Chicken Keeping

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feeb

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Myself and the other half have decided to keep chickens! we have an area in the garden about 6x2 meters for a run and have a shed which is about 1m squared which we are going to use as a hen house.

We are hoping to keep 3 chickens in the area and raise them completely organically.

:) :) Soooo excited, does anyone else keep chooks or have any experience to share? xx
 
Don't buy the new camera, and you'll be able to afford an Eglu . . .

`Course it won't work much better than a shed, but you'll feel more comfortable in trendy hen keeping circles ;)
 
Hi just be aware that they will clear the area that they are in and you will end up with a mud pit what we did was have a area twice the size and change areas so it grows back have fun and there's nothing better than your own eggs
 
the shed is definatly fox proof and the run they are in will be fox proof too - we are using glavanised wire mesh for their home

i wont be denying myself a camera for the chickens, we dont really have space for them to free range so they will be in one space in the garden - thats okay if they turn it a bit strange coz nothing can be grown there anyway in the shade

Liam is converting the shed as we speak and as he is a carpenter i think we wil have a hen house to rival any bought pen :)
 
feeb said:
the shed is definatly fox proof and the run they are in will be fox proof too - we are using glavanised wire mesh for their home
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which needs to be dug down well below the level of the ground , foxes are good , indeed very good diggers :eek:
 
well the chickens will be in at night, foxes wont come here in the day we are surrounded by roads so there is no way a fox would risk coming here whilst all thats going on, we will dig about half a foot into the ground and also have some wooden boards screwed into the ground above them so that the foxes would find it very hard to dig in.
 
Hi feeb, yes I got 15 of them now and I have just ordered some rescue hens which are only about 14 months old, a bit of TLC for them girls and they wont know themselves :D Mine roam around in the bottom halve of the garden aprox 47ft x 20ft. Nothing like fresh boiled eggs,fresh fried eegs, fresh poached eggs, fresh scrambled eggs, fresh pickled eggs :(:(:( :lol:
 
Ours wont have that much space unfortunatly as we only have a little bit of garden for them - they will be well fed and well looked after though i can promise that!

should make some great pictures too!
 
We got four ex-batts this time last year but unfortunately the last one died three days ago, they were in a dreadful state when they arrived but soon perked up, we lost two to a fox a few months ago, the third to an illness and the final one just dropped dead. We've also got a French Bluebell and picked up a Buff Orpington today who is settling in. Ours are in a run which others have said turns into a mudbath in no time at all, when I do the weekly clean out of the hen house I put down the cleanish straw in the run, two reasons for this - it helps with the mud and the chooks love scratching around in it. We let ours into the garden for the last couple of hours of daylight although we don't do this in late spring/early summer as they eat absolutely everything and all the plants get destroyed.

They are great company, very funny to watch and the eggs are fantastic, we keep a bag of frozen sweetcorn in the freezer and give them some of it every couple of days which they love and it gives beautiful golden yolks. Another treat they go mad for is mash potato (I always make a bit extra) and I mix this with porridge oats, a few peas/sweetcorn and some oystershell grit for their shells. This is just an occasional treat as we usually feed them layers pellets to encourage egg laying.

Hope this helps and enjoy them!

:thumbs:
 
We have just started keeping chickens. We just have four at the moment. I built the shed and a small enclosed run and I am going to add a larger open run for daytime use.

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Hacker said:
Another treat they go mad for is mash potato
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I gave ours some left over mushy peas last week. They loved it! They also like spaghetti.



Steve.
 
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Joe T said:
I may have had a beer or two, but Im sure there's at least four of that picture Steve...:lol:
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Try again. I had to edit the post with 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 in the file names. I clicked 'submit' too early!


Steve.
 
some great tips here about mash and eggs, we are building our chicken coop right now and i will be photographing our progress - hopefully we will have a nice set of pictures to remember the build :)
 
It's not too late to sow salad leaves, curly kale etc for them (and yourselves).
 
