It must be the Tom in me, but i am really keen on getting a couple of chickens. – Fresh Egg and Mayo sandwiches Yumyumyum.

Any 1 able to offer any words of wisdom. – Probably like dont its more hassle than they are worth.

We keep them but they're not pets

but they're not pets

+1

Pet is probably the wrong word in hindsight.

Just wanted to give the impression of keeping a couple of them as a hobby / source of eggs, as opposed to a business.

They almost become pets they are very curious and friendly, ours as kids were certainly part of our pet collection. Mine had the very original name of chicken licken.

We've got 3… i think our ones are broken though; had them for a couple of months now, and still no bloody eggs!

Dave

As long as you're prepared to 'do the deed' should one of then get ill – they're pretty easy to keep
They need somewhere off the ground to roost & enough room to wander & scratch around for food
Make sure you lock them up at dusk or risk a visit from a fox

they will wreck whatever part of the garden you put them in, though.

Yup. Meet George our Silkie cockerel:

We've 6 in total – 5 girls and 1 boy (who we had rehomed as part of what we thought were a pair of girls). They're not 'pets' but the eggs are fantastic and there's something oddly therapeutic about sitting with a cup of tea for 10 minutes watching them scratch around…

Yes. we have 2. Mildred and Myrtle.

They lay eggs. My wife bakes cakes. I eat cakes.

😀

Dead easy but do trash the garden a bit. Don't have to cut lawn as often though.

+1 on the not pets.

4 x rescued hens – all 12months+ when we get them. easy to keep and quite cheap(did you see what i did then!)

we bought an Egloo – not cheap but quite convenient and secure.

They will wreck any plants they have access to so beware of the flower bed/veggie plot.

We're thinking of getting some too. Are they noisy?

Cake is also a very good use for eggs!!

The garden is already a mess, which brings me onto the other possible stumbing block – The Dog. I've read that hens can look after themselves to a cetain extent, but I'm not sure its fair on either.

we have hens – no cockerel

they arent noisy overnight, but they sometimes get a bit 'proud' when they have just laid an egg but our semidetached neighbour says he never hears them.

Neighbours bedroom is adjacent to where they are kept so i guess they are quiet.

Our neighbour's hens were noisy enough for other people to complain and get them removed. And that was after the cockeral had gone

Marcus – Oh yes, we have 2 dogs. They seem to like chicken. We now have a gate seperating chickens and dogs.

Use the void under the dining room and set up a mini battery farm. Keeps the dog out of the way, saves the garden, you get chicken poop for your veggie patch and can sell the eggs.

Everyone's a winner (except the chickens, but who really gives a **** about them)

We've got a couple in the freezer,does that count ?

I know someone with chickens. They named them Small, Medium, and Large. Then Small grew bigger than Medium and Large grew smaller than Small, or something. Anyway, it was very confusing. I like things like that

We have had 7 ex battery hens in the last 12 months NEVER EVER AGAIN there are too many problems and in 12 months we are left with 1 poor soul (called scraggy because we did not think she would live for long and she was a real mess) the egg laying for us has been hit and miss with nothing for the last 2 months.

We will not get any more exbats, but once scraggy dies we will get 5 point of lay chickens, strange realy but the garden is now empty without chickens and I would never get less than 3.

Yes I guess they were a sort of usefull pets and you do get attached to them

I keep chickens as lovers, they're way cheeper than women.

I've had 8 ex-batts – were all fine though some didn't lay too well. Still got one over a year later who is laying daily plus 2 POL I got 6 months ago.

I got a bit carried away with construction but one day I'll hopefully have a couple of dozen to make it worthwhile.

aaaahhhhh, I always love Mudshark's chickenopolis! 'bout time we had another hen thread. 🙂

and yes they will trash whatever grass or plants they spend any time on. And it is amazing what quantity of poo they produce. FWIW with a diet of layer's mix and random leftovers, our 4 ex batteries did about 20 eggs a week between them.

I have three, housed in an eglu. As pets go, they're very low maintenance, the eggs taste great, and they're a lot of fun. They WILL trash your garden, so fence off an area for them so they don't wreck everything else.

The eglu is very expensive but very low maintenance – we jetwash it once a month, and empty the poo tray out twice a week. The poo makes an excellent compost.

As well as layers' pellets, we feed ours on veg peelings, leftover pasta, bread and grass clippings.

Just make sure to lock them away before it gets dark, or Mr Fox will have them.

Lots of good advice on the eglu owners' forum if you're interested…