chooks

spirit

Does anyone here keep hens?

I fancy getting a hen house and a couple of birds just for eggs.

Any advice on keeping them at all?

stumpycat

I've got 7 ex-battery chookies through the British Hen Welfare Trust:
http://www.bhwt.org.uk/cms/re-home-some-hens/

They've got loads of information on looking after hens.
We've got a coop inside an old wooden playhouse (shed-sized) and a run attached. For 'spent' hens they're doing not bad - we get 5 eggs a day at the moment. It's not particularly cheap, but I suppose we do tend to spoil them as they had such a horrible start to life!

sirbrainy

What does each egg work out at, ignore hardware (coop etc) but just looking at food etc

OK_Sauce

Depends on how much you want to pamper them. Chicken feed (layers pellets) costs, well..err..chicken feed! Corn is also very cheap. We tend to pamper ours a bit with fresh iceberg, mealworrms, porridge for a cold winter's day, etc! I'm not sure if this is at all cost effective because we eat more eggs now than pre -hen days, but we also give a fair amount away too.

kazschow

I'm interested in keeping hens at some point, could I convert a small hut into a hen house?

OK_Sauce

Of course, the hen's ain't fussy!

stumpycat

kazschow wrote: »

I'm interested in keeping hens at some point, could I convert a small hut into a hen house?

Yes! All they need is somewhere to perch, food and water and a bit of ground. We started off with nestboxes, but the hens ignored them. Mine have actually been quite glad of the extra space indoors as they hated the deep snow and much preferred to wander about indoors.

As for the cost of an egg... it's very difficult to work out - in the winter we were only getting 1 or 2 eggs a day, but it's increasing as the days get longer. The bags of layers pellets are quite cheap as OK Sauce says, but we supplement that with cooked barley, beansprouts, cabbage, noodles etc (from Asda's reduced section :rotfl:)

GreenFly_2

a sack of Layers pellets and a couple of small bags of corn is about 7 pounds which lasts my 5 chooks about 2-3 weeks. I also let them scratch in the garden and they have a couple of small cabbages thinned from the allotment which they love. They also have grit which is cheap and crushed egg shells which are well free!

Startup costs was about 200 pound

I sell some eggs to work mates when they build up to help to offset the feed.
I get 4-5 eggs a day from the 5 chooks at the moment. The chooks are about 28 weeks old so producing well.

I hope this helps, the kids love the chooks and they really are easy to look after. I clean the coup out once a week, which takes 30 minutes. I also have been asked by one of the guys at the allotment if I will sell him some bags of chicken manure. I gave him the bags! but you could if you wish sell some well rotted manure if you wish in the local paper or to friends. Every little helps as tesco says!

Good Luck

GF

gillian62

If you get a good supplier for your layer pellets and corn you will save money - I have 11 chickens, large fowl & bantams and it costs me about £8 in layers pellets and £5 in corn for about 4 weeks. Not all laying properly yet, as 1/2 are quite young yet, but getting about 6 or so eggs each day.

I think that makes it pretty good costing over the week, but the flavour compared to shop bought is priceless!!

GreenFly_2

gillian62 wrote: »

but the flavour compared to shop bought is priceless!!

You can't beat it! I had a double yoke last week the last time I saw one of those I was about 6 and flares were in fashion!

OK_Sauce

I'll third that, there's nothing available in the shops that compare to a freshly layed egg from your own back garden!