The husbandry of Chickens

Yeah, I know – the title is a little professional for this blog, but it is exactly what my son is learning to do. The decision to get chickens was conceived by him and has, so far, turned out to be one of the best things we could have done.

With Kaden getting all involved with the chickens, not just the ones we have, but all chickens, we have seen a bit more responsibility coming from him. He let’s them out each morning. He checks on them at least twice when coming home from school. On weekends, he will come up missing…I have learned to find him in the chicken run – tending, talking, making notes of everything I need to do, etc.

My mom decided she would send him a couple copies of Grit magazine that focused on the topic of chickens. He loves to get mail anyway, and was disappointed every day they did not arrive, and when they did – you would have thought it was Christmas morning. He ran through them quickly, to get a brief overview for himself and everyone else. I told him that we should take care of those magazines, so when he was done reading one – put it on my bedside table. He agreed that they were “full of useful and important information we might need”.

So, today he was headed to the bedroom with one of his magazines. I stopped him and said let me read that one and I will put it up. He wanted to make sure I would take care of it, and after convincing him and agreeing to a list of rules, I got the magazine. As I flipped through it, I started noticing he had made some notes, circles, and other markings that he felt was important.

My favorite, is the one about Roosters. We have had a lot of discussion on why we don’t need a rooster right now. I think if you look at his notes on the rooster article you will see that I am being setup for a sales pitch on why we should have a Rooster. Not gonna happen right now, but none the less, I see it coming. He is arming himself for the argument.

We learned yesterday, through a friend of Keagan’s, that the Ag department at school has a poultry team. Once Kaden reaches High school, or even before, I would like to see if we could get him involved in that program. I feel he would do well, and it would do him well. We will see.

I also had to do something about protecting my pepper plants from the wind right now. So, I cut some of a cardboard tube and placed around them. I think that will work until I can get some chicken wire or something. Then I will make some small cages for them. You’ll see the temporary fix in the pics below.

Kaden and I are about to head to Tractor Supply to pick up some feed and stuff – so enjoy.