Chicken farming basic ideas and how to care of them

Chicken farming

 

Chicken farming

There are many benefits of raising chickens for the many people who raise them. The main reason for raising chickens is that you can get a regular supply of eggs. The chickens are healthier without touching the soil as they are fed from a diet that is good for them. Eggs from a backyard chicken are more nutritious and vitamin-rich than regular farmed eggs. The eggs from the backyard gardens have firmer whites and brighter yolks, indicating elevated protein content and nutrition. The taste is the real difference here as the taste is difficult to describe.

The chickens can provide insect control, hunting and pecking around the yard. This is good for the soil as they scratch for bugs in the leaves for a good meal. They break down the largest pieces of soil with their beaks and improve fertility of the land with their 'manure'. They can provide lessons for children about responsibility and where the food comes from. They require food and water, and the coops must be cleaned regularly for them to stay healthy. When the hens are kept in a happy and stress-free environment, they are likely to produce healthy eggs more regularly.

When you get your baby chicks, it is not necessary to have a chicken coop. The baby chicks need to mature before you let them go outside. To keep them inside, you will need a large box and a heat lamp as this is needed for the first week. This is a very easy and rewarding experience, because you can care for the baby chicks and watch them grow big and strong.

 Poultry farming for beginners

Chicken farming

When you start off raising chickens, there are several kinds that are available. Several breeds standout as they make an excellent addition. One breed that is related to many of the other varieties is called the "Plymouth Rock". This is a friendly breed and makes a great starter bird for the new chicken farmer. The Rhode Island Red is a great bird which lays delicious brown eggs. Another chicken breed, known for their large eggs, but also for being noisier than the other birds are called Leghorns. Jersey Giant chickens are perhaps the largest chicken, and grow to the greatest weight. This type of chicken is good for meat production. The Americana is a breed that has fluffy feathers around its head. They lay blue eggs and are typically not raised for slaughter

Building a sturdy frame with open sides and top yields a good coop for the younger chickens. Leaving a small hole on one side leaves enough room for the chickens to get in and out of the chicken coop. Nail chicken wire around the top and sides, and secure it the wooden frame with hooks instead of nails.

Chicken houses are a good investment because raising chickens is an inexpensive way to provide fresh meat and eggs for the family. Who doesn't like a fresh platter of fried chicken or scrambled eggs for breakfast?

They are like any other creature in that they like good shelter, a good supply feed to eat, and a feeling of safety and comfort. For most of us who are not very handy when it comes to building things, a chicken coop that comes pre-built will save a bunch of time that would probably be wasted in attempting to build the coop from scratch. So check out the variety of coops that can be purchased from the Ware Manufacturing Company with prices ranging from a couple of hundred dollars on up.

These chicken houses are made with chickens in mind with sturdy wooden frames and wire covered openings for scenery and fresh air for the hens. Chicken wire is used of course. The company sends you the parts and you assemble them per the included instruction. These chicken houses can be purchased from Amazon. It doesn't get any easier than that.

 Housing for chickens

 

Chicken farming

If you want your Ware coop house to be already assembled, you can find the Ware Premium Chick-N-House already done for you at Petco. The coop consists of a top grade of lumber using tongue-and-groove construction. This promotes a high degree of durability. It sports a hinged roof, two doors in front, 3 removable roosts and a host of other features to help make happy chickens.

Another great source for your chicken house is Horizon Structures, located at horizonstructures.com. Horizon Structures will teach you everything that you ever wanted to know about chickens and chicken houses. Different structures for different chickens are available with designs to build them yourself or to order direct from the factory ready-made. The company's army of Amish carpenters (who else?) will build your chicken house to specification and help you predetermine what size and kind of chicken house you need.

The coops or houses are constructed with needed space, size of the flock, breed of chickens, protection from predators, and the weather in mind. Horizon currently has chicken houses in 45 states, so they are aware of all the different variable conditions from any part of the country that will affect chickens.

The pricing of the Horizon Structures is touted as not being the cheapest but not the most expensive either, according to their literature, and they claim to have something that will fit the budget of most people, and the shipping is included in the price.

Another fine source is a firm called Sheds Unlimited, which gives a good variety of choices for portable coop houses. These structures are designed to be moved about and come in different sizes and shapes to fit any size yard. These chicken houses are built by the Amish and are delivered anywhere within the continental USA.

The website for Sheds Unlimited displays a variety of different and unique types and sizes of houses for chickens, sure to fit the needs of any chicken entrepreneur or caretaker. They call their product Classic Chicken Coops because of the uniqueness and quality of their work.

In conclusion, the quality and layout of these houses are both the most important facets of a chicken house construction. Chickens know what they want and a better chicken product is the result of a well-constructed, well-planned chicken house. Give your chickens the best place to live and they will return the favor with the best eggs.

