Your Typical Routine w/ a Small Flock?

[Mike592]

Hi everyone, I'm trying to learn as much as I can to make sure I know what I'm getting into.

I know this will depend on variables, but can you walk me through your daily routine with a small flock of five hens in a coop and run that might free range a couple hours in the evening (more on weekends)?

What times do you check on them? What time do you unlock the coop in the morning? When do you collect eggs? If they lay late morning, can the keep until 5:00-6:00? Do you check feed/water every day? What time do you lock them back up? etc.

What are your weekly and monthly chores?

I've been reading a ton over the last month and really want to take the plunge with 3-5 hens. I know a lot about the list of chores and what they need to be healthy and happy, I'm just not sure what a daily routine looks like. So far my stay-at-home wife is not totally on board since our son is only 1.5 years old... and I'm not sure which tasks she will help with, so I wonder how 5 hens will fit into my typical 8-5 workday.

Thanks for the help!

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Chickens are easy. Really easy. Easier than a dog.

You probably wouldn't consider my flock small, but I'm going to walk you through my day anyway. I hope that when you see how little time I spend taking care of my flock, you'll see that keeping a small flock of five birds will be a snap.
I currently have:

• 72 laying hens
• 1 rooster
• 1 young cockerel
• 1 broody hen sitting on 12 eggs
• 1 broody hen with 4 chicks (in with the laying flock)
• 11 pullets of various ages

DAILY CHORES
Morning--7am

1. Visually inspect the pullets for disease/injury
2. Let the pullets out of the pullet house.
3. Feed/water the pullets.
4. Visually inspect the hens/rooster
5. Let the hens out of the hen house.
6. Quick check to make sure the hens have food/water (we have a 200lb feeder and a 50 gallon pasture waterer, so I don't feed/water the hens every day.
7. Visually inspect the broody
8. Check broody food/water
9. Gather eggs

Total time: 5-20 minutes, depending on who needs food and water and the weather. In the winter, I will have to carry water to all birds.

Afternoon--3pm

1. Take the "chicken bowl" filled with table scraps out to the birds. Enjoy watching them eat them and fight over them and run around.
2. Check pullet water (and hen water in the winter)
3. Gather eggs (you wouldn't have to do this--the eggs from a few hens will keep until 6pm unless it's well below zero, in which case you might need to gather them sooner or they'll freeze. I gather eggs 3x a day b/c I have so many hens it's easy for eggs to be broken accidentally)

Total time: 5 minutes (more depending on how long you stop to watch)

Evening--dusk. That's a different time in the summer than the winter. Whenever the chickens have gone to roost for the night.

1. Lock the pullets' door.
2. Lock the hens' door.
3. Gather eggs

Total time: 10 minutes or less.

EVERY THREE DAYS:

1. Stir the hens' bedding with a pitchfork, remove any obvious wet places, add more shavings if necessary. (modified deep litter method)
2. Add straw to nest boxes if necessary
3. Check the pullets' bedding, take out wet places if necessary, add bedding if necessary

Total time: 30 minutes if I have to do everything, usually five minutes.

ONCE A WEEK:

• Clean and refill the pasture waterer

Total time: 10 minutes

ONCE EVERY TWO WEEKS:

1. Purchase feed, shavings, straw, etc.

Total time (including drive time): 45 minutes

EVERY SIX MONTHS:

1. Total clean out of the hen house.
2. Total clean out of the pullet house.

Total time: 1.5 hours

1. Deworm all chickens.
2. Clip wings on all chickens (while we've caught them for deworming)

Total time: 2 hours (would take like 10 minutes for a 3-5 bird flock)

When necessary:
Clean/disinfect broody box after every hatch--20 minutes
Clean travel crate--after each time it's used. Only used when I buy started pullets or take meat birds to the processor. --10 minutes
Clean broody buster wire-bottomed crate--used when I have a broody that I don't want to sit, maybe three times a year--10 minutes
Clean/disinfect chicken tractor/isolation pen--after every batch of meat birds, or after every sick bird pulled out for observation. We do two batches of meat birds a year, and I didn't include them in the above time estimates. The meat birds add 15 minutes each morning.--30 minutes

For me, I also have to add several hours' work cleaning and packing and labeling and delivering eggs each week. But that won't be on your list.

