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

[KatyTheChickenLady]

You are gong to spend far more time enjoying and communing with them than working for them. If you have your set up done right 5-10 minutes in the morn and eve for feeding and general checking on them. Then an hour cleaning once a week or even every other week. I have potty boxes with DE in my coop and ony spend about 15 min once a month on cleaning; i have about 60 birds wiith NO smell NO mess NO fuss

 

[MimiChick]

I have 4 chickens and my total time on mandatory "chickie chores" is probably 5 to 10 minutes a day. I have a 1 gal waterer that lasts about 3 days before I change it out (I use ACV in it - keeps it algae free and good for the girls). I also have a large cage cup on the side of the run for their food. It only takes me a miinute to mix up what I'm giving them (laying pellets with oatmeal or peas or whatever leftover veggies are in the fridge) and dump it in the bowl. I use the deep litter method, but I rake out the top layer of poop every other day or so, fluff up the rest with a rake or hoe and occassionaly add some more shavings. That's it for chores really. Like I said, 5 to 10 minutes a day. Of course then there's all the time spent watching them (chicken TV), giving them treats, checking for eggs (my 5 yr old granddaughter loves that part) and enjoying them. That's also when I'm checking to make sure everyone is healthy and happy. I'd guess the most time I spend on chicken stuff is actually when I'm here on BYC.

My husband wasn't too sure about this either, but now he loves our chickens as much as I do. They really are not a lot of work for the pleasure they give and the eggs you get as a bonus. I say GO FOR IT! and enjoy. Good luck.

 

[suburbanminifarm]

I have 30 something backyard chickens in a suburban setting.
Morning; open doghouse doors and let everyone out to free range all day in the yard, quick poop rake of the hay bedding in their dog houses, and fill food and water= 10 min
Mid-day; appreciate their antics= 0 to 8 hours
After school; my daughter has the fun of collecting eggs in her little blue basket=5 min
Evening; lock the dog houses after the roo has ushered everyone in to bed, check to count heads and make sure no one is cheating and sleeping in the wrong doghouse= 5 min
Seriously this is one of the best things you could do for your daughters....... they will get so much good clean education and wholesome entertainment value..... and just wait untill you get an incubator !!!! I have had every pet under the sun from possums to ponies and chickens are the BEST!

 

[Delphinium]

Thank you all for your helpful, kind responses!

 

[gckiddhouse]

Hey Del - met you on the Arizona thread a few days ago.

I like things to be simple and easy and not a lot of work. I am a busy mom and I also homeschool. We love having the chickens because they really are easy to keep. If you click on My BYC Page, I have a page called Chook Nook that tells all about our set up. Check it out.

We have a large feeder that holds 40 lbs of feed. As long as we keep the tweety birds out we only have to fill it every 10 days to 2 weeks depending on how many chickens we have.
We have an auto waterer that they can't get into or poop in and we also use ACV (raw apple cider vinegar) to keep the water clean. We also have a $10 mister set up with a timer for summer heat relief.
We use sort of a deep litter system. It is a little different here in the desert than it is for others, I think. It is very dry here, so you won't need as much material as I would think others use in other parts of the country. We add some every couple-three weeks. About 2 times a year, we rake it all out and start again. It is great mulch, but we don't have need for all of it, so most goes in the trash

We did make the mistake of putting the roosting polls too close to the nesting boxes, so they often roost on the edges of the nesting boxes and poop IN the nesting boxes. So because of that, we have to go out every morning and clean them out so that the eggs have a clean place to land.

So, in a typical week, we go out each morning and clean nest boxes, check for eggs and enjoy the chooks. If we are going to be home all day we might let them out to free range. We will then go out again at sunset when they go to bed and check again for eggs and make sure everyone is safe. We go out more often just because we want to.

In the summer time we check for eggs more often as it is just too hot to let them stay out there.

Getting the set up together will be the bulk of the work. Then, you will occasionally have to make repairs or adjustments. That can be a lot of work, depending one what is being repaired.

I wanted to tell you, also (may repeat this on the AZ thread), that we are officially in

with our Barred Rocks. They are only 5 weeks old, but they are officially the friendliest birds we have ever had!! We have had lots of different breeds and we love several of them, but none have been as sweet as the BRs. When we go out they literally jump on us to be held. They will get to the highest point they can and wait until we come close so they can jump on an arm or shoulder. Lots of people have said that they love BRs and now I know why!! Just and FYI.

Enjoy!!

 

[jettgirl24]

I have 4 chickens and my total time on mandatory "chickie chores" is probably 5 to 10 minutes a day.

I agree with this time estimte, I also have 4 and they are super low maintenance. Sometimes I find ways of stretching that time into a half hour or more just because I love hanging out with them though

I have an auto-waterer and a gravity feeder and both usually last for two or three days. I just pop my head in the coop twice a day to make sure the water is shaving free. The only other regular work really is raking the coop to mix up the bedding and cleaning off the roost once or twice a week. Both chores combined take 10 minutes tops. I'm trying out the DLM method so I'm planning on cleaning the whole thing out once or twice a year.

Since my run isn't finished yet I've also taken to letting them out to free range while I get ready in the morning, then I put them in when I head out to work. I let them out again when I get home until it starts to get dark.​

 

[BC_Farms]

For our main flock, Ian lets them out in the morning before he goes to work, refills their water and feed, gives them some sunflower seeds or scratch and kitchen scraps. When he comes home from work he checks for eggs, makes sure the water and food are ok. After dinner or before it gets dark we lock em in for the night. About once or twice a week (as needed) I add more shavings to their coop. Then if it's nice outside figure about an hour watching the chickens be ridiculous.

 

[nsanywhere]

I have 2 roosters and 17 hens, one coop with a fenced yard that opens into the larger 1/2 acre yard to share with my 2 sheep. My routine:

~9 am gather buckets of food, scratch, kitchen scraps, etc. and go up to the coop. Greeted by much squwaking and clucking. I scatter a few handfuls of scratch in the smaller pen, toss in the kitchen scraps, re-fill water buckets, collect eggs, and check free feeder (I fill every 3 days). Then I sit around and chat with the gang for a bit, do a head count, make sure everyone looks healthy and happy. All this takes about 15 minutes, longer if the conversation and weather is good

~2 pm I open the coop to the big yard and let the chickens free range for a few hours with the sheep.

Around 5-6pm I take another handful or two of scratch to the pen and any other scraps. They come bolting in for treats and settle back into the coop no problem.

About once a week I clean out the water bins, sometimes I rake the smaller coop to fill in holes they've made, add hay to the nest boxes, and check around for any signs of rat holes or the like.

Once every few months I refill oyster shell feeder and clean out the pine bedding in the coop.

Daily/weekly chores are minimal, and the bigger clean outs are very forgiving time wise. The chickens don't check the calendar or care if I don't finish something in one day! And, once you get your own routine down it goes very quickly. Most of the "extra" time will be spent socializing and poking around. Your few starter hens sound like a great way to go. have fun!

 

[NeeleysAVLChicks]

Quote:
Haha, sooooooo true!

 

[gckiddhouse]

Quote:
Haha, sooooooo true!

Absolutely true!!!