Got a small patch of grass outside our house and fancy getting some chickens. Can anyone point me in a good direction to get started? I’d like to keep things as cheap as possible, so an egloo is out. Quite happy to build a pen and house for them.

Initial thoughts:
Does the wire netting need to be dug into the ground (there are foxes around here)
If so, how deep?
Will they destroy the grass?
How much space does each chicken need? Their patch would be about 3m x 5m
Do the fluffy flamboyant ones lay good eggs?

Cheers!

They will destroy the grass without a doubt. Constantly raking at it! Boss has half an acre on the back and even on that theyve raked and turned two areas to slurry at a good 5×5 m each!

Bit of info on this thread from a few months ago…..

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/chicken-keeping-novice

Might be some help to you.

Id really like some myself but not got the room for them. Maybe when we buy somewhere rather than renting…..

I’ve got 4 hens, a cockerel and we’ve just hatched 2 chicks.
We built our coop out of old pallets and some long lengths. Cost us £35 in total.
We have foxes out here but none of got in so far.

3×5 is quite small. Ours are v.lucky and have a few acres to roam in. If you just had 2 it would be o.k. Get some battery rescues and then you know you are giving them a much better life than they had anyway. We’ve got 2 rescues and they are great layers. Rare breeds (we’ve got one, had one but it died) tend to be hardier although not in our case!

The door was broken here (really strong wind) but easily fixed with a metal bracket.

The new chicks. These are Welsummers, but we put their eggs under our Spotted Sussex as she was broody.

I would think that the space for our 2 hens is approx 3x5m. It’s plenty big enough – as long as they have room to scratch, dust bathe, flap their wings and so on. You’ll need to buy thick chicken wire and bury it deep – foxes can dig underneath. Alternatively, could you buy a small shed to act as a coop? As long as you always remeber to lock them in at night, and let them out in the morning, then you wouldn’t need to fox-proof the run as well.

We’ve lost a few chickens to the fox and I’ve now decided to stick with the cheapest birds I can get my hands on – they may not look quite as pretty but they’ll lay more eggs!
The last pair I bought were 12 months old and cost £2 each.
I made our hen house out of a pair of old garage doors, some old fence posts and a broken rabbit hutch (I did have to buy yhe onduline roof though).


and just now…

Electric netting is good if you can get it s/h as it will keep its value.
I’d suggest getting three rather than two so if one dies/gets eaten/whatever you don’t have to wait ages for another youngster to start laying.

Another great option is an automatic pop door opener. Allows you to leave them for as long as you like as long as they’ve got food, water, and someone collects the eggs every couple of days. Again, not cheap (about £100 new) but you will always be able to sell it on for almost the puchase price if you ever wanted to.

Chickens are fab.

Make their house as robust as possible. We built our own and the only time a fox has got a hen is when I left their door open a few minutes after sundown one evening. 🙁

Ours roam the garden during the day. They will scratch and make dust baths but spread over the entire garden the damage isn’t a big deal. A small patch of grass won’t survive long though. They are voracious things and will go for anything from a bug to a toad.

We have fluffy flamboyant jobs – including a huge, tame five-year old Brahma that I will miss like a dog. Those sorts of breeds tend not to be as prolific (though ours have done well – say four eggs a week) but they and their eggs are a bit more interesting especially if you have kids doing the collecting. We get everything from pure white eggs to dark brown ones.

You do get into them, I think. And I’m liking Sharkbait’s salvaged henhouse.

the only time a fox has got a hen is when I left their door open a few minutes after sundown one evening.

Automatic door opener/closer would have stopped that!!

As it happens I’m missing a hen today. She’s my favourite one too.
Very adventurous so I’m hoping she just turns up later.

I shut their run at night, which leads up to the coop. And make sure I have the odd piss up there. Locals here say the scent puts foxes off. It’s quite liberating marking my territory too 😀

I do that too. The only problem is that now every time I go near the hens I want a p1ss 🙂

Electric rope around mine keeps the foxes away; otherwise, I’d be digging a skirt of wire netting about 6″ deep all the way around.

I’ve also fenced off about 1/3 of the garden to allow them to destroy the drass there but still leave us some lawn.

Make sure you have proper water containers for them (means you can leave tem for several days and they’ll be fine) and remember that they can eat a large proportion of household food waste. Just boil up any old peelings, vegetable offcuts etc, and they’ll eat it in a few minutes. They also seem very partial to any leftover porridge.

I don’t have a coop.

I get my eggs from the co-op.

(Yeah, I’ll get my coat, can I grab half a dozen on my way out)?

I fear the worst here. Hen nowhere to be seen, 2 patches of loose feathers in the field. That must have been in daylight which is worrying. My favourite hen too, she was really friendly.

🙁

Perhaps she has gone skinny-dipping?

Yeah, down a foxes throat.

I’m going rambo round foxholes clough tonight. Avoid night rides on Chinley Churn people, I’m setting traps!

Hmm, looks pretty familiar 🙁 What a shame.
We lost a few in daylight when they were allowed to roam free. They’re now kept in but they do have quite a lot of space.

So many rabbits around here we’ve figured they’ll be fine and have been so far.
I will have to keep an eye out. It’s posting on this bloody forum, means I’m not out there.

It’s all your faults. You all murdered flo!

I’d keep them in, now the fox knows there’s chickens around it’ll be back for more. Bustards.

Got 4 hybrid hens, all good layers. Don’t let them wander round the garden cause the will sh1t everywhere and for something so small they produce a load of the stuff. Good fun to watch them wandering around very entertaining.

Most of the neighbours keep chickens too, so if a fox starts visiting one of us will have it soon enough.

On my guard for a bit though.

Just seen the fox – missus got a photo of it. It’s come down to feed on a dead lamb in the field. It’s a big fecker too. Warned the neighbours to be on look out..
We might get a posse up with burning torches and pitchforks before it has some baby’s face off.

The soon-to-be-late Mr Fox…

Looks a lot meaner than the mangey looking thing that comes through my garden most nights, the dog likes chasing it though.

Wow, that’s a big fox. Sorry for the loss of your hen. I was gutted after a fox got two of mine – I’d rushed down when I heard the commotion and managed to boot the thing, but it was all my fault. Our Brahma had been bitten on the back of the neck but survived.

Fox has gotta eat…has as much right to be around there as you and the hens!

i have 4 chickens, hybrids, as they lay the most. they have destroyed my garden, eaten all my plants and grass.
i bought a really good coop by Cocoon off Amazon. it came with a small run so if i am away overnight i can leave them in that so the foxes wont get them.

Garden full of fox poo and ark full of chickens here. Ark has run below and house on top and sits on a large sheet of weldmesh to keep out the diggers. On wheels and moved every 4-5 days. We have the space to do this.

They do make a mess of the grass if you let them and in the area you have you may just have to accept that. You could have a house and two runs and let one recover while the other one is in use. Automatic closer for the door and wire buried at least a foot in the ground.

There are guides to building houses on the net and also a couple of good books for DIY builders by Michael Roberts – Poultry House Construction – as well as simple guides to various systems – one called Chickens at home – by the same author.

He’s had a neighbours cockerel and hen earlier today we found out. We need it out of the valley I’m afraid Rusty. I would never hunt for sport, but I have no issue killing to protect mine (and neighbours) animals.

I’ve not let the cats out tonight he’s that big.