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 Feeding your Chickens
1. Your chickens need lots of clean, fresh water.
2. To get the most delicious, nutritious eggs, your chickens will need laying mash (grain), and egg grit.
3. Each chicken will eat approx 100g - 125g of mash a day. Overfeeding your chickens can make them go off the lay.
4. The egg grit assists with egg shell production and acts as teeth in ther gut to grind up food.
5. City Chicks can offer you Organic or Regular laying mash depending on your needs - home delivered!
6. Your girls will eat most of your leftover
food scraps (pretty much everything except crushed egg shells, protein and citrus.)
7. They also love digging for bugs and eating weeds from the garden.
Vermin proof containers for storing laying mash and egg grit are available through our Online Shop.
Care
City Chicks chickens are self-sufficient little pets. As long as they have fresh water every day and a dry, clean coop to sleep in, they should be happy living in your backyard.
- Keep coop clean - to stop rodents and parasites from being attracted to your coop, it needs to be cleaned out thoroughly once a week.
- Food storage - Your laying mash and egg grit should be stored in vermin-proof containers. We recommend a secure container with a screw lid which can be ordered through our Online Shop in the Other Products section.
- Chickens like to dust bath, where they flap, roll and sit in a dusty patch. It gets rid of lice and other bugs naturally. If you don't have a dusty patch in your yard, try a large clay planter dish filled with fine dirt and sand.
- Let your backyard chickens out of their coop for at least 3 hours each day to scratch and dust bath. Afternoons are a good time to do this as they will return to their roost in the coop upon dusk. If you let them out of the coop for the whole day, they may explore too much and scrape away seedlings and mulch from your garden beds. It can be a bit like having scrub turkeys in your yard! Our Garden Protection section of the Online Shop can provide you with some great ideas for stopping any potential destruction.
- Chickens don't like being chased or grabbed by the tail. If you need to catch one, approach slowly and you will notice the chicken will crouch almost anticipating you picking her up. Gently pick her up using both hands and place her under one arm. If she is being stubborn or has been chased, she will probably not wish to be picked up so will run one step in front of you. How frustrating! You may have to wait for a time when she is eating or chase slowly and gently grab her as you get closer.
- Place your coop in a shady spot during the summer days.
- Don't over feed scraps to your chickens as this can attract vermin. Feed only the amount they eat within a period of a few minutes and throw the rest into your compost bin.
Health
Each City Chick's chicken has been double vaccinated against disease in accordance with the recommended requirements of the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries. They're healthy girls who are ready for laying lots of eggs in your very own backyard coop. What treatments do they need?
- Parasite, lice and flea treatments every 3 months, even if you think your chickens are bug-free. The 2 products needed for these treatments can be ordered through our Online Shop in Feed & Care or bought together as a Care Pack covering all internal and external parasites.
- A safe place for the chickens to retreat to. If they're feeling stressed, they need a cool, dark place to recover in.
- Very occasionally, a chicken will die from stress or illness. If that happens, a Replacement Chicken can be supplied to you by City Chicks with your next delivered order from City Chicks.
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