Oh we have a great deal of work to do before the ground can be used for food, my house is right on a hill so the back yard is in two layers, the first filled with rubble so that the house doesnt fall into the hill

we are going to dig out a few inches of rubble and probably buy some soil to fill the gaps, then i am going to cover the area with an old mattress and make sure the weeds arent returning,

whilst doing all this i will begin my composting bin, its got to be a sealed one as we only have a very small garden and want to make the most out of the space that we have, 5/6 chickens in the bottom and enough space for a decent sized veggie patch at the top, we will also be buying window boxes for herbs and some large pots for growing things like onions, garlic and other herbs on top of the wall

Very exciting times but alot of work, the chickens will help obviously coz chicken poo is FABULOUS for composting but its going to be February before we are ready to do much else
 
I've currently got 9 big chickens (three hybrids and 6 ex batts), plus 12 various bantams (pekins, brahma, poland and sussex) and 7, 5 week old chicks (Cuckoo and Blue Orpington, Barnvelder and Speckled Sussex.)

You'll totally love the eggs and they are wonderful characters! Good luck with them!
 
feeb said:
Myself and the other half have decided to keep chickens! we have an area in the garden about 6x2 meters for a run and have a shed which is about 1m squared which we are going to use as a hen house.

We are hoping to keep 3 chickens in the area and raise them completely organically.

:) :) Soooo excited, does anyone else keep chooks or have any experience to share? xx
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Kept a few chickens in the fridge. They were a bit boring. Just sat there, lifeless.
 
Well I have a different opinion on keeping hens!.

I live in the countryside and have kept geese, ducks, and hens in the past, here is my two pen'th.

Do make sure that the run is fox proof and locked up as the wily old fox will not be put off by time of day, traffic, or anything else for that matter especially if he is feeding cubs, he will dig to whatever depth it takes to get at them if he is desperate enough, and if he does manage to get in he will kill the lot before running off with just one!.

If you live near water like I do wild Mink are one of the deadliest and quickest killers of them all, I spotted one making for the hen house and in the time it took me to grab the rifle and get there he had killed a good few of them with a nip to the neck! and ran off. I did get my revenge a few days later as their inquisitiveness is their downfall.........he popped his head up while hiding in my log pile to see what I was doing and bang!! that was the end of him:D

Some hens if they accidentally break one of their eggs will get a taste for them and eat them. .

If you have jackdaws in the area, and who hasn't, watch out for them, if they are able to gain access they will also steal the eggs.

And finally, what made me give up keeping poultry was that they attracted rats, no matter how clean you kept the place.

If ever you find any headless chickens (the real type :D) blame that on the rats as that is the easiest part for them to bite off the bird and remove to their nest!.

This is just my own personal experience folks, I found keeping them more bother than they were worth. :shake:.

But, lots of people can and do enjoy a trouble free time keeping them, so don't let me put you off:lol:

And if someone ever mentions they are thinking of keeping goats..............:D
 
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Steve Smith said:
I gave ours some left over mushy peas last week. They loved it! They also like spaghetti.

They will eat anything!!, including any young fledgling unfortunate enough to land in the run!!.


Steve.
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Woot! the first of the chooks are in!

Have already had one egg too how nice is that! they seem to be settling in fine, wonder how they will react to the rest of the flock turning up tomorrow!
 
The chickens have arrived!!! i have no camera at the moment but have borrowed a friends PnS for a few days to document the ladies :)

will pop up piccies when i can :)
 
We have three rescued hens... as others say, tatty and scared to start with, but that soon changes! You might not get any/many eggs to start with.

I really, really suggest some kind of of hard surface for your run, because they dig like they are cast members from the Great Escape!

Great fun though, they are real characters - I've stuck a few photos of our three up on here from time to time.
 
I have a few hens and I keep pygmy goats! There is nothing like your own fresh eggs - you'll never buy eggs in a shop again! I don't think they're much trouble to look after at all. Biggest problem is when you go on hols.
 
actually its been six hours and we already have an egg :) and in the nest box too which is pretty fantastic from a ex batt - shes a good chicken martha and i hope shes with us for years to come :)
 
Congratulations!!

We have 27 birds.... (Apologies for the spellings - my wife is the eggspert)

- 1 Goose (lost one to a virus a few weeks ago)
- 6 Aylesbury ducks
- 5 Indian runner ducks
- 3 Whitestars (lost one to a virus)
- 1 Light sussex
- 2 Wellsummers
- 2 Legbars
- 1 Bluebell
- 2 Cuckoo Morans
- 2 Corals
- 2 Speckledey's

We have a large non-fox proof enclosure with 3' high chicken wire held in place with tree stakes. The chickens can jump that so they have the run of the garden during the day. The ducks stay in, as they are very very messy little buggers. We have 2 smaller enclosures for night - with 6' high chicken wire that I've dug down about 4" into the ground. All three houses are fox proof.

