10 Tips for Raising Happy and Healthy Chickens

10 tips for raising happy and healthy chickens

In this post I’ll discuss 10 things that you should consider before you start raising chickens. These 10 tips will help you raise happy and healthy chickens that will continue to produce eggs for years to come. If you have any further questions be sure to leave comments below, and be sure watch the video that complements this post HERE on YouTube .

Note* This post is specifically targeted to egg laying hens, not roosters or broilers.

1. the chicken coop

The Chicken Coop
Probably the most important thing to have for your chickens, a home! This structure keeps them safe at night, provides relief from the weather and a great place for them to lay their eggs everyday.
To provide the best home for your chickens you need to consider the size, structure, and airflow. I’ll also be discussing some other characteristics in the tips below that require even more detail.

Size
If you have the room and the means, make it as big as you can and provide at least 2sqft per bird. Our coop for example has 36sqft of floor space which is plenty of room for 18 birds or less. We have 10 adults and 2 chicks and they have plenty of space to huddle up or spread out as they see fit.

Structure
Make sure your coop is attached to, or has access to the outdoors. Chickens are naturally free ranging animals and need plenty of space to roam and graze. More on this when we discuss chicken runs. Another thing that I would recommend doing is building the coop off of the ground. This provides a few benefits for you and your chickens. It keeps your girls safe from predators that will try to dig themselves in, it provides cover for the chickens to go under to get out of the sun or the weather, and it gives you easier access into the coop for cleaning and harvesting the eggs.

Air Flow
Ventilation is extremely important for chicken coops. Chickens like most birds do most of their relief when they are roosting. This means there is going to be a large build up of manure inside the chicken coop. Chicken manure contains a high amount of ammonia and if this builds up too high in the coop it can cause severe respiratory problems and even death. Having an adequate amount of ventilation will ensure that these harmful chemicals stay in check. I would recommend having at least 1sqft of ventilation per bird and preferably high above their heads. Even in the cold of winter, the chickens need ventilation, so having the vents above their heads provides good air circulation while preventing drafts.

Building
If you have some basic building knowledge you should be able to build one pretty easily. The internet is an amazing place and you should be able to find some plans for a design that you like! I would HIGHLY recommend building your own as the ones you may find at Tractor Supply Company or other big box stores are going to be extremely overpriced for their value. Also, try Facebook Marketplace as I have seen plenty of people willing to build and sell chicken coops. It turns out that this community is filled with people that are just trying to help people do the best that they can. Make sure you have a coop BEFORE you buy your chickens of any age.

2. Roosts

Having the proper roosts ensure that your ladies have the safest and most comfortable place to sleep at night. Chickens need wider roosts than most common flying birds. I’m sure you have seen how small birds can settle on tree branches or wires but a chicken’s anatomy does not work the same way. Chickens rest on their feet and essentially their chest bones to provide themself a stable tripod to rest. Because of this, most breeds require larger surfaces. I have found great success with my flock using 2x4s mounted on their sides so that the 4” side is facing up. My flock has a mixture of medium to larger birds so you may need to experiment to find the perfect fit. The best way to do this is to offer different sized roosts and check on them for a few nights to see which ones they like the most. If their roosts are inadequate you will probably find them sleeping on the ground.

Another thing to consider is their height. Make sure they are high enough off the ground so they can easily walk underneath them, and this height is usually ample for them to jump onto and get off of without much trouble. Chickens will naturally establish a hierarchy or “pecking order” so I put all of my roosts at the same height to prevent fighting over the highest roost. If you do any research on roosts you will probably find that many people provide a ladder of roosts at different heights but I did not find this effective.

3. Run

Just like the chicken coop, you should strive to make this as big as you can, especially if you plan to keep your chickens in their run and not allow them to free range. This is okay, especially if you want to maintain some order in your yard but you need to give them at least 10sqft per bird of roaming space. For example, my flock of 12 would require at least 120sqft of run space or a 12ftx10ft enclosed area. If you are not going to allow your chickens to free range, figuring out what size run you can afford to have might determine how many chickens you will actually be able to keep, rather than the size of the coop.
With this, I would recommend having at least half of the run covered to provide protection from the elements, especially the heat. I have found that corrugated plastic that you can find at the big box stores works great.

For protection, my whole run is surrounded by chicken wire. This keeps your flock from escaping, yes they can jump over 6ft high when they are young, and it also prevents predators from getting in. Not only do you want protection on the “walls” and the “roof” but you want to provide protection on the ground. Many of the chickens predators have the ability to dig into the run. To prevent this, I use ¼” hardware cloth. When I originally built the run I laid it on the ground around the whole outside of the run, staked it in place and buried it with some soil and made some planter boxes over it. The hardware cloth comes off the run about 1-2 ft and this will prevent predators from coming up to the run and digging in. Most predators will come up directly to the run and try to dig so there is no reason to have a barrier that is more than a couple feet off of the run.

