Chickens

[boodle]

do chickens take much looking after would they be good for an 12yr old

[tetherend]

I looked after four chickens when I was about 10 years old.  It was my job to clean them out, which I did daily and to keep them fed and with clean water.  They had a cage type thing in the garden but they were left to walk around the garden each day, I only put them back in their cage (which was enormous) at night before I went to bed.  If I remember rightly, they had a closed in bit of their run which they could go in to be in the dark.  I learned lots from them like tolerance, patience and all the usual things you are able to learn from looking after animals.  I recall that I had to put vaseline on their feet as they used to what my Dad called cramp, but I don't know what the problem was, I was only a child. 

[rio116]

I have two chickens,a rhode island red x light sussex and a gold campine which is a bantam so quite small. They are kept in a large avairy and I find them very easy to keep. The rhode island provides an egg every day but the bantam seems to have stopped laying. I clean them out properly once a week but pick up their droppings every day,they are kept on sawdust which is very easy to keep clean. I feed them layers mash and sprinkle down some corn,wheat and bran every day. Its also important to provide them with clean water every day which mine have learnt to drink from a water bottle! My 2 year old niece helps me feed them and collect their eggs so a 12 year old would be fine,they make great pets and have individual personalities,go for it!!

[Kingaroo]

Some children are put off by chickens pecking at their feet. Brave grownups know the chicken can't peck through shoes.