Does anyone keep chickens in East Belfast?!

oynx8us

Hi Supermum. We live in knocknagoney and have a relatively small back garden and have half a dozen layers in a run.

Pm me and your welcome to come round and see the setup and we'll give as much advice as you want, we are no experts but we haven't lost one yet.

Stephen

jtk174

I kept bantam hens quite a few years ago. I lived in a terrace house in Belfast, but it had a long back garden.
They had to have their wings clipped to stop them flying out of the garden and into others!
We built a small run mainly out of wire mesh and kept them inside it during the night. They could be heard sqawking at various times and this turned out to be unwanted attention from some local cats. It was evident on some occasions that the cats were doing their best to get in the run.
My mother was a keen gardener and she always complained about the hens as they "scratched" their way around the garden.
That said, when the hens weren't producing eggs, she got a cardboard box and put some newspaper in it. The hens would go into the box and pull the paper around them. When they emerged from the box, they left behind an egg! It was so comical to watch.

Unfortunately one night the cats gained entry to the run and we lost our hens. Mum was happy though because she got her garden back.

Have fun.

Hound_of_Ulster

Hi Supermum,

we live in Carryduff and keep 6 hens in the back garden. Bought kit from Woodpecker@work.com. Expensive enough, but then I didn't have to worry about building a hen house.

Ark suits up to 8 birds free range.

Built a run to keep them in. You are welcome to come and see if you like. Easy to keep and fun to watch. No Rooster so no great noise from them. Kids love helping and collecting eggs.

HoU :j

SuperMum2010

Thanks HoU - Ive contacted your supplier to get an idea of prices. I have seen plenty of alternatives, but they ARE expensive arent they!! I could ask OH to create something for me, but it might take a lot of time, and knowing him, and his eye for detail, it will end up being a luxy pad for 30 hens costing a gazillion pounds, when I actually only want a basic starter kit for 3 or 4 hens. Thankyou also for your offer to visit them - I may well take you up on that!!! Will pm you if thats the case - thankyou again :-)

thetope

If you do fancy DIYing it, I found this website when I was looking for something to keep our young hatchlings in until they're old enough to free range. I was all geared up to buy/build at easter when i had some buff sussex chicks hatched but a sneaky old cat foiled my plans and ate them so I never got round to it. http://catawbacoops.com/ - yes it's $19.99 for the plans, but I thought it looked very simple to build and reasonably cheap - if you have a look at the gallery section there are heaps of examples of how people have made theirs. I'm probably still going to try and build one over the summer so if I do, i'll update the thread