Keeping hens?

Thinking of getting a few chooks. Any practical advice would be appreciated. We have a bit of room, about 3m square at the end of a longish garden. There are foxes in the area too. Would like to aim get about a dozen eggs a day.

Especially through the winter hens don’t reliably lay an egg a day, so you need more than a dozen hens to lay a dozen eggs.

The farm I farm sit sometimes has up to about twenty hens of varying ages and some days you might get four eggs. Also there is chicken poop everywhere and that’s with having an entire farmyard to run around. I don’t think you have enough room.

A dozen eggs a day?!

That’s 15-18 hens! If you mean a dozen a week, that’s about 4.

My sister keeps chickens; they’ve got 4 hens & a cockerel, they get about a dozen eggs a week although at this time of year that drops off a fair bit.

No idea how much they cost or anything but I know a lot of work went into buying the eggs, incubating and hatching them and building up the flock plus building the chicken run which has to be very heavily protected – they lost their first flock to foxes in spite of the protection so the current run is like a wood and chicken wire version of Fort Knox. Also it’s considerably more than 3m sq. More like 40.

My sister’s two girls do a lot of the feeding and general looking after – they hand raised the chicks so the hens are fairly chilled around them although the cockerel is a vicious bastard.

Edit. They also need to be registered.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/register-as-a-keeper-of-less-than-50-poultry-or-other-captive-birds

The coop needs plenty of ventilation and protection from the wind but not insulating.
Red mite are the bane of chicken keeping, if your chooks do get them they’re a pain to sort.
They are awesome pets and each has their own character, they’ll amaze you with what they’ll eat – adult slow works, frogs etc.
They will decimate all small animals and bugs from your garden, they need plenty of roaming space and will always return to their coop of an evening.
The one night you forget to close the door Mr Fox will pop in.
Keep their water clean and food off the ground.
You’ll get a free rat for each chicken you get.
They like to sunbathe.
Your neighbours won’t thank you if you get a cockerel.

Just one free rat? That’s just the one you see…

We currently have 9 hens and a cockerel. We have had up to 15.  In winter they moult and go off lay so we are only getting 1 or 2 eggs a day. In summer this would be 7 or 8 a day. Ours are older, a mix of ex commercial layers and pure breeds. Young hens lay more and in their first laying season will lay through the winter.

We enjoy keeping hens for lots of reasons, eggs are a nice bonus and are much nicer than shop eggs,. But If that’s all we wanted them for, we wouldn’t bother and would buy eggs.

You need a very secure run to keep foxes out. Rats can be a problem unless you are very careful at avoiding food spills and use a steel treadle feeder. They are quite a lot of work requiring daily cleaning out, regular deep cleans etc. Over the years we have had to deal with red mite, bumblefoot, sour crop, egg peritonitis, infectious bronchitis, scaley leg mite and more.

Most vets know nothing about poultry, defaulting to antibiotics or euthanasia for as the answer to everything when it often isn’t. You soon get pretty expert at poultry health yourself. You also sadly need to learn how to euthanise  them to prevent suffering at end of life.

Not trying to put you off, they are fascinating, funny creatures who are far more intelligent than their rep suggests. Each are individual characters and some are very tame and friendly. But If you just want eggs and aren’t interested in the rest, think hard about it would be my advice  🙂

I would agree about the one rat per chicken, that’s how it starts …… then you’re feeding the rats more than the chickens !

In a small run you may have problems with feather pecking, they can be brutal !

Chickens are great! We have three ex commercial hens in an Eglu plus an extension. So we’re kind of a retirement home for them but they do carry on laying as they get older, just less often.

I disagree with posts above saying rats, and lots of them are an inevitable part of chicken keeping. Rats will be attracted by chicken feed.  If you deny them access to it they won’t be a problem. We use a galvanised steel, treadle operated feeder. Rats can’t get in it and are too light to operate the mech. They are a little expensive and you have to train the chooks to use it. After that though, they are trouble free and just work. In combination with that, clean up scraps from any extra treats you give them. Collect eggs promptly. Clean up any feed spills. Do all that and you can largely avoid any rat issues.

