Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

jem2

hi everyone!!

well the ladies seem to be doing great. they are happy in their new home. we have filled the 'bedroom' bit with straw and they jus take themselves off to bed when it gets dark so we jus sut the door when we pull the carpet down on rabbits around 8pm. my husband goes to work at 6am so has been goin out to them and openin the door but they dont want to come out so iv been feedin them later when they get up bout 1/4 to 8, jus as its gettin light, with corn and pellets. we'v put some sand down in their 'playground bit', with a mirror, food dish and water thing hanging down. plus cut them some kale out of the veg bed and hung that up to. iv given them a few scraps of vegi peelings like carrot, swede but they dont seem intrested, but will eat crusts of bread which my son likes to feed them. my husband is making them a perch/nesting box at work today to will put that in tonight (they have been sleepin in a dog bed we elevated off the floor).

my son has named them ginger, matilda and miss honey.

was thinking of trying them with some cooked vegis at tea time. we have some mash pots, carrots and swede and gravy left over form last nights tea, will this be ok for them?? apart from meat is there anything they arnt allowed to eat?

my husband has been pickin poop up most days jus with a spade, does this need to be done dayly?? or can we do it less often?

do you feed them dry porridge oats or cooked?

does everything we'r doing seem ok to you all????

my husbands borrowed a couple of books from a friend so we'v been lookin at them but they go quite in depth with eveything.

thanks, jem xx

ionahenor2

Hi Jem

Glad to hear your girls are settling in. Any eggs yet?

Sounds like you're giving them a variety of food. I give mine carrot peelings but whuz them up so they are chopped small. They also like COOKED potato peelings too, the green stalk/leaves from cauliflower, broccoli stem cut in half (they like the middle pulp),sweetcorn on the cob,and cabbage leaves sometimes. They will do anything for chopped grapes and over ripe bananas. They dislike most red fruit and raisins but I think this is just my lot.

Cooked potaotes and mash, leftover spaghetti (plain), dry oats and cooked porridge (when its very cold). If they can get to the bread bits before the birds they are happy but I try to avoid this as it is not good for them unless soaked in water. I only give these cooked things as treats just before bedtime so hopefully they will have filled up with pellets,I don't give them too much corn as this is a treat too.

Don't give them citrus fruit. pineapple or raw potato.

I'm sure the others will add to the list.

As their night vision is very poor they won't come out in the dark but saying that my Lettie will come out sometimes to see if there is an extra treat, usually if they went to bed without anything( if we have been out). She is getting very good at eating in torchlight.

How big is their outside pen? Do you have room for a log/ thick branch? Do you have room for a dustbath? Mine go under their house which is raised on a bench. They have dug a small crater which they all pile into and as it is under the house it keeps dry. They have wood bark/shreddings on the floor and I threw in a bucket of damp leaves off the drive so that keeps them happy. looking for hidden slugs.

Pooh picking is best done daily especially in summer, but it easier in winter when its frozen.

Gigervamp

Don't give them corn in the morning, save it for an hour or so before they go to bed, otherwise they'll fill up on the corn instead of their pellets.

redpete

sunflower76 wrote: »

What does everyone bed their chickens on?

Wood shavings and cross-cut shredded paper for the coop, straw and shredded paper for the nest box.

jem2

thanks ionahenor2
will they lay eggs in this weather???!! we havnt had any

ok so jus pellets in a mornin then? maybe iv been over feedin them? its been a cup of corn and a cup of pellets 1st thing then kitchen bits befor bed

thanks for the list of food they mite like, will write it down and pin to fridge an add as i come across anythin else.

have put a bit of tree trunk in, they like to hop on and off that, love the idea of leaves, my husband said he will go slug collecting so will mix them together and make them work for their treat!!

3v3

jem, I got my first egg of the year this week (and that same hen is in the nest box right now ) first eggs since last Autumn.

jem2

ohhh got excited so went out to have a look but sadly no eggs :-(

Jenny_Wren_3

Help!
I was woken up just after midnight by a neighbor who had found two chickens wandering around in the road. As he knows I've got chickens he thought that they were mine. I put them in the run that my girls use over night but they have been crowing since 5am this morning so it looks like they have been dumped. What can I do? Tried RSPCA and just get a recorded message that they don't collect livestock. I've separated them from my girls by dividing the run but I'm definitely not keeping them!

ljonski

you maybe breaking your local bylaws by having a couple of males in your garden. They are notoriously difficult to rehome- You could try down the lane website or you could do what most cockerels are destined for- the pot !

Gigervamp

Ooh, excitement! When collecting eggs yesterday, I noticed a medium sized greeny blue egg in the coop where our goth girls sleep. One of the goth girls (so named because they're all black!) is an araucana x sussex and I think it's her egg. We were wondering what colour egg she would lay.