Keeping hens and ducks chat.

edwink

Cheery_Daff said:

Well, I am pleased to report Bonny is still with us! If I hadn't seen her ill last night, I wouldn't have thought there was anything wrong with her this morning. She came out with the others, seemed bright eyed and awake, and went straight to have a drink - not surprised if she's thirsty after yesterday's watery droppings.

Someone had laid a soft shelled egg, which Bessie was tucking into, so I suspect that was her and passing it has maybe made her feel better. Who knows. Not going to assume she's fine just yet 🙄

Hope you are all faring better...

Aww, that's good news, Cheery. I am so pleased she was alright this morning. Maybe it was her that laid the soft shelled egg and it has made her feel much better now it is out, who knows eh?.

Looks like you are having a stressful time with poor old Bessie, bless her. I do hope she picks up after her 2nd lot of antibiotics. I'm glad you got help the other day whilst Mr Cheery was not home.  Always nice to have that extra support, especially with a wriggly hen not wanting a big tablet put down her throat. I am keeping my fingers crossed for you that she improves soon.

Sorry I've not been about as much as I normally am on here but we currently have Covid in the family, not us here thank goodness but both my family and Mr Edwinks family have now got it but not all of them thankfully. 

Edwink x

starnac

Morning all. Glad to hear Bessie is doing okay Cheery. 

Edwink I hope you manage to dodge the lurgy in the family. My childrens' school is rife with Covid at the moment. The school has sent home extra LFT's and even sent DD's whole year group home last week as there wasn't enough staff! 

I just wanted to come on here and share some good news if that's okay. We registered our interest to rehome some ex battery chickens when everything eased off and we got notification that they were rehoming near us today. I applied and after some modifications to the chicken run DH had made (a roof for one thing!) we were accepted. We pick up 5 ladies this afternoon. I am so excited it's unreal. We always had chickens from when I was a teen and they were always on the plan for our forever home. I just can't believe it's actually happening. 

Thank you for letting me share that x

edwink

starnac said:

Morning all. Glad to hear Bessie is doing okay Cheery. 

Edwink I hope you manage to dodge the lurgy in the family. My childrens' school is rife with Covid at the moment. The school has sent home extra LFT's and even sent DD's whole year group home last week as there wasn't enough staff! 

I just wanted to come on here and share some good news if that's okay. We registered our interest to rehome some ex battery chickens when everything eased off and we got notification that they were rehoming near us today. I applied and after some modifications to the chicken run DH had made (a roof for one thing!) we were accepted. We pick up 5 ladies this afternoon. I am so excited it's unreal. We always had chickens from when I was a teen and they were always on the plan for our forever home. I just can't believe it's actually happening. 

Thank you for letting me share that x

Aww, how lovely starnac 🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔 Don't forget to let us know the names you have chosen for them when you get a minute. If you are going to give them names that is. Ex-battery hens I find are very rewarding and they love to be around people, I know mine do all the time. How exciting for you and your family. 

Do pop on here when you can and let us know how you are getting on. 

Edwink x

Cheery_Daff

So pleased you have your lovely new hens starnac! 😊😊😊 They are such a delight. Do let us know names when you have them! 

All seems ok here, although we ran out of tablets for Bessie on Friday so she's having to manage without (I'm sure she doesn't care!) Spoke to the vet on Monday and she said she's send some in the post, they weren't here by Thurs, and reception said they'd been posted. Still not here Friday, and reception found them in a pile... put them in the post, but sent signed for and didn't tell me, so I went out, and the postie didn't leave them (the normal postie would have), so we don't have any til we can collect them on Monday. Most vexing!

Glittering_M

Starnac that is so exciting! I'm so happy for you.


I am looking at runs now. I realise I don't need a run to fill the whole space I had originally ear marked (about 7mx10m) as we only want a few (3/4) and they'll be able to free range some of the time (when allowed). Now thinking around 6x4m.

Ideally I want a metal framed run as I'm guessing the maintenance will be less and they will last longer. Is this right?

Something like this

https://thechickenhousecompany.co.uk/collections/38mm-metal-runs/products/metal-chicken-duck-run-6m-x-3m-cc011

Or 

http://hollywaterhens.co.uk/about-us/hen-houses-chicken-coops/

But the wire looks a bit thin and from my understanding you still have to build it yourself to a point as the wire comes in a frame. So I'm wondering if it is possible to buy a frame and a heavier wire. I'm keen for it to have a sloping roof if possible.

I'm also reluctant to cut a hole in the wire if I want the coop outside the run as that is another potential entry point. Although I'm also conscious the coop will take up space in the run and any advantage to having it outside is lost.

Still no closer on deciding on a coop. I saw some different ones yesterday that are advertised by Kate Humble, which looked nice but looked like they had wood inside but it might have just been the colour of the plastic. Can't remember the name.

I'm not very good at making decisions and when there are lives and a lot of money at stake I want to get it right.

Cheery_Daff

Good to do as much planning as you can in advance Glittering! 

The wire on the first one looks a bit flimsy to me. Two of our first ones were killed by a stoat getting in through a tiny gap, so ours is all quarter inch mesh now (probably a bit overkill - I have to rescue bees sometimes as they've gone in the door and can't get out through the mesh 😂)

Maintenance probably would be less with a metal one, although we don't do that much to our wooden one anyway.

