If you are considering raising chickens, you might ask, are chickens low maintenance? The answer is surprising, and not what you think. In fact, with patience and practice, you will discover that not only are chickens easy to raise, but they are a pleasure to watch as they mature.
Are chickens low maintenance? Chickens require some effort. Albeit the time they require is minimum, you must spend at least 10 to 15 minutes a day tending to your flock’s needs. If you are incapable of devoting that amount of time every day, raising chickens might not be for you.
This article will go over how easy it is to take care of chickens and to prove whether or not if chickens are low maintenance. You’ll discover our tips and tricks for simplifying your daily routine.
The Basics of Raising Chickens
There are only a couple of things you need to do and provide for your chickens.
- Make sure they have a safe place to coop, and escape from predators.
- Provide them with the proper amount of nutrition.
- Ensure they have enough space to be chickens. Over crowding is bad for the health of your flock.
As long as you keep those three things in mind, you should be successful in raising chickens and discover that chickens aren’t hard to raise, and you’ll find that chickens are indeed low maintenance once
Low Maintenance Chicken Breeds
You’ll discover that different breeds of chickens come with different personalities and requirements.
When picking your first breed of chicken to raise I would go with one from the list I have for you below.
- Easter Eggers
- Rhode Islands
- Brown Leghorns
- Plymouth Rocks
- Nankins (small breed/rare/endangered)
These chickens have been the least amount of effort to raise and a great way to get your feet wet when it comes to starting your flock.
How Many Chickens Do You Need
When it comes to keeping your experience with raising chickens low maintenance, the amount of chickens you have is going to play a big role.
The fewer amount of chickens that you have, the less time it’s going to take to tend to their needs.
You need to look at your goals with why you are raising chickens, is it for pleasure, eggs, or meat?
Also, how big is your family that will be partaking in what the chickens produce? The bigger your family the more consumption will take place.
Depending on your goals and numbers will determine how many chickens you are going to need.
It’s best if you are a beginner to start off with about three chickens to see if you can manage it. I promise over time your flock will expand if you enjoy it. It always does!
Raising from Chicks
If you have ever visited a local farming store chances are you have seen baby chickens scratching and pecking in their containers. Aren’t they adorable!
Raising chicks to adults is a much more time consuming approach. Chicks need the most attention out of any of your birds.
The amount of attention your chicks will require in a day does depend on your setup. If you have a decent waterer and feeder, you can reduce your visits, but still need to do occasional wellness checks.
The sad reality is also that not all chicks will make it to adulthood, things happen. Chicks get sick.
If you are up for the challenge and the little bit of extra time it takes to raise a chick to adult bird go for it. If not, I would suggest finding older hens and a rooster to get you your flock tarted.
If you don’t want to expand your flock more having all hens is okay, you’ll get the benefits of eggs without the worries that come along with having a rooster.
How to Keep Your Chickens Safe
You have a choice, we all have a choice, when it comes to what we can do to keep our chickens safe and stress-free.
How to keep your chickens safe? Keeping your chickens safe should be a top priority. To keep your chickens safe, you need to ensure they have a proper place to escape from the elements and predators. Having a chicken coop with fencing that surrounds it is a good start.
You can also consider guardian animals to watch over the flock.
Feeding Your Chickens
An essential task is making sure you are meeting your chicken’s nutrition goals every day. Meeting your chicken’s dietary needs is a rather simple step and will take time to learn how much to feed your chickens so you can ensure they are getting enough to eat, and you are cutting down on waste.
What do you feed your chickens? Depending on your goals, and your chicken’s age will determine what you feed your chickens. Your chickens must be getting the proper amount of protein and vitamins in their diets. Malnutrition can cause problems, including a lack of eggs and fertility in the future.
We have written an extensive guide on feeding your chickens based upon many common goals; you can check out that article using the link below. It’ll help you get on the right track.
You can speed up your daily process by adding a few cheap and simple things to your setup. We will go over briefly what they are, but we are going to be talking much more detailed about this issue in an up and coming article.
Adding a chicken waterer is a great way to ensure your chickens have fresh water. This will save you time as you might not have to add water to it every day.
Investing in a sturdy hanging chicken gravity feeder is also a smart thing to do as it will also help you save time and money from reducing waste.
How Much Room Do Chickens Need
Another thing to consider before you decide to raise chickens is making sure you have enough space for your birds.
| Chicken Size | Coop Space Requirement | Outside Pen Space Requirement |
|---|---|---|
| Standard Chicken Size | 2 square feet per chicken | 8 to 10 square feet per chicken |
| Bantam Chickens | 1 square foot per chicken | 4 square feet per chicken |
Tip: The general unwritten rule of space requirements is to have at least 2 square feet of space in the coop, and at least 8 to 10 feet of space in the run. The smaller the bird, the less space you have to provide, but the more space you give your chickens to forage, the better.
Not having enough space for your flock could lead to stress, disease, pecking, cannibalism, and even death.
In Summary
Raising chickens isn’t that hard, you’ll find out that in time raising chickens is low maintenance once you get the hang of it.
When you are first starting out, keep your flock small, smaller flocks means less time to maintain them.
A few things you can purchase to help speed up your process would be.
- Gravity Feeders
- Chicken Waterer
- Automatic Lock on Chicken Coop Doors
The only thing I want to ask is to please not purchase them if you don’t have enough time to devote to your chickens each day. While the effort is minimum to raise chickens, going days without tending to your flock could be devastating.
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