A Day in the Life Would You Share?

[RedDrgn]

An average weekday right now with five 8 week old pullets is as follows:

-Open the coop and let the chickens out into the secure run before going to work in the morning (depending on the day, this is between 4:30AM and 6:00AM).
-Check on the chickens when arriving home from work, this includes greeting them at the run door with lettuce or mealworms (they love and go nuts for both). This occurs any time between 4:00PM to 6:00PM. Empty, clean, and refresh water and add food to the feeder as necessary.
-Weather permitting, chickens are let out of run to peruse our 3/4 acre of property with us until dark (which is when they head back into the coop for the night).

*Rinse, lather, repeat!

On weekends/holidays, the chickens get a lot more time outside of their run. We also clean out the coop once a week (it's a 3x3x4 coop with three nest boxes, so an easy clean).

*Bare minimum amount of time it takes to devote towards the chickens a day is about 5-10 minutes, with an extra 15 or so once a week for the coop cleaning and run maintenance. We give them a lot more time than that since we love them so much and they're fun to interact with, but they really are low maintenance. Up until 4 weeks they took an extra 10 minutes or so per day bare minimum because we were meticulous about cleaning the brooder and making sure everyone was healthy/behaving normal, but that was not great task and we often put much more time in just to handle them.

 

[hallerlake]

I keep it simple.

I get up, I bring feed out to the runs, let the chooks out of the coops into the runs. Check for eggs. Feed the dog. Use the hose to clean dog and/or chicken poop off the patio, rinse and fill chicken's and dog's water. By now the dog has finished eating, so I can open the runs. He is old and has meds in his food the chickens don't need. I check for eggs during the day as convenient. At the end of the day, I shut the chickens in their coops, check for eggs, bring in their feed (I don't want to attract vermin by leaving it out). Feed the dog.

Once a week, I clean the coops and add to compost.

 

[pawsplus]

I have 4 right now -- used to be 3, but after I lost my Olivia this past summer to egg yolk peritonitis

, I added Bianca and Audrey, who will soon be introduced to Clarice and Svetlana.

I have a large coop and run (see links in my sig) and I recently redid the footing in the run so that it's now sand over gravel. This makes it all a WHOLE lot less work (and much cleaner!).

I go out in the a.m. to open their pophole and put out their food. I put out as much as they will eat every day (I don't leave food just sitting out) and they usually get treats of some sort. In the wintertime they usually get oatmeal (layer pellets, rolled oats, BOSS, ground flax, and 2 eggs, shells included, nuked for 4 min. and then cooled) and otherwise they get BOSS, mealworms, table scraps, and very occasional cat food. I check their water daily and replace at least every other day.

In the a.m. I pick out their coop and run--I have a stall fork that I adapted by putting hardware cloth over it so I can sift through the bedding in the coop (exploded pelleted pine) and the sand in the run and remove all poop. I have a small garbage can w/ a liner in it near the coop and I put the poop in that, and every month or so I take it to my SIL who is a gardener.

In the p.m. I go out after the girls have put themselves to bed and remove any leftover food. I close the pophole after making sure everyone is OK.

This all doesn't sound like much, and it's not, but keep in mind that you also have to make and maintain their abode. That's a lot of work! I recently did the footing reno on my pen, along with replacing the wire pen roof, and that took most of 2 days. Just something to keep in mind!