Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

susank

Go for it - I have an eglu and have 3 chickens and they also free range all day - they make quite a mess of a lawn though. I dont have a lawn - I have some rough grass and I love the eggs we get

angelavdavis

I would recommend chickens definitely. I have kept mine for 6 weeks now and they are great fun.

Like Susan, I let mine freerange when we are home, else they are limited to the chicken run. I got my chickens from a battery hen rehomer. I am having to protect my veggie patch from the chickens though - they eat anything green and juicy including the lovely plants and herbs I grow between my paving slabs!

I also don't have grass, they love digging around the borders which contain shrubs that are luckily fairly forgiving of the hens presence.

I put galvanised wire under the bark chips in the run and positioned the edge of the run over the top leaving a 6 inch overlap past the edge of the run to stop rats getting into the run after the food. I then covered the wire with bark chips.

Here is the main thread called "let's keep chickens" with loads and loads of info.

Penelope_Penguin

thepb wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. Just need to decide on what type of coop now.

So excited!!

Great! I'll add this to the main hen-keeping thread now that you have your answer

Penny. x

Frugaldom

Good morning, I have just caught up with all the posts in this thread and the other one that brought me here in the first place. I've not long started back keeping chickens after having to give up all my livestock in 2001 when I had to move into rented accommodation. I had a small hatchery before, with several different types of quail, hens and ducks.

Right now, I have 2 broody hens that we were given sitting on about a dozen eggs each, a single black rock x bantam hen that's running about with a Pekin bantam cockeral for company, a single Silkie chick that hatched out 3 weeks ago and a few eggs in the incubators that are starting hatching now - so far there are 3 chicks. I love keeping birds and can't wait to get back to the stage where we have free range eggs every morning. I recommend hen keeping to anyone who can make the space and spare the time.

I have promised everyone that I won't go back to keeping as many as I did in the past. Bit restricted for space as we need everything kept safe and secured at night from foxes, dogs and weasles. Oh, and the neighbour's cockeral visits, so we're having to try to keep him and his harem out of the garden.

Badger_Lady

I put up some new fencing at the weekend - to stop the chickens visiting the neighbours' dogs (at least most of the time) and also to protect my veggie plot for the spring/summer. I'm also hoping to grow a small patch of lawn, so will be nice to keep the chooks away from that. They're not impressed so far though, nosey birds! One's more than happy "free-ranging" in their end of the garden but another one keeps squawking because she can see

thepb

I have made the decision and have spent all afternoon clearing a corner of the garden for my chickens.

My question is, can I put the run on stone chippings, the likes of cotswold stones? or is this too sore under foot.

I know lots of you use wood bark, but I thought with stone chippings I would be able to hose them down to clean them (when the chickens are out in the main garden of course - wouldn't want wet chickens!!)

Laura_D_3

Help... my new silkie won't budge from the eggs whats she up to? We got three who we assumed were all girlies (from a friend) how do we know if ones a cockeral I assumed it would have started its early morning chorus by now.....

Gigervamp

Maybe she's broody?

Frugaldom

Laura D, I'd second what Gigervamp says, she sounds broody. If you have 3 hens and are getting 3 eggs at a time then you'll know, otherwise Mr Silkie would look like a cockeral by now, with his tail and fancier 'head dressings' and with his crowing in the morning. Our little adopted Pekin cockeral crows away from about 6am.

The entire garden is fenced but I've been busy penning off the square foot garden, plus we now have 5 runs so everything can get shut in at night. I'll want my Silkies and araucanas kept seperated from the laying hens and the mums & toddlers. Since last posting, 6 hen chicks, 2 lavender araucana chicks and 5 quail chicks have hatched. The grey broody is still sitting on, I think, 8 or 9 eggs that, if fertile, could be due to hatch this weekend or early next week. Fingers crossed I also have some duck, pheasant and bantam eggs plus 2 goose eggs for trying in the incubators. Hadn't ever intended trying geese but I got given the eggs on Monday. Now I can't wait to see if anything hatches.

One quick question for anyone with experience of chicks hatching under a broody hen - how do you feed them all? I can't use chick crumbs because the mother hen can't get them and I can't use pellets because they are too big for the chicks. Should I just use layers mash if any of her eggs hatch? I don't see any way of keeping mum's and babies' feeding seperate if they are with her and have never had the problem before now, as I only ever used incubators for hatching eggs. Help! (They will have an outdoor, grassed run.)

Frugaldom

Just a quick update - 6 of the eggs my broody hen was sitting on have hatched I did a bit more research and ended up scattering some chick crumbs for the babies, who seem fine about scratching about for them whilst mum gobbles up her rations from her dish.