A Guide to Raising Chickens
A guide to raising chickens contains all the info you need to raising chickens, keeping them healthy, chicken feed, choosing the right breed, raising chickens for eggs or meat, setting up your chicken coop for easier cleaning and more.
The open area where your chickens can run on the ground may also need protection from above from predators like hawks and ravens.
Organic eggs and free fertilizer with a low maintenance way to live healthier and the satisfaction of being more independent is appealing for many people and many cities have regulations allowing backyard chicken raising.
If you're serious, and sure you want to have a guide to raising chickens, you also need to prepare, which means you need to start thinking simultaneously about deciding how many chickens you want to raise and maybe you also want to build your won chicken coop.
Check here for plans on DIY chicken coops. There are plans for different sizes and styles of chicken coops to suit the number of chickens you want to raise and the area you have available.
Keeping Your Chickens Healthy
If you plan to keep your chickens in a run, you’ll need to create a dust bath for them.
A dust bath is what it sounds like. Chickens fluff up their feathers and find a place that has fine dirt. They flop, and roll, and kick at the soil to ensure it gets all over their bodies.
Dust baths help to control oil on their bodies and get rid of mites and lice.
Chickens have oil glands that can get a little out of control. When they need to reduce excess oils, they take a dust bath to absorb some of the excess.
Lice and mites are external parasites that can cause many problems for chickens including
- Itching
- Feather Loss
- Anemia
- Death
Chickens naturally know how to prevent and treat mild infestations on their own. Dust can suffocate, dry up, and kill these unwanted mites.
If you find lice present in your flock, don't panic. There are simple ways you can identify, treat, and prevent lice on your chickens.
One simple and very effective way to treat parasites is to dust your chickens with food grade diatomaceous earth. This is a natural way to treat and avoid poultry lice and other health issues. It’s amazing but simple and a must-have for your chickens.
Get a 50lb bag of play sand that can be found at a general hardware store and mix with 12 cups of diatomaceous earth. This is the perfect dust bath for your chickens.
Because lice infested chickens have likely lost a lot of red blood cells due to anemia, iron is a great way to regain the iron they have lost. Iron-rich treats like pumpkin seeds, peas, and spinach are great ways to do this.
Keeping a clean chicken coop is also important to help your chickens avoid parasites.
You'll learn many more simple tips in this backyard guide to raising chickens.
Important Needs for Your Chickens
Chickens need consistent access to clean drinking water. Keeps a water source available for your chickens. If you live in a cold climate, you’ll need heated poultry drinker to keep the water from freezing in the winter.
Laying hens should also have a source of calcium to maintain healthy bones and lay eggs with strong shells. You should give your hens a well absorbed source of calcium.
Chickens confined to a coop or run need access to grit. Chickens can’t break down their food on their own so they rely on grit — small pieces of rock and stone to break down their food in their gizzard.
Free range chickens can find their own grit but if your hens are confined to a run or coop, you must provide some grit. You can spread the grit throughout your run or put it in a feeder.
If you want to raise chickens, you need the right chicken coop for your situation.
Check this page for DIY Chicken Coops.
Summary of What You'll Find
In This Guide to Raising Chickens
This guide to raising chickens in your backyard will show you the following:
- How to choose the perfect chicken breed for your needs
- Simple ways to clean and maintain your chickens housing...
- How to build your own chicken feeders
- Saving money on chicken feed without compromising quality
- How to keep your chickens healthy
- Strategies for incubating and hatching chickens
- When & how to butcher your chickens
- Collecting and storing eggs
- How to & when to vaccinate your chickens
Avoid all the common beginner mistakes by ordering this guide to raising chickens.
Pests, diseases, feeding, and all the chicken habits and needs you need to know.
Organic eggs from hens eating bugs and seeds like nature intended tastes much better than any eggs you can get from the supermarket and saves you money too!
What Type of Chickens Do You Want?
There are chickens that have been specifically bred for egg laying, quality meat, fighting and fancy plumage. Most people are looking for chickens for meat and/or egg production.
There are also dual purpose breeds - breeds that are pretty good for both meat and egg production.
If your chickens are for eggs only, you just need to think approximately how many eggs you want per week?
There are many more tips and suggestions in the DIY guide to raising chickens and you can get it here! It comes with a 60 day money back satisfaction guarantee!
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