hello i am jassim i have 5 small chicks (aged above 1 week) and 2 teenage chickens and i have some questions

1. Matt how many chickens you have? is it only 3? if yes why you only have 3?

2. What should i feed my 5 1 week+ chickens and my 2 teenage chickens, i want cheap but good food to feed i have money but cheap is always good

3. What should i do if my chickens doesn't wants to sit on the egg and the chicken lay eggs anywhere not inside the coop (so if my chickens grew i would know what to do)

4. How to tell the age of a chicken

5. How can i make my chickens/Chicks not affraid of me (your chickens loves you)

6. How can i teach my chicks to go in the coop in the night and go out in the morning

7. Why do you trim/clip chicken wings?

8. What should i do to keep my chics away from heat?

7. Where did number question number 8 go? u just checked -_-

10. How can i prevent my free range chickens from predetors? (dogs and cats)

Hi Jassim and welcome to Home Farm Ideas.

I don't have all the answers but I can try to answer some of your questions.

We have 5 chickens and have only had them since last September.
We fed the chicks crumbles until they were about 10 weeks old. The package said to feed until they are 16 weeks old but they were running around and eating everything out in the yard by that time. We kept them in the coop with a heat lamp until they seemed big enough to wander around.

We held our chickens every day and they still like it when I go outside and sit down and call them. They come running and sometimes they let me pet them other times they just want to come see if I have food for them. lol

The first couple nights out in the chicken yard we had to help the chickens go inside at night so we could close them off from predators. But now they put themselves to bed like they know it is best for them.

Some people clip a chickens wing to keep them from flying. So far ours are not interested in flying. You only clip one wing (feathers) so that it makes them off balance.

Our chickens also just naturally started laying eggs in the nest box. We had one girl that would lay them around the yard at first but she now lays in the nest box also. Not all chickens get broody.(sit on the eggs.) But when they do it is nearly impossible to get them out of the nest box. We have one now that is broody but we haven't got a rooster so we just have to dig under her and get the eggs out each day. I was told she will be broody for about 21 days. But she is not laying her own eggs at this time she is just trying to brood the other chicken eggs. LOL

We have not had problems with predators. We have neighbor cats that love to sit in our yard but none of them have bothered our chickens. And so far our chickens have just ignored the cats too.

Hi Jassim! As Panda said, welcome to Home Farm Ideas!

I will also try to answer all your questions as best I can but I am more of an organic gardener:)

1. I have three chickens. I only have three because I thought they would produce enough eggs from my household. I am also not a mean husband and so I must gradually convince my sweetheart to get more:)

2. As Panda said, you need to feed the younger ones crumble until they are about 10 weeks old. Like you've always heard "you are what you eat" so the same is true for your chickens. Cheap in, cheap out... Just something to keep in mind:)

Panda just finished writing an article on our website for growing FODDER! That will reduce the cost of feed and give your chickens and very high-quality food for cheaper!

Check out the article HERE!


3. When your chickens first start laying eggs they will put them in random places but over time they start to lay eggs in the nesting boxes. You can always put a fake egg and the nesting boxes to show the chickens this is where the eggs go.

4. Not really sure how to tell the age of every type of chicken because there are so many different ones and generally it is hard to tell. If you have questions like that always feel free to post photos and then we can give you our best guess based on Photos:)

5. When they are very little you need to handle them a lot so that they think you're their mama:) Once they get older they don't want to be handled as much but they still trust you because you handled them when they were little.

6. Panda hit that one on the head. When the sun goes down they will look for a place to roost. What I did was I took them out and put them in the coop and left them inside the coop for three days. The day I finally started opening the coop and letting them out they all recognized that was their home and went right back at night. There was no issue to be had for me:)

7. I trimmed their wings because I had two chickens in the past that were so curious and couldn't stop themselves from flying over the wall where two dogs killed my chickens. Like Panda said you can trim one side and that works very well. I personally trim both sides because it reduces their lift and they still have balance. I know some people would disagree with me on trimming both sides but experience with these chickens has taught me it works for my setting anyways:)

8. Not sure what you mean by "keeping your chickens away from heat"? I'm assuming you mean keeping them from overheating? Just make sure they are hydrated and come out and missed them with water. You can also put ice cubes and they're drinking apparatuses:)

9. At first you're going to need to shepard (watch over) your chickens till they are fully grown. When they're fully grown normally cats will not be an issue because your chickens will chase the cats down. The best way to defend against dogs is to have another dog that will protect your chickens. The only thing you can really do to protect them is to have them in a rather large fenced area and make sure you're watching over them. If their area is open to predators coming in, the predators will come.

I hope that helps and God bless you:)

Matt

hey guy's im new here and i have a question i got a rooster that i raised myself and whe whant to ad hens in a few day 's but i read in a book that if your rooster is in your pen first he wil fight with your hens is this right im a little scared my rooster wil kill my chicks

Maybe start a new topic Chakory? I did get back to you on the other topic you posted this same question in:)