Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

Katharine

Thanks for showing us your chick pics, they are wonderful to see!

Just for peoples information it's actually illegal to feed your chickens anything that has been in your kitchen. Ie if you sit outside and peel your veg and take the waste straight to the chooks it's allowed, but once it goes into and comes out of your kitchen it's illegal. The reason behind this is supposed to be to ensure no animal disease is passed on from accidental contact with raw meat (info from 'Country Smallholding'). However from what I can tell this is pretty much unenforceable on the domestic scale, and quite rediculous, and most chicken owners prefer to use common sense. So I imagine if you cooked the food outside it would also be OK?

Various people had told me not to feed raw potato peelings to them, but according to Country Smallholder it is only the shoots and (green bits) of potatoes that are poisionous.

I believe there can be overheating issues (particularly in summer) with feeding only corn, can someone confirm this?

Frugaldom

Katharine wrote: »

I believe there can be overheating issues (particularly in summer) with feeding only corn, can someone confirm this?

Sorry I can't confirm this but if it's true, possibly because it's fairly fattening stuff for them, then I may try eating the stuff myself to keep warm in autumn/winter/spring! I'll diet for those 3 or 4 brief weeks of sunshine that qualifies as a Scottish summer. :rotfl:

Katharine

To true! Frostbite is more of an issue! I feed mine mixed grain £8 a bag lasts ages, they also love freshly picked weeds, and they are catching and scratching themselves lots of invertebrates at the moment.

I think my little black one Angelina has some pekin bantam in her, shes different to all the others, she has furry legs/toes and is more compact. My digital camera has decided to commit suicide so no pics.

Frugaldom

Katherine, it sounds like part Pekin if she's small with the furry legs. I really like the Pekins, they are so friendly and so much easier to keep off the veggies as they're useless at climbing over things. Cockeral here won't even climb over ropes when I'm roping off the veg beds for digging. The others, however, are just chaos with feathers. (Apart from Silkies, because they are just too cute to be chaos )

Katharine

Theres a friendly cuckoo pekin bantam that lives at a pub near me, as soon as I saw it I know I had to get some one day, they are so characterful. I hope where I move isan't too muddy, I dont think they would like mudballs stuck to their feet!

PJ1

Hi, Can anyone help me? I live in the Horsham, West Sussex area. I want to give a home to two battery hens but cannot find any. I've contacted various battery hen rescue places and have been told the minimum amount I can have is three but my chicken ark is really only big enough for two, anymore and they would be cramped up, which is what I want to get them away from. Does anyone know of any battery farms in this area where I can go and purchase a couple myself? Please help. It's taken quite a while to persuade my OH to let me have them and now I've purchased all the equipment and can't find any hens to put in it! Thanks.

susank

Corn is a treat for hens and not an everyday food and they require layers pellets or mash to give them all the good things and they will lay eggs. Home boiled potato peelings and brocolli stems and cabbage/sweetcorn is fine from the kitchen but you must not give them meat scraps - no law about not boiling your peelings for them at all.
I have 3 hens in an eglu and they free range all day and believe me they love their peelings and vegetables and also their pellets and what they free range round the garden all day too.
Go to any poultry forum for more details of what they do need to lay and what to feed them,

angelavdavis

PJ1 wrote: »

Hi, Can anyone help me? I live in the Horsham, West Sussex area. I want to give a home to two battery hens but cannot find any. I've contacted various battery hen rescue places and have been told the minimum amount I can have is three but my chicken ark is really only big enough for two, anymore and they would be cramped up, which is what I want to get them away from. Does anyone know of any battery farms in this area where I can go and purchase a couple myself? Please help. It's taken quite a while to persuade my OH to let me have them and now I've purchased all the equipment and can't find any hens to put in it! Thanks.

Hi, It might be worth you checking out the Friday-ad web site (friday-ad.co.uk). I got four free through this site from an owner in Rye who had originally taken 20 from a rescuer in Rye and had them for a year, but they might be a bit far for you. I believed there was also one in Sussex who works with the Battery Hen Welfare Trust (bhwt.org.uk), have you contacted them?

An alternative is posting on a hen keeping forum to see if anyone near you wants to share in a delivery? There are also a couple of groups on Facebook where you could post a message too.

basmic

Damn me for keeping on reading this thread! The more I read, the more I want 2-3 chickens in my backyard.

I think I'll save my money up (say £150-200) as an outlay for the chickens.

I know this might sound a really stupid question, but I need to ask it anyway - can chickens lay eggs for chicks, or do they need a cockeral? I'm guessing they need a cockeral to fertilise (?) the eggs first.

Magentasue

basmic wrote: »

Damn me for keeping on reading this thread! The more I read, the more I want 2-3 chickens in my backyard.

I think I'll save my money up (say £150-200) as an outlay for the chickens.

I know this might sound a really stupid question, but I need to ask it anyway - can chickens lay eggs for chicks, or do they need a cockeral? I'm guessing they need a cockeral to fertilise (?) the eggs first.

Yes, you need a cockerel for fertilised eggs. You can pick up ex battery hens for 50p each, and pullets for a fiver if you're lucky. You need a coop, and probably a run, maybe on frecycle or homemade from scrap wood if you're handy. You could also pick up a small £50 tool shed from B&Q, put in a perch, box of straw for nesting and make a pop hole - all for less than £150-£200 if you don't want to wait that long.