Mag Carrier
The Secret In Raising Chickens: Understanding What to Look For
Finding the best hens and sourcing them can be difficult . But taking them from chicken breeders, local keepers and farms are good beginning points. There’s more than meets the eye, though. As a beginner you ought to know what factors to look for when choosing a hen. Some, if not all, of your questions can be answered by asking your local breeder or keeper.
Selection Factor 1: Finding the Best Provider
Try going over local trading papers or books that more often feature livestock and pet sections. You'll refer to Google and focus on the specified topics and subjects. Flick through the pages to determine if there any hens that are on sale. Dilate your search thru local papers running advertisements listing hens for sale.
Other helpful tips:
- Try asking neighbours and pals if they know any of their friends and acquaintances who keep hens.
- Go to the Web and see if there are chicken breeders near your locality you could go to for a visit.
- Consider a visit to the Battery Hen Welfare Trust (BHWT) web site to find out if there are available rescue hens that need a new home.
Selection Factor 2: The Chicken Sort of Choice
Do you not think that with the various breeds of hens available, you need to ask yourself what to select ? First, you need to decide and decide what is it particularly that you need out of your chickens”fresh eggs on a daily run, a pet for your leisure or entertainment for your chums, or for beef . Different breeds, as was the wisdom of seasoned breeders say, are “ideal for certain things.” Here are one or two tips:
Strains of Good Layers
Towards meeting your desire for hens that produce a good supply of eggs, the ones that are publicized as POL or point of lay is a sensible choice because they're typically 18-22-week-old birds. The perfect breeds include:
- Warrens, which lay between 250 to 300 eggs yearly
- Rhode Island Reds (200 eggs yearly )
- Black Rocks (250 eggs yearly )
- Marans (200 eggs yearly )
- Bluebelles (200 eggs yearly )
- Orpingtons (200 eggs annually )
Good Table Chickens
If you are looking for chickens that are great for eating, table birds fit the bill . The best breeds meeting these wants are:
- Sussex
- Wyandotte
- Dorking
- Plymouth Rock
Pet or Show Birds
Many chicken breeds, in most parts of the Earth, are understood to be docile, beautiful, or bizarre (rare ) in appearance. Breeder manuals and magazine mention the bantam variety as the most ideal chicken that fits the criteria . Bantams serve as the miniature version of the preferred massive breeds and are presumed appropriate in locations where there is less room for nest boxes. The popular pet or show breeds include:
- Araucana, which lays blue eggs known for their beauty
- Cochin
- Dutch Bantam
- Pekin
- Sebrights
- Silkies
Selection Factor 3: Vaccination-certified Hens
It's your responsibility as owner-entrepreneur to be certain that the hens you get from your provider have had been vaccinated against common fowl sicknesses like Mareks, Newcastle, contagious laryngotracheitis, fowl pox, and mycoplasmosis, among others . Checking out evidence in a vaccination certificate stands consistent to your own interest.
Also, keep a watchful eye on tell tale indications of physical weak points . Find out by closer observation if the hens are alert and bright-eyed. The healthy ones stand with tails up, have had clean bottoms, and show no discharge from their noses and beaks. Moreover, check the legs and feet, and make sure that the hens had smooth scales and powerful legs.
Selection Factor 4: Final Preparation Checks
You need to make sure that your prepared facilities duly matched the sort of hens and the purpose for which you are raising them. Run the check list one by one to make sure that not an item is left out.
Before leaving your home to gather your hens, make sure that the coop is prepared . Make sure that the feeders and drinkers had been filled out and full.
Think beforehand about the type of carrier you're going to use. If a special pet carrier isn't available, a card box is enough . However , do make sure that there is enough breathing holes already in place and the box bottom has been duly buttressed . See to it that the box is neither too large for the hens to have so much space to move about during the trip or too small that they are too crowded in or cramped beyond standard comfort.
Selection factor 5: Choosing a chicken coop.
You need to make sure you choose a good chicken coop for your chickens. Even if you get everything else right your chickens won’t be happy if they have a damp or cold or draughty house. Find out more about chicken coops on my website.
Peter has a website all about Chicken Houses where you can get more advice about chicken nesting boxes to keep your chooks healthy and happy and laying eggs
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