Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

count_rostov

Steel wrote: »

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.

It's amaxing what they can eat isn't it? One of our cockerels caught a shrew last year and was trying to tear it open when all the other hens realised that he'd found something tasty and ran over to look. He panicked and swallowed it whole! A whole shrew!

Yategirl

sallyrsm wrote: »

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.

I have a small garden and no lawn. My chickens have a house with a fixed run attached - the run is on paving slabs and I use easibed (horse bedding) on top of the slabs - some people use gravel or woodchips. Barkchippings apparently get mouldy so are not ideal as this can cause respiratory problems. I "poo pick" every day and clean the run out approx once every 6-8 weeks. They have plenty of space in the run. I let them free-range when I can but chickens scratch up everything and ruin plants with ease so they are not out without supervision.

Still be careful about foxes.. My garden is completely enclosed and I have never seen a fox but I know of plenty of people who have had chickens taken without ever seeing a fox! Foxes can scale 6ft walls....

hth, YG

sallyrsm

Oh I've already got gravel.... I suppose they are rooting around for insects and stuff, yes? I get those in the gravel. Plus weeds of course. Wouldn't it be nice if they kept the weeds at bay too! I suppose I am worried as I've got really good friends who have a massive lawn and the girls obviously love the lawn.

Yategirl

they do like lawn but they LOVE soil!! any soil - my pots get wrecked!! when I remove plants from pots (I grow veg) I sometimes let the chickens have the pots in their run - they have a great time scratching all the soil out - and it all ends up in my compost bin anyway!

sallyrsm

Right then looks like I've got a chicken friendly garden already if they would grub around in soil and gravel.
I will try and find a way of modifying the shed into a hen house... currently it's got a sort of cupboard type thing inside with a window to the outside with chicken wire, so that it makes a hutch within the shed, iyswim...
the window hole is about four feet off the ground.. I guessing that chooks could climb a little ramp to get in? Maybe not at first though if they were unfit from not using their legs...
I'll have to work on it and get my thinking cap on...
maybe just let them have the whole shed until they get fit. all the gunk in the shed I can keep in the garage it's only the pressure washer and some roller trays...
I'll have a think. I've signed up with the Battery Hen rescue people I'll give one of them a ring and see when they're next getting some hens. Later on I might post a couple of pics of the shed see if anyone has any bright ideas.

mum2many

sallyrsm wrote: »

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.

DO IT:j

I've got 4 ex bats and they are brill.
digging the garden to b*ggery but they are such fun.
often find myself distracted once i start watching them running round the garden. get 3/4 eggs a day and they are soo much nicer than shop bought. they even knock on the back door with their beaks.

falken

Hi

I would love to keep chickens. (Please feel free to move this if in wrong place) I think it would be a good money saving and healthy project! We have the space but I have no idea what to do, how to prepare land, set up costs etc etc.

I thought about adobting previous caged birds to give them a better life then sell surples eggs for their feed and extra cash for us.

Any advise greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Falken;)

Magentasue

This is the thread you need:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=4876&highlight=let%27s+keep+chickens

Could give you loads of info but it's all there. PM me if you need to know something not covered. I've had ex batteries and would recommend them to anyone. Go for it!

Penelope_Penguin

Magentasue wrote: »

This is the thread you need:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=4876&highlight=let%27s+keep+chickens

That's the one I'll merge this thread with that one.

Take a read of that, then if there's anything you need clarifying, feel free to ask more specific questions :T

Penny. x

falken

Thanks, I'll grab a cuppa and have a read!

Falken