Chickens

I've just got some. Can't stop watching them. They are rather fun.

24 hours in and two out of the four have laid already :O)

Happy days.

Tim

What's your preferred fox deterrent method?

great aren't they! although they will quickly **** your garden up if you let them free range 🙁

Ours are in a decent sized run but would clearly like to be out scratching about, just threw a sack of bark in there and they are loving that.

are you going to name them … tikka , jalfrezi , korma and vindaloo 😆

My 3 are absolute egg machines! 3 eggs a day, almost without fail… even all the way through winter!

They are starting to piss me off a bit though; mostly in that I have to consider them when I want to go on holiday – arrange people to feed them etc.

Very fun to watch though, better than telly :o)

Dave

Fox method at present is locking them up at night and hoping for the best. The ark is secure with wire allround so it would take a determind Fox. They are also in a fenced off run but that would be easy enough for a fox to jump into if it wanted.

They are doing a good job of turning over a raised area of the back garden. Bet they'd love to roam over the veg beds! Going to do the bark later this week. Got some for free but I need to go and collect it.

Waddle, Rusty, Ethel and Maude. (Rusty was my sons choice, the rest were pre-named)

We are the second owners due to someones change of circumstances. They were upset to see them go but will be visiting often.

Do Margo and Jerry live next door now Tom, sorry Tim?

:O)

Thank you Luke!

listen as well, the constant chatter they have is a great noise

Indeed they do. They are dust bathing at the moment.

Bark – commonly recommended not to use bark and instead to use wood chips as bark can contain fungus.

just googled "bark for chicken runs?" it, bugger, better scrap it out tonight and chuck it on the garden and get some woodchips.

Still they've had 8 months since we rescued them as ex battery's, better than most of their bretheren.

Or sistren even?!

Our chicken coop a couple of weeks ago 🙁 …….

They were living on borrowed time 'cos it wasn't the first time my son forgot to lock them up at night.

BTW Timbur, are you still pulling pints in the Arms? We'll be up for my sister's wedding after Easter and are staying just across the road from your pub. Please ensure that you order some extra casks of Harveys for early May. We'll talk chickens then 😉

Keep them hens secure.

Thats poo fella.

Left the Arms before Christmas as the Mrs took a full time job that was earning more money than I could in the pub. I needed to get out :O)

I don't think the quality of the beer will have changed though. Still good when I popped back in a few weeks back.

Email me if you want to go riding when your back. Might be able to duck out for a few hours :O)

Email me if you want to go riding when your back. Might be able to duck out for a few hours :O)

Pun intended?

I'm not coming from home but from Italy so might not have a bike with me. I'll see if I can shoehorn one into the back of the car. Might be rigid folder with slicks though.

I try!

See what you can do. I'm child care 3 days a week but have 2 days to fill (and avoid diy!)

Tim

You just need one of my spare cockerels now….. cheaper than an alarm clock and never fails to go off on time/fail due to power cut, etc.

This has motivated me! My 4 chickens arrive by the weekend! I can't wait and the kids change their names on a daily basis, we're very excited 🙂

We're vigin chook keepers, any tips greatly received!

What are you getting? Ex-batts are funny when they 1st arrive – no idea what to do with all the space but soon learn.

teagirl, don't be too worried if they don't start laying immediately… mine didn't lay in the first 3 months that I had them – now I couldn't stem the flow if I tried!

Oh, and you'll get over poo squeamishness pretty damn quickly!

Dave

we've had ours (5) since last summer most days we get 5 egg without fail even when the dogs have been chasing them round the garden !
Garden has suffered tho 150ft x 18 ft of lawn completely stripped of grass ! they get 4-5 hrs of free roam in the garden a day.

You'll also find they are really nosey, given the chance they'll come in the house and explore !

We've found them before making there way upstairs when the back door has been left open.

They're not bothered about 2 big dogs loose in the garden ! or a 3 year old ! he's our best chicken chatcher !

Good luck you'll love them !

