Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

BungleGirl

Congratulations on deciding to get chickens!

We have had ours since March and they are in a homemade coop/run which is 6ft x 12ft which is plenty of room for the four we have now plus another four that we will get towards the end of the summer.

Our girls (Delilah, Goujon, Chubby and Dotty) have a galvanised feeder with a wide top so that rain doesn't get in and a plastic drinker without the brim. We leave both outside overnight and have never had a problem. They always have layers pellets (we by organic which are about £9 for a big sack which lasts for a couple of months) and most afternoons they have corn (also organic) but not very much of this, literally a handfull between them - this was about £10 too and we aren't even half way through it (bought it beginning of march).

They also eat various veggie things - in particular they go mad for corn on the cob! I was told not to bother with grit/oyster shell which are supposed to improve shell quality and haven't noticed a problem.

Other things worth buying are Apple Cider Vinegar (a capfull in their water every so often) and purple spray...two of our girls had a fight and one was bleeding, the other chickens then go for the red so the purple spray stops them being attacked by the others.

I really love our girls and they are fantastically relaxing to watch, they totally trashed the bit of grass they are on within a fortnight but they come out in the garden with us so they still get to have a good scratch around to find bugs and worms.

Our run is totally enclosed so we leave the pop hole open at night but I have head horror stories of foxes digging in so it's personal choice I guess.

Ours had a few scraps in the first couple of weeks so don't be alarmed by this. When we bought them they were all in seperate pens as they are all different breeds so they need to sort out their 'pecking order' when they come together.

I think everyone has a personal preference for breed but we ended up with a Speckledy, a Bluebell, something similar to a Black Rock and a brown one (can't remember what breed she was).

We get one egg each day from all of them and occasionally we get a double yolker! Ours all lay slightly different eggs and I love explaining to my friends which egg came from which chicken when I give them a box of egg!

They are really great pets and we now spend loads more time outside letting them out to play in the garden and watching their little quirky traits.

I hope it is okay to post a link to another forum on here but I got loads of help from the very friendly people at www.poultrychat.com

I'm sure lots of other people will be along shortly with more advice and tips.

Sophie

cheeks

Do we have to ask permission of the local council to keep chickens in our garden or is it generally accepted like a cat or dog?

Penelope_Penguin

cheeks wrote: »

Do we have to ask permission of the local council to keep chickens in our garden or is it generally accepted like a cat or dog?

We didn't ask permission If you read the rest of this thread, though, some people did.

Penny. x

Trow

http://www.brightonanimalaction.org/

Ideal for anyone looking to increase their numbers or start afresh.

Copied from the website:

"CHICKEN LIBERATION 2008

Yet again Brighton Animal Action have the chance to give these 'end of lay' birds an extended life. We will be going into the farm in mid-July. If you can take any birds or know anyone who can please contact us. We MUST know before the beginning of July.

If you can't take any chickens, perhaps you would consider helping us with the practicalities of rescuing them. We need boxes, tape, hay and money. We may even need some drivers. Almost 3,500 birds were saved from slaughter last year. Let's try and save more in 2008."


BAA,
c/o Brighton Animal Rights Campaign,
PO Box 307,
Brighton.
BN2 1HW
[EMAIL="info@brightonanimalaction.org"]info@brightonanimalaction.org[/EMAIL]

BTW, I have blatantly nicked this from hotukdeals, but thought it would fit nicely into old style..

Penelope_Penguin

Thanks for the link Trow. Now that your post has fallen from the front page I'll add it to the main chicken keeping thread.

Penny. x

chickpea08_2

Hello!

I live in Rugby (warwickshire) any recommendations on where best to buy chicken supplies (just rehomed some ex battery hens :j )

Thank yooooou!!!

Penelope_Penguin

Hi, there! I buy my chook feed from my local pet food supplier.

We have a long thread on keeping hems here - hey, let's keep chickens. I'll add your post to this later.

Enjoy, Penny x

Magentasue

If you look for Agricutural Merchants in the yellow pages or something like https://www.yell.com, you should come up with a couple of numbers to ring. Or post on one of the many poultry keeping websites and get local info - there is a difference in prices and ranges. Some are very much geared up to farmers. We have found those aimed at horse owners have a better range of sundries like feeders, lice powder, supplements etc. but it may be different round your way.

Steel_2

One of mine nearly choked today.

She was scrapping around looking slugs and came across a huge one. She swallowed it down and it got stuck in her throat. She kept coughing and hecking and violently shaking her head from side to side. After a while she just kept swallowing, occassionally her eyes would roll back in her head and then she'd start the hecking noises again and repeated swallowing.

I massaged her throat a bit to try and get it up or down and could shift it. In the end I went to a friend and borrowed a 5ml syringe with the intention of squirting some olive oil down her throat to see if that would shift it and when I got back she was lying under the coop very still with her neck retracted and eyes closed breathing heavily. I thought "that's it. She dying."

I called her name and she jumped up, swallowed, looked at me as if to say "yes" and then shot off for some food.

Bloody little !!!!!!.

I honestly thought she was a goner.

sallyrsm

Right I am thinking of rehoming some exbattery hens. However my Garden is tiny and has no grass. I have heard that they will happily scratch around in bark chippings but I have misgivings about this won't it be cruel? Ideally I'd grow a little bit of lawn back but my garden is north facing and nobody on my row can grow a lawn worth a damn....
My garden is totally enclosed however with house at top, garages at bottom and wooden fences either side so no danger from foxes they could roam the back yard all day...next door have a cat but it's a scaredy... can't really see a problem there...

Are bark chippings acceptable? Honestly. I know that anything different from a tiny dark cage is better than what they've had for ex battery girls but I'd rather not bother if it's out of the frying pan into the fire...

I also have a timber shed I can convert into hen central.... it's already been modified for the previous owner's rabbits.

Honest opinions welcome.