the daydream fund challenge thread

Rummer

Davesnave wrote: »

Our friend's hen, traumatised by red mites, is still refusing to roost in her henhouse and spending the night at the top of a leylandii. She came down the other morning covered in frost.

Oh the poor thing no wonder it is so traumitised!

Davesnave

Rummer wrote: »

Oh the poor thing what do red mites do to chickens?

Nasty things hide in the framework of the hen house by day, then at night, come out and suck blood from the chickens while roosting. It's then that they are red.

Regular cleaning with a biocide like Poultry Shield and a yearly repaint with creosote substitute is the way to go.

Rummer

Do they live in plastic hen houses or do they need to live in wood?

Davesnave

Rummer wrote: »

Do they live in plastic hen houses or do they need to live in wood?

Mites are less likely to do well without hidey-holes, so a plastic structure should be better, but even plastic houses have crevices.

Like spider mites on plants, it is mismanagement that gives them a chance to get going, but we're all human.

Rummer

We have an empty garden shed and I wondered if we could keep chickens in it? We could attach a run to it so that they have outdoor space but how easy would it be to convert?

lostinrates

Lotus-eater wrote: »

What's the actual title? I just looked for Backyard Chicken and couldn't find anything.

I have just found you can buy Chicken Coop building for Dummies and Keeping Chickens for Dummies. Which may be a good present for a beginner, although they are probably American biased.

We've got the former. Its....ok.

lostinrates

Redmites.....shudder.we've only had them once but it was horrid. I keep redmite powder on hand just in case, by the time you see them(I look over the hens thoroughly, not daily.) Yuck, yuck.

Davesnave

Rummer wrote: »

We have an empty garden shed and I wondered if we could keep chickens in it? We could attach a run to it so that they have outdoor space but how easy would it be to convert?

When we bought a shed, the shed-maker put a pop hole in it for free. If he hadn't, I'd have made one when I fitted it out internally. The converting bit for perches and nest boxes took me about 3 days, but I'm slow.

We prefer sheds because they are easy to stand up in to clean etc. Next summer, I might take the felt roof off and replace it with tin, as under felt is one place the mites like to hide, but we'll see how it goes. DW is very good about doing the cleaning in there.

Rummer

How much work is involved in keeping hens?

lostinrates

Rummer wrote: »

How much work is involved in keeping hens?

Not much. You need to set aside time to clean bowls etc throroughly once a week....more when they are little, and the housing. If you have just a few you can stretch times between big house cleans in winter by using the rubber glove method every morning. Once/twice a summer the whole huse needs a really good disinfect in nooks and cranies.

The tie is the daylight. There are swathes of the year where supper out is a night mare, and being home from work in time to shut them away from the fox if you free range is a PITA. Actual daily time with them can be as little as 5-10 mins in a poke. (open door, feed water....close door, check water get eggs:D) So long as you make time for the stuff on other days.

eta: keeping work down also means choosing an easy to keep and handle breed/hybrid and what's more, IMO, well bred ones. Conformation might seem gigglesome, but that prize winning hen is unlikely to have an over bite that needs trimming...

I don't show chickens, but buy in stock from people who show or have really good put together hens for that reason.