Keeping Chickens - Feeding and Maintenance

This blog is the second part of my chicken series and focuses on what to do with your chickens when you bring them home and they are safely in your coop.

It's not very complicated though - in short make sure they have food and water and clean the coop regularly.

But I do have some tips to minimise the workload and fit them into your busy life without them becoming a burden.

These days I usually buy chickens that are almost ready to lay so they are already 18 weeks old however I have in the past bought day old chicks like these cute little ones below.

These take quite a bit more looking after as they need special food which is finer for them to eat as well as a supplementary heat source. A few years back I was breeding quails for a while so I already had the required equipment. I may do it again depending on if my daughters convince me to do so but its not really an economical decision.


So assuming you are buying point of lay chickens then the first thing you should have ready even before you bring the chickens home is a good water dispenser and feeder. Get bigger ones so you don't have to refill them as often.

I have an 11 L water container for 6 chickens which over winter I only need to refill about once a week and in summer every 3-4 days. If we do get some of those 40+ days then I might change it every morning so its cooler and fresh for the day for them. And any remaining water gets tipped into the nearby veggie patch - be water wise!

A big feeder like pictured below also makes regular feeding easy. The one I have probably holds about 8kg of food and will easily last a week, depending on how much kitchen scraps they get.

You will note that the feeder is strung up quite high. Sometimes the chickens for whatever reason will throw a lot of the food around which ends up with a lot of wastage on the floor. They will scratch around for it to some extent but a lot gets wasted. To minimise that I raise the feeder to the point they need to stretch for it so they don't have the luxury of sitting around flicking food out.

I give them equal parts layer pellets, corn and wheat with some shell grit mixed in. I keep it all in a big black plastic garbage bin so it prevents the vermin getting in. The corn helps make the yolk nice and golden and the shell grit provides them with calcium to make sure the egg shells don't crack to easily.

Chickens love all your kitchen scraps and they eat pretty much everything (with the exception of leftover meats which go to the dog). With three daughters at home there are always leftovers on their plates so some comfort is taken that the food is not wasted by going into the bin.

Also the chickens will usually eat most off cuts from the veggie garden but you will quickly learn what they like and don't like. If they don't like it they won't eat it and you'll be stuck cleaning it up next time you clean out the coop. If you have any specific queries drop me a comment below, chances are I've tried to feed it to them already.

Give them a balanced diet and you can look forward to golden egg yolks like these beauties.

The other important thing to keeping happy chickens is keeping the coop clean and a bed of straw goes a long way in making clean up much easier.

As I mentioned in the building of the coop blog, having a floor of some kind makes things much easier as a shovel can scrape up the old bedding of straw and easily replaced.
If you have a big block then dig a big hole in a garden area and dump everything in that. Cover it up and leave for a couple months to give it time to break down.

I normally just dump most of this straight into the green recycling bin as I don't have the need for all that compost.
With my smaller block I just have some garden beds so I tend to just keep the cleaner manure (which for me collects under their roost). I usually put mine in a bucket with a bed of straw at the bottom to let dry out a bit before I add it to a sack.

This stuff is pure gold for the garden but be sure to give it time to break down. It's quite high in nitrogen and can burn the roots of your vegetables if you're not careful so best to add to the garden at least a month before you plan on planting anything in it.

The chickens love scratching around in the straw and will spread it out themselves so no need to be to careful about spreading it everywhere. Just make sure there is plenty in their laying box so there is a nice soft cushion for the eggs.

So with some clever thought and planning you can easily keep chickens without it interrupting your busy lifestyle. You will have a constant supply of the best eggs you will ever get.

Just remember - a happy chicken is a productive chicken so look after them and they will look after you.

Not Your Average Joe