Bella laid an Egg.......
Discussion
For the last year some of you may have been witness to various building projects that have gone on around the Streetrod home. Anyway this weekend has seen another major architectural wonder going up, a hen house built by my fair hands, but I get ahead of myself, lets roll back a year.
Ms Streetrod is from New Zealand and has a liking for the odd. Last year we went to the Grand Designs show in London where she spotted a Hen House built by a company called Omlet http://www.omlet.co.uk/homepage/homepage.php the hen house is called an "Eglu" Ms Streetrod fell in love with its funky styling and decided our little corner of Surrey would be incomplete without our own little flock. I on the other hand decided this was a bad idea and put my foot down.
Roll on the year and we are back at the Grand Designs show again where the Eglu has been joined by various other people selling hen houses. Ms Streetrod again applies pressure roping in the kids to help. This goes on for 3 weeks after which point for some stupid reason I say "yes" what the hell was I thinking.
Anyway from that moment on which has been going on for four weeks now all conversation seems to concern chickens. Ms Streetrod has spent every spare moment on the web finding out how to keep chickens and how to adopt ex battery farm chickens as we only want to re home those poor retched things.
During Ms Streetrods web surfing she tries to find a second hand Eglu on EBay only to find that these things are like gold dust and are very sort after. A year old example will sell for only £20 less than a brand new one so she decides to order new which at £353 is not cheap.
So last Saturday we drive off in the depths of Essex to collect our three chickens that have just been realised with 550 others from a local battery farm by the "Battery Hen Welfare Trust". I was amazed at how many people where lined up down the road to pick these things up. The chickens it must be said did not look great as they all were missing large amounts of feathers; apparently being locked up 24/7 does bad things to their little brains so they pull their own feathers out
So with chickens in hand we head home which is where my latest building project comes in. Even though she had bought the Eglu it has yet to turn up, demand is very high, therefore the hens have been temporally housed in the garden shed, which means all my gear has been kicked out
and I have had to build a run for them.
This morning I was presented by my kids with our first egg and the bad news that one of the hens was sick. Our neighbour who is a vet has popped round for a look and has given her some antibiotics but the prognosis is not good.
How many other urban Piston Headers keep hens and what have been your experiences?
Here are a few pics:
The Hens
My yet to be finshed run, great is it not.....
Thankfully this mess cannont be seen from the house
Ms Streetrod is from New Zealand and has a liking for the odd. Last year we went to the Grand Designs show in London where she spotted a Hen House built by a company called Omlet http://www.omlet.co.uk/homepage/homepage.php the hen house is called an "Eglu" Ms Streetrod fell in love with its funky styling and decided our little corner of Surrey would be incomplete without our own little flock. I on the other hand decided this was a bad idea and put my foot down.
Roll on the year and we are back at the Grand Designs show again where the Eglu has been joined by various other people selling hen houses. Ms Streetrod again applies pressure roping in the kids to help. This goes on for 3 weeks after which point for some stupid reason I say "yes" what the hell was I thinking.
Anyway from that moment on which has been going on for four weeks now all conversation seems to concern chickens. Ms Streetrod has spent every spare moment on the web finding out how to keep chickens and how to adopt ex battery farm chickens as we only want to re home those poor retched things.
During Ms Streetrods web surfing she tries to find a second hand Eglu on EBay only to find that these things are like gold dust and are very sort after. A year old example will sell for only £20 less than a brand new one so she decides to order new which at £353 is not cheap.
So last Saturday we drive off in the depths of Essex to collect our three chickens that have just been realised with 550 others from a local battery farm by the "Battery Hen Welfare Trust". I was amazed at how many people where lined up down the road to pick these things up. The chickens it must be said did not look great as they all were missing large amounts of feathers; apparently being locked up 24/7 does bad things to their little brains so they pull their own feathers out
So with chickens in hand we head home which is where my latest building project comes in. Even though she had bought the Eglu it has yet to turn up, demand is very high, therefore the hens have been temporally housed in the garden shed, which means all my gear has been kicked out
and I have had to build a run for them.This morning I was presented by my kids with our first egg and the bad news that one of the hens was sick. Our neighbour who is a vet has popped round for a look and has given her some antibiotics but the prognosis is not good.
How many other urban Piston Headers keep hens and what have been your experiences?
Here are a few pics:
The Hens
My yet to be finshed run, great is it not.....
Thankfully this mess cannont be seen from the house
Edited by Streetrod on Monday 25th May 20:28
The run looks like great fun for them 
We are not very handy in the garden or with DIY so have ordered a coop run combo from a company, thing is it won't be delivered until the end of July hence why we are not getting chickens just yet.
