Chickens are a valuable asset in any sustainable reality.
They eat weeds and scraps and bugs. Their poop nourishes the soil with nitrogen. Eggs can be collected for human consumption. Plus, eggs from homestead-raised chickens are far more nutritious than anything you can find in a store. If they are raised happy and healthy and honorably, the birds can be eaten as well.
Here are 4 considerations for beginning to raise chickens:
FOOD Chickens can be allowed to roam out of their cage during the day, and they can be directed towards patches of land that need aeration and bug control. Bugs and worms are an easy and free source of protein for chickens. They also need greens and carbs for optimal health. We give our chickens weeds and sort our scraps for their feed. We find that our chickens don't like tomatoes, onions, citrus, banana peels, or avocados, so we sort these items to compost and feed the birds most everything else from our kitchen.
SHELTER Just like anybody else, chickens like a dry, draft-free home that is protected from the elements and predators. Hens will lay eggs even without a rooster present (roosters are only necessary for fertilized eggs), and they prefer nesting boxes, which are cozy little spots to lay eggs and brood.
WATER Chickens, like dogs, pant to release excess heat. They also drink water to cool off. Consider the weather when watering your birds; if it's extremely hot outside, they need much more water. Begin by providing one gallon of fresh water per 4 birds each day. Observe their behavior and adjust your watering schedule to fit their needs.
CARE Obviously, chickens need to be watered and fed daily and secured from predators at night, and their coop needs cleaning once a week. Additionally, the flock should be kept healthy and happy for thrival. Behavioral and physical changes are obvious when you spend time with your chickens each day; sick birds may be uncomfortable and hunched over, could lose interest in eating and drinking, or might have breathing difficulties. Enjoy the developing relationship between your birds and their caretaker, and continue researching to develop optimal care!
Keeping chickens is a rewarding hobby! Your system will evolve with time and continued research and experimentation.
www.intothegardenofeden.com
They're trainable too. Every day I have an apple for lunch and bring my core home for the chickens. They see my truck and run to the gate. I've even come home late a few times and if there are chickens headed up the ramp into the coop for bed they jump down and run to the gate.
I really wish I could raise chickens, and had more land... but I live in la. So for now i just buy 3$ bags of chicken manure to add to the compost pile.
Oh, how I wish my town would let me have some hens. Great post!
I just this week started a hen rental from rentthechicken - 2 hens, a coop, and all the food they'll need for 6 months. My property is small and it is borderline legal, but the benefit is that if I get a complaint I can have them back at their home farm the next day.
Omg, I love you!!!! That is the coolest thing I have heard in a long time. Oh I would so be your customer. lol
No I AM the customer!! I am the renter! If you have any questions let me know! I just fed and watered the hens and now they are out exploring the (little) yard we have!
I find chickens to the most sustainable and valuable live stock/animal for homesteading, sustainable living, eco farming etc.
Even if your a vegan they are still a very useful and important part of an eco system.
yea its funny i find the practice of animal slaughter slightly horrifying .
Wow - sounds like an awesome project! I've always liked the idea of keeping chickens but have never got on and done it. I'd really like to keep bees too - although I have made a lot of homes for bumble bees in my garden so I guess I kind of do - had hundreds pollinating my raspberries this year!
Chickens are great if you have the space and inputs like food, water, and shelter for them. Bees are incredibly important as well! Anything that can be done to encourage bee populations is absolutely vital for all of humanity.
Voici d'excellents conseils pour débuter avec l'élevage de poules! Merci pour ce partage. J'ai élevé des poules et des poulets de chair pendant plusieurs années. J'ai arrêté depuis 2 ans car nous avons eu un 3e enfants et je manquais de temps, mais nous avons recommencé l'élevage cette année et j'en suis très heureuse! Je m'étais ennuyée d'avoir des poussins et des poules! :-)
Here are some great tips to start with chicken breeding! Thank you for sharing. I raised chickens for several years. I stopped for the last 2 years because we had a 3rd child and I ran out of time, but we started breeding again this year and I'm very happy! I missed chicks and chickens! :-)
Thanks for reading and commenting, @nature.sauvage! Great to hear you've re-activated your chicken keeping. It is so sweet to raise them!
We had a few chickens back in england, but we are planning on getting more thank you so much for sharing this I have followed you as I think you have valuable information.
Thanks for following, @crazybgadventure!
Yes it is our goal to continue providing valuable, useful information that can be used to create a better world for ALL!
