How To Start Raising Chickens At Home

I'm going to show you how to start raising chickens from home. The first thing to think about when you're keeping chickens is what area of ground you've got available for them. Are they going to be in the end of the garden? Will you be fencing off a little bit across the bottom of your garden? Have they got to be in an enclosed area with an integral run, like this system here? Most people now, especially in the towns, have got foxes apparently, that will jump just across the gardens.

So that's the most important thing, and how much ground can you have available for these hens. So, if you had an integral system like this, you would move it around every two to three days because chickens love to scratch and they will soon destroy any grass or any area that you've got there. They will turn it to mud pretty quickly.

So, you can go for a traditional system like this, which is obviously wooden, and tanalised timber is pretty important because then obviously you know it's going to be weatherproof. There are many more cheaper options on the market now. A lot of them are being imported from China, which is fine.

They won't last you so long but they're good for a beginner. The other options are the modern ones here and, of course, there's no wood involved here, so they are easier to clean. You just get the hose pipe on them and spray it down.

There are all sorts of different systems around. But, having decided where your hut is going to be and, certainly if you allow a space, if you've got something like 8 by 6 foot, you certainly wouldn't want more than perhaps 4 hens. I would suggest 3 to 4 hens and do bear in mind that, especially if you've got hybrid chickens, which are the cross-chickens, have been bred specially for laying eggs.

They are going to give you 3 to 4 eggs a day and it's amazing how quickly they mount up, so all these things have to be borne in mind when you're thinking about having your chickens. But, of course, you don't have to have a system like this, although, of course, this is predator-proof and will keeps the foxes and perhaps minks and anything else at bay. If you're lucky enough to have a garden that's self-contained, perhaps you could have a fence at the bottom and you know that you're fairly safe.

They can't get out or the predators can't get in. You could have a system like this one. A little hut like that, you don't need a run, and wherever they are in the garden at night, the chickens will come back and take themselves to bed, and all you've got to remember to do is shut the pop-hole at dusk when they've taken themselves to bed, and then your chickens should be very happy.

When you get them home, I would always put them in the hut, just so they can take stock of the situation, because it's all quite stressful, being put into a box and brought home. Put them in there with perhaps a little food and water in their hut, open the pop-hole, and let them come outside in their own time. And they have to learn to go up and down the ladder, but in 2 or 3 days they've learned worked that out for themselves.

And that's how to start raising chickens from home. .