Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

lindens

Well chicken coop and run is finished just needs to be assembled in situ and then next week I can get my chooks. I am SOOO excited.
In true MSE style the coop and run was made from recycled materials by OH's clever dad and the only thing I had to buy was chicken wire and paint.
I will post photos when all in place.

chumbasmum

Hi
I am also at the 'really keen' stage of keeping chickens but need some support to push me over the edge.
Can anyone recomend housing for them? I plan to have about 3 hens and would like to be able to give them a run (fox proof) so they can be out whilst I am away at work. They can have the run of the garden when we are around. I have no DIY skills and so would have to have an 'off the peg' type or I can't say that it will stay upright.
We had a look at the eglu but it seems a bit small and the run looks small - not to mention the cost. Does anyone have one that they would recommend? They do a bigger one which looks fab but maybe an overkill for 3 hens - and silly expensive.
Help!!

lindens

Well here is my finished coop and run



here is henrietta


and lucy


and clementine


I got them yesterday and they have settled in really well. There was just a big fight when I threw in a slug lol.

Magentasue

It looks great - and so do they!

Can you move it all round to new grass?

lindens

Well technically yes, but as our garden is sloping, there is not many other places where it can go.

Ted_Hutchinson

After having our flock decimated by a neighbours dog we've invested in a new dog proof run. We made an instant run using 6 of those big 2mtr x 3mts galvanised wire panels that you see surrounding building sites. We paid £20 for the lot, they were a bit tatty (rejects from a hire company) but they keep the hens in and dogs out. The beauty of them is they are easily moved so when they've eaten out this section it will be no problem to move the panels over a few metres to the next patch of grass.

Magentasue

You'll be fine if they're free ranging most of the time but they need to be moved around if they're in a small run because they trash the ground, especially if it rains.

RHYSDAD

We're getting some hens when we move to our lovely new semi!! Can't wait! free range eggs in Tesco are not only £1.50 or so for 1/2 a dozen but mass produced eggs are full of anti-biotics and vaccines for fowl pest and Newcastle's disease. Our free range hens will produce eggs of excellent quality for a minimal price. We will feed them on 1/2 layers pellets and 1/2 wheat grains which i get free from the farm but which a local farmer wil sell you for about £5 for a 25kg bag. The eggs are a fantastic quality using this feeding method. Oh and they'll get veg peelings and worms too!!
The run will be made from a small shed i bought for £10 from the free ads and the run will be reclaimed wood and reclaimed chicken wire to make it foxproof. We'll always shut the hens in the shed at night though.

lindens

Well done rhysdad I bet you cant wait to get your chooks. Piccies please when the time comes.

Well great excitement this morning as we had our first egg! :j:TI think it was Henrietta's egg as she is the oldest. It was so funny yesterday, we threw them some slugs and they were fighting and sqwarking over them for ages. Anyway my reward was a perfect light brown egg weighing 52g. I am a proud mummy today lol

Alexelisey

Congrats on the first egg! I have a photo of ours, taken in 1996. We've had chickens on and off since then, lost two lots to foxes - one through unavoidable circumstances, once through them not being shut in at night. It's heartbreaking to have to deal with, so even if you don't know of there being foxes near please close your birds up at night! Don't take that chance!

I see plenty of people asked about cats and chickens - our last cat wasn't bothered by chickens, he kept his distance but wanted to play with the chicks we hatched some years ago. I'm not entirely certain he wanted to eat them though, I don't think he quite recognised them for what they were.

Our current cat, who came to us aged 4, knows perfectly well that our (one) chicken is a bird. She dug herself out of the run one day and came down to dig in the flower bed outside our (glass) door. The cat saw her and got very excited, and as soon as I went out to herd her back up the garden the cat danced up to her, saw she was bigger than he'd thought, stopped, assessed the situation and POUNCED! The chicken legged it, the cat chased her all the way up the garden, and I laughed so hard I had to sit down. No harm done - not even a broken feather - but she's more wary now of coming down by the house. This is a good thing, because she makes a terrible mess with digging and pooing on the path, and the cat gets over-excited.

We wouldn't normally just keep one chicken, either, but when we hatched three chicks the other two were boys and we took them to a local sanctuary. So Grace (named by OH as she was a long-legged black chick) lives by herself. But there are other chickens in earshot so she sometimes takes to "crowing" - silly bird :rolleyes2: She's now three years old and still lays three or four a week and she's from hybrid parentage.