Chickens Chores

[Michael Apple]

I'm up at 5:00 AM. I have coffee, feed the dogs, and go out when it is beginning to get light outside. I fill up waterers, mix up my feed in a large bucket and place them in fenced yards. I open the coops and grab my rake and scoop to clean up dropping accumulated overnight under roosts. I can observe droppings as I clean up for potential problems by use of my head lamp on my ball cap.

I do this with enough time before I leave for work so I can have a smoke and more coffee, and observe the birds to make sure everyone is active and eating well. On my days off I have even more time.

I work a split shift and work local so I can get home in the afternoon to check feed levels. I let them out of their pens to range for a couple hours.I don't fill feeders in the morning to last all day , because I've found birds are less likely to get fat, and wild birds are less likely to pilfer the troughs. I lay out more feed in the afternoon and make sure water troughs are still clean. I don't leave birds out to range when I'm not home, so if I'm going back to work, they go back in their yards.

When I get home, I lock them in their coops for the night, pick up all feeders and waterers, wash them out and hang them to dry for the next morning.

 

[LUVMYCHIKAS]

I give them food and cracked corn in the morning @ 540am. I have to be to work at 6am. And open the chicken door so they can go into the pen at that time as well. They don't get to free range until the weekends or the summer evenings when I'm home.
When I get home, usually after dark, I feed them again and give them fresh water. So in short, feed twice a day, water in the evening.
They don't generally coop up until 30-45 mins after dark since the cold weather has come so I go back out after I have my dinner to close the chicken door for the night.
Cleaning the coop occurs approximately every 3-4 weeks on a warmer day. I watch the forecast and work it into my schedule. I use straw in the floor of the coop and I don't have poop boards. The straws works very well.
In addition I have 4 labs and a Rotty that get fed twice a day and have to be let out to use the bathroom. If I could I would prefer to be a stay at home chicken mom!

 

[aart]

I get to stay home, unemployed, nice especially in this frigid cold weather.
New to chooks this fall.
-10F yesterday morning:
6am with liquid water, water heater not working great, spread a little scratch to keep them moving....picked up one egg.
8:30 filled crumble feeder...picked up one cracked frozen egg and one warm egg.
10:30 picked up two more eggs, opened pop door cause they thought they wanted to go out.
Noon 17F, fed wheat grass, closed pop door, they didn't really go out.
1:30 liquid water, picked up one more egg..pullets just started laying at 7 months, first 6 egg day ever.
3:00 gave extra large portion of scratch to fill them up before roosting.
5:00 last check, everyone on roosts.

Usually only have to do 8 am, noon if I have grass and scraps, 3pm for scratch and 5pm for head count and pop door closure.

I can't imagine caring for chooks if I had to be gone 10 hours a day like when I had a job.