The Advantages And Minuses Of Keeping Chickens

Whilst trying to keep chickens can be a wonderful activity for the family, and whilst I personally consider that chooks make wonderful pets, there are some negatives to keeping chooks as well as positives.

Whilst keeping hens should be a wonderful activity for the household, and whilst I personally consider that chickens make wonderful pets, there are some disadvantages to trying to keep chooks as well as positives.

Lets think of the possible benefits first. Not surprisingly the greatest plus to always keeping chickens has to be all those tasty roam around eggs simply laying there ready for you to collect every morning or evening. There is nothing like cooking your own personal nourishing, and appetizing free range eggs that have been laid that day just for you. No chickens had to suffer surviving in a little cage to lay all of them for you personally, and you can easily feel great about having a fridge loaded packed with healthful foods.

Second chooks can make wonderful domestic pets despite the fact that they’re birds. Youngsters really adore them. Ours will contentedly pick them up and may carry them all around for hours. It is quite a pleasure managing chooks, and when you permit them to free range all over your backyard it is rewarding observing them out your kitchen window while you make supper.

Thirdly, if you make it possible for them to free range at home they will clean up a whole host of pests which, if left on their own, would possibly eat your plants. It is our chickens that helped save our backyard from 2 summers of hopper plague. You should see how many hopper one hen could certainly consume per day.

Moreover it’s quite possible, not like for most domestic pets, to provide for your chickens so that you don’t need to make arrangements for them each time you go on vacations. As I have big automatic keepers for feeding and supplying water we are able to go on holidays leaving the chickens on their own and have never lost just one yet, even though on trips.

Now to the disadvantages. Like all pets chickens can certainly get ill and pass away. We have had instances when the kids have discovered a dead hen in the chook house, and this is upsetting for the kids. While this obviously applies to all pets it is more common when you keep your own chooks. This obviously is because you tend to have quite a number of chooks, whereas most people will have one or at most two dogs or pet cats. In our case with 15 hens it is more regular. And of course chooks have a shorter life than some domestic pets such as puppies or pet cats.

Secondly despite the fact that hens will cleanup many of the nasty insects round your garden they do so by scratching, and this could certainly scratch up the earth of your garden beds. And they will also peck at your veggies if you grow your own and they particularly love pecking tomatoes. You might need to safeguard your fruit and vegetables or some area of your back garden.

And, like for many other domestic pets, there can be some work involved, including regular cleaning of the hen coop. Chooks poop everywhere and the house, as well as feeding and water containers, must be cleaned. You will also need to learn a little more about pest avoidance as chickens can potentially be prone to such problems as mites.

Fourthly while getting fresh free range eggs is great it doesn’t occur on a regular basis. Hens can go off the lay throughout the chilly winter months, and more aged chooks lay less eggs than young ones. Because of this there may be times when you’re paying for chook feed but still purchasing eggs.

I consider however that the advantages of maintaining chooks far exceeds the negatives. They’re among the few domestic pets that are productive as well as just being a family pet, and for anybody thinking about managing chooks as pets my answer is always to do it. Very few folks have regretted getting hen chickenschooks.

Don’t forget to visit my site Aussie Chicken Coops about hen houses to learn more about how to track down the best chicken coop  for keeping your chickens happy.