Honestly, Probably More Than You Would Think…

TLDR: I spend about three hours every day on what I consider the basic, bare minimum care for our flocks. I then spend a bit more time just hanging out with the birds. Is that a bit excessive? Probably. If you don’t have chickens yet, don’t think you’re going to have to spend your whole day caring for them if you get them. I don’t think most people spend that much time in the coops. I’m a bit obsessive when it comes to caring for my birds and I also consider chickens and gardens to be my therapy so there’s that. Haha! A lot of folks simply let the birds out in the morning, close the coop at night, fill feeders and waterers as needed and clean every so many days or weeks. If you want it to be it can be a lot less time consuming, especially if you only have one coop! Having so many coops and my obsessive nature adds time for me but I feel comfortable with the level of care I provide for them and I enjoy the work (most days, anyway!).

If you’re curious what I’m doing for those three hours, let me break those them down for you…

The bulk of the work with chickens (for me, anyway) happens in the morning. My morning routine makes up about a third of my chore time. It generally takes me about an hour. As soon as the sun comes up I load up my sled or my wheelbarrow (depending on the time of year) with supplies and head down to the coops. I start each day with Ted’s coop and work my way around the chicken village to end with Noel’s.

After sprinkling a bit of scratch on the ground in the run, I let the chickens out. As they come out of the coop I like to check over each of the chickens visually for any issues. Are they walking around normally? Do they have any visible injuries? Is everyone eating with their usual gusto? Is anyone acting “off”? Usually everything is fine but I have caught things super early before they became larger problems by doing this quick morning check so it’s something I never skip.

If there is an issue, I determine whether it can wait until I’ve finished chores or if it has to be dealt with right this second. Some things are understandably more urgent than others. If there is a lot of blood or an obvious wound/injury that’s going to be dealt with immediately. A chicken acting a bit “off” can usually wait until I’m finished chores before I come back to assess further. Assuming all is well though, as it usually is, I move on to cleaning the coop.

To clean the coop, I scoop up all of the poop they made overnight and fluff their shavings so that they don’t get compacted. Sometimes there is a poop on the roost or somewhere besides the in the shavings under the roost that I will scrape off (assuming it’s not frozen down). While I am cleaning up poop I am also inspecting it to make sure it looks normal as I scoop it. Poop can tell you a lot about the health of a chicken so, to me, this is as important as visually checking each bird in the morning. The chickens generally sleep in about the same spot on the roost every night and, since I know where everyone likes to sleep, I can generally narrow down weird poops to a couple of chickens just based on where the poop is in the coop. This makes it easier to monitor because I can watch two or three chickens to determine if there is an issue instead of the whole flock. If there is a particularly weird poop I will sometimes collect it and run a fecal exam. It isn’t very often that I do this but, since I can do my own fecal exams at home, it’s probably a lot more often that most people would do it. It’s expensive to take a sample to the vet for every weird poop but it doesn’t cost much more than time for me to do it at home.

Anyway, back to cleaning the coops! Some people like to do what’s called “deep bedding” where they don’t clean the poop out every day and, instead, cover it with a fresh layer of bedding but that method just doesn’t work for me. It’d be a lot less work in the winter, that’s for sure. It’d very likely save me money on bedding too but my brain can’t handle leaving the poop. I’ve tried it. It bothers me too much. I like to be able to sit or kneel in my coops without worrying about getting dirty so I’m out there every morning scooping every last poop I can find from the coop floors like an obsessive compulsive nut. What can I say? It works for me. Deep bedding may work better for you and that’s ok. We all have our preferences. Once all of the poop is removed, I refill the feed and water bowls and collect any eggs that were laid super early before I got there.

With Ted’s coop done, I move on to the next coop to repeat the poop removal and bowl refilling process until I make it all the way around the chicken village. Roostoper’s coop is next, then Lucky, Poppy & Nem, Levy, Red and lastly Noel. Lucky’s coop is currently heated so, at his coop, I have a few extra things to do. I check the heaters to make sure they’re working and mounted solidly still every morning and then dust them off. I also test the smoke detector to make sure it’s still working. Once everyone has a clean coop and fresh food and water, I walk back around to check for more eggs one more time before I put my supplies away.

If I have chicks or a sick/injured and isolated chicken, this is when I would go to them. Right now I have Pippa the house hen who is indoors recovering from an injury so her care is next. When I come back in from outdoor chores, she has usually laid her egg and is ready to be let out of her crate. I get her food and water ready before I let her out and then I clean her crate while she has her breakfast. If I had chicks I would clean their brooder and refill feed and water at this point too.

After the initial flush of chores in the morning things slow down. I go out at least every two hours throughout the day to collect eggs. My commercial breed hens have a 24 hour laying cycle (the ones in Rederick and Roostopher’s coops) and they generally have all of their eggs laid early in the morning. My heritage breeds and crosses of heritage breeds have longer laying cycles and they lay eggs all throughout the day because of this. I like my eggs to be clean (part of why I’m a nut about cleaning the coops) so I like to collect them often. If I leave them in the nest too long, someone is bound to come along with a muddy or poopy foot and step all over the pretty, clean eggs. Since I’m out there already, I use each of these “egg runs” as an opportunity to visually inspect the birds again as I make my rounds. I also check water bowls to make sure they are full and not frozen. During one of the afternoon trips I generally top up shavings in the coops where it’s necessary. Each trip out to collect eggs takes about 15 minutes except the last trip of the day takes about 20 minutes and the one where I add shavings takes about 25 minutes. Right now I go out at 9am, 11am, 1pm, 3pm and 5pm so these trips are taking about an hour and a half over the course of the day. As the days get longer I will add more trips but, once spring arrives I’m generally outside most of the day working on something anyway.

On my last trip outside to check for eggs at 5pm, I close up any windows or doors that were open to get ready for bed. I also pick up any feed that is in the run and place it in the coop for the night. Rederick doesn’t see well once it gets dusky and he needs a step stool to get on the roost at night. I make sure that’s ready in his coop for him too. If I forget I will have to pick him up and put him on the roost when I go out to close the coops.

Generally by about 6pm (this time of year) everyone has gone into their coops for the day and is either already roosting for the night or soon will be. There are cameras in all of the coops and runs so it’s easy to check on them from the house. The camera feeds are all displayed on the TV so I can scan them quickly and see who is in and who is out. Once I see 90% of the chickens in their coops I head out to lock up. In the winter, I dump out their coop water bowls so they don’t add moisture to the coop overnight. They often freeze overnight anyway so dumping them when they’re liquid saves me from beating ice out of them in the morning. I always do a head count at each coop to make sure everyone is in safely and on the roost before I leave. Lockup generally takes me about 20 minutes.

So, there you have it, that’s how I spend three hours a day on chicken care. Some days take longer than this, especially in the winter months when snow and ice removal become part of the chore list. If I were to find a sick or injured bird during the course of the day, this would obviously add to my time spent caring for them as well but it’s pretty rare for that to happen. Some days everything goes right and I’m done a little faster but, generally, this is what my day looks like.

I like to hang out with everyone as much as I can manage through the day but I don’t count that as part of my chore time, I’m visiting purely for leisure after all. I’ll be honest, the birds see me a lot more in the warmer months than they do this time of year but I make an effort to spend a bit of time each day with each flock even in the winter.

How long do you spend caring for your flock each day?