The Chaos Of Raising Chickens
As much as we missed having chickens since moving home from Florida I have to say I forgot how many choices these feathered floors can cause. Chaos that fits perfectly in our home with children and other pets running around all over.
When people talk about getting chickens they talk about things like what you need to get started raising chicks, the benefits of having chickens, and the best breeds of chickens, and lately there is a lot of talks about what to feed your chickens, but not many people talk about the crazy things that happen when you have them.
The chaos of rasing chickens
These are just a few examples of just how crazy raising chickens can be along with the unexpected rewards of doing so. Want to learn more about raising chickens? Check out Chicken Keeping Answers for a good read.
They poop everywhere
Whether you’re holding a baby chick and they poop in your hand, or in my daughter’s case half a dozen poop in your hand at once or you just let them free range your going to deal with poop and a lot of it.
If you choose to free range your chickens you will find that they will poop on any surface they can get onto. This is normal for birds but chickens have a tendency to get all the spaces you really don’t want them to. A nice strong sprayer for your hose can make life easier when it comes to clean up.
Chickens in the house is totally normal
Wheather your chickens are young and in the house in the brooder while it is cold outside or your chickens are free ranging with your door open you can be shocked with how often you will have chickens running around your home.
The amount of times I have had to yell no chickens are aloud in the kitchen is astonishing. Just the other day I was letting the brooder batcch that is too young to go out to the coop out the front door to the fenced in yard they play in when my dog got excited they where coming out to play and ran into the house sending the birds that where at the door scrambling.
We had young chickens flying and running in all directions through the house. I had to yell for the children to come down and help me gather them all up and get them outside to play.
They will eat just about anything
Chickens love to eat and eat and eat. If you have free ranging chickens and toddlers running around you quickly discover that they will eat just about anything and that includes flying up and snatching a banana out of your childs hand.
They love when you clean out your refrigerator and will halpply eat all of the scraps you toss out that your other animals do not care for. They are more than happy to flock to your trash cans to look for any bugs they make have attracted, and if you set up a bug zapper they will come running to it when you let them out in the morning to look for some tasty treats that may have piled up over night.
They are both good and bad for your garden
Your chickens can kill your garden if left unattended in it for too long. They love vegitables. Ta the same time their poo actss as a great fertilizer and they will happily eat all of the bugs that you do not want in your garden (and some of the ones you do.)
They will laugh at you
If you have chickens you are going to need a thick skin to go along with them. Chickens laugh and they love to laugh at yoru miss portions. If you trip in front of them, get frustrated, or just do something they think looks funny, they will laugh at you.
I for one find the laugh helarious but little kids tend to get quite upset when they miss step and theire pet chicken starts laughing at them.
They get into trouble
Oru chickens get along very well with out kids including the three year old who will regularly carry chickens around the yard and even in the house. These chickens having grown up with the little ones know that the young kids will help them get into all kinds of trouble when your not looking.
It’s not uncommon to find an entire bucket of scratch bumped out beacuse those chickens convinced the toddler to give it to them. They will nap in the food bucket, and send shavings just about everywhere.
Chickens smell bad and they are dusty
When we are rasing chickens inside no maket how often we clean that brooder the sheer amount they poop means that the chickens smell terrible and the smell can drive me crazy. The pine shavings don’t make it easier.
When they move out to the coop we give the house a very good spring cleaning. That said it’s not uncommon to find shavings in weird places for months after they move outside.
Everything eats chicken
If it eats meat it will eat your chickens. Whiel the cats here will leave the older chickens alone they make a game out of trying to snatch tiny chicks out of the brooder. Wth neighbors huskey tries offly hard to get in our fence when he gets out, and don’t get me started on thign like racoons that we have fortified our coop to protect the chickens from at night.
You are the vet
In most areas you will not find a vet that will handle poultry and no matter how well you care for yoru chickens you will eventually have issues with them. When this happens you are the one that is in charge of fixing the issue or doing the human thing if it is not something you can fix. This can be a bit scary until you become comfortable with carign for them.
What are your favorite chicken chaos stories? I belive that whiel there are pros and cons to raising chickens the benefits of kids growing up with these gental dinaosours are endless.
