The kids have been pestering you for weeks about getting a pet. You consider getting a dog but you know that the barking will annoy the neighbours. And you also know that you don’t want a dog pooping all over the garden. Cats are nice but they scratch furniture. Have you considered keeping chickens as the ideal way to provide low maintenance pets for the kids?

There’s so many reasons why keeping chickens is such a great hobby, and why chickens make such wonderful pets. You’ll never hear a chicken barking, and although a rooster crows there is absolutely no need for you to get a rooster. And kids love having chickens, I know my kids spend hours playing with the chickens.

And there’s an added bonus to having chickens. You get eggs.

Lots of people never think about getting chickens as a pet when it comes to choosing a pet for the kids. As long as your council allows you to keep chickens it’s well worth considering. But there are some things to think about before you rush out and buy your hens. You need a good chicken house to house your chickens.

The henhouse needn’t be enormous. If you only have 3 or 4 hens then a modest size henhouse will house them admirably provided it has a nesting area and rungs for them to roost on at night.

It’s not hard to build yourself a henhouse. It’s basically just treated timber (for outdoor use) and some wire mesh, and some materials to cover in part of the henhouse so they have some shelter at night. Usually don’t need a floor as it sits on the ground.

And a small henhouse for 3 or 4 hens, if you add wheels one end and handles the other, can be moved around the garden so that the chicken droppings can fertilise the lawn in different spots from time to time. And there’s no reason chickens can’t free range around the garden during the day.

If the kids want chickens as pets then get them involved with you building a chicken house . It’s a great handyman project for you to do with the kids on the weekend. You should find plans to get houses on the Internet and it’s not particularly expensive or difficult to do.

So if you’ve been searching around for a great idea for a pet for the children and consider getting your own chickens. Spend some quality time with the kids showing in your handyman skills building a simple chicken house and you’ll have happy kids, happy chickens and lots of eggs for dinner.

Then find yourself a good recipe book, learn how to make omelettes or soufflé, cook up a fine dinner for the family and you’ll be a hero.

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.