Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

Gigervamp

My first 3 hens are all different breeds, a black rock, sussex star and speckledy. They get on fine together.

Regarding coops, I bought the september issue of Home Farmer magazine yesterday and it has instructions for building a hen house with run.

champys

Gigervamp wrote: »

My first 3 hens are all different breeds, a black rock, sussex star and speckledy. They get on fine together.

Yes ours are all different breeds as well - wanted to try out breeds to see what's what and if some are better than others, so we can make more informed decisions in future...... they all get along fine.

RebekahR

Thanks for mentioning small with large as I was contemplating that! Would it work if their were seperate runs but they were aloud out together to free roam or should they be kept totally seperate?

ALIBOBSY

Hurrah after talking about it and looking into it, we finally got some chuckies at weekend. We went to a local (well 40 mins away) supplier who is a family run farm. They were very friendly and gave us good advice. We got the coop and the chickens plus feed/feeders/mite powder etc from them and OH got some posts and wire locally to knock up a fence to keep them off the veggies, actually quite impressed with OH's DIY skills. He put the coop together them buildt the fence plus a gate from scratch (actually buildt the gate from leftover fence wood left from when my dad had to replace some slats on his fence).

Spent yesterday watching them cluck around, loving them already.
Kids all love them and picked a chicken each, one white star, one blacktail, one bluebelle and a blackrock. DS is fascinated, haven't seen him this into anything but the PS3 and PC for ages- although he loves his bike and going out with his mates so not sat their all day lol.
DS actually voluteered to clean out the coop and did it himself, he keeps coming out with all these things he has read about chickens online. He even went out in the rain to "talk to the chucks" this morning in wellies and his raincoat bless him.

ali x

miss_t_2

Hi,

Hoping someone can help with my new dilemma, have been away due to illness and have only returned back home today. I just went to lock the chooks up and noticed Audrey has bit of weight or at least she looks a bit thinner. However, apparently she is eating a lot more than Gertrude and has a good peck about the garden when she come out (when the downpours have stopped obviously!).

They were both wormed 2 weeks ago with Flubenvet, but I don't know if she is laying, or if it is Gertrude as there is only 1 egg every other day at the moment and OH hasn't been able to catch whose been laying.

Any ideas what it could be, or what I could feed her to help her put some of the lost weight back on?

Update: I let them out earlier and I think Audrey seems okayish...could have just been me over-reacting yesterday but I need to give her a proper once over to be sure. However.... (sighs) have noticed Gertrude's comb has shrunk slightly and is a little pale. After questioning OH he told me all he had been doing was putting some vaseline on it, as it was split and horrible and he thought it would stop Audrey pecking at her. We got Gertrude from a person who kept a small holding on their farm, and she was one of about 20ish hens. Her comb admittedly looked awful, it was all split and black like it was bruised on the tips. I've been looking on the net, and it said then hens combs shrink and get pale when they are about to moult. Having had no experience of this ever, I don't know and I was told Gertie was POL, but I could have been misinformed.

OH has done a fantastic job looking after my mini zoo and myself and now I've made him anxious as well. He was more distraught than I was when Matilda passed away. So any advice on either thing would really be appreciated as I really don't know what has happened.

Thanks in advance.

Miss_T

Money_maker

Generally, hens that are laying will have much brighter, redder combs than those not in lay so would suggest that probably Audrey is laying.

Now for my question! Am getting some rescue ex batts at the weekend - 7 of them to join my current 2. Anyone added ex batts to current girls and have any advice to give? Will have some beak clips to hand in case of murderous intent but unsure if the perpentrators will be the oldies or the newbies.

Edit - just found some of the old posts re:introducing new hens. Have done this in the past but in recent times just waited until I'd lost all of them before getting new ones. Remember it being very stressful. BTW, I have house with undercover small run. Also optional 'doorwayed' run to unweathered big run. Thinking of putting my oldies in the large old uncovered run and the newbies in the undercover run so they can get to bed first. Any thoughts?

