Chicken Care: Daily Routines

Why?

Your chickens benefit greatly from a daily routine, as they

 are creatures of habit.

Credit: birdbrain99 (Author)

It is really important to establish a daily routine with your birds. Chickens love order and are very habitual. They like to know what-happens-when, and it is good also for you. A daily routine is made based on you and your hens' needs. It should be reliable and realistic.

What do I need to do on a daily basis?

This reallly depends, but the most you'll need to do is:

1. Check for eggs
2. Spot clean coop
3. Fill up food hopper
4. Check water
5. Feed kitchen scaps/greens/corn
6. Lock them up at night
7. Let the out in the morning

What do you do?

I do all the above.  A routine will come naturally once you have had your chickens for a while. Here are my basic chicken jobs timetable for the summer, though. It starts at 06:30 am - 07:30 am.

Early Morning: Let hens out. Spot clean the nestbox (Bonnie sleeps in one at night so I have to clean it before they lay otherwise the eggs get soiled). Bring up/check water. Scatter a jar of mixed corn around the runs ( I feed a little under a jar for six hens).

Mid morning: Fill up feed hopper (there's usually some pellets left over from the day before so there is food when they come out the coop first thing.)  Feed any greens. Check for eggs.

Early afternoon:  Spot clean the rest of the coop. Give any kitchen scraps. Another egg-check.

Evening: Lock them up in the coop for the night. Check water/bring down if needs cleaning to return in the morning.
I will often then go up throughout the day just to see them.

What if I'm away most of the day at work/school?

 If you aren't at home most of the day, like me, then you can easily do it all in just a couple of trips, one morning and one evening. Such as this:

Early Morning: Let them out. Spot clean coop (though this isn't necessary: you could use a deep litter system so you need to clean much less often). Fill/check food and water. Give them any scraps.

Evening: Check for eggs. Lock them up. If you're back early enough then maybe you could feed them extra treats now.

Less Frequently.

As well as everything you do daily, there are things that need to be done weekly, monthly and yearly also. These include:

• Cleaning out coop - which I do every couple of months, but if you do a deep litter system you'll only have to do that a couple of times a year.
• Disinfect and wash the coop. This needs doing once a year, unless you've had problems with red mite or illness.
• Clean Feed hopper. This needs doing less frequently than water. I do it every month or so (read about it at the bottom of this post); depending on how large it is, how many chickens you have, how much food you put in and what feed you use.
• Health check. It is good to do this every few days. I will write a post about this soon, and add a link here when I do.
• Treat for worms and mites. Treat for worms a couple of times a year but some people don't bother at all unless they see signs. The only product I would use for worming is Flubenvet as it is the only properly tested product. Do Not use Verm-X because it killed one of my hens which would still be alive and well if I'd used Flubenvet (long story)!
• Replace run litter. Depending on what you use (another thing I need to write about), it needs to be replace once to four times a year.

Notes.

Don't let them out really early some mornings, and then later other mornings. They are likely to start shouting when they aren't let out early and can disturb neighbours/you/your family!!

If your birds are partly free-range it is good to also set up a routine for when they will be allowed to do this and for how long.