ooops i've done it again.....more chickens...

Sugarloaf

I would like to buy some chickens, but I don't know where to start. Which ones are best for laying and looking after? I love the speckled hens - but where do you buy them from and is this the right time of year?

Thanks

steady__eddie

I want some but she who thinks she must be obeyed says that I can't have any. I think that it stems from the fact that when I kept some bantams years ago at my own place, she came to visit me one day. I was building a garden wall and she walked down the path carrying a cup of coffee in each hand. The !!!!, upon seeing her, mounted an assault upon her from a southerly direction. This was in the days of miniskirts and he managed to entrap his beak in her panties. He was flapping his wings like billyhoe trying to escape, she was screaming her head off and couldn't do anything because she didn't want to drop the cups and I was up a ladder. I did suggest that she bent down and put the cups on the path but she dismissed that option.
She rarely goes past the poultry cabinet in Lidl nowadays so it must have left a lasting impression.

Triker

I too love chickens, I used to have some Pekins, a Silkie and some Rhode Island Reds, loved them all. Angling to get some more but I reckon we'll have to move house first.

It is on my priority list for when we do move though, a big enough patch of garden for chickens, OH thinks I'm mad but he hasn't experienced chickens yet.

I remember mine going demented and running the whole length of the 100ft garden when I waved bacon rind at them, they love it.

The eggs were lovely and my cat used to sleep in the hen house with them, she thought she was a chicken.....don't ask!!:rotfl:

Robinrcr

Hi there

Does anyone know where I could buy some POL chickens locally to Aldershot in Hampshire

Regards
Robinrcr

Ems*Honie

DH would love to keep chickens, but I'm worried about the dreaded (and over press hyped) bird flu, (I'm a worrier, DH isn't) Is there much danger for a contained small amount of birds? I would have some like a shot if I weren't concerned.

tomterm8

Ems*Honie wrote: »

DH would love to keep chickens, but I'm worried about the dreaded (and over press hyped) bird flu, (I'm a worrier, DH isn't) Is there much danger for a contained small amount of birds? I would have some like a shot if I weren't concerned.

There is very little danger if you are able to keep the birds under cover - i.e. in a covered chicken run that is not accessable to wild birds.

In reality, in the UK, I believe the bird -> cat -> Human chain is much more dangerous than the chicken chain. (I.e. bird has flu, dies, cat eats it, cat gets flu & passes it on to his buddies). No one mentions it, however.

lil_me

Awww wow, they are lovely, wish we could have them but tenancy doesn't allow

Penelope_Penguin

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

what can sometimes happen is that the egg with start delveloping..... lets say the eggs are left in a warn kitchen.. and not put into the fridge......

i have never heard of one actually hatching out..... but it could be part developed....

hope that makes sense....

Crikey, your kitchen must be *hot as Hades* :eek: :eek: . Chicks need a constant 100F / 38C to develop, so that's some warm kitchen :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Penny. x

mossstar

I have an orpington chick who's about 4 months old now and is lurverly, a bantam 'frizzle' (gorgeous -their feathers stick out the wrong way, she looks like a duster!) and her chick who is bantam cross and another small black hen who again is only 4 months old or so and is of uncertain heritage - all of whom have been 'taken in' by me and my 6 year old (who is fab, gets up early to feed and water). My 3 year old helps.

I LOVE having chooks. It reminds me of my childhood and they're just the nicest animals to have around. My kids spend ages finding grasshoppers and praying mantis' for them, and the frizzle hen ALWAYS gives them a hard peck and then gives them to her chick! Her chick's ('little miss sunshine' - named by the 6 year old who's never even seen the film, but inspired by her colouring) getting really big now, but will still hop up on her back if surprised by loud noises! :rotfl:

We have two 'chicken tractors' and intend on them free ranging when all the chicks are a wee bit bigger.

All this, and we've yet to have a single egg! ha ha.... we're well into autumn here now and the frizzle is malting, so it's gonna be a while.... s'worth it though. We love our girls.

xx

steady__eddie

"All this, and we've yet to have a single egg! ha ha.... we're well into autumn"

My bantams invariably laid their first egg of the year after the Christmas break on Good Friday. This happened about 3 years on the run. I thought that this was a remarkable feat given that Easter varies on a yearly basis and given the fact that we were a fairly secular family.