The list for keeping chicken, productive, and healthy is not very long. Chicken basically are hardy creatures and it does not take a lot of “do’s” and “donts”. The following tips on raising healthy chickens came from questions that are the most often asked.
What it takes
Chicken like every living creature could get by very well so long as there is an ample supply of feed and nourishment and a familiar place to gather. They could even be content with yesterday’s water, a place where they could scratch and forage for food, have dirt baths and things they could peck when boredom sets in.
Favorite Chicken Food
Nothing. Chickens cannot be classified as either carnivorous or vegetarian. Yet they could be picky and scavengers at the same time. Truth to tell, chicken will love eating everything even those that barely resembles food. Feeding the chicken is not the worry. What would bother the newbie more is that a chicken when they have had good foraging around the fence will not eat the chicken feed. When they refused to, nothing will make them. But that is okay, it passes. Often, the foods that they forage are even more nutritious than those that are regularly fed to them. Bugs, ants, insects, roaches, fruit, bread, seeds, food leftovers that had been standing in the fridge, vegetables, leaves, grass, everything and that does not exclude pebbles and coarse sand. They love Chinese dishes and Italian too. Try throwing them spaghetti and see how they will chase each other over it.
A place to hang around
Anyplace. As long as it is a regular place that they could roost, lay eggs and be safe from the elements and their natural enemies, the list of which is longer. Chickens you see are very sociable creatures. They want another chicken’s company that they can huddle with especially during cold seasons and rainy days. That does not mean though that they are always placid creatures. They could get very cranky at times and start being irritated at even the littlest of things. When they do, they will throw amicability to the nearest window and peck at their companions and if the hapless companion does not pay attention fast they could peck at that one even to death. On the other hand if there are the so-called birds of prey, chicken are the most ideal birds to prey on.
Keeping them safe
Raising chicken will require among other things a sunny dirt run for them to roam about and scratch around. This is often the worry area. Bu as long as the fence is high enough and deep enough to prevent other predators from coming in the chicken is content and so are you. The chicken coop should be a very safe structure to keep unwanted animals out and keep the chicken secured when it is their time to roost.
Other Tips
There are other tips in raising chicken but basically this are the most important to start with. Getting this part right will raise healthy meat and eggs that you raise yourself that once tried, you will not have another chicken on your table.