Pets: Chickens Make Great Pets

If chickens are able to roam freely, they can find a great deal of food for themselves. In the summertime, pet chickens will be able to get about 2 thirds of their feed from their environment but this will drop to about 1 third over the winter months.

If chickens are confined to a pet chicken coop, run, pen or small area then this will drop dramatically and it may be that they get virtually none of their feed requirement from the ground. You need to use reasonable judgement when considering how big an area they have available in which to forage and whether this reduces the need for supplementary feeding.

You can buy proprietary feed mixes for poultry to feed your pets. Chickens seem to prefer the bags of mixed corn to the pellets but pellets have a more balanced range of nutrients and so should not be over looked.

Recipes for home made chicken feed as well as what to grow for feeding pet chickens is given on my Chickens For Pets page. We prefer to mix our own rather than buying pre formed pellets and we also grow various plants that they love for both winter and summer.

Chickens are not demanding pets although they appreciate routine. More detail can be found again on my Chickens For Pets page but in brief, before committing to owning chickens make sure you are able to....

Keep your pet chickens safe from predators, especially at night.

Let them out in the morning and put them to bed at night.

Give them fresh ground to live on by moving their house regularly or allowing them to free range.

Feed them and provide fresh clean water at all times.

Provide adequate housing so as to avoid over crowding.

You may choose to build your own or buy one ready made.

If you fancy trying your hand at building then here you'll find all the information and details of exactly what to include in your pet chicken coop design here.

Even if you intend to buy a chicken coop plan to work from make sure to read these reviews of DIY chicken coop plans first so you know what's in the plans and which are best.

If you intend to buy a pet chicken coop but are not sure which to go for then read this Pet Chicken Coop page for full details of what to look for and how big they need to be.

In brief, any pet chicken coop should include as a minimum:

Sufficient room for natural behaviour

A dry draught free place to sleep

A dark area for nesting

Somewhere to keep food dry

Be easy to clean

Be mobile - unless your hens free range.

This site has already done much of the hard work in selecting the best coops.

They also lead you through the decision process to narrow it down further from their wide range but the final choice is of course yours!

When choosing your breed, you want to think of why you are keeping chickens, how much time you have to spend with them and what space you have to keep them in.

If you really want to read about all the different breeds and see their colours and feather patterns, it makes sense to buy a book. Its very hard to find all the different breeds to view online.

The books below have full color pictures of almost all the pure breeds that are kept today. Some are very rare and difficult to find but make all the more interesting pets. For example, the Frizzle shown here is one crazy looking chicken!

When breeding frizzles you need to keep certain none frizzled offspring to cross and manage the breeding stock carefully to ensure preservation of true to breed birds. So although these look fantastic, unless you're planning on becoming an enthusiast they may not be the choice for you!

Most well know breeds such as Rhode Island Reds make good pets. Chickens such as ex-battery hens make the most friendly pets you can imagine and I would thoroughly recommend them for families with young children.

On the other hand I would avoid the larger breeds such as Orpingtons if you have small children as they can be quite frightening simply due to their size. This photo is a beautiful but large Dark Brahma These are excellent dual purpose chickens.

Keeping chickens, growing vegetables, having pigs - just about everything is covered and there is also a blog diary of one family's efforts to be self sufficient on a smallholding.

It's a very useful and informative site with plenty of photos and easy to follow details.