Chickens - advise please.
Discussion
Right, it's nearly chicken o'clock (and no, not for Sunday dinner).
The garage right at the bottom of my garden is going to house the little cluckers, so....
1) How many chickens?
2) Should I consider some rescued battery hens? (as well as a couple of 'fancy' birds)
3) How high should the fence be outside?
4) What perches/nest boxes do I need to construct in the garage?
Anyone else got any chickens? Show us your set-up?
The garage right at the bottom of my garden is going to house the little cluckers, so....
1) How many chickens?
2) Should I consider some rescued battery hens? (as well as a couple of 'fancy' birds)
3) How high should the fence be outside?
4) What perches/nest boxes do I need to construct in the garage?
Anyone else got any chickens? Show us your set-up?
JCB123 said:
1) How many chickens?
2) Should I consider some rescued battery hens? (as well as a couple of 'fancy' birds)
3) How high should the fence be outside?
4) What perches/nest boxes do I need to construct in the garage?
1) How many eggs do you want. point of lay pullets will lay an egga day for a year or so, then slowly tail off over the next couple of years. However, people will always want proper free range eggs, my wife's 7 chickens paid for themselves several times over by her selling the eggs for £1 per half-dozen box.2) Should I consider some rescued battery hens? (as well as a couple of 'fancy' birds)
3) How high should the fence be outside?
4) What perches/nest boxes do I need to construct in the garage?
2) POL pullets lay better but will cost a few quid each, rescued battery ones have passed their best but the egg quality will be no worse and they're cheaper. I'd go with POL birds for the cost difference these days (I used to be able to get as many ex-battery birds as I wanted for free, there's now a market in them).
3) Are you keeping them in or predators out? Keeping them in, 4' high and clip their wings. Predators out, bury the wire and have it hich enough to stop a fox (or do what we did and buy electric fencing, but we already had the energiser for the pig fencing).
4) Perches for them to roost on off the ground (2" by 1" baton with smoothed off edges is ideal, hang it with chains from the ceiling 3' off the gorund)and a couple of next boxes per 2 or 3 birds is plenty.
HTH
BoRED S2upid said:
As for the fence I don't think its how high but how deep! a small holding by me has free range chuks and they allways dig under the fence and run around the lanes and get chased by my dog.
I'll sink the chicken wire into the ground a foot probably - but they'll be able to wander around the bottom of the garden when we're about anyway.BoRED S2upid said:
How big is your garden?
Massive!We have 5 , providing about 30 eggs a week.
They have a small house which is in the middle of a 1m high net compound about 25 x 20 m , which is an electric fence , no power to it though
Theyt have clipped wings , but every now and then , one will seek to escape and taunt the others from under the bird feeder .
In the winter we let them roam the entire garden , but they are so desatructive to flower beds etc you will want to confine them to a particular area once plants start to show.
They will dig holes wherever and just scratch wherever they feel is best foraging .
We lock ours up at sunset and let them out whenever we get up , normally about 1/2 hour after first light , just o avoid Mr Fox.
Whatever you do with them , they will provide more fun and laughter than ypou can imagine.
Tips for treats , spaghetti , cheese and rice .
They have a small house which is in the middle of a 1m high net compound about 25 x 20 m , which is an electric fence , no power to it though
Theyt have clipped wings , but every now and then , one will seek to escape and taunt the others from under the bird feeder .
In the winter we let them roam the entire garden , but they are so desatructive to flower beds etc you will want to confine them to a particular area once plants start to show.
They will dig holes wherever and just scratch wherever they feel is best foraging .
We lock ours up at sunset and let them out whenever we get up , normally about 1/2 hour after first light , just o avoid Mr Fox.
Whatever you do with them , they will provide more fun and laughter than ypou can imagine.
Tips for treats , spaghetti , cheese and rice .
Use chicken wire to keep hens in. Weld mesh to keep foxes out.
We started with ex-bats but they never really recovered and looked sad right up to the days they keeled over, plenty of eggs though
Now we have 5 hens bought as POL and one acquired as a chick from our grandson's biology class. Different hens lay different coloured eggs. We get one large white, one jade green, one that is the colour of coffee granules and the other three are ordinary "brown" eggs.
We also have a Bantam cock - Charlie!
We started with ex-bats but they never really recovered and looked sad right up to the days they keeled over, plenty of eggs though
Now we have 5 hens bought as POL and one acquired as a chick from our grandson's biology class. Different hens lay different coloured eggs. We get one large white, one jade green, one that is the colour of coffee granules and the other three are ordinary "brown" eggs.
We also have a Bantam cock - Charlie!
Mark Benson said:
JCB123 said:
1) How many chickens?
2) Should I consider some rescued battery hens? (as well as a couple of 'fancy' birds)
3) How high should the fence be outside?
4) What perches/nest boxes do I need to construct in the garage?
1) How many eggs do you want. point of lay pullets will lay an egga day for a year or so, then slowly tail off over the next couple of years. However, people will always want proper free range eggs, my wife's 7 chickens paid for themselves several times over by her selling the eggs for £1 per half-dozen box.2) Should I consider some rescued battery hens? (as well as a couple of 'fancy' birds)
3) How high should the fence be outside?
4) What perches/nest boxes do I need to construct in the garage?
2) POL pullets lay better but will cost a few quid each, rescued battery ones have passed their best but the egg quality will be no worse and they're cheaper. I'd go with POL birds for the cost difference these days (I used to be able to get as many ex-battery birds as I wanted for free, there's now a market in them).
3) Are you keeping them in or predators out? Keeping them in, 4' high and clip their wings. Predators out, bury the wire and have it hich enough to stop a fox (or do what we did and buy electric fencing, but we already had the energiser for the pig fencing).
