Why Are Chickens The Ideal Family Pet?

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.

Not only that but chickens are productive, a fridge full of fresh free range eggs is the mouthwatering result from keeping chickens. In many respects chickens make the perfect family pet.

Whilst you can’t really put your chickens on your lap at night in front of the television there is still no doubt that children love chickens as much as adults, ours absolutely adore theirs.

Like all pets however you need to make a little effort to learn about keeping chickens. They will need a place to live, which is variously called a chicken coop, or chicken house or henhouse, and you will need to find a good place to buy one or else learn to make it yourself. The latter can be the cheapest method.

The chickens will sleep in the coop at night but generally are allowed out of the coop during the day, in many cases to run free around your garden. If they do this they will clean up many of the nasty bugs in your garden, though they may scratch the soil and peck at your flowers as they do.

They particularly love 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 to learn a little more about feeding chickens as they require certain minimum levels of calcium and protein to lay eggs regularly, so you will need to source high protein foods and shell grit to add the protein and calcium to their feed. You will also need to find good appliances for water and food.

And when holidays come it’s quite possible to provide your chickens with a large reliable supply of food and water and to go away to enjoy yourself.

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.