Lesson 481 – Why every chicken owner needs to get a dog crate

I taught my Chickens 102 workshop.

My first class; Chickens 101 is all about how to get chickens (chicks and adults) and how to take care of them until they are old enough to go outside and live on their own in a henhouse.

Chickens 102 is about, now that you have adult chickens, how to you keep them alive and healthy. We cover egg health, injuries, and basic first aid for chickens. I’ll be covering all of these topics in future posts but I wanted to put this one out there first.

For your flock, one of the most important pieces of equipment that you can get is a medium to large size wire dog crate. (Start looking for them when yard-sale season begins.) There are a few reasons why I consider this to be an essential item for every chicken owner:

Isolation – when you bring a new bird home to your flock, good biosecurity measures dictate that you isolate the bird from the rest of your flock for at least a week. One sick bird can wipe out your entire flock. Unless you want to keep the bird in your garage (and I do know of a family that did that) you’ll want to keep the bird in a confined, ventilated area where they have access to food and water. A dog crate is the perfect size for a few adult birds (and if you remove the bottom tray, you can put it right on your lawn and your chickens will eat the grass, bugs, and fertilize your lawn all at the same time!)

Chicken ICU – if you have a sick or injured bird, chances are you will have to isolate it so that the other birds don’t peck at it (they’re not being mean, it’s instinctual, the weaker birds are eliminated for the good of the flock.) Over the years we’ve had to isolate chicks from adults, pecked birds from the rest of the flock, and birds with foot injuries so that they can have access to food and water. It gives stressed and injured birds a chance to get the food and water they need to heal. Also by isolating a sick bird immediately, you have a chance of keeping your entire flock from getting infected.

Nursery safe area – when we put our baby chicks in with the adults last summer, they were heavily pecked. It’s all part of establishing the proverbial pecking order but when we saw that some of the pecking was drawing blood on the babies, we dismantled the dog cage and used the sides to create a safe area in the hen house with an opening that was low enough for the chicks to go under but not the adult birds. In there we placed food and water. As the chicks got older and braver, they ventured out more and more but when frightened or chased they always went back to the “safe house.” We took three sides of the crate, wired them together and set it back against a corner.

Ventilated top – when you have baby chicks, you can put them in a Tupperware container but you’ll need to have a ventilated top to let the moisture that comes from the water, waste, and even the chicks’ breathing, escape (otherwise you’re going to get sick chicks and tons of mold.) The best lids, we’ve found are the sides from the dog crates. They are lightweight and yet keep those babies right where they should be.

If you don’t have a wire dog cage (you can use those hard shell ones but they are not as versatile) be on the lookout for one starting today (put it on your facebook page that you are looking for one, you’d be surprised how many people have them stored in their basements or garages.) It’s best to be prepared, you don’t want to be in a position where you need to immediately isolate your bird and have nowhere to put her.

photo credit: AlishaV