Before you purchase your new feathered friends, you need to know a few things about how to take care of them. Backyard chickens add extra fun and excitement to your home while providing you with plenty of delicious eggs you can use for cooking and baking. Keep your hens healthy as you learn the ins and outs of raising chickens by keeping these three things to remember when starting a backyard chicken coop in mind.
Check Your Town’s Ordinances
Just as you’d need a permit for a new building on your property or a certain amount of land for a new farm animal, you need to pay attention to local laws and ordinances for chicken owners. Chickens require a relatively small amount of space, but they may get chatty. Even without a rooster, chickens typically keep their noise at about the same level of a human conversation. If you do own a rooster, you can expect to hear his famous crow at sunrise along with any other time of day he wants to be loud. Many places don’t have a problem with people owning backyard hens—it’s the roosters they care about.
Keep the Coop Clean
Much like how a cat needs a clean litter box or a fish needs a clean tank, chickens will need routine coop maintenance. Your hens will live and roost in their coop—if you want clean chickens and clean eggs, give them a clean place to live. When you clean regularly, you’ll be able to notice pests or health problems at the first sign rather than after they’ve already injured, sickened, or killed your hens. Make sure to check for holes in the coop or in the outside fencing to keep predators out.
Don’t Expect To Get Eggs All Year Round
Young hens will provide your family with eggs nearly every day in the spring and summer, but their bodies take a much-needed break during the late fall and winter. The sunlight stimulates the hens to lay eggs—if there’s less sunlight in a day, there may not be any eggs. Your hens will instead take this time to grow a new coat of feathers after their old feathers molt.
Some chicken owners simulate daylight in the chicken coop, but other hen parents suggest the lack of a natural break exhausts the chicken more quickly and causes them to develop health problems. Coop lighting can also be dangerous if you don’t properly maintain the coop, especially if you use highly flammable sawdust as bedding. To prevent chicken stress, add artificial lighting gradually, and never leave the light on for 24 hours.
It’s important that you memorize these three things to remember when starting a backyard chicken coop, especially if you’re just starting out. Your feathery ladies are more than just egg producers; they’re your beloved pets. Treat them right, and they’ll give you eggs for ten years or more!
