Kristopher’s Pet Blog

Whilst always keeping chooks should be a wonderful activity for the household, and whilst I personally consider that chickens make wonderful pets, there are some disadvantages to keeping chickens as well as positives.

Lets take into consideration the positives first. Not surprisingly the largest plus to always keeping chooks has to be all those delectable roam around eggs just laying there waiting around that you simply pick up every morning or evening. There’s nothing like cooking your own wholesome, and appetizing free range eggs that have been laid on that day simply for you. No chickens needed to put up with living in a little crate to lay them for you, so you may feel good about getting a refrigerator crammed full of healthy food.

Secondly chooks make excellent domestic pets despite the fact that they’re birds. Children just adore them. Ours will happily pick them up and may carry them around for hours. It is rather a pleasure always keeping chooks, and if you permit them to free range all around your back garden it is fulfilling watching all of them out your kitchen windows as you make an evening meal.

In addition, if you permit them to free range at home they will clean up a whole host of bugs which, if left on their own, could possibly eat your garden. It is our chooks that helped save our backyard from two summers of grasshopper plague. You should see how many grasshoppers one chook can eat daily.

Moreover it’s fairly easy, unlike for most domestic pets, to provide for your hens so that you do not need to make arrangements for them each time you go on trips. As I have huge automatic storage containers for feeding and watering we are able to go on holidays leaving behind the chooks to their own devices and have never ever lost a single yet, whilst on holidays.

Now to the disadvantages. Like all pets hens can easily get ill and die. We have had instances when the children have discovered a deceased chook in the chook coop, and this is upsetting for them. While this obviously is applicable to all pets it is more prevalent when you keep your own hens. This of course is because you tend to have quite a number of chooks, whereas a lot of people will have one or at most two dogs or cats. In our case with fifteen hens it is more frequent. And of course chooks have a shorter lifespan than some pets such as puppies or cats.

Second of all despite the fact that chickens will pick up quite a few of the nasty bugs around your back garden they do so by scratching, and this can potentially scratch up the dirt of your yard beds. They will also peck at your vegetables and fruits if you grow your very own and they particularly love pecking tomatoes. You will need to protect your fruit and vegetables or some area of your garden.

And, like for many other pets, there can be some work required, including regular cleaning up of the chook house. Chickens poo everywhere and the coop, as well as feeding and water containers, must be cleaned. You must also learn more about pest avoidance as hens can easily be susceptible to such challenges as mites.

Fourthly while getting fresh new free range eggs is wonderful it doesn’t happen on a regular basis. Chooks can go off the lay during the chilly winter months, and more aged chooks lay less eggs than young ones. Because of this there might be times when you are having to pay for chicken feed but still purchasing eggs.

I think nevertheless that the advantages of keeping chickens far exceeds the negatives. They are one of the few family pets that are productive in addition to just being a pet, and for anybody thinking about managing chooks as pets my reply is always to go for it. Not many people have regretted getting hen chickenschooks.

Don’t forget to visit my website about chicken house to find out more about how to choose the best chook shed for keeping your chooks.

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