CLIPPING WINGS  Wings are clipped so that chicken does not fly. This does not hurt chicken because only the feathers are clipped. These feathers will grow back and you may need to clip them again. To clip the wings use scissors or shears that are really sharp. Then trim the first ten flight feathers on one wing. This makes the bird lose balance when they try to fly.

SHELTER                    After you chick is done living in the brooder, it will need a home. Many chicken live in the chicken coops. Chicken coops can be any shape. You can buy them or you can build them yourself. The important thing is that is protects the chicken for weather and predators. It should have enough air and allow air in to cool it down when it is hot outside. The floor needs to be covered with sawdust or mulch. It should be kept clean, which is not always easy. Floors made of concrete are easiest to clean well because you can just clean them with water and droppings will not absorb in it.

FOOD            If you put adult chicken in the yard, they will find their own food. This may be grass, seeds or insects. But, they will need a lots of space to find this every day. Many free range chicken live only of this kind of feed and do fine. But, they also move around to look for food. If your chicken is just in the backyard it may run out of nutritious foods.  The simplest way to feed you chicken is to go to the store and get a bag of chicken feed. These are quite cheap and have all the nutrition you chicken need such as protein and grains.  Put the feed in the feeder (and clean it often). You can buy feed that has medicine in it to prevent diseases such as coccidiosis. This disease can wipe out your flock. But, if you do not want your chicken to have medicine, you can also buy feed without it. Some people think that store bought food may have hormones in it, but this is not correct. People stopped using these hormones decades ago. Store bought chicken feed is a good, safe and nutritious choice for your chicken.