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

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

Lets take into account the pluses first. Not surprisingly the biggest plus to trying to keep chooks would have to be all of the yummy free range eggs simply lying there ready for you to find each and every morning or evening. Absolutely nothing is like eating your individual wholesome, and tasty free range eggs which were laid on that day simply for you. No chickens needed to go through surviving in a small cage to lay them for you, and you can easily feel good about getting a refrigerator packed filled with nutritious foods.

Second chickens make excellent domestic pets despite the fact that they’re just fowls. Little ones just adore them. Mine will happily pick them up and carry them all over for hours. It’s rather a delight trying to keep chooks, and if you permit them to roam free all around your backyard it is gratifying watching them out your kitchen windows as you make supper.

Third, if you make it possible for all of them to free range around the house they will really clean up a whole bunch of bugs which, if left on their own, would probably eat your back garden. It is our hens that helped save our garden from two summers of grasshopper plague. You should see how many grasshoppers one chicken can easily feed on in a day.

Fourthly it’s quite possible, unlike for most animals, to provide for your chooks so that you don’t need to make arrangements for them each time you go on holidays. As I have substantial automatic containers for feeding and supplying water we are able to go on vacations leaving the chooks to their own devices and have never ever lost a single yet, whilst on trips.

Now to the negatives. Like all animals chickens may get sick and die. We have had occasions when the kids have found a deceased hen in the chook coop, and this is distressing for the kids. Whilst this of course is applicable to all domestic pets it is more common when you keep chickens. This obviously is simply because you tend to have quite a number of hens, whereas most people may have one or at most two pet dogs or cats. In our case with 15 hens it is more frequent. Of course chickens have a shorter life-span than some pets such as puppies or pet cats.

Second of all despite the fact that hens will pick up many of the nasty pests around your back garden they do so by scratching, and this can dig up the earth of your yard beds. They will also peck at your veggies if you grow your very own and they particularly love pecking at tomatoes. You will need to safeguard your vegetables or some area of your yard.

Thirdly, like for a lot of other domestic pets, there can be some work involved, such as frequent cleaning up of the hen house. Hens poo all over the place and the coop, as well as feeding and watering storage containers, ought to be cleaned. You must also learn more about pest prevention as chickens can easily be prone to such problems as mites.

Fourthly whilst getting fresh new roam around eggs is wonderful it doesn’t occur all the time. Chickens can go off the lay during the cold winter months, and more aged chooks lay less eggs than young ones. For this reason there may be times when you’re having to pay for hen feed but still purchasing eggs.

I think however that the positives of trying to keep hens far exceeds the negatives. They’re one of the very few domestic pets that are productive as well as just being a pet, and for anybody considering always keeping chooks as pets my answer is always to do it. Very few folks have regretted keeping hens.

Remember to visit my site Australian Chicken Coops about chicken Houses to find out more about how to choose the best chicken coop  for keeping your chooks happy.

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