Unlock the Secrets to Raising Chickens While Being Busy

Chickens are the easiest animals I have to care for, even as a busy mom. I hear people all the time say I don’t know how you do it. But honestly, I always laugh and say I am a super lazy farmer. So I thought I would share with you my secrets to raising chickens from one busy person to another.

I get it, I was overwhelmed with the thought. I wanted chickens so badly. But I was so afraid to add anything to my plate. My want though, won over my fear. So when my neighbors offered up a little beat-up coop they were getting rid of I jumped on the chance, remodeled it, bought some chickens, and found out along the way how easy it is to raise chickens when you get a few tricks up your sleeve.

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All Systems Go…

Don’t be afraid. The key to raising chickens while being busy and not losing your mind is to have systems set up to help. This includes housing, food, water, and a system to care for their poop. Yup POOP….The not-so-fun part of Chickens. But don’t worry… there is an awesome system I use to help with that as well to where you love the poop even.

Before I dive into my tricks – be sure to plan out where to put your chickens that go along with your long-term goals. I wrote a blog post on Planning out your Homestead that can help you with some simple steps to get you started. Now back to the chickens…

Housing your Hens (and roosters) at night

My first secret to raising chickens while busy is getting them to go to bed while I am inside with my family. Everyone and every animal needs a place to rest at night. Chickens are no exceptions. The wonderful thing about chickens is they go to bed all by themselves! All you need to do is have a coop set up for them to go into and they do the rest – MAGIC!

The thing with chickens is they need to be kept safe from predators. So ideally, for most people, having an enclosed coop at night is the way to go. Having a coop you buy off of Amazon, build yourself, or even a small shed can all work.

Now I know someone will read this and think we don’t have our chicken enclosed. Well, I say Ideally because if you look long enough you will see huge chicken farmers don’t have enclosed coops. They have guard animals to follow along with their hens on open pasters to protect them from predators and electric fencing. And I am always in awe of that. But on my little homestead, my dogs are spoiled and are inside at night. And some predators are sneaky and quiet and can get past the dogs. So a sealed coop is how we roll!

Sizing up the Coop

When looking at a coop go bigger than what you think you want. Chicken math is real and you don’t want to have to be building on to your coop in a year. Try to look at your needs/wants and multiply it by at least 3, maybe even 9. Don’t be like I was and think you won’t do it. haha Here is the thing you need to know – through a chicken’s life it stops laying eggs at certain times. Molting is one reason, going broody is another, and then there is just their egg production dropping because they are older. The new chickens fill the gaps. Yes, and babies are fun. And we all love the new chics around here. But the math also is to help keep your egg production going. (And it is a good excuse for your spouse.)

With all this being said it is the amount of space on the roosting bar that matters. What is a roosting bar? It is the wood board usually a 2″x3″ with rounded corners that the chickens perch on to sleep at night. A standard chicken needs about 8 inches to sleep on. Bigger breeds like the Jersey Giants need about 12 inches. Yes, they can squish in, and they will at times all sit on the same roost and be smooshed. But when it is hot they need air.

Take the time to think about how many chickens you want and then figure out the size of the coop you will need. I promise it will be well worth it. Adding on is not always fun, especially when your chickens have nowhere else to go in the middle of the build.

To use a Run or Free Range?

For me, the answer is BOTH! My coop opens up to an enclosed run. My coop is closed up with walls and has all the roosting bars inside to keep my chickens safe from the weather and elements. But when they wake up they are ready to get out in the sun. I built an enclosed run that is encased with hardware cloth to protect them from predators at all times and there is a roof to keep them dry from the rain.

So if you are wondering how this fits into being a lazy farmer it is simple. The coop is open to the run. I do not have to wake up and let them out. The run allows them to move around, scratch, dust bathe, and do what chickens do without the fear of a hawk getting them.

I do free-range my chickens too though. They have a fenced-in yard and the predators are not a huge issue. Not that I have had any issues. I had a chicken killed by a hawk once. We were all very sad. We loved Mrs. Sassy Pants. But my thought is I love that they get to be chickens and I don’t want to stop them from living their best life in fear of a hawk attack. Out of all the years of having chickens, this has only happened once.

To make things easier you can install doors that open to let them out (and keep them in). Yup – lazy farming at its finest!! You don’t even have to walk to the coop these days – except to collect the eggs! There are battery-operated ones and ones that have solar panels. They are set up on timers that you can control. This way when you go out of town and don’t want them free ranging you just turn it off.

Feeding frenzy

This is simple… buy large feeders. I purchased two feeders that between the two hold 100 pounds of feed. This has made my life so simple!

Once a month I head to the feed store and load up my truck with 2 bags of chicken feed. I come home, load it up, and my month of feeding the chickens is done! This not only makes my life easier but when we have gone out of town I know that all is good at my home. And if someone is coming over to check on the animals, their help is minimal and makes it so much easier for me to ask.

I know some people may think it is wasteful to leave food out at all times. But I don’t see them eating the food all day long. They love to free-range. They eat what they need and are out the door.

The other thing is my food stays in the run at night. So while the chickens are sleeping the food is safe behind hardware cloth. So no rats get in it. The coop has no little holes to allow them to creep in and steal their food.

Sidenote – I built a little feeder that I use for my chicks now that holds a ton of food so I don’t have to fill it every day. Click HERE to see how to build it.

Water you up to?

Water is vital. Chickens are no different than you or I. They can become dehydrated and it impacts their health. A chicken without water for even a few hours becomes stressed and can stop laying for days, even weeks.

Part of my strategy to keep my chickens (and ducks) watered is to set up multiple systems. And I have a watering system that I built that uses a large bucket to water my flock. It runs to a pipe that has cups the chickens drink from. This keeps a week’s worth of water in it.

Then I have store-bought watering buckets that have 5-7 gallons of water in them as a backup. This ensures if there is ever an issue with one, the others are there so my chickens are always with water.

I take this poop seriously.

Finally, the ultimate secret to raising chickens while being busy is I do not clean their poop out of their coop except once a year. WHAT!? I know. Sounds crazy and gross. But let me tell you. It is not. I have people come to my house all the time and say it is wild that they can’t smell the chickens.

So what is my secret? I use a deep liter method. Chickens are odd. They do most of their pooping at night when they are on the roost. So every other week I will take a pitchfork and turn it. I sprinkle some First Saturday Lime on it monthly and VIOLA! All is good in the chicken’s world. I do the deep liter method in their run as well using larger wood chips. I don’t have to turn that though. They keep it turned by digging for bugs and creating the composting system themselves.

The deep liter method is an anaerobic composting system. The pine shavings are the browns and the chicken waste is the greens. There is no water so it doesn’t get stinky and keeps the coop smell-free. Instead of cleaning the coop every day my chores time is spent elsewhere and my coop runs itself! To read more on my deep liter method and how to keep your coop Smell-Free – click here!

With all these systems in place most days I get to stroll to the coop, collect the eggs, enjoy my chickens, and leave the deep cleaning until the spring.