Please walk me through a typical day/week...

[Delphinium]

We're almost ready to enter the wonderful world of backyard chickens! My husband is almost on board.... his only hesitation is how much "work" it will be for me. I've tried to tell him I really don't think it will be that much work, but we've been married 13 years, and never had pets during our married life.

Could you please walk me through a typical day/week with BYC once they're outside in their coop? My thoughts are feed and water daily, clean the coop weekly. Is there a lot more work involved?

We are planning to start with 4 hens. They will have a coop with an enclosed run, and we'll let them free range when we are spending time in the backyard and can supervise them (almost daily when the weather is nice). We live in Northern Arizona, where we can get quite a bit of snow during the winter. We also have twin 5 year old daughters who are excited to "help".

Thank you for any information/advice!!
Jennifer

 

[Cackling Hen]

Ok I let mine free range so I wake up let them out about 9am I wait until then to be nice to the neighbors. I have 3 Roos and 12 hens. I usuall have to fill up there feeder every three days it hold 50lbs of feed and I have a Steel water that i fill up every other day. They are hanging in the coop so its easy. I clean out the waterer once a week give it a good scrub. I open there door count heads as they come out i sit and watch make sure no one is hurt or acting weird. I go into coop make sure everything in there is ok. At night around dusk they go in I wait till dark take a flash light go out do head count lock them up. also once a week i take ea chicken at night and look them over its much easier to do it then I look for mites and look at there eyes look at there feet ect.... Every 3 months I put bag balm on there legs for scaly leg mite never had a chicken get that yet thank goodness. I do the deep litter so I say once a month I put down a layer of fresh shavings I scrub off there roos.t The nest boxes I put new shavings in once a week I like it nice and clean for the eggs and few times a day I feed them treats I sit and they all coming running to me I have a few that wont even let me neer them I also have a few that love me I have a Roo that comes in the house comes into my room sits on the bed with me for 10 min or so then he is off Its the sweetest thing I love him. Oh and once a day right before they go in I collect the eggs I think thats about it

Good luck your daughter is gunna be a big help she will love it. There are a few time where i have had a few hurt from the roos fighting but so far I have been lucky.

 

[MandyH]

OK, we have 7 different coops and they are all inside the pasture for added protection. So here goes a typical day: Drag the 500ft water hose from the back of the house out to the pasture. Go to the shed and load 3 50 pound sacks of feed onto the cart. Fill up a 5 gallon bucket of chick feed for the chicks in the three outside brooders. Grab a couple of buckets to put the eggs in, and off we go to the pasture. Once inside the gate, get attacked by all the sheep who act like they've never been fed, then proceed on to coops. I go through every coop and feed first, while I'm in the coop I throw the waterer out so I can clean it and refill it. Do this 7 times. Go back and collect and mark all the eggs and put them in the cart. Go back and clean all the waterers, then put them back in the coops. Then procedd to the brooders outside the pasture. Feed them, go back and clean and refill waterers. Drag water hose back to the house. Total time: approx 2 hours.

 

[Shifty Joe]

Four hens should be easy. Basic needs are Food, Water, and clean up. The need to change\
efill the food and water is in direct relation with the size of the dispenser, the bigger the less you need to do. Say you need to fill\\clean once to twice a week, ten minute job. Cleaning up the coop, well again the bigger the coop the less you have to do it. Installing poop boards greatly reduces the need to change the litter. Say five to 10 minutes a day for a poop board, thirty minutes a month otherwise. Monthly maintenance (dusting, bag balm, etc) only is about five minutes per chicken.

It really doesn't take a whole lot of time to take care of the chickens, it just take a lot to get everything in order before hand that takes the time. Focus on the coop, run, and fence before hand... after that it's just collect the eggs for breakfast.

 

[RevaVirginia]

Let them "free range" inside the run for a week or two. This will ensure that the coop is the place they go @ dusk. Their free range time will best be suited for the few hours before dusk, they will go in themselves and alleviates the need to try and gather them up which can be a chore.

I have Roos so my typical day/week is sure to be different than just having hens but I'm sure some things will be the same.

Typical day/week:

Get entertained by feeding them different table scrap items - pay more attention to your favorites (they pick you, you don't pick them) - worry yourself silly about all things chicken and finally brush your hair over the bald spots you create from pulling out your hair....Sorry one more thing. Read BYC to get the best advice on all things that come up.

Have fun.

 

[Tecalli]

I've got three hens, and here is my typical day with them:

MORNING: Walk out to the coop and talk to them while I am entering the run and opening the coop door. I hear a lot of squarking and wing flapping when I don't talk to them so I do this to let them know its me. I open the coop door, take out their food, open their pop door, and hang their food at the end of the run. If needed, I add more food. I then get my bucket, gardening gloves, and a kitty litter scoop and take out any poop from the coop. The time depends on the season, right now I have been doing this at about 6:30am. TOTAL TIME = 5 min.

