Keeping hens and ducks chat.

Glittering_M

Hi, 
New to the forums here.

I'm looking to get chickens and maybe ducks in the future (boyfriend is put off by the smell of ducks). 

I quite like the look of Arket's hen houses, which I probably would supplement with a Omlet walk in run, possibly with the porch and then they can free range too at times. I don't like the Omlet coops, a friend has one.

I'd customise the Arket with a bigger stand, probably 50cm and I'd get the auto door. 

I like the fact the Arket comes pre assembled and is plastic.

Has anyone got any experience of any of the above? A quick search finds one very bad review.

Alternatively the Green Frog stuff looks nice, particularly the wagon one but it is very expensive and I don't know how easy it would be to clean. 

I'd probably start off with 4 ex battery chickens but I know many people say it is easy to get addicted and expand.

Plus any discount codes anyone knows of would be nice (wishful thinking!).

Cheery_Daff

Hi Glittering 😊 welcome to the forum, and to the chicken thread! 😊

I'd not heard of Arket hen houses - are they plastic like eglu ones? I can't find a picture (are they the same as Arkus?)

I have no experience of plastic hen houses I'm afraid - we built ours out of a couple of old doors 😂 completely get why you'd want a washable one though! I think edwink has more experience - she'll be along soon no doubt, and others.

No discount codes that I know of, which is a shame as these things are often very expensive (hence why we made our own...).

Make sure you plan a way of keeping them secure in an Avian Flu housing order when there's no free ranging - we're in one at the minute, and last year's lasted almost 16 weeks 🙄

Very exciting that you are planning chickens though! I have no experience of ducks. We started with 4 rescue chickens in Sept 2019 and are still going. We have plenty of space, but are a pair of complete softies, so ours are often in the house. I've put my foot down and we've never had more than 6 at once - they take over enough as it is! 

Do tell us more about your chicken enthusiasm - have you had them before? Or looked after anyone else's? Do stick around!

Glittering_M

Ah I meant Arkus! I think Arket is a shop! 

I'd like to make one but I don't have the skillset. Saying that, we will be probably make an extra run ourselves as it is in a fairly steep hill and I'm not sure a commercial run would work.

A family friend has ducks and chickens which I've house/animal sat quite a bit. I used to live in a town with a river and loved going to see the ducks by the river. My family used to have a chicken farm but that was in the middle of the last century so way before my time and none of my relatives who worked on it are still alive and we don't have the land anymore. I'm not sure, I just really like seeing the chickens pecking around. 

Thank you for your reply, I'm looking forward to being part of the forum.

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, how interesting to have that farming family history. Do you know anything about it? 

We had no experience of keeping chickens either. We used to go and watch various ones locally, and looked after a friend's chickens once for a fortnight. We'd had no pets since we were kids either, so being responsible for other beings was a bit of a shock! 

Do let us know how you get on 😊

thriftwizard

Hello @Glittering_M! I hope you'll love poultry-keeping, it's very rewarding. Just a little word of warning re the plastic chicken coops; my friend had a Solway one with 5 Pekin Bantams in it. Sadly a badger visited her garden one night and basically ripped it apart at the joints; 4 of the 5 were killed. (The fifth, who was broody at the time & "hidden" in the nest box, came back to us, as she'd been raised here from day-old. Still going strong 3 years later, in with her "mothers" & "aunt".) Badgers can be an issue with any coop that's not strong & well-defended, though, whatever it's made of, but we just hadn't realised how easily that one could be "popped" apart. Great for easy cleaning, but not for safety. So check that the joints are good & sturdy!

edwink

Glittering_M said:Hi, New to the forums here.

I'm looking to get chickens and maybe ducks in the future (boyfriend is put off by the smell of ducks). 

I quite like the look of Arket's hen houses, which I probably would supplement with a Omlet walk in run, possibly with the porch and then they can free range too at times. I don't like the Omlet coops, a friend has one.
I'd customise the Arket with a bigger stand, probably 50cm and I'd get the auto door. 
I like the fact the Arket comes pre assembled and is plastic.

Has anyone got any experience of any of the above? A quick search finds one very bad review.
Alternatively the Green Frog stuff looks nice, particularly the wagon one but it is very expensive and I don't know how easy it would be to clean. 

I'd probably start off with 4 ex battery chickens but I know many people say it is easy to get addicted and expand.

Plus any discount codes anyone knows of would be nice (wishful thinking!).

Hi Glittering

A warm welcome to the MSE forum and to our friendly feathered friend's thread. 

