1st chic order probably getting cancelled

[TheKluck]

Hi All,

Wanted to try raising some chickens this summer but managment thinks it's to much work in an already busy schedule. We have 1 dog, 3 cats and 2 boys 2 & 4. Both kids need to get outta the house for daycare every morning so the thought is how are we gonna add 6-10 chickens to mix with daycare, work and the animals we already have?

From what I've read they're not very labor intensive.

Thanks for any input.

 

[ChickenMammX4]

When we first got chicks, they were in our daughter's rec room. ( we live on joined property) No one has more going on in the morning than they do...4 kids, 1 to school, 3 to daycare, parents to work and 2 dogs. I'm sure they didn't check on the chicks hourly. I would go over to their house late in the morning or afternoon to check on them, clean up, feed & water if necessary. They'd check on them after work/evening.

Fast forward to grown chickens (we have 6). There is an automatic popdoor, it's set to open in the morning and to close at night. The chickens put themselves to bed. Either I or my husband check on them everyday, usually after lunch to collect eggs, water, feed & tidy up. Around dinner time I may go to the coop to take food scraps and check again for eggs.

We do a big clean out of the coop twice a year (spring & fall) and of the run once a year (spring).

I've taken care of horses, dogs, cats, & guinea pigs. Chcikens are one of the easiest.

 

[BlueShadow]

The amount of work that chickens require really depends on your setup. For adult chickens, they don't require much time at all if you have a nice coop, right size feeder and waterer, etc. Then you only have quick chores each day, once a week good cleaning of the feeder, waterer, coop, etc., and done.

For chicks, you need to fill their feed & water once a day, then check on them several times a day to be sure everything looks okay - water still clean, haven't spilled all the feed, everyone looks warm, alert, and healthy, etc. Depending on your brooder size, it will need to be cleaned every day to every few days.

But if you have space that is too small for your birds, or feeders/waterers that get spilled or dirty easily, a coop that you have to enter to let chickens out or get eggs, etc. etc. etc. then they can take more time. Can you do it with small children? Sure you can. Your kids are similar ages to mine and I have 21 chicks in the brooder, 13 adults in the coop, and a dozen guineas. But maybe you decide now isn't the right time for you to get chickens. That is okay too.

 

[TeeMom]

We have 5 kids (ages 2, 4, 5, 8 and 9), 2 dogs, 2 cats, a snake, 20 chickens and just added a dozen ducklings. Oh...And one of our hens is sitting on 10 eggs that should hatch in another 2 weeks. We're busy! I do stay home, but I will go back to work after the kids are all in school and our farm is only growing. The chickens are very much therapeutic for me...I enjoy all aspects of caring for them, cleaning included. I can't say that about laundry! As others have said, they are definitely more work when they are little and varies with your setup, but there are days that our young chicks only get checked on twice a day. Today is one of those. It's cold and rainy...I tended to chickens and ducks first thing this morning and I don't plan on going back out there until this evening. It definitely depends on your priorities, but my chickens have given me far more than they have taken.

 

[Stephine]

As long as your brooder is big enough and you are using some tricks to make keeping water and feed from being spilled or soiled easy, chicks only require some more work in setting up for them, making sure you are around to pick them up at the post office as soon as they get there (or occasionally finding out their whereabouts when the PO messes up and picking them up at the distribution center...) and monitoring on the first day, to make sure your set up works as planned and to see if any chicks need support after the trip.
Make sure the brooder you set up will be big enough for them until they can move to the coop. At 6 weeks you'll need 2sq feet per bird. Starting big will save you the having to make up a series of larger brooders as they grow.
Start them out on shavings - a lot of people do - or put paper towels over the shavings for a day until they all know where to find their feed. The sooner you can get rid of the paper towels the less you have to work on cleaning the brooder. Start with a thin layer and just add another layer when it starts looking messy. With a tall brooder you can go for a while in this way without having to clean it all out.
Get a nipple waterer and train them to it on day 3 or 4, (the kind that points down, not the horizontal ones - those can be too hard to make work for tiny chicks): no more worries about spilled and dirty water!
I highly recommend a little round red plastic feeder with adjustable roof (I'll get back with a link) for when they are little - put it up on an overturned terra-cotta saucer or flower pot that has a base about the same size or just a tad bigger than the feeder base. Make it the hight of their backs. Keeps them from roosting on it and pooping in their feed and keeps shavings out.
When they are big enought to knock this feeder over get a trough feeder with a lip - they can not beak out the feed and they can't roost on it.
If you make smart choices they really aren't that much work and they can keep you kids entertained with "chick TV" at least for a while here and there.
Good Luck!

links! Chick feeder: https://www.chickenwaterer.com/BriteTap-Automatic-Chick-Chicken-Feeder-p/chick-feeder.htm

Chicken trough feeder: http://www.miller-mfg.com/product/9836.html

One more thing: Get a good book or two on raising chickens - it'll help you do things right the first time and save you time searching around on the internet for answers! Cheers!

 

[BYCforlife]

Sorry, don't know what I was thinking. Yes, chicks take time, and they need to be checked on about once an hour. If that does not work for you, that s too bad. Good luck!

 

[TheKluck]

We're getting chicks but the thought is they'll be to much work with what we already have going on.

 

[BYCforlife]

We're getting chicks but the thought is they'll be to much work with what we already have going on.

Yes, sorry, I edited my post ^^^

 

[6sablehens]

Adding a few chickens isn't too bad, you can get large feeders and waterers that hold food for a long time before needing to be refilled. They need a pen to sleep in at night (it only needs to be a simple structure, as long it will protect them from bad weather and predators). You can either let them free range or build a run off the pen. As long as the water stays fresh and they have enough food they should be ok, but larger flocks do tend to be a bit more work, and some times health issues can occur and need to be treated.

We just put out some food and refill a small container of water for the chickens every evening before we lock them in their pen for the night (we have ducks who make their water dirty). They spend most of their day in their run or free ranging.
Although they are simple, they are another animal to look after, so they do add to the work, but I love keeping chickens and find they are one of the easier pets to look after - We have horses, dogs, cats and ducks!

 

[TheKluck]

Is 9 to many to start with?