I had a field and about 30 chickens years back, in coops in the open air so they could roam over 3 acres. They were ace – but all the above applies about laying rates and chicken poo (there would always be a contingent who would investigate the kitchen yard for dropped treasure, leaving poo in return).

One year seemed to consist entirely of an ongoing battle with a flock of crows which seemed to think that it was them that I was feeding them on a daily basis and that the eggs were a nice extra treat. I had to change everything round to get rid of them.

3m sq is way too small in my mind.  We had 5 or 6 in an area of about 10 x 10m!

Don’t forget you obvs need space for the feeder, watered and the hen house.

They are wonderful things to have and the eggs are lovely but, as blokeuptheroad said, they take some looking after, can cost a fair chunk to set up (electric fence, automatic pop hole opener?) and go through a remarkable amount of food!

Ultimately the foxes will get them and that’s incredibly sad.

Oh, and they will destroy that little patch if space pretty quickly. Obvs you could let them roam around the garden but then you’ll quickly discover how hard they are to catch when you want to put them away!

3m sq is way too small in my mind.

Agree. If that is all the room you have got then don’t get chickens. Chickens love roaming around in a garden (especially with trees, large shrubs etc,.) and we only have 4 at the moment but they have the run of the 1/2 acre garden.
If you are selfishly getting them for eggs alone just buy eggs.

One thing to be aware of is that most vets haven’t got a clue about birds so need to find one that does if you need any help or better still learn how to do it yourself (pulling eggs from egg bound chickens, dealing with scaly leg, cutting feathers around eyes for certain breeds, clipping when first getting them and so on)

They are fun though!

Chickens are great. Some of them, actually quite a lot of them, are insane – especially the more unusual breeds. They are wonderful to watch and interact with if you’re in the garden a lot. We have a smaller fox proof run, and then we let them out into the garden during the main part of the day. They do need a bit of space to roam as they are very inquisitive animals and they do enjoy ranging over a large area. Compared to the price of supermarket eggs they are cheap to keep (once setup). You can easily sell eggs to neighbours to cover the cost of the feed. Plus the eggs are 10x better than what you get from the supermarket!

As for rats, just buy an air rifle. I shot one 2 days ago but hadn’t seen one in the run for at least 3 months before that. They tend to come in from the fields at this time of year as food becomes more scarce. Very easy to keep on top of, as long as you don’t let them get established.

Not trying to put you off, they are fascinating, funny creatures who are far more intelligent than their rep suggests. Each are individual characters and some are very tame and friendly.

Oh they’re proper little individuals each with their own personality and traits. Inquisitive and surprisingly intelligent (well, some are, as with humans you get the occasional one that’s thick as mince, the Liz Truss of the chicken world if you will) and like most animals you can sort of train them into a routine. They’ll take themselves off into the coop at night, can be trained to operate a feeder and so on.

We’ve a few friends that keep them, including by nephew. I believe they do need calcium for the shells – friends who live at the coast pop on the beach and pick up the crushed shells from the shore line (the white bits on the sand). Otherwise it’s a supplement ?

3m sq is way too small in my mind.

It seems that Eglu have led the way in suggesting chickens can be squeezed into small spaces. I agree that 3m sq is not really enough, but it seems the way these days.

I grew up keeping chickens, usually 10-12 at any given time on rotation. We had eggs and meat from them, home slaughtered.

I agree they are wonderful things, and you can keep vermin in control/away, but they take a lot of learning to really understand and tend well. They also take a good amount of care cleaning up, changing bedding, rotating interesting food etc for them.

Hens are professionals at shitting and digging.

Hens are professionals at shitting and digging.

Yep. You have to sacrifice part of your garden. Mind you, our garden compost is brilliant stuff.

I had chickens (mop and bucket) housed in an Eglu with an extension. They were a joy to have needing minimal work (movign the eglu around to find them fresh space.

The eggs were wonderful and endless fun for my Lab Monty who used to shove his nose against the wire to sniff them.

I have varied chicken experience over 50 years, they are great to have but there are things to think about

Firstly 3 by 3 isn’t enough in the world of having a nice life. You’ll need to let them out during the day.

They will poop everywhere, that’s fine but if in a garden it can get tiresome. It stinks.

What will you do when you go away?

Healthcare is something to consider , look up the various maladies.

