owning chickens or bantams.

MrsGSR

Hi there, I have always wanted to own chickens and now I think DH may be coming round to the idea but I have a few questions and i thought this would be the best place to ask.
I've had some experience with chickens so have an understanding of what's involved but I want to know if it's really worth it, I am funny about where my eggs come from and tend not to buy many due to cost although I love them.

1. Are they cheap to keep?
2. Do they completely mess up your garden or just the part where the main pen is?
3. I'm thinking of getting about 3 bantams due to their size, does anyone have reccomendations of best and reasonably prices enclosures?
4. Any reccomendations on where to start research, forums, FB groups, threads on here?

Many thanks in advance:)

flea72

3 will cost very little to keep. A sack of feed is about £7, which would last about a month, if not more.

Chickens eat anything, so you garden will be attacked and any lawn scrapped at (so maybe best to confine them) However 3 bantams wont make that much mess, depending on size of your garden (other than poop everywhere)

You will need to clip one of their wings, otherwise they will escape

There is a big thread in here called Hey lets keep chickens

Cheapest to make your own pen/coop. The egloos are nice, but expensive. Try ebay for a 2nd hand coop

Gigervamp

What breed of bantams were you thinking of getting? We have silver sebrites, araucanas and pekins amongst our flock. The araucanas are the better layers of the three and their eggs are a bit bigger than the pekins. Our sebrite girls were very poor layers.

Pekins will do the least amount of damage in a garden as they have feathered legs and feet and don't like getting them muddy. They're also lovely looking girls with their pompom like tails.

We have our girls in a field, so we've used chicken wire and fence posts to fence areas off. (We have one section in a corner fenced off where we put newbies.)

With regards to flying, we've found that the pekins don't tend to fly very high, but the araucanas and sebrites can easily fly up to the roof of the feed shed, however, they rarely try to fly over the fencing.

A sack of feed (we buy good quality, non gm feed from the smallholder range by Allen and Page) is about a tenner and will last for about a month with 3 chickens.
It's illegal to feed chickens scraps from the kitchen, but we sometimes pick up yellow stickered corn, cherry tomatoes, fruit or green leaves which they love.

The Poultry Keeper website is an excellent resource. The "Hey, let's keep chickens" thread is here.

If you're on Twitter, there's a #chickenhour chat on Tuesday evenings currently between 8-9pm. The time will change nearer the summer so that it doesn't clash with everybody locking the girls up.

Chickens are lovely creatures and spending a summer evening with a cup of tea or glass of something, watching the girls, is very relaxing and much more entertaining than watching TV.

Harryonesock

I used to keep chickens. They are lovely but messy, totally ruined our garden but it was lovely getting fresh eggs. They are just eating and pooing machines!! One of ours was a small black hen called violet who was really tame, she used to walk in the kitchen and sit on my lap!! I'd love them again but now have a mad dog ruining the garden instead!!!!!:eek:

dianasnan

I second this 'They are lovely but messy, totally ruined our garden but it was lovely getting fresh eggs. They are just eating and pooing machines!!

Make as big a coop as you can if you do not intend to let them roam in your garden.

Also they can attract vermin so make sure all food is in a rat proof container or you have somewhere to keep it out of harms way.

But the eggs are lovely and make the most beautiful yellow coloured cakes.

cheeswright

I keep bantams now- not the fancy ones that need you to take a hair-dryer to them when it rains (yes they can be that stupidly over-bred for their looks - just like dogs - poor things)
but the small sturdy and slightly more waterproof ones.
unlike chickens they will not dig up all your plants - or eat them come to that - they are not as strong as chickens and so ain’t able to scratch deeply enough.
they give lovely eggs with a much higher yolk percentage than chickens.
but are slightly more stingy with them
the do go broody quite easily and
they arnt as friendly - little bit more independent.

My only tip on living quarters is don’t buy anything made out of tongue and groove wood - its just a hotel for red mites - which are vile. But do consider something you can jetwash.

MrsGSR

Thanks for all your replies.
Gigervamp, I was thinking pekins, my mums friend had them and I thought they were lovely. I know they attract vermin, I live in an estate with a large garden, will my neighbours hate me? Also my husband says they are noisey but i said thats only if you have a cockeral and we aren't having one of those.
Definitely wouldn't get one of those fancy huts but i would like one big enough for them to live happily in and to come out every so often for a wander. We aren't gardeners at all so not too fussed about the garden but we have two young children.

RichardD1970

Everything you need to know about keeping chickens here.

Very friendly forum that will answer any question, no mater how daft you think it is.

We have kept chickens for 6 years and wouldn't be without.

Costs can be minimal or you can spend a fortune, it's up to you.

Never had any problem with vermin or noise, they will occasionally make an "egg laying" announcement.

They will destroy any garden they have access to.

lindens

Just echo what everyone else is saying really. They are great fun, they are all real characters, all different.
I had one who used to announce everything she did - poo, lay, run, go in the coop, come out of the coop, get frightened, look at that other hen.......
My FIl made me a coop and a run but they used to free range all summer and put themselves to bed. I also live on an estate and had no problems. You can always dilute any problem neighbours with free eggs!
I really miss them I had to get rid of them as i had clay soil and they totally destroyed every square inch of garden - it was just pure mud after a couple of wet winters. I gave them to my friend who had some bantams, the same breeds as mentioned above.

RichardD1970

Well, thank you very much!

My wife is now trawling the internet looking at chicken breeders "we need some more, oh look these have nice ones, these lay nice coloured eggs" etc.

Feel a trip out on Saturday is on the cards :rotfl:

(to be fair we are down to two and were going to look at getting some more in the spring :cool:)

Gigervamp

With regards to noise, hens don't make too much, although some like to tell the world when they've laid an egg. I've also found that some will complain a lot if another girl is in the nesting box that they want to use!
There might also be some bickering when you first get them, until they sort out the pecking order.