4. nesting boxes

Having an ample number, size, and location of the nesting boxes are necessary for happy laying. It is recommended that you have at least one box for every 3 birds. This is even more important for larger flocks as it will ensure there are enough boxes available at key laying times which is usually in the morning. For proper sizing, boxes that are 12” x 12” x 12” work great. They are big enough to fit a large bird and small enough for our small birds to feel safe. We have three sizes and most of our birds use the 12x12x12.

Location of the boxes inside the coop is also important. Ensure they are in a dark place away from entrances to reduce traffic during laying times, ladies like their privacy! With this, keeping the boxes off the ground and away from the roosts helps to further reduce traffic. Finally, be sure they have equal access to all boxes so you don’t have a pecking war for the best box.

5. nesting boxes

This is probably obvious, but it is also important to mention. Always supply fresh clean water. Water is probably one of the most important things for proper health as it is required for food digestion and body temp regulation. You can also add apple cider vinegar weekly to act as an antibacterial and antiviral, just be sure to clean the waterer out more often.

I’d recommend having a small water that you should ensure is filled daily and then have a larger option as backup. The best way to have an adequate supply of fresh drinking water is to set up a rain barrel. Turns out chickens prefer natural rain water over “city” water and you can pipe the rain barrel for a supply that is always available. You can buy poultry nipples and attach them directly to the rain barrel or attach them to PVC to create a drinking station. We have three rain barrels on our property and they work very well. Checkout or system below! A rain barrel DIY instruction is something I want to create in the near future.

6. feeder

Investing in, or building a good feeder will save you a lot of time and hassle. It will ensure your ladies have a consistent supply of food and prevent unwanted pests from invading as well. Depending on the size of your flock and how often you are buying food will likely determine the size feeder you will want to have. For example, I buy on average 2, 50lb bags of feed a month to feed 12 chickens. My feeders hold about 40lbs of food, and I only have to fill them about once every 2 weeks. This saves me a lot of time rather than having to go out and fill their feeders daily. If you have pest or rodent problems be sure to consider a feeder that can be covered when not in use.

7. treats

Just like us, chickens love some tasty treats! Giving your birds treats can help build a relationship between you and your girls and also provide them with some nutrition they may not be getting from their usual diet. One thing I would recommend giving them is your vegetable scraps and garden waste. You will see and taste the difference in their yolks and flavor. We like to throw all of our scraps on our compost pile and let our chickens go to town. Not only are they getting a treat they enjoy but unknowingly adding to and mixing up the compost pile. Another thing that we give them is sunflower seeds, and they go crazy for these. It provides them healthy fats and proteins which help especially during molting periods. Our ladies have never had shinier feathers.

8. shelter

This is really a complement to the chicken run and even more important if your birds free range. Your ladies will need shelter to keep themselves cool from those hot and sunny days and away from potential predators. Chickens have a normal body temp of over 100F so it becomes very easy for them to overheat without adequate protection. Providing enough and proper shade is important to prevent this. Our chickens love to hide under our deck to escape the elements but you can also have various structures and plants to help throw shade throughout your property. Not only do structures provide shade but they also give them a place to hide from flying predators. Vegetation can act in the same manner and also create a place for insects to gather and provide good nutrition for your ladies. Find a variety of garden structures, shrubs, and trees you enjoy to help keep your ladies cool and protected.

9. bedding

Having the right bedding is probably one of those things that is overlooked. Not only do we use bedding in nesting boxes to create a nice surface to keep the freshly laid eggs safe, it is used inside the coop to contain manure and capture harmful odors, creating a cleaner environment for our ladies. For the chicken coop, many people like to use cedar chips due to the relatively cheap price and aromatic smell but we have found that hemp bedding does a significantly better job. We like hemp because it is more sustainable than cedar, further reduces odor and harmful chemicals and you don’t need to use nearly as much due to its higher absorption properties. We buy hemp bedding at our local ACE and it comes in a convenient 40-50lb bag so it’s not something we are buying very often. The hemp also breaks down very well in our compost piles and does not lower the pH as much as the more acidic cedar. With all of these advantages we found ourselves cleaning out the coop about once every 3 months or only 4 times a year! (or if we want to make a nice batch of compost)
In our nesting boxes we love to use natural nesting pads that you can find here on amazon (this is not an affiliate link).They create a great padded surface to catch the eggs and are easy to replace keeping the boxes nice and clean. These are also compostable. I like to stay away from using hay or straw because the hollow structure of the dry grasses creates perfect nesting grounds for unwanted pests and mites.

10. dust bath

Dust baths are absolutely required for the overall health of your birds. Our ladies use theirs multiple times a day to remove any unwanted pests/parasites, help with proper feather molt and development, and maintain their body temperature. A good mixture of sand, native soil, and diatomaceous earth works great. The sand provides corrosiveness for removal, the soil provides beneficial native bacteria, and the diatomaceous earth provides further pest repellent and prevention.