Preparing for your chickens

A walk in chicken house should always have a inside latch. We don't no little peeps going out the door.

Totes with locking lids are great for storing food. And a feed scoop or too.


Make sure there is no holes around the bottom of the house if so cover with packed dirt or boards to keep out squirrels and other creatures.


The following is how we made our feeders and water containers. This idea is better than the feeders you can buy which have no lids. Chickens like land on the top and poop inside.

Makes sure the nest boxes have a slant to them. The chickens will not roost on them.

 

Keep a golf ball inside the nests to bribe them into laying eggs. If a chicken is cracking eggs the golf balls will teach it to stop. 

Sometimes you might have a hen that likes to set on a nest without any eggs under her.

You will have to remove her from the nest. She will get the point eventually. 

Some chickens will set on the nest with eggs and a golf ball. Our bantam hens done this.

Covering your pen with bird netting or 1" chicken wire is best. Chickens do fly. But, this keeps predictors away.

Fence the pen with 1" chicken wire. 2"  will allow the little peeps to wriggle out. 

Place 1x1's in the corners of the pen. Roosters love to crow from these. 

Chickens love grass so in no time the grass inside there pen will be gone. 

They love to eat grass clippings too. So after you mow the lawn throw some 

in their pen.