Build your own chicken run/ark & adopt 'Battery Hens'

lin473

I love keeping chickens,but have not found it to be moneysaving.
Apart from the initial outlay for materials for the large run and coop we considered essential (we don't free range them when there are precious plants/seedling/vegetables in the garden as they are very destructive!We also have a fox family nearby)
One of our 4 chickens hardly ever lays - she has just cost us £27 at the vets.If the batryl doesn't sort her out we may have to pay out for expensive tests.
Wormer ,mite powder etc costs a fortune.
The health care really bumps the cost up far more than the cost of feeding them.
I certainly would not want to put anyone off,they are such funny creatures -I have never regretted having them but I regard them as pets and do not expect to break even on the cost .

Shambler

We have been thinking about this too...well mainly her :rolleyes:

What concerns me is what do you do if you think on of your hens needs vetinary attention?

Do you de-cluck it ( and roast it ) or do you take it to the vets ( possibly wiping out any profit you might have made from free eggs ) ?

welf_man

My daughter is desperate to keep chickens, but I am concerned about the waste side of things.

I have asthma, and when the farmer across the road uses chicken sh*t fertiliser on the fields it brings it on. Obviously a few pet chickens are unlikely to have that effect, but what sort of quantities are we talking? Do you have to clean them out if they're in a run and if so, is the waste compostable?

Mel.

Mojisola

Shambler wrote: »

What concerns me is what do you do if you think on of your hens needs vetinary attention?

Do you de-cluck it ( and roast it ) or do you take it to the vets ( possibly wiping out any profit you might have made from free eggs ) ?

We haven't had many problems. We twice took birds to the vets when we were inexperienced but found them of very little help. Now if our chooks don't come through with home remedies, they are dispatched. We don't cook them because of potential health risks. It's not wise to eat sick birds.

welf-man - the chicken manure that is used on the fields near you will have come from intensive systems. There will be a high proportion of sh*t to bedding and it will be very dusty. The proportions will be quite different from your hens. The high levels of nitrogen in the chicken waste make it very good for the compost bin.

The quantities of waste depend on what kind of a system you have. A small run and house will produce very little but the run will need to be moved round the garden to prevent a build-up of intestinal worms in the soil.

shirlgirl2004

We have 6 hens one of which is an ex-batt. We did have 3 ex-batts but 2 have now left us for the coop in the sky. The ex-batts did cost us a quite a bit at the vets and TBH I wouldn't get them again but I'm glad to have given 3 hens a year or so out of a cage. My remaining ex-batt rarely lays and when she does they are often soft shelled so personally I wouldn't opt for just ex-batts or you could be left with no eggs eventually.

rosymop

some times the reason for a chicken not laying is it not only needs corn / grain , laying pellets , mash but it also needs grit which is fairly cheep you just need to leave it in a dish for them to help themselves as it helps them get the most out of their food .

Gigervamp

Essexdelboy wrote: »

my camera is not working at the mo but if you want i can email you a scan of the magazine article that i followed?

Would you mind sending me a scan of the article please? My email is gigervamp AT gmail DOT com.

Thanks!

natashasprite

Hi I said I would post this on here for my sister...may be better as a new thread though??


http://littlehenrescue.co.uk/default.aspx

Quote:
Hello lovely people,

I needed to get your attention - and quick!!
Little Hen Rescue are about to attempt the unbelievable.......by trying to
rehome 10,000 hens in less than 2 months....

Yes, 10,000 hens in 2 months.....
As some of you may know, we have been working hard to empty a Norfolk
battery farm for the last 9 months or so. This is the farm that got LHR
started and where Mel's Phillis came from.
The girls in these barns have been in quite a frightful state and we have
given thousands of them the chance of a new life.

However, this farm is now closing and going into something different (not
livestock) BUT there is approximately 10,000 girls left in there. The
farmer has the slaughterman booked for the 29th June. Any girls not rescued
by then will go to slaughter, with no if's or buts and no second chances.

So.........Here's your opportunity to help! We need co-ordinators,
volunteers, fundraisers, poster putter-uppers and the like, so PLEASE,
PLEASE do what you can to help.
If you live far from Norwich, then maybe you could help with some admin?
Maybe you could raise the awareness in your area? Maybe you could spend
some time answering queries from potential re-homers. Whatever you can do,
please, let me know.
We have to cast our net far and wide now, to rehome to different areas. We
desperately need co-ordinators in Northants, Peterborough, Surrey, Kent,
and the surrounding areas.

Please you lovely lot, this is your chance to help rehome some of these
beautiful girls. I really do believe that we can pull together and get
these girls out.

Em
Little Hen Rescue
littlehenrescue@googlemail.com

Magentasue

welf_man wrote: »

My daughter is desperate to keep chickens, but I am concerned about the waste side of things.

I have asthma, and when the farmer across the road uses chicken sh*t fertiliser on the fields it brings it on. Obviously a few pet chickens are unlikely to have that effect, but what sort of quantities are we talking? Do you have to clean them out if they're in a run and if so, is the waste compostable?

Mel.

We have kept hens for a few years now. In our last garden, we had 6-9 free ranging. We had two lots of ex-batts that lived 2-5 years and a few hybrids/bantams. The ex-batts needed more TLC at the outset and didn't live so long as the others, but we didn't have health problems. Only a small garden now so we have three bantams. They are free ranging out the back and I sweep the path every day. Everywhere else, the chicken poo just rots down. Their coop has a droppings tray that gets emptied twice a week but more often in the winter because they're in longer. The coop gets cleaned every weekend. In the front garden, they have to be in a run. We've done this to let the grass out the back recover. The coop and run is moved every day or two and the poo just rots into the grass - great fertiliser. We use hemcore in the coop - as used in stables. When the droppings tray is emptied, the whole lot goes in the compost bin. It adds nutrients and helps everything rot down faster. We used to use straw but find the hemcore rots quicker. To be honest, even three hens produce a lot of waste in a small area but it's a couple of minutes a day to deal with it, and if they're on grass, it rots quickly.

Gigervamp

I'd never heard of hemcore, so googled it. The site mentions sprinkling water on it to activate it (when used as horse bedding). Do you do that in the coop, or isn't it necessary?