Do you keep chickens on a housing estate?

niftythrifty33

I'd love to have some chickens as we go through SO many eggs and I only buy the organic free range ones so it cost a lot of money. We live in a standard 70's housing estate. We have a medium size corner plot.

Do any of you keep chickens in a normal housing estate garden? Do they make much noise? What's the best type of housing to buy or make (my hubby is very handy at building things from wood:))

Thanks in advance

Davesnave

I used to live on a housing estate where I had a very large garden, but I'd not have kept chickens in it, due to the racket they make, which could have affected around 20 other properties. Someone up the road once kept chickens in their even larger plot and they didn't bother me, but I was around 100m away. I could still hear them, though!

Yes. I know it's a 'nice' noise, just like some people think hip-hop is 'nice' sound too!

Now I live in the country, I have 20 chickens and a cockerel, , but that's fine, because chickens are ubiquitous around here, along with noisy dogs, sheep, and farm vehicles. They all kick-off as soon as it's light, or even before.

In other words, the decision to have chickens, like others, such as disposing of waste via bonfires, ought to depend on context.

However, there's a much better reason for not keeping chickens in a medium sized garden, which is that they're likely to prove uneconomic and live in conditions inferior to the optimum....unless you have very few, which will be even less economical.

That's not to say that the eggs from hens labelled 'organic, free range' are produced in any better conditions than you are likely to provide, however.

The [STRIKE]best [/STRIKE] cheapest and easiest way to buy good eggs is to get them direct from a producer who will show you their set-up; the most important part of which is sufficient space for grass to survive. Hens on grass produce better eggs.

That's it really....oh, apart from deciding what will happen when a chicken gets sick or stops laying, who will bump it off etc. Ah, your husband is handy with a hammer....it's a transferable skill! :rotfl:

niftythrifty33

Thanks for the reply. Think maybe I'll give it a miss and get eggs from a local farm

Davesnave

niftythrifty33 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply. Think maybe I'll give it a miss and get eggs from a local farm

My answer was geared to the fact that you were thinking of keeping chickens for economic reasons, due to using so many eggs. Like everything else that requires inward investment, the pay back period should be considered.

l'll never see pay-back from my hens, ever, but that's OK because they're a hobby. Also, living on a smallholding, having an expensive fox-proof orchard and hen houses is all part of the capital equipment invested in a place like this, so it has a value as part of the whole when we sell-up.

I do sell eggs and I'm sure my customers imagine that the cost of feed etc is being fully covered, which it is, but beyond feed, there are all sorts of recurring other expenses.

Jackthedog

I live in an 'estate' and have 8 chooks. as long as you don't have a cockerel they are pretty quiet and neighbours don't notice them.

Cheap to run for home eggs and a few surplus eggs to sell cover their running costs.

Don't waste money on expensive coops etc... an old shed with a pop-hole is ok, cheap plastic waterer and feeder and if garden fenced they will roam... but they will scratch up the garden! Just lock them in in an evening.

Don't be put off they are easy and very popular nowadays

RichardD1970

We live on a 60's housing estate and have 6 chickens at the moment. They are only very rarely noisy, much less so than the neighbouring dogs. Never had any complaints.

We have 2 Eglu chicken houses in a walk-in run. Not cheap but easy to clean and more resistant to mites etc.

We asked our council before getting them and was told it wasn't a problem as long as we didn't have a cockerel.

Kept chickens for the last 8 years and don't think we have ever made or saved any money taking the initial set up costs into account.

The eggs are much nicer than any shop bought ones.

Very good forum attached to the linked site above with lots of info.

spadoosh

Dont be put off, i would advocate keeping chickens to most people.

Noise is dependent on breed. Commercial layers do tend to be noisy birds so avoid ex batts rhode islands also make a hell of a racket as proven by my neighbour two doors down (on a 50's style housing estate if the year makes a difference?!).

I had a couple of scots greys. Beautiful birds, handled well and barely a squeak. They only really made the wobble noise and was never louder than a talking voice, we could never hear them in the house.

As mentioned financially youd almost certainly be better off just buying them, but so would anyone who grows most types of veg.


Have you considered quail? Tiny little set ups, tiny costs for birds, easily bred, and awesome eggs (plus theyre quite prolific at producing meat too)! Like chooks males are the loudest but the females tend to be fairly quiet (more so than most chickens anyway!)

somethingcorporate

We live on the edge of an estate and have 4 chickens. Not heard a peep from them and they are just outside the back door - no complaints from the neigbours (handing over a batch of fresh eggs frequently keeps them all happy).

We also have an eglu hen house, come highly recommended. The eggs are lovely but they make great pets for kids, it's not an investment but a hobby.

Davesnave

I agree, some hens are much quieter than others.

Eglus are good for casual chicken-keeping, and if you only want a few, plastic is the way to go.

But the OP said she wanted enough hens to produce 'a lot' of eggs, so maybe that needs defining. She also wanted organic in a 'medium' plot. Organic free range needs 4m2 per bird. Correct me if I'm wrong.

However many chickens you have, there is a welfare aspect to consider, so it's more of a commitment than growing veg. If your brussels sprouts get mealy aphid, you can just dig them up and shrug, but it isn't like that when your chicken gets sick, or has parasites....and sooner or later, they will.

They will also stop laying eventually, long before Mother Nature intervenes...do you then provide an old age pension?

And those nice neighbours who take your eggs may be fine, but what about the nasty one on the corner who saw a rat last week? Guilty or not, you'll get the blame!

I am certainly not trying to put people off, just reminding people that there are matters to be considered first, just as you would before committing to buying a dog..

Fruittea

Cuckoo Marans are lovely quiet birds and very friendly - they lay almost every day and you can get them in bantam size too. Rats can be a problem though. I would say it would depend on what kind of estate you live on - if it's nice and friendly I'm sure it would be fine. Why not canvas the neighbours first and check out their views. They are lovely to have - I have mine I the front garden - I used to have a lovely cottage garden and now it's like a mine field. A little picket fenced in area could keep them off the main garden.

[Deleted User]

I live on a housing estate, and I had a letter from the council telling me that someone had complained about the noise from my chickens, as I don't have any chickens I thought that was quite interesting. The next door neighbour does though, but I wouldn't know they were there if I hadn't seen them through the gate.