Breaking it down.... time spent on chickens

[Chicabee19]

aw yes... luckily the feed store is just a few blocks away!

 

[seminolewind]

double post

 

[seminolewind]

Chickens are mega high maintenance.............. No one is adding the 6 hours per day of BYC

 

[Chicabee19]

I work on the PC and Internet, so I can leave BYC up all the time and just check-check-check for new posts!

 

[JennsPeeps]

Quote:
That's what work is for!

Remember to add time for chasing chickens out of areas where they're not supposed to be (house, garage, carport, back porch, vegetable garden), funds to replace plants they've eaten (perennials, trampled day lilies, peppers in planters on the back porch, vegetable garden), and labor for cleaning poop out of all of the above.

Oh, and DBF reminds me to include bandaids for nips & pecks.

I'd say that basic maintenance takes about 10 mins/day:
~2 mins to let out in morning
~2 mins to check they're away at night & lock the coop
~1 min to check water & food levels
~5 mins for whatever

On weekends I take 15-20 mins to clean their coop (it's little), pick up kitchen scraps they didn't eat, and sprinkle DE around as needed.

Of course, there's always Chicken TV and time spent w/ chooks but that's optional if you're not interested in having pet chickens.

 

[TeaLady]

I'd allow more than a couple of minutes for coop cleaning. Get the wheelbarrow out, shovel poop in, move to compost pile, dump/shovel out, put the wheelbarrow away. Plus a little time to toss in the fresh bedding & DE (don't forget the cost of those in your plan). Still not a huge hit, but if you're writing up a plan you want to get it in there. If your life to date involves office work & not much else, plan on buying shoes for working in the coop (I love my Crocs for that), and changing into grubby clothes before you muck anything out. But it really goes pretty fast. You'll find yourself hanging around wanted them to need you for something.

Of course when they are little you spend extra time hovering over them, checking the temp in the brooder, etc. Someone's got to play mother-hen to the chicks.

 

[picklespickles]

daily-
turn on water for pond - 30 seconds
turn off an hour later- 30 seconds

lean out back window and scatter food- two minutes

put aside scrap food for all animals-five minutes

check for eggs- five minutes



weekly-
raking yard- one hour

monthly-
drive to feed store
five dollars in gas for cheaper store
twenty five cents in gas for expensive store


i dont' lock mine in. i just count each day when i'm feeding them to see if the right number is there.

 

[Cetawin]

I want the days you folks have...here is a 32 chicken (of varying ages) day..

Collect any and all eggs as some of the girls are now laying

5 minutes


Move the six 23 week olds from their hot tub to their tractor outside, refresh outside water and food...

20 minutes

Move the five 11 week olds from the garage brooder to their outside tractor (this includes catching one or two of them that manage to get away before they go in the tractor, refresh outside water and food...

30 minutes


Move the twenty-one 4 week olds out of brooder in garage to their tractor outside, refresh outside water and food.

30 minutes

Sweep the garage where the three brooders are...

10 minutes

Scoop all three brooders and carry to compost bin

15 minutes

Twice per week - cleaning brooders out completely

1.5 hours


Fix three treat dish of either applesauce and starter, veggies or their favorite plain steamed rice

15 minutes

Talk to the girls and play with them

3 or 4 hours

Check BYC for urgent posts *snicker*

several hours throughout the day and night

Spend about 1.5 hours getting everyone back inside, waters refreshed, food filled and everyone secured for the night

Sometime inbetween all of this...build the coop, do housework and work on garden beds.


Now of course...all of these times can be doubled if the DH and DD are bugging me with mundane things like fixing them breakfast or something.

 

[Chicabee19]

wow cetawin, you really have a lot of chickens!

I do plan on making my chickens pets... plenty of time to hang out with them!

 

[mistylady]

Chickens are great stress relief! I get annoyed with stupid husband tricks or toddler misadventures and go visit my henny penny chickie poo woos. Just hearing them talk is relaxing and having one snuggle on your arm is so nice! It makes that feeding, cleaning and running to get food time well worth it!