Any number of factors can lead people out of chicken - keeping . Perhaps your family is moving to a new home out of town or out of state . Maybezoning regulationsin your township changed , with new ordination to conform to . Finances might play a part in it , or health , or even familial pressure . So you ’ve decided to throw in the towel and give up your chickens . Now what ?
Believe it or not , there are almost as many considerations when closing down your flock as there are when thinking of start one . To help guide you through what might be a grievous process , we ’ve pulled together these six guidelines to ensure your birds will be in sound manpower when you necessitate to give up your chickens .
1. Set a Deadline
You might already have a deadline to rehome your peck set for you if you have a move arrive up or if you have to abide by with local ordinances by a sure date . If not , prefer a date on your calendar as the escort by which your wimp must be gone . Without a deadline , the task ahead might drag on incessantly and the rip might become even more emotionally difficult to yield . go under a date , then start working toward it .
2. Choose Between Selling & Gifting
A key factor in getting your birds settled elsewhere is the financial one : Do you require to try out to make a profit — any form of profit — from the sale of your flock , or do you just want them to go to good menage ? Once you have determined this , you ’ll be able to specify everything else in motion .
3. Ask Around for Potential Buyers
It can be hard to trade off a plenty , especially during the cold months when most fowl - keeper are depend to minimize rather than expand their venture . expect around — friends , neighbors , feed - shop class staff — if anyone has top on someone await to purchase a flock . Your provender memory board might have a community board where you may send a flyer advertising your sales event . If your townspeople has a poulet - keeping affiliation , meet the administrators to see whether you could post your sale on their site or societal mass medium . If you have social media — especially one dedicate to your flock — publish office ( with photos ) informing the populace of your sales event . If you have any conditions — for deterrent example , your bird are not to be used for meat — be sure to intelligibly state this wherever you bare your sale .
4. Look Nearby for New Homes
If you plan to give up your chicken with no monetary strings attached , your answer might be mighty in front of you — or to the side or back of you . A neighbour with a great deal of their own is the best fresh home plate for your hen . The chickens are already habituate to the mood and surround , so minimum adjustment is needed there . Transporting them to their new home will be far simpler for you and their fresh owner . If you are n’t entrust the area , you might even be able-bodied to visit your girls every now and then , with your neighbor ’s favorable reception . No muckle - keeping neighbor — or neighbors who ’ve expressed a desire to raise chicken someday ? Try your muckle - keeping friends , your local poultry - fanciers ’ grouping , the nearby 4 - H.
5. Keep “Flock Friends” Together
Depending on your flock ’s size , you might not be able to adopt out the group as one social unit . Do your honorable to recognize the friendships amongst your bird and keep those chicken together . think of that chicken are societal animals . move to a raw home , with a new pecking guild to follow , can be traumatic for them . verify your smallest grouping of bird to go is no less than three , so the chook tercet can provide moral support for itself as the birds aline to their novel environment .
6. Sell or Donate Your Gear
Rehoming your birds is not the only business when it fall to closing down your poultry operations . You have baptistry and feeders , provender and supplements , even carton and incubators to debate with . extend your equipment to your birds ’ new owner(s ) , either for free or at a toll . Not concerned ? propose the items to your domestic fowl - keeping acquaintance and neighbour or donate them to the4 - H. Flyers at your feed computer memory , social - medium post and ad on craigslist can help you dispose of all your chicken - rearing gearing . Your coop are a whole other issue . If you could not repurpose then as gardening or store sheds — or a kiddie club — your best wager would be to remove all fixtures and windows and burn the bodily structure or bear a permissive waste - hauling religious service to take it forth .
7. Take Some Parting Shots for Later
You ’ve put a lot of love , clip and effort into observe your flock . Just because they ’re moving onto newfangled homes does n’t entail they of necessity move out of your warmness . Have a family appendage or supporter take a exposure of you with your chickens . This way , you ’ll be capable to remember them fondly for years to come .
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Rachael Brugger
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