Home Chicken Coop - Some Practical Advice For Raising Healthy Chickens

If you want to construct a home chicken coop, you are likely looking to start your own chicken flock

. A flock consists of two or more chickens in a given area. You can start your flock with eggs or live chicks. Both are good options. For the absolute beginner, it is a good idea to start with live chicks and avoid the brooder stage. For chicks less than a week old, heat is enormously important. They do not have the ability to regulate their own body temperature yet. Keep them in an enclosed space with a heat source that keeps the area between 90 and 100 degrees. You can start feeding them chick crumbles at this stage.

Once the chicks get a bit older, you can gradually turn the heat down at the rate of about 5 degrees per week. Chicks at this age are still not quite ready for the home chicken coop. You should not move them into the coop until they have grown their feathers out. While they are still confined, take time to socialize with them. If they are going to be around awhile, you need them to get used to human contact. You will be inside the coop cleaning and feeding them every day. This means you do not want them hostile towards human contact.

When they are ready for the home chicken coop, introduce them as a flock. Flocks have a true pecking order when it comes to who is the top bird. That is not just a bad pun. It is the truth. Birds figure out who is the boss with pecking and other dominance behaviors. It may take a few days, but they will figure out everyone position and settle down. Be sure to keep them warm during chilly nights and keep their food and water fresh.

Cleaning is a necessary evil for having healthy chickens. They will make droppings everywhere they go. This means you need to clean the inside and outside of your home chicken coop regularly to maintain the cleanliness. Some people use their heads when it comes to the outside areas. Some use the deep litter method for lining the bottom of the coop. They lay down a thick layer of bedding or sand. When the chickens make droppings, all the owner needs to do is rake the droppings down or use a scoop to remove the droppings from the sand.

by: Phil Jupp

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