Foxes and pine martens will be after them. Be prepared

Buying eggs off my local farmer is easier

We had 2, mainly as pets for the kids and to help learn responsibility looking after them etc. They have a coop and run in the garden which is (I guess?) about 4sqm but we let them roam free in the garden most of the time when we’re around. As said above they always come home when it starts to get dark and for some weird reason they much prefer roosting on the roof of the coop rather than inside, even when it’s raining.

We only have one of them now, she seems a bit lonely which is sad but not sure if we’re getting more anytime soon… she doesn’t lay any more but is a lovely thing and very friendly.

Never knew they had to be registered, will look into that.

I like chickens, we often had a few when I was growing up, never more than 4 at a time and never roosters (noisy things). A neighbour down the road has a flock of 15 or so leghorns with 2 or 3 roosters, the volume when you’re close to one is amazing! Wouldn’t want to be their neighbours…

I have heard that turkeys make great pets and are very intelligent, think that’s going a bit far though!

Never knew they had to be registered, will look into that.

Yeah until fairly recently you only had to register with DEFRA if you had 50 or more birds. Now all back yard keepers have to do it, no matter how few you have. It doesn’t cost anything and is mainly intended to disseminate info on any bird flu or other health control measures. If it is a bad bird flu season there is often a “housing order” (or “flockdown”) where all birds must be kept in a covered run at all times, no free ranging with other bio security measures like an antiseptic footbath. Lots of keepers don’t bother, which annoys me!

I’m looking after my neighbours hens at the minute. They’re great and kind of cute and funny – but there is shit everywhere!

A couple of weeks of hens a years is enough for me. 🙂

We’ve had 3 for a couple of years – we got 3 eggs per day initially, but down to 1/day at the moment- will probably add to the flock in the Spring. We have the larger Egglu, but they have the run of the veggie patch, about 30m2 during the day and the polydome in winter.  They are a combination of mini-excavators and velociraptors – we get lots of mice which they catch, dispatch and devour in seconds. We have no foxes, but otters are worse and will break in and kill them. They get the run of the garden at times, are great fun to watch – our dogs just sit and watch – they can climb and one used to get over a 6 foot deer fence! We have an automatic door which means they don’t need to be chased in at night, but do check to make sure they’re safe.

We had chickens for a number of years.

Those saying they always return to the hen house at night – we have had a few that liked to roost up in our apple trees.
And we’ve also had some that liked to escape into the neighbours gardens, even with clipped wings they were able to fly over a 6′ fence.

We had them for years, along with some ducks. Not my idea although I ended up with a lot of the responsibilities including euthanasia.

There’s little more annoying than when your wife says “we need to get a sack of chicken pellets today. Oh, and eggs.”

But they are quite sweet. Ducklings are great!

3 x 3 = 9m^2 or 3m^2 either way not realistic for keeping enough birds for even a summer peak of 12 eggs a day.  I mean even the latter is still better than farm produced free range standard but 12 chooks will require a lot of work, a lot of shit and a not insignificant amount of feeding.

My Mum and partner rescue ex supermarket layers. Usually have 3 or 4 at a time. They arrive in very poor condition and after settling in grow back their feathers and combs perk up and they lay an egg a day each in summer months for awhile before they get some ailment and die or a fox comes and kills them. They have a caged pen of about 6sq m with henhouse but are let out to roam a massive garden most days. Pen goes minging quickly and they make a good go of destroying the garden leaving nice shit bombs hiding all over the lawn.

They are a big tie and they always need a house sitter to go away. I can’t see the appeal in a domestic setting in terms of effort Vs reward.

They are having a break at the moment after the last lot were particularly annoying. Constantly jumping on you in the garden If you were having food. Couldn’t leave the door to the house open or they would be inside. One got some weird digestive issue and was shitting out yucky grey liquid and they had to do daily bathes for it’s back end and rub caneston on it ?

I have heard that turkeys make great pets and are very intelligent, think that’s going a bit far though

Funny, i was chatting to a turkey farmer last year who said they’re so stupid that when they’re babies, you have to keep them in a round pen, otherwise they’ll get stuck in a corner and not be able to get back to the middle, and then more will wander into the same corner and get stuck too, and then they all get suffocated by the crush…

I can’t help thinking about the irony of blokeuptheroad’s photo wearing a FOX tee shirt with a chook on his shoulder…

This was an interesting series:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m001ry9t?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

Generally 1 egg per chook per day. 12 eggs a day you’d want 12 chooks.

