Chicken Housing

moggins

On my way to pick Mum up from hospital I had to pass a local fencing company, they are the kind that does 'extras' as well and in their grounds they had the usual sheds, wendy houses, dog kennels etc. Today for the first time I saw they are doing chicken housing complete with mesh run so I nipped in to ask the price which was £160, this seems like a good price to me, but the only trouble is they do not come with nesting boxes.

Is this a really good price and what could I use for nesting boxes?

Ted_Hutchinson

How does it compare with [font=Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]The Lynford £179.00 Carriage £26.00 (surcharges may apply)
[/font]You will find that they soon turn the ground in a small run into a mud bath. So if you want them to have fresh grass to peck you will need to keep moving the ark.
The problem with this is that a run of reasonable size soon gets to be heavy and you are less inclined to stuggle with it.
We prefer to give them a bigger run, but I've a field so it's no problem. A neighbour with less space has chosen the option of no run but has fenced in his garden (the bits he doesn't want pecked)
If they escape and lay out they prefer somewhere fairly private and tucked away. So you need to bear this in mind when choosing your nesting box. You could use one of those cat dens (little igloos for cats) or a plastic box with a hole in one side. Bear in mind you have to be able to collect the eggs easily and clean it out periodically so don't make it hard for yourself.
I just made a wooden box with a hole at one end.

moggins

Thanks Ted, it's bigger than that and the house itself is on little stilts so they can go underneath the house too, it seems to be almost two storeys as there is a little ladder inside too. I appreciate that I will have to move it around but it's either have the run or have my veggie garden wrecked and unfortunately there are too many places that they could escape from in my garden, one being a very large gap between my gatepost and next doors garage.

It does seem to be a very good buy at £160 and they are only charging £10 for delivery too

bootman

I keep my 2 girls in an Eglu from https://www.omlet.co.uk It is easy to move around the garden and easy to clean. The cleaning is why i did not want a wooden one. Look at their webiste for ideas.

There is always ones being sold on ebay as well.