Chickens

Davesnave

Wonderpupp, you have left quite a few things off the basic list for chicken keeping, such as grit, a suitable product to disinfect the chicken house and bedding, for example. You may not have meant it as an exhaustive list.

I'd also add diatoms and cider vinegar, though I realise some will see those as extras. It depends how often you worm, but Flubenvet isn't cheap at the recommended dosage.

I'd also say that treating the house with Creocote once a year is a useful measure against mites and worth its cost, which isn't much.

I'm not picking fault. All power to anyone who can get to a break-even situation without cutting corners, but any evaluation of costs/materials should include all of the 'stuff' likely to be used by chicken keepers.

Mojisola

oldtractor wrote: »

I bought the hen house. need to make a fox proof run now ; we have seen some strong mesh at our local builders merchants and will be making one out of that. I also want to get some electric fencing ; I've costed it at £400 :eek: so need to save up for that!

While I love keeping chickens, you could buy an awful lot of eggs for £400!

Davesnave

Mojisola wrote: »

While I love keeping chickens, you could buy an awful lot of eggs for £400!

If you're a smallholder, bang it onto the list of plant & machinery for tax purposes....It moves!

Mupette

Just subscribed to this thread, would love feedback etc when i get established.

Been thinking about keeping chickens for about a year now and it's time to get into action, we have been advised that a hen house would be better in plastic as easier to clean out and deal with mites etc, so a bargain outdoor storage box from Lidl £40 was purchased and put up in November and left empty.

Checked on the box this week and still intact and ok all around and inside etc.

OH managed to make a doorway out of marine plywood from the local wood merchants, all cut offs and sold for £10, should of been over £100

he will make a door size hole in the plastic and attach new slide up door.

just bought the wire netting from wilkos for £9, and treated wood for the frame from B & Q £8.50.

I have a gravel area that was my little garden which will now become the run.

why the rush, well my lovely neighbour has been keeping chickens for years, has one left and she has just past away on saturday, had already spoken to the family before offering help and advice about her other pets (3 dogs) which is now sorted and i said that if no one wanted to have Phyllis then i would take her, so OH has been getting that all sorted, I will be getting all her bits and bobs with her (my neighbour did say when Phyllis passes on i can raid her hen house for stuff) BUT Phyllis has mites, which can be dealt with because OH work colleague keeps hens and has suitable stuff that goes on the back of the nect (bit like what you woud do with your cats and dogs)

i won't be taking anything from the hen house if Phyllis has mites, and will not get any other hens until Phyllis has either passed away (ex battery)

If i dont get Phyllis then we are prepared to get some hens of our own min 2 no more than 3.

how does that sound.

I would be buying their food and nesting mats and dishes etc from local pet store, But would like advice on suitable cleaning mats for the weekly clean.

I use detol in the home (non scented) we have 2 cats and one dog.
the dog i hope will get the message that hens don't like wet noses in their faces, the cats already know the chicken as i know they have been in neighbour's garden loads of times and i think gizmo the older cat is scared of Phyllis, Georgie the kitten (under a year old) just loves feathers, but one thing i will do is let the chicken/s out every day from their pen, with all pets locked in the house.

I will not allow all the animals to have access to the chicken/s

Davesnave

Mupette wrote: »

how does that sound.

Fine, but ideally Phyllis shouldn't be on her own, as hens are flock birds and feel uncomfortable without a chum or two. Two more would be better, especially if Phyllis is old & may pop her clogs any time.

Frontline will clear up the mites, but you could give Phyllis a dust bath in a big tray filled with dry sand and diatoms, or simply puff diatom powder all over her. I'd worm her too to be on the safe side, but there I go again, spending other people's money! :rotfl:

The plastic house and netting will need to be able to survive a fox attack, as there aren't many places without foxes. Imagine a large dog, going for it, teeth and paws flying.

Mupette

Davesnave

Phyllis is on her own at the moment, her companions have died, she is the only one left (she's not mine yet).

OH is doing the building/run for her or future hens and although a fox would have to be a high jump enthusiast, he will still build it as it we were about to have a fox invasion.

Phyllis is used to dogs and will stand her own, she can and will peck dogs that get too close after the initial sniff.

OH is building the pen with chicken wire, as its being build under DS bedroom window, hopefully any noise at night would be heard.

Perry the pup has sonic hearing, and woofs and grumbles at the slight sounds around our home.

Dust baths, is that a weekly thing to consider as well?

Spending money where it is needed is ok, in my books health and well being of pets/animals is not frivolous.

Thanks for reading so far

Davesnave

Under a window is good, especially if your son & the dog are light sleepers. My daughter is, and when we had hopeful burglars, she thought they were after her ferrets. Just one stray foot on the gravel was enough.

Those burglars didn't stand a chance! Hell hath no fury like a 16 year old who thinks some low life is stealing her pets. :rotfl:

After that, we had a tilt switch alarm on the ferret cage, not for the burglars, who never returned, but for daughter to sleep more easily.

Dust baths are more useful in the summer months when hens are most susceptible to parasites. Diatoms are just fossil remains of sea creatures from millions of years ago, but their microscopic bodies are sharp and literally sandpaper the nasty bugs to death!

Flearoy

As one poster pointed out, chickens soon reduce the grass in their run to bare soil, which is pretty unpleasant for all concerned, especially when it gets muddy. We solved this problem by buying a couple of bales of barley straw from a local farmer (£3 each) and spreading them on the ground in the run. The straw doesnt blow around once it gets a bit damp, and the chickens love scratching in it. It also smells nice. It does rot down, so needs topping up, but how frequently depends on the area you cover and how many birds there are. You can rake it out and compost it if you like. I've got 10 chickens. They roost in a 6ft by 4ft shed with plenty of perching space for them all. Their run is 20ft by 15ft. I put an old Argos gazebo with the legs shortened in the run as a sort of porch for them which provides a nice outside space out of the rain.

Chickens don't really save money, but if you keep the wild birds off their food, they can cover their costs. I put a light on a timer in the shed to extend daylight hours in winter and it keeps them laying all year round, although slower than in summer.

Mupette

thier pen will be on gravel so yes will be heard.

dog sleeps with me but when he hears noises you can hear a muffled woof from under the duvet.

I have been here for almost 2 years and although i am right on the edge of the town/country I haven't seen foxes in the garden but i have seen them out and about. Phyllis will only be moving one garden away, and so her home was fox proof then and will be now so hopefully with the cats and the dog, the fox might just give up as their is easier things to catch in the fields.

3v3

Have to echo the advice about lone chooks. They are flock, woodland, birds and keeping a solitary hen can lead to problems (yes, they have personalities; yes, they have preferances and yes, they can count and even more, they can grieve a lost companion). Nor should you underestimate your interest and fascination in chook keeping They grow on you: one becomes three; three become five (because you can't introduce a lone hen!) and then five becomes seven and so on and so on Before you know it, you have a whole flock of them - all individuals, but all a team

Dust baths are not purely for summer - I have a "dust bath" set up in my walk in run and they enjoy that just as much in the winter as summer. It helps clean their poopy bottoms, gets between their feathers and is general good entertainment/boredom reducing activitiy. (Dust baths are not just for summer/mites )

Do warn your dh he needs to build, at least, for 4 times the amount of chickens you actually *plan* on having

Do not underestimate a fox ability as high jump enthusiasts! They are!!!