We have Isa Brown’s. Very easy to look after. They’re friendly. We have 6 but we often take another 10 from the school during holidays. Fresh eggs are the best!

We have tiny hens. Pekins/silkies. They’re great.

we have a pair of eglus. Most of the time they’re in the red one. New ones go in the pink one with the small fence up to separate and integrate before the pecking order is established.

both the eglu and cube are in a bigger enclosure  behind our garage that is ready for refurbishment after over 10 years of service.

If you mean 12 eggs per day I wouldn’t even consider it with a 3×3 run.

I love our hens, they’re funny, inquisitive, fascinating, and thick as pig shit. But they require a fair bit of time and money. Ours are surrounded by a high electric fence, but prior to that we’ve had some heartbreaking fox attacks on some of our hand raised/rescued flock.
Treadle feeders are excellent but expensive, but still loads cheaper than the combination of a rat catcher and losing vast amounts of food to jackdaws for 8 months a year.

Even a hybrid in peak lay won’t reliably 7 times per week, more like 5/6 in the summer months.
As above, if your driver is the eggs, just buy eggs.

As mentioned lots above, it’s only worth doing if you like chickens rather than the eggs but they are all super individual.

We’ve been keeping hens for about 20 years, we’ve got 2 at the moment, a Warwickshire Bluebell and a Black Star. The Bluebell is getting on a bit now at 5, but she still lays 3 or 4 eggs a week when she isn’t moulting. The Black Star lays more, 6-7 a week in the summer, but they are smaller. We have a big oak tree at the back of the garden, under which nothing much grows, so I fenced it off and that is their domain. When flockdown was imposed I built them a 4m x 2m walk-in run using tubing and joints from https://www.themetalstore.co.uk/ and put their Eglu in there. One benefit of this is that if we go away for up to 4 or 5 days, we don’t need to get anyone to come and feed them, just lock up the walk in with a bit of extra food. When we go away for longer they go to Cotswold Chickens Hen Boarding facility.

…eglu and cube…

sorry, I should have edited that out. We had an eglu Cube for a while but for our tiny hens it was too big. Also, apparently, a PITA to clean.  My SO sold it on and got a used regular eglu to replace it.

When flockdown was imposed I built them a 4m x 2m walk-in run using tubing and joints

we did the same but bought the Eglu walk-in aviary kit. The Eglu coop + run attaches to the side which gives extra space. It’s great but I hope I never see one of those **** green clips again as long as I live 🙂 100% recommend the Eglu stuff though. We have an automatic door opener on ours although you could probably just leave the coop door open most of the time especially when it’s mild. Been totally fox-proof (touch wood!) thus far! Have seen Mr Fox prowling around on the camera but can’t get in.

Disagree with those saying they take a lot of looking after! If we’re going away we always get a friend/relative/pet sitter to check on them once a day but that’s just to collect the eggs (not really ideal for the hens to sit on them) and make sure food & water are ok.

Overall they make great pets. We’ve had a few ex-commerical but wouldn’t bother again. We got 3 last year and 2 this year, there’s only 1 left now – I don’t think they’re bred to last very long. Perhaps we’ve just been unlucky. Also, they’re very pecky and never grew out of the habit of pecking the other chickens (I guess learned behaviour from being stuffed into battery cages & needed to fight for space?) and also like to peck your hands & feet if you’re sitting in the garden (which the normal chickens never do)!

We have tiny hens. Pekins/silkies. They’re great.

they look awesome! MrsZilog is desperate for some silkies but we think they’d probably get bullied by the big hens!!

We had Pekins in with some much larger breeds. You don’t need to worry about them being bullied, more the other way round. Aggro little whatnots, especially the cockerel. He was a right prick.

Ex batts don’t live long unfortunately, mostly as they’re bed as machines and are just exhausted by the time they’re ‘no longer commercially viable’ (ewwww) at 18 months. One of ours made it to about 5 then just keeled over.