Tips on How to Keep Chickens in the Backyard
Raising chickens in the backyard has many economic benefits.
These include selling eggs, selling chicken meat, eating the eggs and the meat, thereby saving money on shopping for food, saving on manure by using chicken droppings that are very rich in nitrogen, selling the manure if you do not have a garden and selling whole chicken and chicks to those who want to raise them among other benefits.
To raise chickens in your backyard, there are several tips that can help you.
The most important tip is to get a plan for the chicken coop before you put up the structure.
Getting a plan enables you to incorporate the legal requirements and the demands of neighbors into the structure, you are able to avoid wastage of resources since you will build a coop that is just the right size and you will buy only the material that is needed, you will build a coop that is comfortable, safe and secure for the chicken, a coop that is accessible for cleaning and when picking eggs and many more advantages.
The alternative is assembling a pre-made chicken coop, which has many disadvantages.
Pre-made coops are more expensive for no particular reason, you cannot do anything about the aesthetic value, etc.
The advantages of a do-it-yourself chicken coop are that you can incorporate your specific preferences into the structure, they are cheaper since you get to choose the material to use, you get a sense of accomplishment once you are done, you can use the project as a way of teaching kids important skills such as how to use tools and you get to teach them important life lessons such as the value of hard work, you will build a coop based on future expansion plans that you may have and you will be able to incorporate the legal requirements and the views of the neighbors into the structure.
An important tip when raising chicken in the backyard is their safety.
Chicken need to be safe from harsh weather conditions such as heavy downpour, extreme temperatures and snow among others.
Possible measures you can take are building the coop under a tree, having artificial sources of light and warmth, etc.
You should also take measures to keep the chicken safe from predators such as foxes, raccoons and cats and against birds and other animals that might compete with the chicken for food.
Possible measures you can take include burying about a foot of the wire mesh that forms the perimeter of the chicken run to prevent animals from burrowing their way into the coop and putting wire mesh as a roof of the chicken run to prevent birds from getting into the coop.
Having chickens in the backyard during these harsh economic times might not be a bad idea.
Chickens make good pets and they will help you unwind after a hard day at work.
When you have chickens in the backyard, you get to exercise your body as you feed them, make repairs to the coop, collect eggs, etc.
Chickens do not require a lot of work, so there is no reason not to keep them if you have the space in your backyard.
These include selling eggs, selling chicken meat, eating the eggs and the meat, thereby saving money on shopping for food, saving on manure by using chicken droppings that are very rich in nitrogen, selling the manure if you do not have a garden and selling whole chicken and chicks to those who want to raise them among other benefits.
To raise chickens in your backyard, there are several tips that can help you.
The most important tip is to get a plan for the chicken coop before you put up the structure.
Getting a plan enables you to incorporate the legal requirements and the demands of neighbors into the structure, you are able to avoid wastage of resources since you will build a coop that is just the right size and you will buy only the material that is needed, you will build a coop that is comfortable, safe and secure for the chicken, a coop that is accessible for cleaning and when picking eggs and many more advantages.
The alternative is assembling a pre-made chicken coop, which has many disadvantages.
Pre-made coops are more expensive for no particular reason, you cannot do anything about the aesthetic value, etc.
The advantages of a do-it-yourself chicken coop are that you can incorporate your specific preferences into the structure, they are cheaper since you get to choose the material to use, you get a sense of accomplishment once you are done, you can use the project as a way of teaching kids important skills such as how to use tools and you get to teach them important life lessons such as the value of hard work, you will build a coop based on future expansion plans that you may have and you will be able to incorporate the legal requirements and the views of the neighbors into the structure.
An important tip when raising chicken in the backyard is their safety.
Chicken need to be safe from harsh weather conditions such as heavy downpour, extreme temperatures and snow among others.
Possible measures you can take are building the coop under a tree, having artificial sources of light and warmth, etc.
You should also take measures to keep the chicken safe from predators such as foxes, raccoons and cats and against birds and other animals that might compete with the chicken for food.
Possible measures you can take include burying about a foot of the wire mesh that forms the perimeter of the chicken run to prevent animals from burrowing their way into the coop and putting wire mesh as a roof of the chicken run to prevent birds from getting into the coop.
Having chickens in the backyard during these harsh economic times might not be a bad idea.
Chickens make good pets and they will help you unwind after a hard day at work.
When you have chickens in the backyard, you get to exercise your body as you feed them, make repairs to the coop, collect eggs, etc.
Chickens do not require a lot of work, so there is no reason not to keep them if you have the space in your backyard.