Once you have built your Hen Houses and chosen the breed of chicken you wish to raise, you then need to ensure you feed them correctly so they have a healthy life. As you know healthy chickens produce a higher volume of delicious eggs, or if your raising them for meat, healthy chickens have the best tasting meat (and healthiest).

Just like humans when the weather is hot the hen will consume more water than if the weather was cooler. Depending on where you live you will have a rough idea of the climate at the different times of the year. You should ideally change the water twice a day, especially if the weather is hot. When you designed your hen house you should have positioned the water containers above ground level, this stops the hens spoiling the water.

When it comes to feeding your hens, one of the branded chicken feeds available from your pet store will be sufficient. The feed contains the essential nutrients and minerals needed by the chickens \ hens to stay healthy. There are two main types of feeds available; layers pallets and mixed corn. To ensure your hens get the best from their meals its recommended that you give them a mixture of the two, however different chicken owners have different preferences. It is also common to feed your hens waste food from your kitchen, whilst doing this in small proportions is fine, don't just feed your chickens kitchen waste otherwise they will not receive all of the nutrients and minerals they need, impacting on the quality of eggs they produce.

When it comes to quantity of food, a handful in the morning and perhaps a handful in the evening (per chicken) is recommended. One important point to look out for is that each hen is eating their share of the food.

The chicken feed is relatively cheap, you should be looking to spend about $1 per month, per chicken on food.