I have tried to convince the husband to buy some eggs and grow the chicks but he managed to talk me out of it.
Still trying to decide what breeds, don't think we will be going down the rescue route.
Really looking forward to the new venture
We are not very handy in the garden or with DIY so have ordered a coop run combo from a company, thing is it won't be delivered until the end of July hence why we are not getting chickens just yet.
I have tried to convince the husband to buy some eggs and grow the chicks but he managed to talk me out of it.
Still trying to decide what breeds, don't think we will be going down the rescue route.
Really looking forward to the new venture
Funs times ahead! Guy at work has chickens, always getting updates from his 3. Built a coop himself for about £30 IIRC. Alsorts of fun with the occasional odd egg without a shell, or a really thin shell at least. Also thought they were really ill for a while as they'd stopped laying. That was until he opened the compost bin to discovered they were liking the warm compost and laying in there! Can field any questions to him if needed, though no promises if he'll know the answers!
We got six ex-bats last November, most have grown a lot of feathers since but one is still very sad looking but feathers are beginning to appear. Egg production has dropped of recently as most of their energy is going into feather production.
Ours love various leftovers, boiled rice, pasta, potatoes. They prefer potato peelings to be boiled up first.
One word of warning. If you have urban foxes chicken wire will not keep them out. You need weld mesh.
I'll sort out some pictures and post them on this thread if it grows.
Ours love various leftovers, boiled rice, pasta, potatoes. They prefer potato peelings to be boiled up first.
One word of warning. If you have urban foxes chicken wire will not keep them out. You need weld mesh.
I'll sort out some pictures and post them on this thread if it grows.
My parents have kept chickens for years. Recently they have incubated eggs and grown them from chicks. Any questions on this and I am happy to answer them. Ill try and get them to send me pics with the new batch in. they are about 3 weeks old now.
Streetrod, is the ill chicken the one with it's head tucked into it's body? They can do this when you first get them and it could be anything from a change of water to just being grumpy at the new surroundings. They do go off lay in the winter a litle bit as well, so don't think they have broken!
Streetrod, is the ill chicken the one with it's head tucked into it's body? They can do this when you first get them and it could be anything from a change of water to just being grumpy at the new surroundings. They do go off lay in the winter a litle bit as well, so don't think they have broken!
stifler said:
My parents have kept chickens for years. Recently they have incubated eggs and grown them from chicks. Any questions on this and I am happy to answer them. Ill try and get them to send me pics with the new batch in. they are about 3 weeks old now.
Streetrod, is the ill chicken the one with it's head tucked into it's body? They can do this when you first get them and it could be anything from a change of water to just being grumpy at the new surroundings. They do go off lay in the winter a litle bit as well, so don't think they have broken!
Thanks for the advice, the ill chicken seems to be getting better, it has stood up but is still not eating, I was surprised it made it through the night to be honest as it did not look good at all. Fingers crossed it will be allright as it belongs to my youngestStreetrod, is the ill chicken the one with it's head tucked into it's body? They can do this when you first get them and it could be anything from a change of water to just being grumpy at the new surroundings. They do go off lay in the winter a litle bit as well, so don't think they have broken!
Our eglu is being delivered today, battery welfare rescue close to death hens are coming in a week. Garden has been hen proofed, kids are jumping up and down with anticipation at the new additions to the andy_s menagerie, the cats are licking their lips and Lady andy_s is already more knowledgable than Barbara Good.
Several people in the village (or 'The Shire') have them, one of my mates wives went completely OTT and now has about 12 clucking about.
The eggs are good though.
Several people in the village (or 'The Shire') have them, one of my mates wives went completely OTT and now has about 12 clucking about.
The eggs are good though.
Vron said:
Where do you buy ex battery hens from?
Try here, I think this is where we got ours from, they only cost £1 each:http://www.bhwt.org.uk/
Streetrod said:
Hey, whats going on here? Are we getting some Hen House envy here 
I will just be happy when the other half gets her Eglu and I can bet the shed back. I cant believe how popular they are. No doubt we will have a "Show us your Eglu" thread started soon.
Has she got the little one or the cube. I will just be happy when the other half gets her Eglu and I can bet the shed back. I cant believe how popular they are. No doubt we will have a "Show us your Eglu" thread started soon.CatherineJ said:
Streetrod said:
Hey, whats going on here? Are we getting some Hen House envy here I will just be happy when the other half gets her Eglu and I can bet the shed back. I cant believe how popular they are. No doubt we will have a "Show us your Eglu" thread started soon.
Has she got the little one or the cube. I will just be happy when the other half gets her Eglu and I can bet the shed back. I cant believe how popular they are. No doubt we will have a "Show us your Eglu" thread started soon.Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff