Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

Frugaldom

Loving all the pictures! My little 'squad' is increasing here all the time as more eggs hatch. The 5th broody (Speckled Wyandotte X) has loads of eggs under her and I'm hoping some will hatch later this week, that will mean 4 lots of chicks on the go plus eggs in the incubators Doesn't leave much room for egg laying but with only 3 of us here, we're managing on the dozen or so per week from the first 2 hens and the third should start laying again quite soon. The hardest part is deciding which chicks to keep and which to sell but fortunately, my soon to be new neighbour is going to have some of them.

I now have Pekins, Silkies, lavender Araucanas and cross bred Spangled Wyandottes that a friend keeps passing on to me whenever they go broody. She also sends all the eggs, so there's always something hatching about here, even if it's just plans for another poultry house.

DON79

nykmedia wrote: »

Don79 there isn't a great deal you can do to stop a cockeral crowing but you could shut him in at nights and then not let him out until a sensible, non-court-case-pending time. Just check out the noise abatement laws in your area, as used for things like car horns, ice cream vans, heavy machinery etc and if it's no noise between 9pm and 7am or whatever, then you just keep the cockeral literally in the dark between those hours and explain to all the neighbours what you're doing before anyone gets the chance to jump in and complain. Post a picture of him/her and we can all see what we think. The neck feathers (hackles) will be long and pointed if it's a cockeral whereas the hens' are more rounded at the ends. The cockerals also get the long curved tail feathers and much larger combs and wattles. Here's a good link to feather shape examples - I just checked and it has Barred Rocks listed in the diagrams

Thanks very much for that link, he (definitely a "he" I guess!) has pointed ends to his neck hackles so he is a cockerel. I will get a picture tomorrow and post it up for you to see.

I checked the noise abatement and you are not allowed ice cream chimes before 12noon and after 1900 hours. will need to do some more investigating and perhaps an anonymous call to the local council.

We will keep him til we see how it goes but depending on laws etc and how much noise he makes, then we will need to find him a new home. So.... if anyone in northamptonshire would potentially like to adopt him, watch this space!

Thanks very much.

Frugaldom

Good luck Don. My Pekin cockeral has been crowing from before 6am for the past week or two, but it's normally started off by neighbour's cockeral not being locked up, so it starts literally at the crack of dawn and I certainly couldn't listen to a bird that loud outside my window. Mine's hardly enough to wake me, as he has such a pathetic little half crow. (New neighbour, if you're reading this, I'll try to warn him to keep the noise down. :rotfl:)

Dreamy

Hi we are thinking about getting a few hens and I was after some advice we live in a built up area and have two large dogs (rotty and doberman) we only have a concreate paving area but could dig up a bit if they would prefer soil we have found a large hutch and run combined that we could fit in but we wouldn't be able to move it obviously they wouldn't be able to go out unsuppervised with the dogs and we have some vicious looking cats about so wouldn't feel happy about leaving them out with out them there to protect them the hutch run thingy says its big enough for 4 or 5 hens but would it be big enough for 4 if they where in there pretty much all day (we both work full time) hear is the link to the one we are looking at
https://www.henhouseworld.co.uk/ch101n.htm
also what is the best thing to put down on the floor weather paving or soil ? that won't cost to much ? how do we keep rats at bay rather not get them then have to deal with them later (live near the docks and a sugar factory) and also ex bats good idea or not ??? some people say there great but others think not and as they would be our first hens I can't help thinking it would be better to start of with a healthy flock any other advice greatfully recieved

DON79

We got the chickens from my bro in law who currently rents a farmhouse + land, he has more cockerels than he knows what to do with so if we send our cockerel back, I fear he will end up on the dinner table! _pale_:o Would much rather he went to a new home than that!

We did hear a cockerel crowing in our town about a month ago, it was near some allotments so I doubt the law locally will be a problem. We will just have to sweeten the neighbours up with free eggs if they are unhappy at all.

DON79

Hi dreamy, I am just a novice too with three hens and a newly discovered cockerel! :rotfl:But we have two dogs as well, border collies, one doesn't care about the chickens and the other sits and looks at them when she doesn't get told off for staring at them.

We have a very similar house to the one you are looking at. my husband built his own extended run to attach to the end which gave them another four feet minimum of space, without that, it would have been quite tight for space I think. But you could easily add a run yourself, you just need some 2x1 timber and chicken wire which you can get from b&q. It was placed on our grass which they have now torn up, I think they prefer to have soil to scratch about in.

To avoid rats or anything else digging its way into the run, we put chicken wire down the outside of the run and stretched it about a foot outwards away from the run so that anything trying to dig in right beside the run would only find wire that it could not dig through.

We would have gotten ex bat hens had bro in law not been raising chickens and said we could have some, the ex bats are only about a year old usually so have many more years of laying left.

Donna

Frugaldom

Well said, Donna, although I'd advise concreting or at least sinking the posts down for added security as a doberman or rottie could easily wreck a chicken run if they decided that's what they were going to do.

Dreamy, is there any way the dogs could be kept away from the hen run? Perhaps split the back yard in 2 with a secure fence? I know someone who has bought that very same chicken coop and it will be in a static position over grass that will soon become soil but will probably get woodchips on top. You should be able to avoid any rat problems by simply making sure there's nothing available for them to eat outside if the run and ensuring that they can't gain access inside the run. Good luck with your new hen keeping exercise, read loads before you get any birds and make sure you acclimatise the ex-batts, if you choose them, as they're not used to being outside. Chances are, they'll be moulting, which means they'll feel the cold a lot more, so keep them cosy in their house at nights

DON79

Hi, here is the picture of my hen/cockerel! Opinions please!

http://i39.tinypic.com/35lgavd.jpg

:D

Primrose

I have no experience of keeping chickens, apart from one very fierce cockeril we had as a child. This handsome beast looks like a "He" to me.

KAAT_LADY

DON79 wrote: »

Hi, here is the picture of my hen/cockerel! Opinions please!

http://i39.tinypic.com/35lgavd.jpg

:D

he looks very masculine to me ...Is he this years bird ?? just read back and see hes just a chick 12-14 weeks