Feeding Chickens VIDEO...

Keeping Chickens For Beginners

People who do not have experience in cultivating livestock do not have to worry since you can easily go about it. Experience maybe an advantage but not necessarily a prerequisite. You will be surprised that keeping chickens for beginners can be as easy as ABC. You just have to be aware of some important points which will help you to slowly get the hang of it. As you go through the whole process, remember that every step is a crucial one. This will help you to get a better understanding of the basics of raising poultry.

The first thing you should do is to assess the main reason why you have decided to get into this kind of industry. A lot of questions are probably running in your mind right now and you will surely get the answers as you learn more about it. Remember that passion gives you the drive to learn and improve yourself. Same thing goes with keeping chickens; you need to be passionate about what you are doing to yield good outcomes. It will be difficult for you to raise them properly if you are not even interested. People who engage in this type of industry are truly passionate about it.

Once you are certain about your purpose and you have already decided to commit to the craft then the next thing to do is select the right type of breed for your flock. Your intended purpose will be the basis of the selection. Be aware that there are three types of breeds available. These are the egg laying stock, meat-type birds and dual purpose breeds. Each of these birds is genetically cultivated to serve a specific purpose.

You will now have to decide how you would want to cultivate them. You have an option of caging them within a pen or let them enjoy the beauty of nature. If you have very limited space 3-4 hens is a good number to start with. You do not actually need a large number all at once. Do not forget that you are still learning you will need enough experience to accommodate a larger flock. In the meantime, try to go about a smaller group and learn from it. A larger space is a more conducive area since it will give them enough room. Allowing them to grow in their own habitat is proven to be an effective means of developing them properly. Also, you need to construct a coop to house your flock. Even if you decided to raise free range birds you will still need to have one.

When you have completely satisfied all the basic requirements of raising livestock then it is now safe to say that you are good to go. Keeping chickens for beginners is truly something you would look forward to. The idea of being challenge into doing something you are not used to makes it all the more interesting.

Discover The Secrets, Tips and Tricks To Raising Chickens At Home - In Your Back Yard - In The City or Suburbs!

Visit The Complete Guide to Raising Chickens at Home in Your Back Yard http://keeping-chickens.info.

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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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