Keeping chickens...any advice « Singletrack Forum

Chat Forum

[closed]

Keeping chickens...any advice

12 posts & 9 voices | Started 1 year ago by josh1982 | Latest reply from josh1982

Tags:

No tags yet.

josh1982 - Member

I am about to become the proud father of 2 chickens. Mum is moving abroad and leaving them with me. Does anyone have any advice on keeping them? I have a large garden with mulch area where I plan to house them most of the time. I am also getting a run and house for them.

I am away often with work for 2-3nights. Will they look after them selves if I leave them food and water or do ineed to collect eggs daily and let them out to roam all the time? The mrs says she want nothing to do with them apart from eat the eggs!

Also....how can i transprt them from cambridge to durham?

Let me know if you have any experience!
Cheers!

Posted 1 year ago #
gavtheoldskater - Member

chickens are great, we have 2 and 2 banthams. be warned, as their characters grow on you you will probably stop eating chicken, or at the very least only buy ever buy free-range.

transport them in a big cardboard box with lid closed down (breathing holes don't forget).

they will be fine for a few days provided they have sufficient water and food. maybe look at getting a proper dispensor for both.

ensure the run is as fox proof as possible.

they like to be allowed out and roam as much as possible... they get into everything.

although very trendy i recomend eglu systems for ease. and also if you look on ebay the resale value is very high should you ever come to sell.

the eglu forums are also very good for info.

for chicken food find a local farm supplies outlet and ask to buy by the sackful as its cheaper by miles than the small bags they tend to have in the shop.

Posted 1 year ago #
gavtheoldskater - Member

forgot, the link is http://www.omlet.co.uk

Posted 1 year ago #
woffle - Member

keeping chickens is ace! We've gone from our original 2 to our current flock of 7 including a huge orpington cockerel.

Right - well, if they free-range prepare to have your garden dug up and plants eaten! Ours have a fenced in run about 6m x 12m and then occasionally are allowed out into the rest of the garden when we're about.

Maintenance-wise; I just check their feed and water every day, take any eggs and give them a clean out at the weekends. They really don't require much work - as long as they've room to scratch around and somewhere safe to sleep at night they'll be fine. Not sure what your area is like with foxes but it'll be up to you whether you want to shut them in at night and let them out in the morning to make sure they don't get eaten...

Re: transport - a large cardboard box or pet carrier lined with newspaper or similar would be fine - it'll help if it's dark so they'll just go to sleep.

I'd also 2nd the omlet forums though their shop is expensive for the essentials.

Posted 1 year ago #
sharkbait - Member

Chickens are pretty independent and will be fine on their own for a few days - we leave ours for a week or longer but someone pops in to take the eggs every other day.
Main things to remember are that they need food and water, there are a number of options but I use feeders and drinkers that will keep them going for a minimum of 2 weeks.
It's also best to close them into their house each night. For this I use a VSB door opener/closer which opens the door when it gets light and closes it as it goes dark. Frankly they're brilliant, quite expensive but 4 x AA batteries last 4 years (yes, 4 years) and when you're done with it you'll sell it on eBay for almost what you paid for it.
Chickens are completely stupid but fab. We've lost a few to the fox in the past and although I replaced them with point of lay birds (£10.00 each) I also bought 2 18 month old birds for £2 each a couple of months ago and they're laying every day.

We're lucky in that we have quite a bit of space and they have a run surrounded by 50m of electic netting (bought s/h off ebay) - but they trash even this area given enough time so they also get to roam around the paddocks most days if we're in.

This is the feeder I made for about £7.00

I made the hen house out of a couple of garage doors and a rabit hutch that were not being used - you can see the door opener/closer above the door:

This is the drinker (again s/h off ebay):

Posted 1 year ago #
teagirl - Member

They're great entertainers, I've just cleaned my chook shed out. Mine make a beeline for the garage door to see if open then I find them sitting in all sorts of places, bikes, open boxes, cosy holes. When we go away I ask the neighbours in and they get paid in eggs! I let them out in the garden but restrict movement when the garden starts to show life and Spouse built a net pyramid that they scratch the moss out of the lawn under, that obviously gets moved around. They are life enhancing! Enjoy

Posted 1 year ago #
sharkbait - Member

Loads of info here

Posted 1 year ago #
miketually - Member

We started with thee hens in a small suburban garden. After one died, we replaced it with two more.

Those four moved with us to our new house, where they live in the tack room and have a run off the side of it. We hatched out three chicks last year and ended up with two more hens and a cockerel.

Another of the original three died a week or so ago, so we now have five hens and a cockerel. The cockerel may soon be going to a relative who has a small holding, as he's twice gone for my youngest daughter.

We occasionally let them out into the orchard, but generally they're just in the tack room and the run.

Nothing to add to the advice above, other that to echo finding a local source of feed; we pay about £7 for a massive sack of food.

Posted 1 year ago #
Mikeypies - Member

Our chicks live in a shed we got free from freecycle and have their run defended by an electric fence. You need to fox proof their run and house as we have an electric fence we have never locked ours in as there is no need to.

Also try and rat proof the hen house (our shed is on bricks).

As for food find your local farm supplyers and buy a bag of layers pellets 20-25kg for about £8 also get some corn 20kg for about £6 and finaly some poultry grit and think about worming stuff.

If you are transporting chicks ensure they dont overheat as they will just die, we used a cardboard box with big holes they could sick their heads through.

Chicks as thick as but also bright so are quite funny

Posted 1 year ago #
geoffj - Member

The cockerel may soon be going to a relative who has a small holding, as he's twice gone for my youngest daughter.

Posted 1 year ago #
verses - Member

The cockerel may soon be going to a relative who has a small holding, as he's twice gone for my youngest daughter.

Well don't reward him by giving him a cockerel!

Posted 1 year ago #
josh1982 - Member

thanks for all the info....i am getting an eglu and fox proof run with them so should be ok in there. Will look into auto feeders and waterers for when I am away.

thanks for the help guys!

Posted 1 year ago #