Only two hens

[Jami F]

My chicken keeper life began when a stray chicken appeared in my pool. The next year I got 2 chicks and 2 years later I got 2 more chicks. In December 22 one of the 2nd batch died & in Jan the original stray died. All that being said my stray was a lap chicken until she got the 2 friends who taught her to beca chicken & she raised them well. If you just keep the one be sure to spend lots of time being her friend so she has someone to chat with & who cares about her.

I think you are more likely to get the right chicks by ordering, because there are fewer chances for them to accidentally get in the wrong bin or mis-labeled.


The guidelines about what percent chicken food they should eat are meant to avoid problems in almost all cases, no matter what other things are being offered, and without trusting the chickens to self-limit anything. There are many cases when a chicken can eat more than x% other things and be healthy.

Free-ranging chickens usually do fine if they are free to eat the purchased feed whenever they want to. They have some ability to choose a balanced combination of bugs, worms, grass, other greens, seeds from plants, and so forth.

Limiting treats matters more when the chickens live in a coop and a bare run, where the only things they can eat are what the person offers them. It also seems to be more of an issue when the person gives just a limited set of "treats" (like scratch grains and mealworms), and less of a problem when the chickens are offered a wider selection of things they can eat.

What fabulous information. Thank you for easing my mind !!

 

[littlecoopnextdoor]

I have two right now as well, after one of my others passed away about 6 months ago. I am planning on getting two babies in May to join them, as I worry in case something happens and having a solo hen <3 Good choice.