Poultry farming

Chicken farming

Layer chicken

When raising chickens, you must first decide whether you want them for laying eggs, meat or for both purposes. This is because some chickens are better means for one thing than the other things. A breed may lay eggs great, but not provide you with much meat when butchered. On the other hand, a breed could provide you with a lot of meat but not be an ideal egg producer.

Three Egg Producers

Below are three egg producers for a coop setting:

Rhode Island Reds - These chickens not only lay eggs at an ideal rate, but they can live in moderate to poor housing setups. This makes them ideal even for the small flock owner. They can tolerate the cold as well and have and overall hardy nature. These chickens are known to be basically friendly even though, the roosters are a bit feistier than the hens are. These lay large to extra large brown eggs.

Leghorns - These chickens are practically the best layers of all the chickens. They lay white eggs that are large and the do this almost each day. At times, these chickens can be nervous, but many people report no problems with theirs.

Easter Eggers - These chickens do not conform to any one breed standard. They do, however, lay some unusually large and extra-large eggs in colors ranging from blue to pink. They are friendly birds with a hardy nature. Ideal for families with children. They are hardy in winter.

Chickens that are Meat Producers

Cornish Cross Chickens - These are a cross between White Plymouth Rock and White Cornish Chickens and are the best meat producing chickens there are. In just a short 8 to 12 weeks, they can weigh about 6 to 10 pounds.

Chickens that are both Egg and Meat Producers

Plymouth Rocks - These chickens provide brown eggs at a fairly good rate, while also growing large enough to provide meat. Plymouth Rocks come in a variety of colors. Their size ranged from 7 to 8 pounds full grown.

Wyandottes - These chickens grow to about 7 to 8 pounds. This is large enough for meat production. They also are dependable egg layers. With them being hardy in nature and having an easygoing nature, these are ideal people who want both eggs and meat from their chickens.

 Poultry farming project

Chicken farming

These are just some suggestions for types of chicken breeds for chicken coops. There are many more you can explore. Just decide the use for them before buying any of them to raise.

Many times people have said that there's no such thing as a bad animal only a bad owner. Well, in most cases that is one hundred percent true, as long as you factor in breed temperament of the animal. As with all animals, chickens have some breeds that are better than others at being a friendlier breed. Prospective owners should check into this if behavior is a requirement for their flock. Most would say, "yes" it is a requirement; especially if they want to safely interact with their hens and roosters.

So what can you as an owner do to assure that you are spending the time raising a friendly and safe hen/rooster, which you feel comfortable being around?

Food

Any animal that is not being supplied with the proper dietary needs and amounts of food will become nippy. This goes for chickens too. Making sure that they have just the right amount of food will allow them to be a much more relaxed chicken; as they won't have to fight for every scrape. When they do have to fight for food it translates into nippy, scratching chickens which are definitely not a pleasure to be around.

Time

Spending time with your hens from the moment you get them; from newborn chick and up will stack the odds in your favor for having a much friendlier chicken. They will get used to you. They will allow you to pet them, to hold them, to perch on your arm, and hand. They will come to actually enjoy and miss the attention when denied it. But too, this will also make it easier when you have to check them over for parasites, as they will already be comfortable with you holding them and turning them over; so it won't be a traumatic experience.

Importance of poultry farming

Chicken farming

As with human children, chickens are not immune to making mistakes. They may nip by accident. They may try to treat you like another flock member and fly at you scratching you with their claws. None of this behavior has to be a sign of a vicious chicken. It can merely be a test of their boundaries. A few simple, gentle discipline methods can let them know that as the flock-leader, which is what you are, their behavior is not okay. It could be as simple as taking your hand and pushing against their breast and chiding them or holding them. Believe it or not they can be taught to recognize commands such as step-up, no and uh-uh.

Keeping your responsibility of these three needs, as their flock caretaker, in mind can be all that is needed to end up with that perfect backyard coop that you envision.

Picking just the right time to order chicks from a hatchery can be a life or death matter for those prospective hens. Here again, are why there are positive things about doing research into making a successful backyard chicken coop. The most important area that owners will see the benefit in will be in the area of keeping their hens alive. Any and all information that owners can absorb about their hens health, dietary needs and ability to avoid negative health issues in advance, will help lead to a positive flock experience. The goal for flock owners is to grow their hens in an affordable but healthy environment; so that they can reap the rewards of the produce, whether it is for eggs or meat. The best place to start is in knowing when it is okay to order those chicks.