We have chickens and one remaining Cayuga duck here.  We had 9 ducks at one time, 2 Aylesbury, 1 Indian Runner, and 6 Cayugas.  The only thing I would say about ducks from our experience of keeping them is that they can be rather messy. Chickens do little poo's that are easy to scoop up whereas ducks do mini wet cowpats, that's the best way to describe their poo, I'm afraid.  Besides that, they are lovely to have around, not as affectionate as chickens but will happily eat out of your hand once they get to know you and follow you about like little dogs. 

I don't have any experience of Arkus chicken houses I'm afraid as like Cheery we originally made our chicken house out of wood and bits etc.  Later we were given a 6ft x 4ft shed that had plenty of life left in it so we made that their chicken house after making it safe by covering it in chicken wire and attaching the whole thing to their run. I should imagine that plastic chicken houses are pretty easy to wash out and keep clean. If I had one and an attached run I would place heavy paving slabs all the way around it on the ground to stop any wild animals from trying to dig under it trying to get to the chickens. I guess it would all depend on where you site a chicken house and how safe you think your chickens will be in any certain area. Always worth bearing in mind when buying a chicken house how easy or hard it would be for a human to clean it out every week.

I've just had a look at the Green Frog wagons, wow they are really super and so cute. I noticed that you can buy them with a "droppings tray" which would be handy for cleaning them out. I couldn't see it in their pictures but I guess the droppings tray would just slide out from underneath for cleaning.  Always worth knowing that if a company says a chicken house is big enough for 10 hens for example, in reality, it is room enough for 6 chickens "comfortably". 

You are right of course it is easy to get addicted to keeping hens as I have found out myself  🤣🤣🤣  And, as thriftwizard says it is very rewarding and I totally agree with that. 

Lovely to have you on board with us.  Any questions please just let us know and one of us will be here to help you, no problem.

Edwink x

Glittering_M

Hi all,
Thanks for the warm welcome.

Annoyingly, this is my second attempt at the post after I came off the page on my phone onto another app and it deleted 🤦‍♀️

Thiftwizard, I'm sorry to hear about your friend's chickens. I didn't even think about Badgers. We live opposite a wood and do get foxes and badgers. The house will be about 50m from the woods and will be enclosed in a run but I'm definitely going to be extremely careful.

My boyfriend's father suggested getting birds, guinea fowl possibly, I can't remember, to protect the chickens but I'd need to look into that more and I'd want any animal protection as secondary protection as I'm not sure it would be fair on them as it would be stress on them. I don't really want extra animals.

None of the plastic ones have very good photos so I'd contact the companies as absolutely I want to make sure it is easy to clean, which is why I want it raised too so it will be easier on my back.

Yes, I've experienced the ducks when I've looked after them. I love seeing them splashing around and quacking but they are so messy! My friend used to let them in their old house. I would like that if only you could train them to do their business outside!

I don't know much about the chicken farm. We had some sheds which is on another relatives land which we knew as battery sheds but they chickens did free range apparently. I'll try and do some digging to see if I can find out more.

I had a bit of a revelation last night that because the house will be in a run, you can't see it as clearly as if it was in the open so looks aren't as important.

NoobSolar

Edwink- thanks for the solar advice elsewhere.

RE housing - we have and love the Eglu walk-in run. I would suggest the badger is only a concern in quite rural settings. Towns - more the fox. I recommend putting large pammets or stone tiles on top of the skirt that surrounds the run - this might deter even a badger. We have a railway sleeper all along one side too. If I can't move it, whatever predator decides to come will have to tunnel a long way.

Cut a broom handle in half and saw a groove in it to make a cheap but effective perch. Pertelote, Serafina and Hermione like the run.

We have an eglu basic chicken house and one advantage of the plastic design is that it can be very deep cleaned with anti mite stuff and even hot water if need be. Wood does provide a good environment for mites.

edwink

This is a bit worrying but we must all remember it's extremely rare to see it in humans.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-59896821  

Edwink 

edwink

Hi everyone

Hope everyone is ok and of course their hens too.  

There has been another Avian Flu outbreak (9th Jan) in Louth, Lincolnshire which was updated on the Gov.uk website today. This outbreak is in the poultry and not in a human as per the link in my post above. 

Please do make sure you are using a disinfectant type boot dip before you enter your chickens run. We even use the boot dips on our way out too. Obviously, the situation has got pretty serious now so we all must be as careful as possible especially as it has been found in backyard/garden poultry as well. 

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/avian-influenza-bird-flu#latest-situation

Edwink x