Muppet81

Firstly, well done for taking on some ex-batts. Brilliant thing to do :j

Battery hens have not been able to walk about in their sad little lives so far and so, although usually healthy, they are weak and need to build up their strength before being introduced to healthy fit hens ESPECIALLY if you have a cockeral. A newly outed ex batt would be unable to withstand the attentions of an amourous cockeral.

I work on hen rescues for the BHWT and suggest that you have a look at thier website which gives lots of info on integrating ex batt hens.

The BHWT advice is that you will need to keep them seperate for up to 2 weeks. As you are adding 7 to 2 this should help a lot.

I have a small temporary hen house which I put into the main run and section part of the run off. That way, my new ladies can see the exisiting ones and visa versa and they can start to get used to each other.

Perhaps you could put your new ladies in the main henhouse and rig up a temporay house and run for your existing girls. This may help make them less terrotorial?

In your case, you are adding 7 so they shhould have a degree of superiority. The BHWT always advise adding a greater number of newbies.

There will still be the establishing of the pecking order to go through when they all do get together but by then the new ladies will be stronger and more able to cope.

If I have had a real bully , I would pick up the bully and tell it to behave and not pick up the hen being bullied. This psychology seems to work.

I have sometimes resorted to keeping them seperated as above and waiting till they are roosted for the night then adding the new hens to the hen house, just pop them in and when they are all drowsy, they will not scrap. Be prepared to get up early though to make sure they are not being attacked too much in the confines of the henhouse. Hopefully the fact you are adding 7 to 2 will make things much easier.

The other thing is that some ex batts do not realise they should "go to bed" and need to be prompted. Especially it they are in a henhouse with dominant exisiting hens.

Seems like a lot of hassle but it for a short time and worth it to know that after a rotten start to their lives, they are now happy and enjoying life.

Good luck and happy hens! The British (formerly Battery) Hen WelfareTrust website has loads of info and should be a big help.

moominyak

... of eggs, that is - yesterday I got home to three more eggs after having already collected one in the morning before I left for work

So my girls must be pretty happy in their new digs after Battery Hell! :j

After (understandably) being a bit uncertain in the beginning, they are now all free-ranging in the back garden all day... so much so, that last week I found 7 (yes, 7) eggs under a shrub, so at least I know to check there every day as well now! Only found them after one had gone AWOL, saw her sitting under said bush and wondered if she might be laying an egg... wasn't expecting to find a week's worth though!

The dog goes in the garden with them a fair bit too (when I'm around to keep an eye on him) - he spent the first few days after their arrival sticking his nose through the mesh of the run and getting pecked at, silly thing sounded like he was being murdered! Now the novelty has worn off, he pretty much leaves them alone - there are a couple who run past him quickly, but of the other two ladies, one pecks his tail (much to his surprise) and the other is quite happy to let him sniff her bottom. Now that's just WRONG, surely!!

I wish I'd got the hens years ago, they are brilliant

Money_maker

Hi Muppet, thanks for the advice. Ours are coming via the BHWT. Just a bit unsure on this one as the 7 hens will need to create a pecking order and I thought I may be able to add my old 2 before this is established rather than go through the whole process again! Will probably have to play it by ear as I dont have a separate house or even an old rabbit hutch anymore. Perhaps I can pop them all in the house as its pretty dark.

angelavdavis

I had to take one of my chooks to the vets yesterday to be put down. This was a first for me and made me realise how much I love my hens!

I hadn't noticed anything wrong until yesterday when one was stooping, as though she was trying to lay an egg. I checked out her vent and there was no egg stuck in there, but feeling her tummy, there was a hard lump in there and it was hot and clearly swollen.

I sat her in a warm bath in case she was egg bound, and she looked so sad and miserable - putting her chin on the edge of the sink and just sitting there. Once it was clear there was nothing more for it, I rang the vet and gave her a cuddle in a towel until the time came to take her to the vet.

Either it was an egg far higher up that had caused peritonitis or a large tumour inside her, but either way, I think she was too far gone and I didn't want her pulled about as she was so unhappy.

She was an old girl - probably about 5 years old (she is a battery rescue and I am her second owner since then so not 100% sure). I have since read that tumours are common in old girls.

I went out today and checked all my chooks over.