Old Style Book - Anyone Keep Chickens?

tenuissent

My daughter in Germany has been made to bring her hens indoors from last Friday, with large fine if she doesn't and is reported. Wire netting and solid roof is not enough, it has to be a solid shed inaccessible to sparrows/wild birds, and, theoretically, "dust". They hate it and have stopped laying, after a free range life. It doesn't seem the right time to get hens and start getting fond of them.

Kippsy

I totally agree with you tenuissent, I would love to have chickens.

I only have a smallish garden which we are hoping to do this spring/summer as it is the most ugly garden ever! That is why I don't have any already but I suppose if I was to get some and there was a bird flu threat I would probably eat them...

I don't even have any but that still seems mean.

chrislee765

Im not sure what your after for you book, but ive written a poem:

I have 4 black rock hens,
They all are really good friends,
They like to scratch around,
Digging for worms in the ground.

They cost me six pound fifty each,
From a registered breeder not too far to reach,
They are vaccinated against disease,
And looking after them is an ease.

They live in a wooden house,
Using a special powder to keep it free from louse,
When im away they are secured in their run,
When im in they're free ranging having fun!

I buy a sack of pellets for them to eat,
And frozen sweetcorn as a treat,
The pellets are organically made,
At around nine pound I paid.

I get three to four eggs a day,
With yolks as yellow as a sun's ray,
They make the perfect dinner,
Egg and chips a definate winner.

Would i recomend getting chickens,
This is where this poem thickens,
I say 'definately YES!'
But... they do make a terrible mess!


(not the shakespeare of all poems)

[Deleted User]

I found post 22 interesting. I kept hens at our last place and we had two wooden stables at the bottom of the garden. I would have put the hens in one of them but the bit about access to wild birds would have made the stable a no no as there was good ventilation all around, under the eves and also between the two. What the authorities mean is completely enclosed . That is going to be very difficult for free range farmers

An eldery chap up the lane took in every waife and stray fowl of any type and he must have had about 40. He is over 80. This ruling, if it comes about, will kill him

Sarahsaver

I am keeping my new hens - a pair of very clever and canny Welsomers - in their run at the moment. They are quite happy in there and don't get agitated like the warrens did.
Someone said you can get them vaccinated but:
How much does the vaccine cost?
Isn't a vaccine made of the virus itself?
therefore...Would the eggs no longer be organic if they had a vaccine?
I don't know what to do but they are functional creatures and it would probably be cheaper to replace them than have them vaccinated.