subject: How To Keep Chicken - Taking The First Steps To Becoming A Chicken Owner [print this page] When you look for advice on how to keep chicken, you need to start from the beginning. The egg is the first step in any chicken's life. You can get chicken eggs from a brooder and hatch them yourself. You also have the option of purchasing day old chicks from a local farm store. Many people starting out get the newly hatched chicks. You will need a chick brooder for the hatchlings. In the beginning, chicks need warmth. You will want the internal temperature of the brooder at around 95 degrees during the first few days. Each week after that, you can bring it down by 5 degrees. Use chick crumbles and provide clean water from the start.
Chicks need attention if you want to keep a flock. You want to get them used to human contact and interaction. This means playing with them when they are young. This gets them used to human handling and contact. When they get a few weeks old, you can take them outside into a sectioned area of the yard for a few hours. This allows them to explore and get used to the outdoors. Do not leave them outside though. Wait until they have feathers to move them to a chicken coop. When you learn how to keep chicken, you need to keep them safe.
Once your chickens are ready for the outdoors, you will need a good chicken coop. The coops will keep your chickens contained while keeping out the predators. Give the chickens plenty of space inside and outside. The inside area provides a place to sleep and brood. The outside area is for eating and exercising. Most people use commercial chicken feed. You can supplement the feed with occasional snacks like cracked corn, bread, and vegetables. When you learn how to keep chicken, you need to understand their food needs.
Believe it or not, chickens have individual personalities. Some are dominant while others are more passive. They will establish their own order in things. Once they do this, everyone will be happy and content. Until you introduce a new bird that is. A new bird messes up the established order of things. There is a variety of methods to introduce new birds to the flock. When you learn how to keep chicken, you will learn how to do this successfully. You will find keeping chickens to be a rewarding challenge.
