How to raise happy, healthy chickens? Well, let me begin by saying that our feathered friends do come with their fair share of care needs. However, it’s totally worth it!
Not only do chickens provide incredibly rich and nutritional eggs, but they’re also such kind, loving, and entertaining pets to keep around.
Just thinking about their cheerful little noises and playful shenanigans as they peck for bugs, have dust baths, and wait for treats, brings much joy into my life! This can be you if you stick to the following tips to guarantee your flock is the happiest and healthiest bunch on the block!
1. Make Enough Room
First things first, you want to make sure you provide enough space for all of your chickens. You see, chickens are pretty active animals so they need some room to be able to roam and get busy.
This can be tricky to achieve if you’re a backyard or urban chicken keeper, but you need to do your best to ensure your chickens aren’t cramped up. This is a crucial aspect when it comes to their health and happiness, otherwise, your chickens will become stressed and aggressive.
Chickens can manage with about 3 or 4 square inches per bird, but I recommend a coop with at least 6 square inches per chicken and at least 10 square inches per bird in the run.
2. Keep it Clean
After you’ve figured out the coop situation, your next concern should be keeping it clean. Chickens poop everywhere, that’s just how it is, but they don’t like being dirty.
Whether you’re using pine needles, straw, or lawn clippings, removing chicken litter will always be a part of your daily maintenance routine, so it’s best if you keep it that way and avoid postponing the task.
Remember, not only does a clean coop help prevent a lot of diseases from hitting your flock, but your family members and neighbors will also appreciate it.
3. Optimize their Diet
When it comes to chickens’ diet, they’ll eat just about anything you throw their way! However, you should try to give your chicken good-quality feed with high nutritional value, especially if you don’t allow them to free-range ( more on this later).
Remember, what goes into your chickens will find its way onto your table, so choose wisely.
Additionally, while you can feed your chickens food scraps to reduce waste, you want to avoid giving them foods with too much fat or salt. You should also avoid chocolate, candy, coffee, garlic, onions, avocados, and raw meat.
As for water, chickens require clean water for a healthier life. They are the cleanest animals, so you’ll probably need to give them fresh water every day. Another option to consider is a contained system with nipples, which will keep the water clean and prevent pests from spoiling it.
4. Encourage Dust Baths
The first time I saw one of my chickens ‘dust bathe’, I actually thought she was having a stroke or dying!
Thankfully, I learned that dust bathing is a normal behavior of chickens, and many other animals, to maintain their overall hygiene. It also helps your chickens cool off in hot weather and prevents parasite infestations.
So it’s a good idea for you to encourage the behavior and make some dirt available for the purpose.
5. Maintain their Safety
If you want your chickens to be happy, you should make sure they feel safe and protected. You can do this by keeping their coop free from pests and potential predators.
This includes other pets you may own such as cats and dogs. Even if your cat or dog is too old to kill a chicken, this won’t stop it from chasing the birds, which makes for a stressful unhealthy environment.
6. Allow Free Ranging
Allowing your chickens to experience some time to free-range or roam is one of the easiest ways to make them happier and healthier. Letting your chickens outside of the coop gives them a chance to explore and feed on healthy greens, bugs, or small rodents.
You don’t have to leave your chickens running all day, but try to give them around 30 to 60 minutes in the morning and evening. They’ll quickly stick to the routine! If you have concerns over predators from above like hawks or eagles, you can build an inexpensive run for the backyard from PVC pipes like this.
7. Give them Treats
Who doesn’t love a good treat? Just like us, chickens do appreciate some yummy snacks. Your job is to make sure you give them treats that are healthy. Watermelon (especially in summer), oatmeal (especially in winter), and corn are great examples of delicious yet healthy treats for chickens.
And don’t forget the mealworms! Nothing will get your hens running to great you like a scoop full of freeze dried meal worms. We provide this nutritious treat first thing every morning. They love it!
8. Provide Entertainment
A bored chicken is never a happy chicken, so you should provide your flock with things to keep them entertained.
Once again, the easiest and most obvious way to amuse your chickens is by allowing them to free roam. But if this is too limited or impossible, you can try the following:
- Hang lettuce or cabbage. This gives them something to peck that’s also nutritional. Talk about hitting two birds with one stone!
- Place a couple of unbreakable mirrors.
- Give them old tree stumps.
- Throw in a few old balls.
Check out this creative chicken toy that also serves as a great way to provide them with lettuce…
9. Be Careful with New Introductions
Your existing flock follows a pecking order where bigger and stronger chickens are at the top of the hierarchy. Adding a new chicken can be problematic because it doesn’t have a spot in the little society.
If you don’t introduce new chickens carefully, the existing chickens will try to assert their power by pecking at them, and you’ll cause unwanted fights with possible injuries.
Wrap Up
Raising happy healthy chickens surely needs some work, so to make it easier for yourself, consider creating a checklist that covers every aspect of your chicken-care routine from feeding all the way to cleaning.
This includes collecting eggs, refilling water, feeding, as well as checking your chickens for signs of sickness or injuries.
Remember, having happy healthy chickens really boils down to keeping them safe, clean, and full!