I love farm fresh eggs! Great article!
We do too! Actually we wrote a little about them recently for a photography challenge:
https://steemit.com/steemitphotochallenge/@gardenofeden/steemitphotochallenge-44-sauteed-veggie-medley-with-farm-fresh-eggs-from-our-sustainable-outdoor-kitchen
You're great man...I always try to come by and read and support. I've wanted chickens for a while now...Your article literally has me going on Google to look up const of chickens. lol
Thanks for your support, @geechidan! It means a lot to us, and it helps us reach more people than ever.
Chickens are a really great addition to the homestead of any size! Hope you find much success and enjoyment with them~*~
I once keep chickens, so when u say valuable, I completely agree with u, its value cannot b over emphasized
Thanks for your input, @peman! They eat bugs & weeds, nourish the soil, AND provide food--that's a super important role on the homestead!
Youd have to look pretty far to find better ammendment then chicken manure and vermicompost.
and roosters can wake you up every morning =D
They definitely add to the glorious symphony of life on the farm!
I am surprised they do not like tomatoes or avocados, I figured they would like most fruits. When I was young my dad use to have a nice flock of them in our house in Cuba. They ran around all day and would sleep in the trees. Cuba is the perfect place to raise them lose because they do not have many natural predators. No Foxes, coyotes, or racoons in the country and their only real predators there are boas, weasels, and falcons, but we did not have any of those in town where we lived. They where very happy chickens eating tons of dry corn and rice that my dad would have left over from farming. Not to mention all the bugs and fruits that where in our yard.
Chickens are indeed precious. When I lived on a smallholding with my family, I kept chickens, ducks, geese and goats and pigs. ( The pigs were once meant for Christmas, but they became family instead).
If only I were allowed lol
Are you not allowed by city code? I know in the past when I had chickens while living in the city, I found I had no problem whatsoever as long as I didn't have roosters. Roosters are a dead give away. I was friends with my neighbors and shared eggs and compost with them, so they were grateful for my chickens. I hear there are a lot of cities you can have chickens, they just don't want to hear the beautiful sound of a rooster crowing!
Great information for the chicken lover!
I saw people in my old neighborhood with chickens and even here in Los Angeles mostly East LA I hear lots of roosters crowing. but for most people is not all that practical. But I like the idea, but I probably would make them pets and never eat them, just their eggs.
Whats up @gardenofeden I just followed you. Hope you will stay with me & follow me..
Comprehensive lecture.
Interesting project my friend
Congratulations!
I love going out to the chicken coop everyday and seeing how happy the chickens are to see me. Everyday I get to reuse our food waste to nourish them, and I thank them for their contribution to my healthy life. Chickens are great on a farm in so many ways. Even when I lived in the city I had chickens and enjoyed their presence every single day. YAY for chickens!!
A writer after my own heart! We'll edge this site from crypto currency to homesteading one day.... A great post upvoted and followed.
You are living the dream my garden friend. I wish that my community would allow us to raise chickens. You are truly blessed.
Great post- for a beginner this is comforting and confidence building. Thanks for keeping it simple and not stressful!
It's important for new owners to be aware that chickens love and will happily destroy grass, weeds, many varieties of plants, and most especially, freshly disturbed soil. So if you're planting vegetable seeds, seedlings or any other plant, you'll need to provide a barrier between the new digs and the chickens, or you'll quickly become frustrated with the chickens desire and intention to destroy whatever it is you planted. It's not their fault, but freshly dug soil is a chick-en magnet, because to them it means fresh bugs/grubs, and they can smell it a mile away. On the upside, if you want a patch of earth cleared of everything down to ground level, you can section off that area and put some chickens in it, until they've levelled it and then dug it up a few inches below ground level. Of course rotate them to fresh areas so they don't get bored, but keep putting them back into the area you want cleared, and those little chicken tractors will dig it up nicely, while fertilising it too. If you employ chickens at what they do best, you'll love their utility, but if you let them near your newly planted crops, you'll soon learn that there's good and bad, that goes with having chickens :) Barriers can include mesh at ground level around the plants, or lightweight fencing. The easiest way to protect your veggie patch is to completely fence it off, until you figure out how to allow the chickens access to it, once you've established a means to protect new plants from the chicken onslaught.
Some of my chickens are older now and no longer laying.They are in retirement and basically pets at this stage.
yea animals are interesting especially sense ive learned 2 telepathicly commincate with them. im quite certain u can do that with plants and other beings even from other dimensions!