Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

jennyjelly

ionahenor2 wrote: »

Hi jennyjelly........oooooh Thats great, I remember our first egg. OH and I shared it. It tasted all the better for being 'home grown' Hopefully the others will lay soon. One of mine was a good 4 weeks after the other two.

Give her an extra treat, she deserves it.

I'm sure my 3 benefit from OH's pyramidial hen house design . It has brought my oldest girl (from my original 3) out of retirement and she lays 4/5 eggs a week now.

Oh yes, she had a handful of mealworms all to herself last night!

Pyramids are supposed to be beneficial for all sorts of things aren't they. Any chance of seeing a pic?

ionahenor2

I'll try but not sure how to upload pictures.....a bit high tech for me. I'll take a photo but have a look here.

http://www.thehealingpyramid.com

jennyjelly

Well we've now had an egg a day for 3 days from our clever little Winnie. I'm sure she can't keep going at this rate!

I've never before eaten an egg so fresh and it's a totally new experience. As different as fresh bread straight from the oven is from stale white sliced.

Once the others start laying too we'll be in clover!

OH is currently looking at the possibility of making a pyramidal coop - it will be interesting to see if it helps. It's also made me think about making a pyramidal bed for my old cat who is getting very rickety now.

3v3

Clever Winnie - yes, she can keep going at that rate Well, until she goes broody/moults/days get shorter/colder, then she won't be as productive.

I have two laying daily at the moment; I have 5 that are yet to reach POL and I'm really excited for when that happens (one is an Araucana so I can't wait to see the colour of her eggs)!

dandy-candy

After a gap of 25 years i'm planning on getting chickens again We always hatched our own but this time I will be buying chicks (I still have all the equiptment) and keeping them inside with the brooding lamp until they are ready for outdoors. Meanwhile I will be getting their outside home built but I wanted advice on situating the coop/run. We used to have just a hen house and let them roam the garden, but where I live now you occassionally get foxes so I am planning on getting a coop with run attached. Where is the best place to stand it, completely on grass or 1/2 grass and 1/2 the old veg patch for dustbaths and scratching fun? And whats best for fox-proofing, digging the chicken wire into the ground or laying a flat section radiationg outwards from the perimeter to deter digging? Alternatively I could set the run on slabs but that doesn't seem much fun and I do want happy chooks! What do you all do?

toni_

we've built a large walk in run and shed on grass down the bottom of the garden, but how long the grass will stay im not sure. When we had 12 rhode island reds it was bare soil within a month! We dug the chicken wire into the ground about half a foot, but we've never had problems with foxes digging under the run and as a precaution i shut them in there shed every night so even if the foxes could get into the run they still wouldn't be able to get into the shed

Chickenopolis

Hi dandy candy ,

We have an Eglu Cube and this has a "wire skirt" run which is supposed to be anti fox proof.

We have kept ours on a variety of surfaces and have found bark chippings on bare earth to work well. Every now and then we clear out the bark chippings and replace them with fresh ones. We have 9 hens and when we are at home they are let out to free range in the garden, due to foxes. Whe we are at work the hens are quite happy to dust bathe and root around in the chippings .

I hope this helps?

toni_

can i just ask what do people feed there chickens, layers pellets or layers mash? mine are on growers pellets at the moment but soon i want to take them off growers and get them onto layers. Ive always fed my chickens layers mash then bolied up vegetables and mixed it all together but it seems more people are just feeding pellets. This would be alot easier and less messier, would i have to supplement them with anything?

QueenieB

Layers pellets are a complete food, and only need to be supplemented with a handful of corn in the afternoon (for interest more than nutrition) and we also provide greens for the hens to peck at.

Chickenopolis

Mine are fed layers mash . I have tried pellets but mine won't eat them- I get a "tumble weed" look from them. I add a bit of poultry spice now and then particulary if they are moulting or in winter. Mine are a bit partial to grapes, spring greens, blackberries, melon, rice, pasta, sweetcorn and sunflower seeds - and anything they can steal from our plates.

I have one hen that is over 5 years old and she still lays wedgewood blue eggs for us from about March- October. I guess we must be doing something right.