Before you begin raising hens, you should know the advantages of doing so could make you more enthusiastic.
One advantage is that hens produce very good manure from their droppings that are rich in nitrogen.
This manure can be used in your garden or it can be sold if you do not have a garden.
Hens can be raised by the family to teach the kids important life lessons such as the importance of hard work and the value of a dollar.
They can also be used to bring the family together or to teach the kids important skills such as how to market and sell their produce, how to raise animals, how to use different tools, etc.
Hens make very good pets and you forget your hard day at work when you start caring for them in the evening.
There are several other advantages, but the main reason why people raise hens is their economic and health benefits.
Hens produce eggs that have many health and economic benefits.
The health benefits include nutritional value since they contain all the important nutritional requirements by the body, they prevent heart conditions such as stroke and heart attacks, they cure and prevent other ailments and they are used in the cosmetics industry for a number of functions such as making the hair and the skin smoother.
When the hens can no longer produce eggs, they are slaughtered to give white meat which is a great substitute for red meat which has cholesterol.
The economic benefits are that the average hen produces 250 to 300 eggs per year.
These eggs and the meat can be sold to supplement the family income.
If the family eats the eggs and the meat, they save money that they would have used to purchase those and other products.
The first step as you begin to raise chicken is to have a plan.
The plan should detail what the chicken coop is going to look like, the dimensions, the materials used, etc.
The plan will also include the budget for the whole project, including buying the chicks and their feed.
The plan can be downloaded online from any of the many home improvement websites that offer such information free.
You can also purchase a home improvement magazine or look at infomercials from public broadcasters.
Failure to have such a plan means you may end up building a chicken coop that is either too small or too large, you may end up going over your budget, you may have to leave some important things out, and you may end up having to demolish to avoid legal problems or the wrath of your neighbors.
After building the chicken coop, the next step in raising hens is to get the chicks, making sure they are of the breed you want.
Choosing the right breed is important because some breeds lay more eggs than others, some have bigger eggs than others, some consume more feed than others, etc.
You should have a rooster of the right breed if you intend to be hatching your own eggs.
You should take note of the hens that are consistent in egg layers so that they will not be the ones that 'take the month off' to hatch the eggs.
One advantage is that hens produce very good manure from their droppings that are rich in nitrogen.
This manure can be used in your garden or it can be sold if you do not have a garden.
Hens can be raised by the family to teach the kids important life lessons such as the importance of hard work and the value of a dollar.
They can also be used to bring the family together or to teach the kids important skills such as how to market and sell their produce, how to raise animals, how to use different tools, etc.
Hens make very good pets and you forget your hard day at work when you start caring for them in the evening.
There are several other advantages, but the main reason why people raise hens is their economic and health benefits.
Hens produce eggs that have many health and economic benefits.
The health benefits include nutritional value since they contain all the important nutritional requirements by the body, they prevent heart conditions such as stroke and heart attacks, they cure and prevent other ailments and they are used in the cosmetics industry for a number of functions such as making the hair and the skin smoother.
When the hens can no longer produce eggs, they are slaughtered to give white meat which is a great substitute for red meat which has cholesterol.
The economic benefits are that the average hen produces 250 to 300 eggs per year.
These eggs and the meat can be sold to supplement the family income.
If the family eats the eggs and the meat, they save money that they would have used to purchase those and other products.
The first step as you begin to raise chicken is to have a plan.
The plan should detail what the chicken coop is going to look like, the dimensions, the materials used, etc.
The plan will also include the budget for the whole project, including buying the chicks and their feed.
The plan can be downloaded online from any of the many home improvement websites that offer such information free.
You can also purchase a home improvement magazine or look at infomercials from public broadcasters.
Failure to have such a plan means you may end up building a chicken coop that is either too small or too large, you may end up going over your budget, you may have to leave some important things out, and you may end up having to demolish to avoid legal problems or the wrath of your neighbors.
After building the chicken coop, the next step in raising hens is to get the chicks, making sure they are of the breed you want.
Choosing the right breed is important because some breeds lay more eggs than others, some have bigger eggs than others, some consume more feed than others, etc.
You should have a rooster of the right breed if you intend to be hatching your own eggs.
You should take note of the hens that are consistent in egg layers so that they will not be the ones that 'take the month off' to hatch the eggs.
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