I hope this helps. For your every day stuff, expect five minutes morning and evening. On the weekends, maybe another half an hour, tops. Of course, you'll also spend lots of time watching them. Chickens are highly entertaining.

I am a stay at home mom and I have two kids. My youngest is now three years old, but we got chickens before I had my first child. Tell your wife from me that she and your child will spend many happy hours throwing treats to the hens, and your child will LOVE gathering eggs. My three year old gathers them for me right now (with my help). She's always in awe of how beautiful the eggs are, and tells me how wonderful and perfect each egg is. Both kids love feeding the scraps to the chickens, and they run down just to watch the flock forage sometimes. There is nothing about chickens that would stop a mom from doing it with a year and a half old child in tow, especially if you did the cleaning chores on the weekend. My husband has no part in the daily chicken chores except for helping me catch and deworm chickens twice a year and building what I tell him to build.

Good luck!

(edited because "roost" is not spelled "rooster."

 

[elliechooks]

When we moved into the countryside people kept asking me if we would get chickens and I kept saying 'no, too much hassle' but really they are not. I currently have 7 laying hens and 15 chicks of various ages. When I get up in the morning I let the dogs out and out I go to release the chickens. They are free-ranging in an area the dogs can't get to. I open the doors (currently 3) and do a quick head count. I check that there is feed and water in each of the containers and fill if needed. I tend to watch for a while to ensure all birds come out and are eating/behaving normally (5-10mins)
I tend to pop in around lunch time just to see that all is ok, but not every day, and mostly because I enjoy watching them!
At 3:30 when my son comes home from school (aged 7) we go out together, we feed them corn and any kitchen scraps and my son collects the eggs, I quickly check feed and water again and refill if needed (10 mins)
At dusk I go back out and close all the doors (and head count - with new hens, find where they have roosted and put them into the correct place, this only lasts 2or 3 nights till they get the idea) (5mins longer if you need to search)

I add clean bedding at weekends, clean roosting areas thoroughly every 3-4 weeks depending on mess and weather.
Buy feed once a month with dog food.
They really are very little trouble and very rewarding. I'm sure your wife and kids will love them once they get to know them!

 

[wsmith]

Here is what we do:

Currently we have 17 hens and one rooster

• 12 Dominique hens
• 5 EE hens
• 1 Dominique Rooster

We have an additional 8 Dominique teenagers in the growout pen

We have 3 chickens that aren't ours, but are boarding with us for a while.

We have 4 one week old Dominique chicks in the brooder/brooder pen

We have 20 Dominique eggs that we put in the incubator this morning

We have 5 turkey poults:

• Two Narragansett Jakes
• One Narragansett Jenny
• Two Bronze Jakes

So currently we have at our place 30 chickens and 5 turkeys.

Each of our pens except for the brooder coop is free access in and out, so the chickens go out by themselves at will. The Brooder and the growout pens are covered in netting. All our facilities are fenced with 6 ft wood fence. The main run has an additional 3 feet of vertical netting above the wood fence.

Daily: between 30 - 60 minutes or more as desired or needed.

• Each morning I leave the house for work at about 5:30, and don't normally go out to the chickens. My kids and wife check for eggs periodically throughout the day and monitor for any issues. The majority of the chicken keeping is done by me after I get home from work. I go out when I get home and check on all the pens, spending a little time in each one.
• I check for fence security, but that is a quick glance.
• I observe the chickens to look for any health issues or and weirdness, other than normal chicken weirdness.....
• I make sure that all the pens have adequate water and feed.
• I spread out some scratch grains for them to eat
• I collect the eggs that may be there, and do this periodically throughout the afternoon.
• In the evening I give them some more scratch grains, which they don't eat much of, but have some for the morning.
• Daily hig and low temperatures as well as egg laying totals are recorded daily.

Saturday: between 1-4 hours as needed

• Saturday is when I have the most time to take care of any issues.
• Each waterer is cleaned and filled.
• All the feeders are topped off.
• Repairs are done as needed.
• The outside perimeter of the "chicken compound" is checked to assure that everything is secured against canines, which include dogs, coyotes, and fox.
• Individual chicken evaluations are done as needed: When we are setting up the breeding pens, this is very important.
• Bedding is added as necessary
• Scratch grains are mixed as needed
• Daily feed bins are filled as needed
• Check the feed storage and feed quantities
• Check for adequate bedding in storage shed

Sunday:

• Same as the daily items, but I also record the weeks tempoeratures and egg laying onto a spreadsheet on Sunday evening.

