chooks

lostinrates

Locally layer's pellets range from £6 (farm supplies own) to £10 pounds (organic branded). How much we use depends on time of year and what else. I strongly advocate using a prepared pellet to form the majority of the diet. Ours are supplemented with corn, the occasional meal worm, appropriate scraps and the occasional mouse when they mug the cats on return from hunting.

You need a stout dish (I recommend heavy ceramic dog bowls) for oyster shell. My birds prefer litter trays for water to proper waterers but have their pellets from proper feeders.

You need bedding....some people spend a fortune on this....I bed on shavings through summer and straw through winter. (what we have in anyway).

They need somewhere well ventilated but draught free to sleep ...they don't care if its a twee little house or a shed, so long as its safe dry and meets their needs to perch and lay. One of mine lays in a cardboard box ATM, another in the hay barn.

I recommend having three as a minimum number: it means if something happens to one there isn't a lonely chicken.

I do not think my eggs are cheaper than shop bought, but they are the BEST quality. Sometimes, when we are low on eggs we buy the BEST eggs at the supermarket and crack one of ours and one f theirs...and ours win hands down.

I think being relaistic is important. Hen keeping is fun, rewarding and not hard BUT its not foreverybody. If part of the motivation is better welfare for your egg supply, that means providing it...making sure you can respect the diurnal ryhthms, social and space requirements.

stumpycat

Some other stuff I've thought of - look at alternative bedding sources. We use Hemcore ( like big sawdust. but made of hemp) or another one made of oil seed rape stalks (can't remember the name, sorry) but we get them from an agricultural supplier. It costs around £11 for 20 kg and that lasts for ages . That's where it's the hens also love laying their eggs in the plastic bag. :eek: At first I would close the bag up, but they would still break into it!
That's also where a shed comes in useful - our hens have a raised coop & plenty of space for storage and for them to wander around underneath.

This is the set-up we had - the run has been made a lot bigger, but for a while the hens were very nervous of any large spaces... you can see one of the local foxes passing by here:

OK_Sauce

Have you seen this thread?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3098480

spirit

thank you for all your ideas and suggestions. I'm really looking forward to getting some feathered friends now!

ScratchandSniff-->[X]

stumpycat wrote: »

or another one made of oil seed rape stalks (can't remember the name, sorry)

Nedz? Bliss? Useful for chicks too.