I love raising chickens and keeping them in my own backyard!

 

Here is a list of my favorite things about keeping and raising chickens in my garden, and some tips about how you can easily raise chickens in your own backyard!  We highly recommend raising chickens for beginners, it is so much fun, and your kids will love it!

1. Fresh Eggs – genuine free range eggs from your backyard chickens!

 

The best thing about keeping your own backyard poultry is that you get to collect and eat the eggs!  When you look after your chickens with love and attention, and feed them with healthy food and scraps from your kitchen, your chickens will happily lay eggs for you every day.  So not only do you get the enjoyment of keeping and raising your backyard chickens, but you get a free supply of happy healthy eggs.  And if you like to give your chickens a little free time around your garden to scratch around and peck the grass, then you know that they are happy and free range chickens.  There is nothing better than raising chickens for eggs, and you get the bonus of a supply of fresh eggs from your own happy backyard chickens!

 

2.  Recycle your kitchen scraps

Chickens love food scraps.  All of those kitchen scraps, leftovers, off cuts, or the old lettuce from the back of the refrigerator can now find a much better use than just dumped in the trash.  If you like the idea of raising chickens, you can keep all of these kitchen scraps and feed them to the backyard poultry.  The chickens will absolutely love it!  And they will absolutely love you when you come to visit every day with a bag of treats and they will come running when ever they see you.  But not only are you being kind to your pet chickens, but you are also being kind to the environment.  If you are careful with the way you sort your waste into recycling, trash and chicken scraps, you will be amazed how your waste pile will reduce, and that has got to be good for the environment!

3.  Backyard Chickens love to eat bugs and snails and spiders!

 

One of the best things about raising your own chickens in your own backyard is that the chickens will get rid of the bugs and spiders and other nasties!  If you free range your chickens around your garden each day, they will love to eat all the bugs, snails, and pests that they can find.  They absolutely love it, and so will you when you don’t have to worry about the snails eating your lettuce.  Of course, you will have to mind out the chickens don’t eat the lettuce also.

 

4. Tame and train your pet chickens!

 

You will discover that when you keep and raise chickens in your own backyard, they will become very tame, and will come to recognize you and follow you around wherever you go!  Especially if you carry some food or special treats for your beloved chickens!  They will get very excited whenever they see you coming into the backyard, and even follow you around the yard and “help” you do the gardening, or tend the lawn or whatever chores need to be done outside.  If you train them to accept you, you can even pick them up and tame them to enjoy your patting and touching them!  Backyard Poultry can actually become very affectionate little pets, rather than just farm animals.

 

5. Free range Chickens

The best way to treat chickens these days is to allow them to spend some free time to roam around the outdoors, and to scratch around looking for bugs and scraps, bathe in the dirt and enjoy the warmth from the sun!  The days of keeping chickens cooped up in laying cages are over!  If you treat your chickens well, you will find that they are healthier and happier, and lay more eggs, and generally be much more rewarding for you as well.  If you have never seen a chicken bathing in dirt, or sunning themselves in the sunshine, then beware that you don’t be alarmed the first time you see it!  They contort themselves into very strange attitudes, shake dust and dirt all over their backs, dig a hole and lie in it, and the strangest of all is to stretch their wings and roll over in the sunshine to keep warm.  Chickens love to sunbathe during the day, and will stretch their wings and catch some warmth whenever possible – it is a wonderful sight to see your backyard chickens enjoying a little free range time!

Click Here to find out the best way to look after your backyard poultry

6.  There are many types of backyard chicken breeds to choose from

 

You can have a lot of fun choosing the breed and types of chickens that you like the most.  You can raise many different types of chickens in your backyard, and they can make lovely little pets.  You can choose from the many different breeds to select chickens that lay more eggs, or you can choose chickens that lay larger eggs, or whatever specific quality that you may prefer.  The choice of different backyard poultry is amazing and you can have a lot of fun keeping and raising chickens in your own backyard!  We strongly recommend backyard chickens for beginners, it is so much fun for the whole family!

 

7.  It is not easy to keep a rooster!

 

I don’t recommend that you select a rooster for your backyard, unless you have a lot of space, and if your neighbors are a long way away!  Roosters are very noisy, particularly early in the morning, and no matter how hard you try to keep them in the dark, they always seem to wake up at the crack of dawn, and proceed to wake up everyone else as well!  Roosters tend to be a disruptive influence amongst the hens, and can become a little over protective at times, and cause the occasional disturbance.  In other words, they make lots of noise early in the morning, cause lots of disturbance during the day, and more noise in the evening, which means they make a lot more noise than backyard chickens!  If you have enough space and understanding neighbors, then keeping a rooster with your flock can be fun, but it can also cause a few problems that you need to be aware of!  Raising chickens is much easier!

 

8.  Choose the breed of chickens that you like the most

 

There are many types and varieties of chickens that you can keep in your backyard, and they make the most adorable little pets, or you can choose chickens that lay more eggs, or you can choose chickens that lay larger eggs, or whatever you prefer.  The choice is amazing and you can really have fun finding and raising the chickens that are just right for you!  Some chicken breeds have a very long pedigree, and were actually very old and traditional breeds that your grandparents were probably familiar with when they were growing up.  Other breeds have been crossed with better egg layers, or larger egg layers, and therefore will give you larger eggs and more eggs over a longer time.  On the other hand, some of the smaller breeds of chickens like Bantam chickens come in lovely shapes and sizes, and are generally smaller so that they can be better choices if you only have a small backyard.  So don’t be worried if you only have small backyard, there is bound to be a choice of chicken breed that is best for you!

Have a look at some of the different chicken breeds that we have reviewed at pet-chicken.

 

9.  Create a beautiful chicken house

 

There are some truly stunning designs for chicken houses out there at the moment!  Instead of having an old unattractive cage like in the old days, you can now choose an attractive and modern looking chicken house that can become a feature in your backyard, and enhance the appearance of your property.  Even better, you can choose whatever size chicken coop you need to match the number of chickens you want to raise.  These hen houses can accommodate anywhere from 3 hens to 20 chickens in a range of stunning designs.

 

10.  Keep your backyard chickens safe

 

The best way to look after your backyard chickens and to keep them safe is to include a safe nesting box to lay eggs, an elevated roost for night time sleep, and be sure to make space for a fenced chicken run so that the chickens can enjoy a little outdoors time during the day.  This means that you need to include a safe and secure hatch or door, so that the chickens can travel from the chicken house into the run each day, but can be locked up during the night for their own protection.  This is extremely important if you live in an area where cats, dogs, foxes, or other larger animals might try to catch them.  As long as you have a well fenced area to keep your chickens safe, they can happily scratch around during the day, and sleep safely at night.

Raising chickens is fun, but don’t let predators make a meal out them.  Click here to read some tips on how to build your own Chicken Coop!

 

If you want to know what to feed chickens, then the best way is to give your chickens a healthy chicken diet.  Simply collect all of those delicious kitchen scraps from a healthy meal, your chickens will love you for sharing with them, and will be happier and healthier to share lots of eggs with you, both now and into the future!

Buy them a recommended healthy chicken feed, from a reputable dealer, and you ensure that your chickens get all the dietary requirements and nutrients that they need to keep your chickens healthy.

Try some of these recommended brands at Amazon:

Save