Exotic Birds Blog

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Whilst pets are wonderful to have they do have their problems. Dogs will bark of the neighbours, some pets can be very expensive and veterinary bills can be very expensive and what do you do with your cat when you want to go away for a week’s holiday?

But the perfect pet may well be chickens. They aren’t expensive to buy and they aren’t expensive to feed, they won’t bark at the neighbours, they don’t get sick often and if you organise it right you can go on holidays for a week or 2 quite easily.

Not only that but chickens are productive, a fridge full of fresh free range eggs is the mouthwatering result from keeping chickens. In many respects chickens make the perfect family pet.

And whilst it is true that you can’t sit a chicken on your lap to pat at night we still find that adults and particularly children adore chickens.

Like all pets however you need to make a little effort to learn about keeping chickens. They will need a place to live, which is variously called a chicken coop, or chicken house or henhouse, and you will need to find a good place to buy one or else learn to make it yourself. The latter can be the cheapest method.

The chickens will sleep in the coop at night but generally are allowed out of the coop during the day, in many cases to run free around your garden. If they do this they will clean up many of the nasty bugs in your garden, though they may scratch the soil and peck at your flowers as they do.

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They particularly love to peck at ripe tomatoes.

And if you prefer not to allow your chickens to free range around the house you can build a chicken run around the coop to allow them to roam there.

You will need to learn about feeding your hens. There are certain minimum requirements for protein and calcium which are important to meet if you want to get eggs, and so you will need to source some high protein foods, some shell grit to add calcium to their food and you will need to find appropriate appliances to deliver food and water.

And when holidays come it’s quite possible to provide your chickens with a large reliable supply of food and water and to go away to enjoy yourself.

Without doubt keeping chickens is a great way for the family and in particular the children to enjoy having pets. Although there is plenty to learn it’s fun and rewarding and the children will love having their chickens. So learn a bit more about housing and feeding them and then start looking for your first hen.

And once you have your chickens you’re on your way to a healthy lifestyle of eating plenty of healthy free range eggs.

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