Once every 3-4 months

• Purchase feed

One every 6 months or so

• Clean out the coops, compost the old bedding

One a year:

• Processing and culling- periodically we will also sell extra hens as necessary
• NPIP re-certification

Spring-early summer:

• Set up the breeding pens when the average temperature gets to about 40F. This year that didn't happen until mid-march, but temps didn't stabilize until late April.
• Start collecting hatching eggs 10 days after breeding pens are set up
• Hatch as many chicks as possible
• Sell chicks and young birds as available

 

[skitzkle]

I have 10 chickens couple months old and 4 chicks 1 month old (still in brooder)

Sun up- I open the coop let to them into the run do head count. Check coop for anything out of ordinary (1 min)

1pm- my children take a nap and I scoop chicken poop. I have sand in my coop and scoop out the poop almost daily with kitty litter scoop. fill feeder check and fill water if needed. Spray poopy surfaces if water/acv mix. Add DE to sand and rack it up a little bit to spread out any wet sand to dry. (1/2 hour to 1 hour) if I am in a hurry it can be done in 10 min.

Dusk or when we leave the house to be gone past dusk. Close coop if dusk, catch chickens and put in coop if we are going out. (1-10) mins.

I have only had them a couple months so i don't have eggs yet & I am working on a solution for the abundance of flies. I spend some time with the brooder chicks feeding and watering and holding!

every couple days I house down the porch on their coop to get the poop off because it attracts flies.

 

[RedDrgn]

Hi everyone, I'm trying to learn as much as I can to make sure I know what I'm getting into.

I know this will depend on variables, but can you walk me through your daily routine with a small flock of five hens in a coop and run that might free range a couple hours in the evening (more on weekends)?

What times do you check on them? What time do you unlock the coop in the morning? When do you collect eggs? If they lay late morning, can the keep until 5:00-6:00? Do you check feed/water every day? What time do you lock them back up? etc.

What are your weekly and monthly chores?

I've been reading a ton over the last month and really want to take the plunge with 3-5 hens. I know a lot about the list of chores and what they need to be healthy and happy, I'm just not sure what a daily routine looks like. So far my stay-at-home wife is not totally on board since our son is only 1.5 years old... and I'm not sure which tasks she will help with, so I wonder how 5 hens will fit into my typical 8-5 workday.

Thanks for the help!

We've got 5 hens and one roo in a secure run with a coop (in the run); three chicks (pullets) in a brooder in the garage). Our coop has an automatic door that opens at 7:30AM and closes at 8:30PM every day for much of the year. We reset the close time to around 6:30PM in the deep winter months. Our routine doesn't vary much...

Week days: We're up and out of the house by 6:30AM, though our roo is usually well into crowing by then. While the coop may not be open yet, we check to make sure they've got enough food and water for the day. They're then typically on their own in run/coop until 5PM.

In the evening, we check for eggs whenever whichever of us gets home first and check the food/water and top off/change as needed. If the weather is decent, we usually let them out to free range until dark. They put themselves away and the coop closes up on its own, so once we're sure they're in, we'll pop a head in the run to make sure all is well and then lock the run up.

Weekends: If we're home, they get most of daylight outside roaming the yard. We check for eggs periodically throughout the day (they all lay at different times every day and the eggs will keep fine for several days in the nest boxes). On Sunday we usually clean the coop bedding out, scrub the floor and roosts with a bleach solution, dry it out, and put fresh bedding back (takes all of 10-15 minutes). Food and water is checked once/day and topped off/changed as needed.

Easy peasy and we've been keeping them that way for two years this month.

 

[Deb B]

My routine for 4 hens and a roo (who was supposed to be a hen!).

In the morning (6:30 if a work day, as late as 8:00 on the weekends): Take out food and fresh water to the coop. Open door between coop and run. Give them yesterday's scraps as a treat. 5 minutes.
Afternoon (4:30 if a work day, earlier on weekends): Let them out to free range. Collect eggs. Clean off droppings board. They put themselves back to roost shortly before it gets dark. 5 minutes.
Evening (at dusk, so it depends on the time of year): Head count of roosting birds. Check again for eggs (mine sometimes lay pretty late in the day). Close up coop and run, bring in food from run. Set up food and water for the next morning. 5 to 7 minutes.

