fostering chickens!

[purplepansy]

I'm moving into a rented house. The owners currently live there, and they have two chickens that they keep in a building about the size of a small shed with a mesh front, with nest boxes inside. We're planning to 'foster' them when we move in (I suspect the alternative is for them to be eaten tbh). I've never kept chickens before, but am very keen to learn. Used to enthusiastically read country smallholder magazine, but all this has given me is a feeling that chickens are difficult and a terrible fear of red spider mite. What do I need to know before taking them on?

That you will probably want chickens of your own after fostering.

Just warning you!

I would suggest doing lots of reading and getting a large supply of mealworms (wigglywigglers.com are good).

I've had to leave my chickens with my mum whilst we are in Australia and I miss them..

red psider mite is not normally a problem - it's Red Mite you have to wrry about.

make sure you clean the house with detergent and hot, hot water every month or so, and sprinkle red mite powder (readily available) around the house, in the nooks and crannies at bedtime on the day you clean.

but hens in general are very easy to look after - poo pick every day (just means picking up all the poo from the run with a stick and shovel), and change the newspaper under the perches every day (depending on summer or winter, you'll find it easier to do all this in the morning in winter and the evening in summer! )
and make sure they have food and clean water available at all times.