someone: haha my chickens are so spoiled, they get a heated coop!
me: haha mine too i built him 3 different nests and rubbed his feet while i sang to him as he fell asleep
other things people call “spoiling”:
• giving their chickens affection
• naming their chickens
• fan in the coop for hot days
• puzzle feeders during winter
• treating illness or injury
• taking them to the vet
actual ways to spoil chickens:
• baking them a daily batch of healthy and tasty bird bread instead of weekly
• buying the more expensive variety pack of dried bugs instead of just mealworms
• your house is their house
• TV in the coop
• favorite perches engraved with the chickens’ names
• taking your entire flock to see a movie at the theater
• imp colorful, iridescent feathers on your white rooster so he appears more attractive to the hens
• gold plated nest boxes lined with the finest alpaca fiber and hay
• a full-ride to their university of choice
this actually brings up an interesting point, jokes aside. As someone who keeps chickens as livestock, not pets, there are a lot of ways we only provide the bare minimum instead of actually caring for them like the valuable family members they are. Are there any things pet-chicken-blr can suggest to make my future hens more happy?
Happy, healthy livestock typically produce better (stressed hens will stop laying or lay really weird eggs, we see this a lot we ex-battery hens that were dumped for not laying every day, usually around 18 months old, and then when adopted and well cared for start laying again), so it has always been curious to me how some livestock are usually treated with so little care (it’s usually the cheap and quickly-reproducing livestock that are treated poorly).
Wee ramble done…some of these might seem like no-brainers, but a lot of folks don’t realize what commercial poultry are lacking:
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Access to real, direct sunlight (benefits include better absorption of calcium, stronger and more regular eggshells, better feather health which means more energy to put into eggs)
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Animal-based protein in their diet- offering mealworms, soldier-fly larva, crickets, and such is a great and relatively cheap way to do this
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Habitat control in the coop- at least a fan going with vents to move air and humidity, but adding a heater for when it is cold (frostbite should never be acceptable as inevitable for an animal), a well-insulated building, and screen-mesh windows to allow for air-flow and heat escape when it is hot.
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Clean water. Water allowed to set is likely to develop bacteria or become contaminated with gram-negative bacteria from rodents drinking from it.
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3 x 3 square foot inside per bird, they must be able to move and get away from one another as needed.
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Daily health checks, know the birds well enough to tell when one is sickly, assess weights, make note of who has and has not laid yet (production hens are at a high-risk of egg related health complications)
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Treat sick birds. Do not just let them die or stay untreated and get the other birds sick. Take them to the vet if it is not something you can handle on your own.
• A varied diet. Give them fresh foods such as leafy greens, non-citrus fruits, cooked pasta, rice, grains/seeds (make sure grit is available as well)
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Outdoor space. They need room to move, run, jump, and play in order to maintain both physical health and mental health.
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A clean living-space. Don’t make them live in a layer of their own feces, clean out the living space and give them fresh bedding as needed. As a bonus dump the waste material into a compost pile and you’ll have awesome soil/fertilizer to sell or use for your own garden.
• Somewhere to dust-bathe. Dust-baths are needed for chickens to maintain feather and skin health, and promotes healthy social behavior.
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Don’t allow dogs or cats to harass and/or kill your birds. Needless to say it’s extremely stressful to the birds who survive and cruel to those that don’t.
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Scatter-feed special treats. Chicken-scratch (a mixture of seeds and grains) tossed around the ground for the hens to forage and find is great for mental stimulation, plus helps keep their beaks at a healthy length.
There is a lot more I could add, but these came to mind first. My birds are pets and show-birds (hopefully!) but that doesn’t mean good husbandry should be limited to just them. A last addition would be to learn and share what you learn and observe. Try to appreciate chickens as something other than an object. Read recent studies on them and their needs, you’ll learn a lot of really cool things that will help you understand them better, which will help you to care for them better.
Amazing advice, thank you so much!
This applies to quail, as well. Domesticated quail are harder to let outdoors without them escaping, getting sick, or being eaten, but they should at least have room to move around and things to jump on and peck at.
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