New Chicken Owners Guide to Keeping Chickens

Chicken litter may not be the first thing on your mind when you decide to keep chickens for the first time - you are probably more focused on the idea of having fresh, free range eggs to eat and perhaps the appeal of seeing your chickens roaming about in your garden. But choosing a good chicken litter and chicken bedding can help make your life easier as a chicken owner, as well as potentially helping your chickens’ egg yield.
In this short guide we look at how to go about choosing a chicken coop, chicken litter, chicken bedding and chicken food to help maximise the health and productivity of your chickens, and minimise the work you need to do. We also briefly look at the importance of registering with a vet.

Chicken Coop
The first thing you need to provide your chickens is physical safety, from predators and weather. Apart from preventing attacks on your chickens, a chicken needs to feel secure if it is to lay eggs successfully. Chickens that feel stressed or insecure will lay less frequently or stop laying altogether.

The chicken coop you choose needs to be made of a solid material. Wood is traditionally used, but some models are available made of recycled plastic which are easy to clean and allow mite infestation to be more easily controlled.

Chickens need access to outdoor space for exercise and other natural behaviours. But they also need protection while outside, which affects the design of your chosen coop.
A chicken coop can either be a standalone design or integrated design. A standalone design needs to be enclosed within a pen of some kind, e.g. wire netting, which is high enough to prevent predators such as foxes from jumping over.
Many owners therefore prefer an integrated design, in which an enclosed outdoor space is integrated into the overall design. These types often include a totally enclosed pen, including overhead cover, consisting of wire netting in wooden frames. The outdoor section of the coop may be completely integrated or detachable. The advantage of a built in run, apart from the excellent protection it provides, is that the whole coop can be easily picked up and moved to another part of the garden.

Ideally the main hen house should be off the ground by at least a few inches to help protect from damp. The design of the coop should allow easy access for cleaning and egg collection. Intruding into the coop is a source of stress for chickens, so a design which allows necessary intrusion to be minimised will be easier for both you and your chickens.

Inside the coop there need to be perches for sleeping and roosting, and nesting boxes for brooding and laying, as well as food and water provided via drinkers and feeders. The bottom of nesting boxes and the floor of the coop need to be kept dry and clean - which means using appropriate chicken litter on the floor of the coop and chicken bedding in nesting boxes.

Chicken Bedding and Chicken Litter
Nesting boxes need to be dry and comfortable for brooding hens. Nesting boxes which are uncomfortable, damp or have excessive odour will discourage hens from laying. But chickens will also be stressed if they are moved frequently (e.g. for cleaning out nest boxes). The ideal chicken bedding is therefore something which can absorb droppings, suppress odour, be comfortable to lie on and require relatively infrequent cleaning. SmartBedz is long-lasting, super absorbent and naturally odour suppressing. It is also a completely natural product, made of straw, so it is safe for chickens to peck at. When SmartBedz pellets come into contact with moisture it swells up and breaks down quickly to create a soft bed. Complete cleaning out of SmartBedz chicken bedding is required only infrequently - you only need to remove very wet areas, turn over the remaining litter to refresh it, and perhaps top up with fresh pellets.

Chicken Bedding - click here to buy Smartbedz organic, natural pet and bird bedding / litter in our online shop

The floor of the coop will receive droppings from chickens, especially directly underneath perches. So it is advisable to use a chicken litter on the floor of the coop to absorb moisture and keep down odours. SmartBedz can also be used as a chicken litter on the floor of the coop and, as for nesting boxes, requires only occasional cleaning, helping to minimise disruption to the chickens. We recommend using around 2cm of SmartBedz in nesting boxes and on internal coop floors. Cleaning out it best done using a scoop with 11-12 mm holes - this allows any dry pellets to fall back through and minimise wastage.

Chicken Bedding - click here to buy Smartbedz organic, natural pet and bird bedding / litter in our online shop

The traditional chicken bedding or chicken litter has been straw or hay. As well as not being terribly absorbent, untreated straw and hay frequently carry mites or lice with them, which can cause an infestation in your flock requiring chemical treatment. SmartBedz is heat treated during production to kill any bacteria or mites and is therefore a contribution to keeping your flock mite free.

Chicken Food
The food your feed your chickens will affect their long term health, as well as the quality of their eggs, so it should be good quality feed designed especially for chickens. Chicks, if you have any, will require "chick crumbs", moving on to grower’s mash or pellets when they are 6-7 weeks old, and layers pellets when they are old enough to begin laying (around 16 to 18 weeks old, although this varies by breed).
Corn and mixed corn is often sold as chicken feed, but this should be an occasional treat, not the chickens’ staple diet.

Since all pre-formulated chicken feed is dry food, it is essential that plenty of fresh water is available to your chickens at all times.

Actively laying hens also require grit in their diet to help produce good sized eggs with strong shells. The grit is used to help mash down the rest of the feed within the gut, as well as being a source of calcium carbonate used in egg production. Some feeds include grit within the feed itself. Alternatively you can buy grit separately and place it in a container for the birds to help themselves. Chickens will regulate their own intake, eating just what they need.

Vet
Chickens are prone to a range of common health issues including red mite infestation, lice and worms. There are also several serious conditions which can be vaccinated against such as bronchitis, Marek’s disease, Newcastle disease (which is transferrable to humans), laryngotracheitis, fowl cholera and fowl pox.

If you are new to chicken keeping it will serve you well to register with a vet specialising in poultry who can arrange necessary vaccinations and advise you on the symptoms of the conditions mentioned above. A vet can also keep an eye on your flock in the early days and advise on good keeping practices to help prevent the development of several of these conditions.