Small poultry farm

When figuring out the best time, season, to order your chicks from a hatchery, your best key to success will be in knowing how the hatchery processes the order. Most hatchery sites package their orders tightly to keep their chicks warm. They will also include some food, energy food to hold them for shipment and in some cases a small heat pack underneath their bedding to compensate for slightly lower air temperatures. For safe delivery there is a prerequisite amount of chicks that they will ship at once; as most of the packages temperature is made up of them keeping each other warm.

Knowing what a new chick needs to make a successful transition from chick-hood into mature hen will be a plus when ordering. A chick's main requirement is temperature. They thrive best in a temperature setting of 95 degrees. In most cases a hatchery will not process an order unless it is a multiple order for the reasons of having a healthy, live-chick received. In cooler spring days they will ship that multiple chick order with an enclosed heat pack under the bedding to add temperature to what will be gained from them huddling together.

But what about the hotter summer temperatures? Well, much like anything, too much of a good thing can translate into dead chicks. Ninety degree plus temperatures for shipping, when considering the added body temperatures of more than one chick in a pack, can end up turning into a 110-plus degree day in that package. The odds of chick survival in this instance are really markedly lowered.

So given the fact that a prospective flock owner's wish is for a successful chick delivery, most will consider early spring as the best time for ordering chicks. Usually farmers will time it when it is consistently 30 plus to 40 degrees in temperature. They feel that this will adequately be a safe temperature, considering added body heat and the inclusion of a heat pack under the bedding. But some have had successful deliveries in late spring to early summer in temperatures below the eighty-degree mark.

As more and more hatchery sites are now offering year-round delivery it is more important, than ever that prospective flock owners gauge the most successful time to order for themselves. This will help them avoid having a delivery end up in more dead chicks than live.

Poultry farming profit

There are many reasons that a prospective farmer may be raising hens from chicks. It may be that they are just starting out and want to have just the right breed for their backyard chicken coop, so they order chicks. It may be that they want to replace older hens so are ordering live chicks from a hatchery, so they avoid hatching a mostly male crop. But whatever the reason for raising chicks is the keys to success are making sure that you know what to do in advance. This will allow you to more successfully raise those chicks and avoid loss.

Successfully raising chicks requires a specific environment that the flock owner will need to provide in order to succeed. As they can't go right into the coop, they will need to be raised at first in a brooder. Setting up a brooder is the way to provide the ultimate environment for your newly ordered chicks. Ideally, the brooder should be set up and ready before the arrival of your new chicks, as this will give it the opportunity to reach that all-important ideal temperature. A brooder can consist of some very basic equipment. You don't need to invest in extremely expensive equipment for your brooder. You can do it quite affordably with the purchase of locally inexpensive items if you don't have a brooder built into your barn set up here are some easily made ideas.

Raising baby chickens

 

Chicken farming

Affordable Brooder Ideas

• Cardboard boxes

• Old rabbit cages

• Plastic storage bins

Bedding Materials

Once you have the brooder enclosure picked out, you must fill it with bedding. There are many things that you can use for bedding too that don't have to cost you a lot of money, such as

• Pine shavings or sawdust (but watch to make sure they aren't ingested by the chicks)

• Hay

• Or ideally sand. Sand works the best as it makes for easier cleanup and allows them to practice in a more natural environment their scratching and pecking.

You should, however, avoid paper towels on the bottom of your container; especially containers like plastic ones that have slippery floors, as this can be bad for their growing legs and cause a condition where their legs become disjointed.

Heat

The brooder should be kept at an ideal temperature of 95 degrees, at least for the first week and then you will gradually start to lower it by five-degree increments. In order to provide this maintained heat, you will need a:

• A Heat lamp - These can be purchased at any of your local hardware or feed stores. Caution should be used to make sure you get an actual heat lamp and light as buying the wrong type can be a fire hazard.

• Thermometer -These too, can be found at your local hardware store or feed store.

Achieving that perfect temperature can be done by the means of the use of the heat lamp being raised and lowered based upon the thermometer reading. The thermometer you can either hang or adhere with some sort of adhesive material to the inside wall of your brooder. Using one that lies on the floor, while okay, opens you to thermometer fights with the chicks; as they see this as a toy for them and to be honest are not very selective as to where they poop.

Water And Food

Ideally, a small chicken water jar can be purchased from any hardware store for use in your brooder, along with a small feeding dish. The smaller the better for the water container, as chicks have a tendency to risk drowning in too much water. Some say that putting marbles in the water can help with this issue too. Raising the water jar and the food container up by some means, either by a small board or some other object can help to keep bedding material out of their food and water dishes.

 Poultry care and management

A few small steps in preparing just the right environment can make all the difference in the success of raising chicks to become healthy mature hens.

