Hi Frances. It takes about 2-5 mins to let chickens out of their coops each morn, including checking their feeders & waterers are full & at night you have to make sure you lock them in from preditors another 2-3 mins.
Now depending on how big or small your garden is & where you have their coop&compound, that can take you 1 min to get to or (as in my freinds case) 3 mins to walk down to.
In really cold weather you need to check their waterers have not frozen over (unless you have the cash, or clever ability to make/buy a water heater.) About 5 mins filling a bottle with hot water to add to the frozen to defrost it.
Here in the UK people keep their chooks as close or far away from their house as that persons wants. But you might have different laws in USA. Our coop is at the end of our garden, which is 50 ft wide by 100 ft long.
The longest job you have with chickens is weekly (in winter) cleaning of their coop, takes about 20 mins for my big coop (can house 10 big girls comfortably)& about 15 mins to do the smaller one which houses my 8 (was 10 but just rehomed the 2 boys from the eggs my big mamma hatched this year)bantam hens comfortably.In summer clean about once every 2 weeks. There is a method called the deep litter method but I don't use that .
The A-frame coop they just use to lay eggs in takes about 5 mins to clean out.
Then you need to observe them so you know when things have gone wrong by their behaviour, but you will enjoy this time you spend with them as they are very clever, funny & amazing & generally a fantastic waste of time. I often stand at the window watching them & in summer sitting out in the garden watching them.
They love special treats & thats when you can entice them to sit on your lap.(Not all chooks will allow that)
The only advice I would give you on proximity of the coop is; if you are having cokerals you will not want them under your window. If you have neighbors be aware that some people HATE cockerals.
Also how pretty is your garden are you going to let your chickens free range, they constantly dig around roots of all plants looking for worms & bugs. And they sometimes take pleasure in eating certain plants. My girls love the fushias!
My chooks do not care about the weather, they are out in rain, sun, snow, frost & wind! They do not care they take shelter if it hammers down but they often can be seen scratching about the place in very heavy rain. My compound has a couple of shelter areas. But I let them free range for the last couple of hours each day. Where there is tons of sheltered areas.
The eggs are delicious, although they do lay less in winter & if they are going through a moult.
But I wouuld not be woithout my girls. Ever. Jane & co
--- In CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com, "S.F." <ancientscribe@...> wrote:
>
> Out of curiosity how much time in the day is needed to take care of chickens? I would like to get a very small flock, but I am worried
> that I will not have the time to take care of them.
>
> Secondly, I live in NYS and wonder how far or near the coop should be from the house. Is there such a thing as too close? I also worry about taking care of them when the snow is deep or blowing.
>
> Frances
>
CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com
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