Guide that explains how to raise laying hens outdoors, making them scratch in a piece of land or garden of your home, operations to be performed and practical advantages from this type of ecological activity.
Build a chicken coop to raise chickens
Those lucky enough to live in a house with a garden can use chickens to eliminate the problem of having to periodically cut the grass.
Two or three chickens scratching in the garden, in addition to supplying the pantry with fresh eggs, are a very effective means of avoiding the growth of grass on the ground.
First of all you need to build a chicken coop, where hens can go to sleep at sunset and lay eggs during the day.
It is advisable to build or buy a fairly large cage, at least 2 meters high and more or less 3/4 square meters wide, with the roof covered, it is also good with a cane, equipped with an entrance door and, instead of the floor, clay.
Inside it, at about half height, one or two sticks must be placed from one side of the cage to the other, where the hens can be perched in the evening to sleep, then the broods are prepared, plastic boxes are fine or of wood with straw inside, which the hens use to lay their eggs, and containers for water and feed, to be placed inside the chicken coop and also outside.
On the market there is the feed for laying hens, which stimulates the production of eggs, but it is better not to use it for prolonged times, other types of feed are fine, maize or corn flour, and hard bread wet with water and then drained, as well as some food surplus.
The interior of the chicken coop, even if the ground is at the base, must be cleaned periodically, with a frequency that varies according to the number of hens housed.
The chicken coop door closes in the evening, after the hens have spontaneously returned to the interior at sunset, while in the morning it must be reopened to make them go back to scratching on the ground.
