Daily Poultry Routine

Описание: Today was a very laid-back day, so the routine was fairly smooth and easy going.

In this video, I go through the minimum routine that the chickens and turkeys require for daily care.

Some days are more challenging than others, and can be impacted by the weather, but focusing on the basic needs and getting a steady routine can drastically improve how well those challenges are managed.

I start everyday by feeding the chickens and turkeys first thing in the morning and providing them with clean drinking water, including washing the water containers. I let them out into the run if the weather permits. Then I take time to clean their coop. Here I show the daily cleaning of the roosts, which I do to avoid the risk of bumblefoot. Since they spent a good amount of time sleeping, where they roost should be kept clean to avoid any infections. The deep cleaning of the coop is done less often and I can show that in a separate video in the future.

I recycle eggshells so that I can grind them up for the hens. They will free feed as they need the calcium, I also supplement with Oyster Shells if they need more calcium. If I only had hens, I could just add it to their feed, but since I have tom turkeys and roosters, I pour the eggshells into a separate container for the hens to find when they want it. Calcium in high doses can make male birds sick since they do not need it. The hens need the extra calcium to lay eggs with strong shells.

I prepare them afternoon treats. Making sure the treats are okay to give the birds is of utmost importance. I usually give them a scoop of scratch in the afternoon, but every so often we have leftovers of fruit or veggies that we can dice up for them as well. It is imperative to make sure to only give them foods that will not harm them. When I diced up the apples in this video, I made sure to remove the apple seeds since they are toxic to chickens and turkeys.

I collected and washed the eggs. Normally, I wait until they are done laying for the day and collect them all at once, but today I was in the coop a few times and collected the eggs throughout the day. The sooner the eggs are collected, the better chance of finding clean eggs, when the eggs are left long, the hens can get them dirty.
Since I have roosters in my flock, I wash the eggs and store them in the refrigerator, otherwise, the fertilized eggs could start developing on the counter in our warm house.
Any cracked eggs are usually fed to the dogs with their breakfast. It is generally safe if the eggs were freshly laid, but when in doubt, throw them out to avoid making anyone sick. Cracked eggs can harbor bacteria which can grow rapidly and cause issues for whoever eats them, even if the eggs are well cooked.

At night, after the sun sets, the chickens and turkeys are already hunkering down for bed and I close up the coop for the night and make sure everyone is accounted for. Then I remove the feeder and bring any empty waterers back to the house to fill them up again for the next day. We never leave the feeders in the coop overnight as we don't want to attract rodents or predators into the coop. It is also just more convenient for me in the morning to have the feeder at the house already so I can make one trip out to the coop with food for them, instead of two trips, one to get the container and another to bring it back to the coop full.

Typically, most days are as easy as this video as far as sticking to the steady routine, but today was also a fair-weather day and a lot can happen or throw the routine off course any day of the week. Sometimes there is just more that needs to be done, but this video shows the basics and minimum care required for keeping poultry!