I keep fresh food and water in the coop at all times. In the run, I bring in the food at night because we ended up feeding a opossum family that was tearing up the chicken wire to get into the run for food. (Make or get a run with hardware cloth and you won't have that problem.) So far the coop has been impenetrable for predators. I have extra feeders and waterers, so that I can fill them up the night before and leave them ready for the next day, making early morning chores on workdays faster and easier.

Every few days I stir up the shavings in the coop and clean out any wet or soiled bedding. I add straw to nest boxes and shaving if needed. This takes about 5 minutes. I completely clean out the coop once a month. This takes about 15 minutes.

All in all, I think it's about as much work as having a dog that gets walked daily. But a dog doesn't make breakfast for you!

Recently I added some chics to the mix, so now things take a bit longer. But once the cockerels are identified and culled, and the pullets integrated with the rest of the flock, things should get back to normal.

 

[DLV58]

Hi, I have 7 pullets not laying yet.

I open the coop door at 6:30am on weekdays and 8:00am on weekends
Fill up a 1 gallon waterer and 2 small feeders.

In the evening I feed treats and give attention to the girls, they luv to be petted and some held.
I clean out the coop which I use only PDZ in, I made a cleaning scoop out of a 1/2 gal milk jug (drill holes)
I also use it to clean the covered run which is dirt.
Cleaning takes about 15 min.
At 9:00pm I close the coop door and that's it.

 

[Mrs. K]

With your first experience, your wife a little unsure, and a small child - don't have a rooster for a couple of years.

Mine get fed, and watered when I get down there. It does not have to be the same time each day. If I leave the run open in the morning, I have to lock it up at dark. I generally get the eggs then.

It is a great help that I have a totally enclosed over the top run, and the coop is inside that. So while I lock the run up, the hens can go in the coup and out of the coup when they want. So I am not in a hurry to get down there, it is ok.

Eggs will freeze in very cold weather, but only people in the US keep their eggs in the fridge. Most other countries keep their eggs on the counter. So if you leave them down in the coup for a while it is no big thing.

With the proper set up, keeping chickens is easy.

Mrs K

 

[HouseMouseHens]

We have a fairly small flock. 8 hens of all different breeds, as well as a breeding trio of Ancona Ducks (two ducks and a drake, though we will be adding one more duck here soon). This is our routine:

Morning (whenever I wake up): Open hen house door, open duck house door. Put three to four scoops of feed in the feeder bins(ducks and chickens share two bins in the shared yard.) Check water fountains, fill if needed. Check swimming pool for the ducks, if dirty, I empty and refill it( this would not be something you do, chickens don't require swimming water). I always take out a handful or two of scratch grains and sprinkle them about the yard as well. My girls love me for this. Total time not including dealing with the duck pool: 5-10 minutes, though I often hang out with them for a while and love on them a bit.

Mid-day(if home): Check for eggs, say hello to the girls. If it's SUPER hot that day I'll check the temp of the swimming water (just to see if its cool, if hot, then I add cold water to it.) Total time: not even five minutes unless I spend time loving on the girls.

Dusk(or whenever I get to it, since I live in the city and there are not many predators here so I don't worry too much): shut and lock the hen house(chickens put themselves away). If the ducks are already in I lock the duck house, though I often have to herd them in. If there is food left I pull up the feeders so they don't attract rats. There is usually food left. Total Time: 5 minutes.

Non-Daily Chores:
Once I week I stir around bedding in both houses, and take out wet spots. I also add straw to the nest boxes. This takes maybe 10 minutes.
Once a month I do a total clean of the feeders and waterers, as well as the swimming pool for the ducks.
Once every six months I clean out both houses and put totally new bedding in.
Every now and then I make sure the wings are all clipped.

I have a three year old daughter, and like previous response said, she LOVES the hens and ducks, and is a huge help. While a one and a half year old won't be a big help, it wont be hard for your wife to help with daily things, I don't spend more than 20 minutes doing stuff for the chickens each day. On cooler days when the water doesn't evaporate super fast, all I do is let them in and out and give them a few scoops of food. so five minutes.