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

Whilst keeping chickens may be a wonderful pastime for the household, and whilst I personally consider that chickens make wonderful pets, there are some disadvantages to trying to keep chickens as well as positives.

Lets look at the pluses first. Needless to say the most important plus to attempting to keep chickens must be all those delectable roam around eggs just lying there waiting for you to find each breakfast or night. There’s nothing like feeding on your individual wholesome, and delightful free range eggs that were laid on that day simply for you. No hens needed to endure living in a tiny cage to lay all of them for you, so you can feel great about getting a refrigerator packed brimming with wholesome food.

Next chickens make fantastic pets despite the fact that they’re just fowls. Little ones really adore them. Ours will contentedly pick them up and may carry them all over for hours. It is quite a joy trying to keep hens, and if you allow them to roam free all over your garden it is gratifying watching them out your kitchen’s window while you cook supper.

Thirdly, if you make it possible for all of them to roam around around the house they will thoroughly clean up a whole bunch of insects which, if still left on their own, could possibly eat your back garden. It was our hens that assisted save our backyard from two summers of grasshopper plague. You really should see how many hopper one chicken can eat in a day.

Fourthly it’s quite possible, unlike for most animals, to provide for your chooks so that you do not need to make arrangements for them every time you go on vacations. As I have substantial automatic keepers for feeding and watering we are able to go on trips leaving the chickens on their own and have never lost just one yet, even though on holidays.

Now to the disadvantages. Like all pets chickens can certainly get sick and die. We have had instances when the kids have discovered a dead hen in the chicken coop, and this is distressing for them. While this obviously is applicable to all domestic pets it is more common when you keep your own hens. This of course is because you have a tendency to have quite a few hens, whereas most people may have one or at most two pet dogs or cats. In our situation with 15 chickens it is more frequent. And of course chickens have a shorter life expectancy than some pets such as dogs or pet cats.

Second of all despite the fact that chickens will pick up quite a few of the nasty pests round your garden they do so by scratching, and this can easily scratch up the soil of your yard beds. And 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 is some work required, such as regular cleaning of the hen house. Chooks poop everywhere and the coop, as well as feeding and watering storage containers, must be cleaned. You must also learn a little more about pest avoidance as chooks could certainly be susceptible to such challenges as mites.

Furthermore whilst having fresh new roam around eggs is fantastic it doesn’t happen all the time. Hens tend to go off the lay during the chilly winter season, and more aged chooks lay less eggs than young ones. Because of this there may be times when you’re paying for hen food but still purchasing eggs.

I think nevertheless that the advantages of always keeping hens far outweighs the negatives. They are among the few domestic pets that are productive in addition to just being a family pet, and for anyone considering maintaining hens as domestic pets my reply is always to do it. Not many people have regretted getting chickens.

Remember to visit my web site Australian Chicken Coops about hen houses to learn more about how to locate the best chicken coop  for keeping your chickens happy.