We have a pair of Warren's and My God have they trashed our lawn! Two eggs a day, pretty much without fail. As yet no vermin problems although I have had a cat looking pretty interested.

We have 6. They range up to about 300 metres away. If I were you I'd get an automatic door closer. We have had ours 4 years and it's never failed. The fox has never got near our girls at nighttime although we have lost two in broad daylight once. This despite there being foxes in the woods & we've seen them out plenty.

C

The other thing is get the man of the house to pi$$ around the hen-house. It's supposed to mark the territory and ward off the foxes. Don't know if it's working but I still do it!

C

Mudshark – we're getting crossed Black Rocks and Rhode Island Reds, could've had some Marans but couldn't wait another 3 months, just 2 excited!

Alfabus – Cheers, but I'm impatient!

What do you guys use as flooring in the coop, got straw for nesting but any tips for the timber floor? And how often do you give their housing a really good scrub to get rid/reduce potential of mites etc

I use wood shavings on the floor of the house – I got a big bail from a farm supply place. I only treat for mites when I see evidence of them – I have Diatom and Poultry Shield which worked well for me when I had a big red mite infestation.

We use to keep chickens years ago but after getting rats the second time got rid of them. Must admit a fresh egg in the morning was sadly missed, though you'll soon end up with more eggs than you know what to do with 😀

Dust free shavings are best for the bedding – £6.00 a bale from the farm supplies place and lasts ages the same as they sell for horses!
Straw can contain spores and is not good if it gets damp but on the other hand if theres too much dust in the shavings it can give them breathing problems.

Thanks Leahstaff and mudshark. I'll follow your advice.
My milkman has advised me to get a terrier to keep the rats down…… so that'd be Spouse, 3 kids, 3 dogs, 4 chooks and a goldfish and what I really want is a pig!!

We get shavings from the local joiners shop for nothing/next-to-nothing.

Best advice we were given was to creosote the shed once a year to kill the mites and stop them re-appearing. What we do is in summer when the girls are out is the set to at 7am and spray the shed inside and out, especially any cracks where mites might be. Then leave all the doors open and by mid day the smell has subsided (a bit!!). The oil in the creosote stops the mites in their tracks and prevents them coming back. Once you have seen the pain caused by red mites you'll never let them even have a chance of coming back.

C

Make sure you use real creosote – hard to find?

Best to use dust extracted wood shavings as the dust can cause problems; straw is fine it's hay that can cause problems with spores.

Thanks guys, I feel like I've hijacked the thread! Ooops, sorry timbur!

I'm on the shavings case tomorrow, and grit shopping

I've got 3 chickens in an eglu, got it 2nd hand so didn't cost the earth.

They're fun to watch, my 5 year old gets his small camping chair out & sits wathcing them!

Meet my boy George. He's got free range of the bottom of our garden and a harem of 5 ladies to keep him busy.

Chickens = time thieves. Nice way to spend a few minutes and a cuppa, stood watching them rootle around…

We have 4 hybrids ( 1 Black rock, sole survivor of first intake, and 3 Rhode/Light sussex crosses ). They are in a Forsham ark, house upstairs and run below, which stands on a piece of weldmesh and gets moved to new location on the lawn every 3-5 days. Lawn gets scarified and manured all in one go and grows better than ever. We have local foxes, but with run and weldmesh they can't get in and the birds take themselves up to bed at night.

you realy, realy, realy do need one of these

http://www.chicken-house.co.uk/acatalog/VSBb_Automatic_Door_Opener.html
(unles you sit at home every evening wioth nothing to do)

C

I wish you could get an auto pop hole opener for the eglu. If I get up late, they are bashing the door down!

http://picasaweb.google.com/writetoaimee/PathAndChickenCoop?authkey=Gv1sRgCJb_wJHd48-JCw#5390396487396891122

This is a coop I helped a friend build in Portland Oregon following instructions from Chris King. It was a work in progress when this picture was taken. We had to line the base, walls and roof with chicken wire to keep predators out.

Sadly a runaway dog claimed one of the chickens when they were out during the day.