There’s no doubt that having a pet is a fine hobby for a family. But pets are not without their problems. It can get very expensive buying some pets and paying for the veterinary bills, extremely difficult to know what to do with some of them when you go away on holidays. Cats can devastate the local wildlife and dogs will bark at the neighbours and terrorise visitors.
The perfect pet for a family may well be chickens. Chickens don’t bark at the neighbours, they aren’t expensive, they rarely get sick and if you work it right it’s not a problem having chickens when you go on holidays.
And as well chickens are productive. They will provide your fridge with wonderful free range eggs from which you can cater to the family with healthy tasty food like fresh omelettes. There’s good reasons why you could consider that chickens are the perfect family pet.
Sadly you can’t quite put one of your chickens on your lap at night when you’re sitting on the couch, but even so adults and children love chickens. I know our children love theirs.
But like other pets you do need to understand a bit more about keeping chickens before you buy some. You will need to provide them with somewhere to live, called a chicken coop, or sometimes a hen house, or chicken house. You can buy one or perhaps the cheapest way is to build one.
Your chickens will sleep in the chicken house at night however they much prefer to roam around outside of the coop during the day time. It’s perfectly possible to let your chickens free range around the garden during the day cleaning up the bugs, though you may get a little scratching and pecking of your flowers.
One of their great loves is to peck at ripe tomatoes.
And if some pecking of your tomatoes is unacceptable then you merely build a chicken run around the coop and allow them to roam throughout their run.
It’s important, if you plan on keeping chickens, to understand some of the feeding requirements. To ensure an adequate supply of eggs they need plenty of calcium and protein. You can supply the protein from any source, though it’s possible to get dedicated high protein feed, and calcium can often come from shell grit added to their food. You will need a good feeding and watering device.
And if you want to go away on holidays leaving your chickens to their own devices, as we do, you will need to make sure that you can provide sufficient food and water for a week or 2 at a time.
There is no doubt that keeping is a wonderful occupation for young children, and for adults. There is lots to learn but the learning process is enjoyable and rewarding. Begin your learning before you buy your first chicken, spend some time researching the requirements for chicken housing, and familiarise yourself with the correct feeding of chickens. Then get out there and buy your first hen.
And then you’re on your way to a lifetime of healthy free range eggs delivered to you by some happy healthy hens.