LATE AFTERNOON/EARLY EVENING: I let them out of their run for about 30-60min. (time depends on the weather) so they can run around the yard and free range for a bit. I stay out there with them because we have lots of hawks. I also take my bucket, gloves, and scoop to pick up any obvious piles of poop in their run. This all gets dumped into my compost bin. I give them fresh water. When I am ready for them to come back to the run I shake a bowl with some sunflower seeds in it and call them. They come running. Now they are in their run till bedtime. Collect and take in any eggs. TOTAL TIME= 30 to 60 min

LATE EVENING: When its dusk I walk back to the coop to make sure they are all in the for the night. I take the food from the end of the run and put it in the coop, then close the pop door and the coop door. They are now locked in safe and sound till morning. TOTAL TIME = 5 min.


As you can see, I don't spend a ton of time. I could skip picking up poop from their coop and run for a few days if needed. I could also cut down on their free range time, but I enjoy watching them run about. I did spend about an hour last Saturday taking all the shavings out of the coop and nest boxes and giving the coop a good spring scrubbing, but this wasn't essential. Limiting myself to just a few hens also makes things much easier and quicker. So overall, lots of pleasure for minimal effort!

Convince your husband, get those hens, and enjoy!

 

[crittersitter]

Your set up sounds very familiar to mine. I have 3 hens. Typical morning starts with my hubby opening the door to let them out. They won't come out until They hear me say "goodmorning girls", which is usually an hour later.Then the daily adventures begin and they come charging out. I check food and water buckets. 3 hens do not go through alot of food very quickly. While they are out and about chatting with the daytime security team(my cat-yes they all get along)

I fluff up the shavings and give a quick look around to make sure everything looks ok.(no predator footprints). I then go about my gardening and the girls just hang out. they get scraps for a midday snack and put themselves to bed at dusk. I then lock everything up, say goodnight and that's that. Morning takes 5-10 minutes and they are very easy to take care of. enjoy your new girls!

 

[fancbrd4me02]

My day is much like everyone esle here. I have between 35 and 60 birds. But I have auto watering system. I'ts a lot less work. You still have to check to make sure waterers are working and are not clogged and clean, but otherwise eliminates getting wet dragging hoese or buckets, etc. I use gravity type feeders suspended from the ceiling of the covered run. Holds a lot of food, but to discourage mice I drop them into a covered trasch can at night, so in the mornings I have to grab that and put it back on the hanger. I free range, let then out around 8:30 or 9am, they pretty much put themselves back in at dusk. I do a head count every night anyway, sometime one will stay out. I've locked stragglers out in the yard overnight because I hadn't checked. My hens are really well trained, so even though they free renage, they go back into the henhouse and lay thier eggs in the nestbox. I check 2 times a day, except when it's hot, then I check every couple of hours so the eggs don't get too hot. We are adding a couple new vents to the house this year, hopefull that will help with the temperature problem. Some people on BYC use automatic chicken doors to let them in and out to free range, that would eliminate a lot of work.

 

[NeeleysAVLChicks]

First,

I had the exact same "conversation"

with my husband when I first wanted to get chickens. He was a little slow to get on the bandwagon because he was worried about the amount of work. Though I spend a good amount of time with my chickens, its mostly just because I want to. I also started out with 4 and I would average 5-10 minutes a day on the mandatory feeding/watering/maintenance.

You'll get a system worked out and your 5 year olds will have a great experience learning about chickens! Of course, there are going to be times where much more time is spent cleaning out the coop, maintenance on the run/coop, etc, but that is sporadic and you can work out your own schedule.

I spend far more time taking care of our dog (and she doesn't even make me breakfast!

) than I do on the chickens.

Good luck!! Have fun!!

 

[KKatknap]

I have had ALL kinds of livestock, and I can assure you - chickens are SO easy! And probably the most fun and rewarding of any animals I have owned (I might except my horse...but not always

).

I have had 6 chickens for over a year, and they are just so low maintenance! I COULD just go out there 2 times a day - morning, to open pop door and feed/water/clean poop board. Like others have said, this takes @ 5 - 10 minutes. It would take less, but I like to talk to them and interact a little.

In the evening, I make sure the water is clean, close the pop door and collect eggs. Less than 5 minutes. But I go out a couple more times to get my "cute fix" and "chat" with them...and collect eggs. This takes as much time as I wish it to.

I added 4 Wellie chicks in January, who are just now beginning to join the "big girls", and I have 11 Ameraucana "babies" in my tack room. They have only added a few minutes to the routine. (They have added quite a bit of time to the "cute fix" voluntary time

)

Do it. You will absolutely not regret it!