Keeping hens and ducks chat.

edwink

dizzybee wrote: »

hi, just read a few pages of the thread will catchup some more later, i have been helping out at a rescue for hens rehoming, and have really found it interesting, so much so i am know thinking of taking a couple on at the next rescue, every one tells me they are easy to look after, would like to ask others did you get the full set up when you first started or just a small hutch, we have a huge garden but looking at chicken copes they seem so expensive. any advice please

Hi dizzybee

Nice of you to post on our friendly hen thread. Welcome from us all.

I would say that they definitely are easy to look after and so very rewarding and the lovely eggs are the bonus. You are right the chicken coops are rather expensive. What annoys me is that most companies that sell these say that they are suitable for say 10 hens when really they are only suitable for 5 so be very careful with what you decide to buy if you do buy a ready made one. A lot of the ready made huts have an attached wired area that is never big enough for the amount of hens they state also.

Would you be able to use a shed and modify it by putting perches in and attaching a nesting box? That's what we have done but my hubby is rather handy with pieces of wood and fixing them all together.

I think you will need to decide first how much or how little space you are happy for the set up to take up in your garden. Are you looking for them to be allowed out in your garden during the day and be free range? Or are you thinking along the lines of a hen hotel with an attached wired area? Once you have decided on how you would like your hens to live then you will be able to price it all up much better. Maybe to cut down the cost you could buy a good sized hut for them and also buy a roll of chicken wire and fence off an area for them yourself. Obviously this area would have to be sturdy and high enough to stop them getting out. Also maybe put a chicken wire roof on it. Lots of options really but it all depends what you would prefer for them. I think most of us on here have different set ups as it depends on what space you have for them etc.

Feeding wise ours have a long piece of guttering which is screwed to a piece of log on either end. That way they can stand either side of it all nicely behaving themselves in a row to feed. That cost pennies to make and next to nothing if you find a piece of guttering in a local skip. Drink container wise anything is suitable as long as it is sturdy enough that it wont tip over should one of your hens decide to use it for somewhere different to perch on just for fun. So that need not cost much either.

Please ask away with any more questions you have. It is never a problem on here because all of us had to start somewhere and most of us have learnt as we have gone along.

In a nutshell they are easy to keep, will need regular cleaning, a warm cosy clean bed, nice fresh water and most of all lots of treats and plenty of tlc.:) If you can provide all of that it will be perfect and you are in for a lot of fun with them.

Edwink

dizzybee

wow thank you, where quite lucky have a large garden that is split so one side for the hens and the other for us, i was thinking of getting some thing like this

https://www.aosom.co.uk/pet-supplies/pawhut-wooden-cage-chicken-coop.html

Pyxis

I was wondering, do eggs laid in coops in winter freeze? Like in the sub-zero temperatures we've had recently?

I was looking at the nest box at the side of the coop in Dizzybee's link.

suki1964

Welcome Dizzybee and Cheery Daff

Ready built coops are expensive and usually not fit for purpose tbh. We started with one very similar to that one on Fathers day, come the Autumn it was sold on

Hens like to roost and they are not too fond of rain , snow and wind. Come the winter they don't like to be out longer then necessary so you need a coop large enough that they can roost comfortably without killing each other and fit food and drink in

A shed is a better bet tbh

My husband made ours a out of scrap bits of wood and pallets

Also, once you get a couple of hens, chicken maths starts and before you know it you have a dozen or so





That give an idea of our set up, its about 8x6 and we have a dozen, sometimes more when we have babies

The perches have to be higher then the nest boxes as else they will sleep and poop in those making everything filthy. You only need one nest box for every 4 or 5 hens as they all bundle in on top of each other to lay

They are easy to keep, just low them up at night, let them out in the morning, feed twice a day, make sure they have fresh water ( always in and out with water in the winter as it freezes), clean dry draught free but well ventilated coop and they are happy as can be. A nice area to dust bath is a must as well or they will just dig great big holes where ever they can

Never allow a build up of ammonia in the coop, if you can smell it, its causing them problems. We clean out weekly in the dry weather, twice weekly if they are in

We use dust free shavings, about £8 and it will do 6 changes. Chicken feed is about the same, that lasts us up to 2 weeks, corn is £5 and lasts months ( you need dry storage in pest proof containers for feed) and we use scalpings ( bark from trees we get for £4 a tonne from the sawmills ) for their run ( the grass has long gone)

Worming medication is quite expensive but a pot has lasted me three years so not so bad. I worm about 3 times a year. Vet bills, well thats up to you. We manage with silver spray and hot epsom salt baths, tonic drops and louse powder

Yes they do get sick and yes sometimes you have to dispatch. DH had to dispatch one yesterday, egg bound and we couldn't release it

Thats two he's had to do, I took one to the vet to be pts and we have had 3 just die on us

They are great wee characters Even when you think they are all identical, you can tell them apart easily. We have one, Geoffrey, who the minute she sees me in the kitchen is over then fence and pecking at the door to be let in. Then comes in and eats the cat food

Spring is coming so we will be getting some newbies as a lot of our girls are getting on. We always buy in multiples of three so they don't get so bullied at the beginning. Takes a while for them to find their pecking order but they all settle in eventually

Pyxis

When I saw that pic, Suki, for a minute I though you had flamingos as well as hens! :rotfl:






(I wonder what flamingo eggs are like?
Are they pink, too?)



