Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

ionahenor2

Syman I would recommend 3 hens not 2 then if anything should happen to one you won't be left with a lone hen.
As to costs........how much is too expensive. You can buy expensive coops/runs or convert a shed. Feed wise depends on your supplier and how much is wasted. Mine like to rummage around in the feeder spreading the pellets far and wide.
If you are just getting the hens for eggs then it's cheaper to buy someone elses freerange eggs but if they are for pets the eggs are a bonus. They are addictive and will give your daughter alot of pleasure and laughs.

Syman

ionahenor2 wrote: »

Syman I would recommend 3 hens not 2 then if anything should happen to one you won't be left with a lone hen.
As to costs........how much is too expensive. You can buy expensive coops/runs or convert a shed. Feed wise depends on your supplier and how much is wasted. Mine like to rummage around in the feeder spreading the pellets far and wide.
If you are just getting the hens for eggs then it's cheaper to buy someone elses freerange eggs but if they are for pets the eggs are a bonus. They are addictive and will give your daughter alot of pleasure and laughs.

thanks for the advice, the three hens sounds like a good plan. i don't suppose they would take much more room.

I am thinking of budgeting about £200 for the coop, run and initial bits and pieces. Chickens will possibly come from the school i work for with their hatching scheme. then ongoing about £10 per week for general upkeep.

poohbear59

My faverolle hen is a boy not a girl. I wondered why all the ex batts were laying so well

DH said we were never having another cockerel after the last one woke everyone up at an unGodly hour. He loves Fav so he is staying.

poohbear59

Syman, I started off with a converted rabbit hutch which cost me nothing. It was fine for 3 hens and when we bought a new 'proper' hen house they were often found back in there when there were ten of them. Don't spend too much to start off. You may get an old hutch on Freegle/Freecycle.

ionahenor2

Symon I don't think they will cost you £10 a week .My feed for a sack is about £7.50 every 2/3 months someimes longer. They do get to share our grapes (chopped for them) but that is the only gourmet food they have.

lally666young

My hubby used believe it or not an old sideboard and changed the hinges to lift the door upwards instead of sideways, made little gangplanks so they could climb up to their little nests. And this worked a treat. The only luxuries our chucks get are cornflakes, rice crisipies and mealworms.
Stay away from Omlet as they are uber expensive and they are more for urbanites who have small spaces. Some of the stuff is cute so resist my child lol!!!!!

cheeswright

Hi , i was hoping someone here would have a cheap fix for me
I have a bunch of bantams - and the warm weather means i've already got broodies - but I only have one nestbox between them - i wondered if anybody had a cheap way to make a layingbox that i could put in their run - so i dont end up with pecking and sulking ?
I've tried a lided bucket with a door cut in but no luck..
thanks in advance for any help:D

Gigervamp

Our council changed our recycling boxes, so we use the old ones in the large coop. But really, any type of box will do.

Shortie

And it was that quick and easy, burning just shy of £200 on a new home for the chooks :eek:

The converstion of the shed went bad - when we got to properly look at it, it was leaning badly and trying to correct it was likely to destroy it, so we dismantled it yesterday and it went to the tip (though I must admit that whacking it with a hammer was good therapy!)

Looked at the cost of buying a new shed, and then building the run and decided to get a pre-designed coop that just needs assembling and not loads of head scratching to work out what to put where.

Me and the chooks will be falling out if they don't like it, hehe

Now to buy the feeding bits before my bank card goes hiding/ crying into the corner, lol

RacyRed

The new rescue girls have been with me for almost a week now :j They are from the enriched cages but have even fewer feathers than my ex battery cage girls did, poor little things.

One of them is behaving a bit strangely, from the moment she arrived she has been almost constantly pecking at the hen house, especially the metal hinges. It is hard to get close to her yet to get a good look at her beak, but there is nothing obvious I can see.

Have any of you seen this sort of behaviour before or have any clue why she might be doing this?

Thanks