Raising Hens - Make Sure Cleanliness is Next to Godliness In Your Chicken House Plans

Mankind has been raising chickens for some ten thousand years. However, For most the reason for the domesticatioin of chickens if obvious: food by either meat or even the eggs. However, even in ancient times there was extra attention given to keeping the flock clean. To make this easy for you, make sure your http://www.chicken-house--plans.com/ include features for easy cleaning.

Nowadays, a typical family will treat their chickens like household pets, using them as a source for eggs. With the right breed of hen, you can get as many as 300 eggs a year - that's a lot of eggs! Certainly egg production drops as the years pass, but that's why it is so important to kee your chicken house clean and your chickens healthy.

Keeping the hen's nesting area free from dirt and pests is an absolute must. Start by collecting your eggs on a frequent or regular basis. Frequent collection will prevent some of the issues in this area, and some folks who raise hens will carefully place some fake plastic eggs, rocks or even golf balls to entice their hens to lay eggs in one particular area.

Occasionally, the hens won't want to leave the house to allow you to clean it. If this is the case, you can try to use something to shoo the hen out, but be careful she does not trample on any of the young chickens. The other thing you can do is wait until the hen leaves to deficate or eat; then close off the nesting area while you clean it.

As mentioned earlier, a clean hen house is necessary to keep away pests. If you raise chickens, you need to clean regulary to prevent mite infestation or Red Mites. You will know if your chickens are infested with red mites because egg production will drop and the chickens will peck at each other in an attempt to get the mites. Watch your flock for unusual pecking, or examine your chickens for bloody or bald patches.

The chicken mites can live as few as 5 days, but some can live up to 2 weeks This short cycle allows for fast growth and heavy infestations. They can live in the chicken house just as well as on the chickens themselves.

Keeping your chicken house and chickens clean is the best treatment, which is preventing the mites in the first place. If you do get an infestation, there are a number of insecticides available to minimize and eliminate external parasites. One very effective pest controls is "permethrin." Permethrin does have a long residual time in which it is effective, and that makes it a primary insecticide for treating your chicken house, surrounding areas like the chicken run and even your equipment. You can even treat the hens and roosters directly with a diluted version of permethrin..

Some other cures you may use to treat mites or even lice would be the use of wood ashes and diatomaceous earth (or DE). This is considered a non-chemical treatment that smothers the mites. There are newer products, such as Poultry Protector, which are a natural enzyme treatment.

This may sound corny, but cleaning the chicken coop can be a fun time, especially when involving the whole family. Kids love to chase the chickens out of the way for cleaning, and if you have good chicken house plans, your cleaning is built right into your chicken house designs. Cleanlieness may be next to Godliness, but we'll be content with healthy, happy chickens and fresh eggs.