Our coop is inside the run, but raised on breeze blocks so they can walk underneath it if they want (they only really do that if we're trying to catch them to go to the vets, pesky creatures!)

Do you know anyone who has a run you could go and look at?

Glittering_M

Thanks Cheery!

We've got a family friend with chickens but theirs is what we don't want! They've got an Omlet coop (one of the raised ones) and the 2m run that goes with it which is about 1.2m high and then makeshift bits to extend. Normally they free range most of the time but obviously can't atm.

I haven't found anything online I want, although the Flights of Fancy runs are really nice but wood and expensive! I equally am struggling to understand all the wire descriptions when looking to plan making one!

edwink

I can't believe it I was right at the end of a long post about chicken runs, roofing, chicken wire, you name it and I have just lost the whole blooming lot.  How annoying!!!!!! Grrr!!!!  So frustrating.

I'll pop on later and try and do the whole thing again.

Edwink x

edwink

Glittering_M said: I am looking at runs now. I realise I don't need a run to fill the whole space I had originally ear marked (about 7mx10m) as we only want a few (3/4) and they'll be able to free range some of the time (when allowed). Now thinking around 6x4m. Ideally I want a metal framed run as I'm guessing the maintenance will be less and they will last longer. Is this right?

Something like this https://thechickenhousecompany.co.uk/collections/38mm-metal-runs/products/metal-chicken-duck-run-6m-x-3m-cc011 Or http://hollywaterhens.co.uk/about-us/hen-houses-chicken-coops/

But the wire looks a bit thin and from my understanding you still have to build it yourself to a point as the wire comes in a frame. So I'm wondering if it is possible to buy a frame and a heavier wire. I'm keen for it to have a sloping roof if possible.

I'm also reluctant to cut a hole in the wire if I want the coop outside the run as that is another potential entry point. Although I'm also conscious the coop will take up space in the run and any advantage to having it outside is lost.

Still no closer on deciding on a coop. I saw some different ones yesterday that are advertised by Kate Humble, which looked nice but looked like they had wood inside but it might have just been the colour of the plastic. Can't remember the name. 

I'm not very good at making decisions and when there are lives and a lot of money at stake I want to get it right.

Hi Glittering

With regards to the size of your new run, just one thing to mention those with feathered friends start out thinking they would only keep a small number of hens but over time this gets forgotten about and more hens get added 🤣🤣🤣 it is quite addictive once you get started, well for me it was 😊 I started with 4 ducks and 12 ex-batt hens 12 years ago and as the years went past I got more and more until I had 21 hens and 9 ducks here. In my defense some of them were through someone who couldn't count as in "I'm moving so can I rehome my 8 ex-batts with you". Mr Edwink goes out to collect the little cherubs only to find there were 15 so that put ours up to 21 all of a sudden. Wasn't complaining because I always think the more the merrier 😊 But, I have been known to be a bit of a softy when it comes to animals 🤣🤣🤣

With regards to metal lasting longer, I suppose it would but make sure if you buy a metal run that it has some weight to it.  You wouldn't want something that is too lightweight that would have the potential to get blown over should we have a massive storm. As you say it will now need a roof on it and if a huge gust of wind were to get under there it could have the potential to blow over if it isn't anchored down enough on the ground. I am not sure how the metal runs fix to the ground but I am guessing it could be by pegs that are sunk into the soil to fix it down. Just worth bearing the weight in mind I think. It would be better with a sloping roof so the rain would not collect on it. 

Originally we had our girls coop inside their run but as the years went on we were given a really sturdy 6ft x 4ft shed and decided to make this into their coop as cleaning would be so much easier for us. We did this by covering the whole of the shed including the roof with chicken wire and attaching it all to the outside of their run.  We attached it first and then carefully cut the width of the shed out of one side of their run to give access to the shed. Hope that makes sense. It was fairly easy to cut it out because we had already attached the shed so we had that to guide us as we cut the side of the run for access.

Our chicken wire holes we big enough to allow small wild birds into their run so because of the Avian Flu outbreaks in recent years to get around this we covered the whole of the run in strong black netting so the little devils can't get in anymore. We attached it with cable ties which was easy to do.  We just had to cut around the 2 doorways we have, 1 for the hens and one for the ducks otherwise we wouldn't have been able to get in ourselves 🤣🤣🤣 

Hope some of that helps.

Hopefully, I can post this now without losing the whole thing again, fingers crossed 

Edwink x

Glittering_M

Thank you very much @edwink particularly for doing it twice, that really is appreciated! I hadn't considered the weight issue but that is a good point! We are hoping to put paving slabs around it but I'm not sure what else in it 


I've just seen this as an option. I'm unsure if the wire would be thick enough, you get a better view when you click the building video.

https://www.chartleychucks.co.uk/collections/poultry-runs/products/delux-metal-run?variant=34631458750624

I'm wondering if it is the same as the ones Hollywater Hens have as it does look quite similar but everything is blurring into one now! You still have to put all the wire around the frame yourself though which is a negative.

My mum thinks I should get an electric fence too whatever option I go for but I'm hoping to avoid that if possible just because it is an extra thing but obviously if it essential then I'd get it.

Point taken about the numbers, we have no need for more, so don't see us getting more than 6 ever.