As the holiday season approaches, many of us are struggling to decide what to get for our friends, to show thoughtfulness and care, without breaking the bank.
This can be an especially hard decision to make if your friend is a down-to-earth, outdoorsy type who doesn’t care much about possessions. What gifts can you get for the friend who knows being outside and growing their own food is the best gift of all?
Luckily, there are some great gifts that can make life easier, or just more fun, for chicken lovers and owners. These gifts for chicken keepers aren’t just more material clutter for your friend’s home, they are helpful, creative tools to make every day with chickens go more smoothly. Read on to discover some of our favorite practical gifts for the passionate chicken lover in your life.
Water Warmer
In cold weather, many chicken owners heat up water every morning to take to their hens. Left outside in the winter, water troughs freeze, and the chickens no longer have a fresh source of water, putting them at risk of dehydration.
Even if temperatures are not below freezing, cold water on a chilly day isn’t healthy for chickens. It means they have to burn more energy to keep warm, which causes stress to their immune system.
Bringing steaming water out to your chickens every morning is a lot of work, and there’s always the risk of you having to rush off late to the office one morning without bringing the chickens water. That’s why water warmers are such a great option! There are several different designs of electric water warmers to be used in many different kinds of water dispensers and configurations.
These options include an entire heated waterer, designed to be plugged into a simple plug-in insert that can be placed in or under a waterer to keep it from freezing. Either way you go, these are great gifts for chicken keepers, especially those in really cold regions.
Chicken Coop Heater
If you want to treat your chicken keeper friends and family to a flock of happy and cozy chickens, consider this chicken coop heater! Using only 200 watts, this chicken coop heater is energy-efficient and has a built-in thermostat. It’s quite and discrete while providing your chickens with radiant heat that they will love in the dead of winter. And if you know someone who just invested in a new coop, this would be a great way to get them set up for the new year.
This particular unit is recommended by the Chicken Chick herself and doesn’t require any bulbs or lamps that you’ll have to replace in the long run.
The Chicken Swing
If you’re looking for a fun gift that’s functional, too, consider the chicken swing! Designed to reduce coop boredom, the chicken swing is exactly what it sounds like: a swing for your chickens! While some breeds might find the idea of a swing completely uninteresting, others will get a total whirl out of it. And at the very least, the image of a chicken on a swing will absolutely put a smile on a chicken lover’s face.
Waterproof Chicken Gardening Boots
Everyone can benefit from some high-quality gardening shoes, and these are such a charming option for the chicken lover in your life! Available in sizes 6-11, these boots aren’t just cute, they’ll serve a beneficial purpose for your loved ones, especially as they’re trudging through rain and snow this winter!
Storey’s Guide To Raising Chickens
Perhaps you have a friend or family member that is interested in raising chickens. Provide them with some helpful reading before they make the plunge! Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens is a book that chicken keepers have been referencing for nearly 20 years.
Egg Collecting Apron
All chicken lovers know how challenging it can be to carry lots of fresh eggs without dropping any or cracking them together in your pockets. For any of your chicken friends who like cute clothes and knitwear, you can browse a range of creative options for carrying eggs safely.
These are an extra helpful gift for children or parents. Made in small sizes, they can be a lifesaver (or egg saver) for young egg-collectors with small hands. Available from many different craftspeople in lots of bright, fun colors, kids love these cute and useful clothes.
Here are some handmade creations on Etsy. If you are crafty you could even make one of these yourself as an extra-special gift. You can also buy patterns! Regardless, these aprons are incredibly functional gifts for chicken keepers.
Here are just a few of our favorites:
Egg Baskets
Or, maybe the collecting apron isn’t really their style. Consider going with a cute egg basket instead! And when the chickens aren’t laying farm fresh eggs, these baskets are helpful for collecting wild mushrooms or edible plants from the garden.
Reusable Egg Cartons
To go with the egg collecting aprons and baskets, a simple and useful gift are these plastic, reusable egg cartons. While it is easy to put eggs into cardboard cartons from the store, eventually those cartons become dirty and have to be thrown away. And if you are not buying eggs from the store anymore, because of your fantastic flock of laying hens, then you end up begging used egg cartons from all your friends.
A much simpler option is to get one or two plastic cartons, which are easy to wash and dishwasher safe. This ensures you always have a clean place to put your eggs. If you are tired of stacking up your used egg cartons to give to your friend with chickens, this is the perfect gift for you!
Heated Chicken Perch
Since their feet aren’t covered in feathers, chickens lose a lot of body heat through their feet. Chickens like to sleep perched on a narrow ledge or beam, and in winter, this electric, plug-in heated perch is the perfect way to keep chickens warm and comfortable.
For adult hens, it may even substitute for a heat lamp, depending on the climate, which could save your friend money on electricity and prevent the danger of a coop fire from a heat lamp bulb. Wouldn’t you like a nice warm place to put your feet when you get in bed at night? Your friend will sleep better in their bed knowing their chickens are happier.
Grubs
This is a fantastic stocking stuffer. A nice treat for chickens is a packet of grubs – yes, grubs! Dried grubs are a great source of extra protein, healthy fatty acids, and calcium, and chickens go wild for them.
Insect protein is a sustainable substitute for other kinds of animal and fish-based protein and will help chickens grow strong. But the best part of this gift is the look on your friend’s face when they pull out a packet of dried grubs! Call it the gift that gives back to you, too.
Automatic Coop Door Closer
Whether you free range your chickens or not, closing the chicken coop door at night is an important step for predator prevention and chicken warmth in the winter. But especially as days get shorter, it can hard to motivate yourself to go outside in the pitch dark, rain, and cold every evening to close those chickens in.
A great invention, the self-closing chicken coop door device, comes to the rescue! This electronic solution to the dark nights and early mornings is a simple attachment to the coop door that raises and lowers the door on an adjustable timer.
A little pricier than the other options on this list, it might be just the thing that your chicken friend would never splurge on themselves that could make their lives much easier and their chickens safer! You can always go in on a gift with several friends, of course, to make this one of the most thoughtful, yet cost-effective, gifts for chicken keepers.
Hopefully, this list gives you some ideas for the perfect gifts for your friends – or maybe even yourself! Of course, every adult knows that the gifts we hated as kids, we now appreciate, so when in doubt, you can’t go wrong with a t-shirt or a fun pair of chicken socks.
Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas from the team at Insteading!
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A product which isn’t on here but worth adding is a chart of chicken pathogens. It is almost essential for anyone who has chickens as it visualizes all the different threats and makes it easier to understand what is what. It is for sale on Etsy under KMR Graphics.
what shall i get for my chicken