Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

sparrer

Quick q - can I move 3 chickens in with my friend's 3 when I go away for a week or so, and vice versa? Unfortunately we live 11 miles apart, not close enough to visit every day.
Presuming the HA allows me to have chickens of course!

Gigervamp

There might be problems if you do that. When we get new girls, we keep them in a separate coop and fenced off area for a couple of weeks for two reasons.
1. Quarantine. Just in case the new comers have any health issues.
2. To enable them to get used to seeing each other so that when we do introduce them, there are less spats.

sparrer

Thanks Gigervamp, valid points. We'll have to rethink

silverleaf79

I think I'm wearing HI down, slowly.

He's now saying, "Maybe one day..." which is a definite improvement. We're currently in talks about what changes we could make as a household that would make him feel more inclined to having chickens, which feels much more like a compromise situation. He's stressed that he's not going to say, "If x y and z happen then you can have chooks," because he might not feel any different if they do happen, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.

He even agreed to take me to a local garden centre that has some chickens along with pigs, goats, rabbits, guinea pigs, etc., so we could have a look at the chooks. As luck would have it, they had a big pen with maybe 20 ex-batts in it and I was able to point out the trimmed beaks, skinniness, missing feathers and sore skin, and the fact that the majority of them were standing out in the rain looking miserable and confused, while only a few had started scratching about and looking like "real" chickens. Such a contrast to the gorgeous iridescent cockerel and his two beautiful ladies who were free-ranging and stealing bits of food from the pigs! HI did spend a few minutes in quiet conversation with one of the braver ex-batts who came up to the wire of the pen to look at him.

I'm quietly hopeful. Fingers crossed!

Gigervamp

That does sound promising.

The first indication I had that hubby was changing his mind was also at a garden centre. They had some chickens wandering around the place, a few ex-bats and a couple of silkies. I pointed the silkies out to him and he said "If we do get chickens, we have GOT to get some of those. They're MAD!"

ionahenor2

My little Black Rock has a poorly eye, . It started on Sunday night and yesterday she kept closing itfor long periods. I bathed it and also used some eyewash but today she is keeping it closed most of the time. When she opens her eyelid the eye is very cloudy. When she came out this morning she just sunbathed instead of digging/scratching about. She hasn't eaten much and has now gone in the nestbox to lay. I wondered if it was Mareks disease and she possibly was missed her injection. She has runny poo as well.

The other 2 are on guard duty and had a share of her pasta. I have given her some water by pipette which was a bit of a struggle.

Can anyone recommend anything else ? One site reccomended Hypericum tablets in water.

Tony_essex

Hi Angela, we are only 10 mins away from them as well, it may be in the same direction! If you can, PM me and we can find out where we are location wise, I am sure my wife would help you out on the chook sitting etc..

Tony.

pixiehouse

My dear oh spent a few days last week building our hen house and fencing so that cats or foxes cant get in to them ..We used wood that was in the garage(He is a carpenter so we always have some kind of wood) the only thing we had to buy was the fencing wire. we picked our hens up Sunday, weve named them Meg, Molly and Milly and they are gorgeous, just got to wait up to a week now for them to settle in and start laying our yummy eggs
My cousin gave us to LARGE bags of hay fro their beds. so only thing we had to buy was there food, which was £8
so we are all happy bunnies here lol

spirit

pixiehouse wrote: »

My cousin gave us to LARGE bags of hay fro their beds. so only thing we had to buy was there food, which was £8
so we are all happy bunnies here lol

I've read that hay is not good for them, you need straw. I'll go look on the downthelane forum, but I think it's something to do with it being dusty and respiritory disease.

pixiehouse

Its ok to put hay down for them to lay eggs... Ive had hens on and off for years and never had any problems, but thanks anyway