How hard is to take care of.....

[danita]

Chickens, we are looking at purchasing some property and would love some chickens for fresh eggs mmm yum, but are they hard work? Do they require lots of looking after I intend for them to have a coop and big fenced yard around the coop so they can roam but our dogs can't get them.
What else will we need? Dolan they eat everything? And the thing I'm worried most about is will they peck me?
So anyone who has chickens hit me with what you know



Thanks

[Joeve]

There is a poultry keeping thread where lots of girls talk about keeping their chickens

[danita]

Oh cool thanks I didn't know I shall look for it

[RhiChiChi]

Yeah, pop into the poultry keeping thread but in a nutshell, fairly easy!

[~Kim~]

Agree. Check out the poultry thread. They're great for info.

But in answer to your question, no I don't think they're hard work. Mine have never pecked me or the kids, but they're a bit scared of the kids and I feed them lol. They're quite protective of DD2 when she's outside too.

[chody47]

We had chickens as kids. They were very easy to look after. The only time ours tried to peck us was when they were broody and wanted to sit on their eggs instead of letting us have them. We would just pull them off their nest by their tail feathers and take the eggs....

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

Definately check out the poultry thread - HERE
Caring for the chooks is quiet easy, it's setting up (nesting boxes etc etc) & dog / fox proofing that were the biggest things for us.
Our girls get our food scraps (no meat, no citrus and a few other things discussed in poultry threads - you might have to go through a few) and a seed mix, we have a water & feed hanger and we let them 'free range' almost every day for most of the day.
Our girls love them and have never been pecked, the chickens greet us at the gate & follow the girls into the shed, we pick them up and handle them and don't have any issues.