One tip? - Mealworms. They're expensive, but all our birds come rushing over now once they see the tin. They perch on arms, legs, heads - just about anything to get that lovely protein. Live is best, but dried is easier to get hold of and lasts longer.

And the eggs...

Well...

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Yum.

-H
 
wow you must eat TONNES of eggs! all different colours too which is just lovely

i have finally taken some photos of my girls but with a point and shoot - so they arent wonderful and it was very dusky when i took them

you can have a look here :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fibi3b/

if you fancy xx
 
Amazing how many of us here keep hens - you can get advice on anything on this forum!! :D
 
feeb said:
three of my chickens are just lying down... is this normal?
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can be, ours have a habit of "sunbathing" when it's warm.

Six in total, totally free range, they've got a shed they go into at night but apart from that they've got the run of the place, about 10 acres plus woods. It can be "fun" following to find out where they're laying their eggs though :bang:
 
feeb said:
wow you must eat TONNES of eggs! all different colours too which is just lovely

i have finally taken some photos of my girls but with a point and shoot - so they arent wonderful and it was very dusky when i took them

you can have a look here :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fibi3b/

if you fancy xx
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Yep. We're getting around 9-10 eggs a day now and are easily selling our surplus to neighbours. So far our window cleaner does the job for free in exchange for 2 dozen duck eggs, (nice for him). Next summer, all the birds should be firing on all cylinders, so we should be able to cover the feed costs and start to recoup the costs of all the chicken wire.

The chickens love dust baths, and it's (apparently) the sign of a happy chicken, so we're content to watch our Whitestars turn to Brownstars knowing that we're getting "happy eggs".

-H
 
i hope mine are happy i really do - we have been trying to keep them amused and when i return from the shops i will give them some corn to eat :) :)
 
You should name them. Apparently it helps settle them and increases production.














Our's are called curry, fricasse, broth, tikka, pie and burger :D
 
We Have 38 Chickens and picking up 18 more next week, have a massive area for the which we can split off when it gets too muddy.

Great Animals and not lots of looking after. We sell the eggs in our local and the money goes into a pot and at the end of the year open it and it goes towards spends on our holiday

Kirk
 
I have named them all - we waited for the names to come rather than forcing them

Martha
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Beryl
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Pox and Martha
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Esmarelda
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Esmarelda, beryl and pheonix on the right
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the back of the elusive Mo
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Obviously my photos will improve when i have my own camera again and also when they get to know me a bit better!!

but dispite the rubbish photography - arent they cute?? xx
 
Esmarelda is pretty - what sort of chicken is she?
 
Esmerelda is a Gold Laced Wynadotte - and isnt she stunning, :) :) shes the most beautiful bird i have ever seen - they have Blue laced wynadottes too which is fun!!! They are really big hens though, i imagine the eggs are enormous
 
You've got a good selection there - have just realised it was you who started the thread!

Did you get these from someone who didn't want them? It just strikes me as a very varied collection for day one :)

A tourist attraction I used to help out at had some Buff Orpingtons that used to wander around, but they got too big and aggressive - they were bigger than small children and used to like to mug people for food, so they had to go :(

Our three hybrids here keep getting bolder and bolder though, I've kept a lot of aviary birds in the past and never imagined chickens would be as brave as they are.
 
desantnik said:
You've got a good selection there - have just realised it was you who started the thread!

Did you get these from someone who didn't want them? It just strikes me as a very varied collection for day one :)

A tourist attraction I used to help out at had some Buff Orpingtons that used to wander around, but they got too big and aggressive - they were bigger than small children and used to like to mug people for food, so they had to go :(

Our three hybrids here keep getting bolder and bolder though, I've kept a lot of aviary birds in the past and never imagined chickens would be as brave as they are.
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we just got a mix of the funkiest ones we could see on the rare breeds farm! we did get one that lays blue eggs and two good brown egg layers - but really we just want happy, colourful chickens :)

and they are all happy, no fighting as such, all getting on and happy with the organic feed i have been giving them - Loving it :)
 
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