Edit... no they're not, they're just a normal egg colour.,some can have reddish yolks, but deffo not bright pink.

There was a myth that went round showing brigh pink yolks and eggshells, but it was a photoshop job.
The chicks that hatch are always grey to start with.


.

edwink

dizzybee wrote: »

wow thank you, where quite lucky have a large garden that is split so one side for the hens and the other for us, i was thinking of getting some thing like this
https://www.aosom.co.uk/pet-supplies/pawhut-wooden-cage-chicken-coop.html

Hi dizzybee

I have had a good look at that one for you and have come up with the following:-

Main house size wise seems ok for 2 to 4 hens but I personally would say that the run is no where big enough for them especially if you were to have the maximum 4 hens. The run is 95.5cm x 63.5cm which is very small for a living area for hens to be kept in all day every day. Plus even less space because of the ramp in that area. Interesting that the pictures they are showing do not show the hens inside the run but on the grass outside, wonder why?

Main house:- The perches are very big by that I mean deep. The hens obviously need to perch on these overnight so they basically grip them. The perches for our girls in their hotel are 3cm all the way round.

They mention "easy slide out bottom tray with sliding door". Where is this sliding door?

What covers the 4 holes for the window on the door of the main house?. You would need to put chicken wire over that most definitely. I know the window looks really sweet but they really don't need that much ventilation. A lot of hen houses have vents in a couple of places that you can slide across to open or close. Personally I think that is a safer idea fox wise.

The positions of the two perches seem an odd place to put them. If the hens used the right hand perch between them and face inwards their night time poop could well miss the mess tray below and go down the gap on to the grass so you would need to pull the tray right out and collect all that mess up when cleaning them out. If the hens perch on the left hand perch overnight and face inwards they will be pooping straight in to the nesting boxes below. On the other hand if the hens perching on either side face outwards their poop will land where it is supposed to on their mess tray.

Seems odd they have placed one of the perching bars straight across the front of the nesting boxes because every time your girls want to lay an egg they will need to leap over that perching bar to get in to the nesting box. Also some hens especially when they get older or are poorly they often like to sleep in the nesting boxes and if they do and a hen is perched above facing inwards overnight they will get covered in poop.

I looked at this set up on eBay and oddly although the title of the listing I saw stated chicken but under "animal" it states Chinchilla. Maybe just a mistake by the seller. But, I would agree that the run might be suitable for 1 or 2 chinchillas but definitely not 2 to 4 chickens.

The nesting boxes are good sizes and 2 is enough so they are fine.

As a rule dizzybee they do say that an A4 sheet of paper size is enough room for each hen to sleep in at night. So although the hut itself would be big enough (just) for 2 to 4 hens the run lets this one down badly as it is in my opinion too small. Although if you did go for a set up like this could you extend the run by adding some more width and length maybe? Just a thought!

Also with going for something like this you must surround the whole of the outer areas all the way round with paving slabs or something similar. Maybe a concrete path on one side and slabs around the rest of the hut. Foxes often find a way in by digging through underneath. If you place paving slabs all the way round it will make it more difficult for them to do that because obviously the start of the hole they would want to dig will be further away from the coop because obviously they could not dig through a paving slab. Several rows of paving slabs would be even better to be honest.

Hope I've not confused you too much. Do come back and let us know your thoughts.

Hope that helps.

Edwink

Pyxis

Gosh, Edwink! You're an expert! You should write a hen-keeper's manual!
Seriously!

edwink

Pyxis wrote: »

I was wondering, do eggs laid in coops in winter freeze? Like in the sub-zero temperatures we've had recently?

I was looking at the nest box at the side of the coop in Dizzybee's link.

Hi Pyxis

They can freeze so you need to collect them throughout the day when we get in to minus blooming freezing cold weather.

We always fill up our nesting boxes quite deep for our girls with Dengie Fresh Bed cut straw which has pine oil in it. Always nice for the them to lay their yummy eggs in a soft comfortable nest.

Edwink

suki1964

Pyxis wrote: »

When I saw that pic, Suki, for a minute I though you had flamingos as well as hens! :rotfl:






(I wonder what flamingo eggs are like?
Are they pink, too?)



Edit... no they're not, they're just a normal egg colour.,some can have reddish yolks, but deffo not bright pink.

There was a myth that went round showing brigh pink yolks and eggshells, but it was a photoshop job.
The chicks that hatch are always grey to start with.


.

I don't have room for flamingos

Isn't it the feeding grounds that turn flamingoes pink?

GwylimT

We got four flower chickens two weeks ago, they seem to be settling well as we are already getting some eggs.

We had a decent shed in the garden, so I have insulated it, made various perches, boxes etc, and while we don!!!8217;t know if we will need it, I have connected electricity to it incase we need a heat lamp, we do have a camera hooked up to check them on days when snow stops us opening their front door. Our garden isn!!!8217;t enclosed so we have made an enclosure for them around the shed, I haven!!!8217;t measured it accurately, but it!!!8217;s about 8m by 6m, when the weather is better we are going to expand it and plant it up a bit more.