of date food and a busy shop will have a good turn over of food stock....never buy chicken food that is on sale because the reason that it is on sale is because more then likely it is getting old. Also do not buy too much food at once so that it ends up going sour in your store.

When feeding your table scraps to your chickens do make sure that you do not feed them any meat. I know that chickens are ominous creatures and can eat meat but you do not know what the meat that you eat has been fed when it was an animal, it could well of been chicken offal and that is defiantly a no no (I assume you have heard of Mad Cow disease...that's what that was about; feeding dead animals to animals)
When you feed scraps to your chickens you will soon find out what they like and dislike by what they eat and don't eat.

Chickens are like people they eat what they like and leave what they don't like. I like chocolate but not everybody does.

A word of warning: never feed your chickens salt.

There are many good books on this subject, take a look around; make a start by looking at my blog you will find a very good book for you to look at there.

Richard has been keeping chickens for over 40 years: http://build-a-backyard-chicken-coop.blogspot.com/

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