How well any animal or human grows is truly determined by what they eat and how they start out. In the area of being foster caretakers for hatchery chicks it is truly essential that their human caretakers meet their dietary needs; as it can be a matter of life and death. Knowing the dietary steps to take in advance can be very helpful. When chicks first hatch they have a yolk sack that they absorb from the egg that they hatch from, which will keep them fed for the first few days.

Essential Food Supply Needs to Have On Hand

• Specially sized water feeder

• Specially sized food feeder

• Sugar or Save A Chick Electrolyte

• Scrambled or hard-boiled eggs to mash

• Yogurt

• Medicated Chick feed

• Other random protein items to offer

When you first receive your chicks in the mail, they have had a long and stressful trip to make it to your doorstep. There are some special procedures that you can follow to help them get over the stress of shipment. As soon as you receive them have their water feeder filled with water, but make sure you add a little sugar or SACE (Save A Chick Electrolyte) to that water. Then, as you're taking them out of the packaging, take each one and individually dip their beak into the water mixture until they drink. This will help them get over the shock of transportation and lessen the likelihood that you lose some because of shipment shock.

Along with having their water all set with some sugar or SACE in it, have a small chick-sized feeder ready with some medicated chick feed in it. This will give them the medicine that they may need to get them over the phase of being susceptible to all the chick related diseases they may catch. They will most probably be on this feed until they are almost ready to graduate to the regular coop, about 12 weeks. Many people have issues with feeding animals any medicated feeds at all, that's fine, the decision is yours whether to use medicated feed or not. There are other alternatives out there, natural ones. It will simply take some research on your part to find a natural version of this to feed your chicks with.

 How to take care of baby chickens

Between the ages of newly hatch and twelve weeks these new hatchery chicks will do a tremendous amount of growing. This will make their diet require a tremendous amount of protein to help their proper growth and to aid their newly growing digestive system. Their first foray into natural food could be as simple as mashed up eggs on the first day they arrive. Many use this method of giving their chicks' protein as it is very well received by the newly hatched chick, more so than the grain; which they may take some time to get used to. So try them out on this and you'll be surprised by how well it's received. Other good protein sources to cut up into small bite-sized portions or mash for them could be something like hotdogs, or any form of sandwich meat.

Yogurt is another good addition that you can try for their newborn diet. Yogurt is a pro-biotic, so, therefore, helps your new chicks keep a healthy gut and avert all sorts of young chick diseases that they may catch. These are just a few of the natural food options that owners can choose from for growing healthy chicks; There are many more options just waiting out there for you to discover them.

 Chickens stopped laying suddenly 

Chicken farming

You made the plunge into starting your cost-effective chicken coops. You have the perfectly designed coop, almost a coop-condo. The chicken pasture is field-fenced and electrified for deterring predators. Everything is going perfectly, your hens are even laying... and then... they slow down or stop all together laying eggs. What's wrong?

There are as many things that could cause your chickens to stop laying as there have been articles written about it. But there are a few common issues to look at first. Here are a few:

• Predators are eating the eggs, most commonly rats.

• Molting may be the issue some hens won't lay when molting.

• Disrupted coop, a happy coop makes lots of eggs.

• Season, temperature plays a role in how many eggs are laid.

• Disease, some diseases will translate into fewer eggs.

• Age, older hens will taper off or stop all together laying eggs.

Rats are one of the number one predators that love to get into a chicken coop. The thrill to roll those precious eggs of to feed their young. It can be quite a daunting task to get rid of them.

At approximately one year of age, it is normal for chickens to lose their feathers and then grow in new feathers. This is called molting. At this time, laying may become sporadic.

Too many roosters in the coop or some other discord between coop-mates can disrupt laying. Not only will arguments among your many roosters upset the hens, but they can become more vicious with the hens causing harm. It's not unheard of for a rooster anxious to steal another hen away from a male to grab her by the scruff of the neck and fling her around.

But don't rule out disease or the overall age of your hen when evaluating why your chickens have stopped laying. Just like any other animal hens can have health issues as well. Everything from viruses to skin conditions to problems with their inner workings. It is tremendously hard on them physically when laying those larger eggs.

These are just a few of the existing issues that a new chicken farmer may want to investigate when their hens aren't laying well. When egg production falls off, as with any problem, it is always best to step-by-step evaluate the most probable issues first. Eliminating these common issues one-by-one will help you find the problem in a cost-effective way.

For more exotic pets, update please click here.

  https://www.exoticpetslovers.xyz/2019/10/guinea-pig-as-pet.html

https://www.exoticpetslovers.xyz/2019/10/chinchilla-pet.html

https://www.exoticpetslovers.xyz/2019/09/are-sugar-gliders-good-pets.html

https://www.exoticpetslovers.xyz/2019/10/hedgehog-as-pets.html