4) Perches for them to roost on off the ground (2" by 1" baton with smoothed off edges is ideal, hang it with chains from the ceiling 3' off the gorund)and a couple of next boxes per 2 or 3 birds is plenty.
HTH
They'll be shut up in the garage (old timber shed really) during the night, the fenced area will be post and chicken wire style, so I can reposition it every couple of months.
The garden is circa 150 metres long divided up into various sections, they'll have the very end, about 25-30 metres, but they'll not have it all at once....I'll move their run around to let the grass recover.
I'll do the fence at 4' then - they come from the shop (?!) with their wings clipped anyway.
Excellent - looking forward to it.
netherfield said:
ChrisnChris said:
Don't get any cockerels...........
Unless you want to eat them.Some kind soul left us 3 in a box by the gate once, Grey Bantams, very attractive & very noisy. We gave them to a friend, 3 days later we had to take them back
.....they went to an animal refuge type place.JCB123 said:
RVVUNM said:
Be warned, you have chickens - you have rats. Apart from that they will bring lots of eggs and are fun to watch.
We have rats and foxes and owls and badgers and cats down the bottom of the garden anyway - but I'll set some traps up as well.Thanks for the heads up!
Bear in mind when you first get them (and proper livestock market is the place, provided you're prepared to look a bit of a berk trying to catch them as - unless you've planned ahead - you've probably never caught a chicken before) they need a little bit of time to settle in. The first and only time any of ours have ever flown out of the run was the first night. Should have followed the advice of others and kept locked them straight in the coop until morning but Mrs LT wanted to see them being all chickeny.
You may find as well that if they stay close to the coop that they'll decimate your lawn (and any other greenery) quicker than you can imagine.
At one point we were at about an egg per bird per day (which was a lot of eggs!), now down to probably 2 eggs per bird per week.
Don't forget water/feed/grit dispensers - farm supplies places are probably your best bet.
If you are looking for a nest box why not look at www.chickbox.co.uk - its not dodgy despite the possible connotations.
The worlds only bespoke nest box - easy clean - and it works.
I have an interest as its made by my employers - but its already selling worldwide.
We will also shortly be launching a plastic coop.
The worlds only bespoke nest box - easy clean - and it works.
I have an interest as its made by my employers - but its already selling worldwide.
We will also shortly be launching a plastic coop.
JCB123 said:
Right, it's nearly chicken o'clock (and no, not for Sunday dinner).
The garage right at the bottom of my garden is going to house the little cluckers, so....
1) How many chickens?
2) Should I consider some rescued battery hens? (as well as a couple of 'fancy' birds)
3) How high should the fence be outside?
4) What perches/nest boxes do I need to construct in the garage?
Anyone else got any chickens? Show us your set-up?
We have 4 Chickens, a Light Sussex, 2 Rhode Island Reds and a Barnevelde. These are pure breeds so we get less eggs that you would from rescued battery hens which are designed to lay 1 egg a day. We get betweeen 2-4 eggs a day which is plenty for us. A friend who has 4 resuced battery hens gets 4 eggs almost every day.The garage right at the bottom of my garden is going to house the little cluckers, so....
1) How many chickens?
2) Should I consider some rescued battery hens? (as well as a couple of 'fancy' birds)
3) How high should the fence be outside?
4) What perches/nest boxes do I need to construct in the garage?
Anyone else got any chickens? Show us your set-up?
Our fence is electric and about 4 foot high. The chickens can fly over it into the garden and have a nose round when they fancy it but always go back into the pen on their own accord. I live on the edge of a wood with foxes but so far (have had chickens for over 2 years) we have not lost a chicken. We have 2 dogs, so maybe they scare the foxes off.
We have a standard ark which can take up to 10 chickens, and an old wire thing we found in the shed for them to use as a perch.
Somebody said they will be the most expensivee eggs you will ever have, which is true, but they will also be the best tatsing!
The only problem I have is keeping the bloody magpies away from their food.
This is our set up:-
I agree with Willy Nilly - the most expensive eggs we've ever had. Right now we are just waiting for them all to keel over. We've only got 2 and a cockerel left now but we did have 6 + 1 in an area similar to flyingjase. We have a 4' fence with an electric strand about 4" off the ground round the outside.
No rats (I think the cockerel would kill them anyway) but a few mice that you usually find when you take the lid off the feed trough and there they are laughing at you.
Mike
No rats (I think the cockerel would kill them anyway) but a few mice that you usually find when you take the lid off the feed trough and there they are laughing at you.
Mike
LooneyTunes said:
proper livestock market is the place
I disagree, a decent local breeder is the place. All sorts of potential problems buying your first birds from a market, a good breeder will be also be able to answer questions once the birds are home.
We had rats the year we moved in (but we also has pigs and sheep so there was a lot of feed stored around the place) and I was constantly poisoning, but from year 2 onwards we had a family of stoats under an old outbuilding and for the price of the odd egg, they kept the rat population down completely.
Someone also mentioned wire as a perch - it's not good for their feet to be perching on wire, ideally they need a perch that supports the majority of the foot but that they can grip with their claws - a baton about 1"x1.5-2" is about right, each bird will need about 8" in width. Battery birds are kept on wire (I used to work on a battery farm) but only so the sh!t drops through under the unit and can be shoveled out mechanically.
They can make a bit of a mess of the garden, the tastiest bugs are always on the bits of your garden you want to keep looking the best - I always found that they liked dust bathing exactly where the best plants grew, we put a tray of sand in the sunniest place we could find and they used that instead, it also proved useful for applying mite powder (just mix it with the sand and they apply it themselves).
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