Hen house corner

Sarahsaver

Ours get up on the garden table now and listen into the neighbours' conversations:)
I have started washing down the paved bit of the garden weekly with a solution of disinfectant just to get rid of pongs. My daughter, bless her, voluntarily clears up the poo and puts it in the compost bin. My chickens run around a lot, and the neighbours have not complained. If they did I would ask them if they wanted to wring the chickens' necks or whether they should like to watch me do it!;)

chrislee765

I want chickens.. we have a fairly large sized garden but im only 18 and mum says its a definite no no. Ive been reading all the threads on chickens and am desperate to get some!

BWZN93

chrislee765 wrote:

I want chickens.. we have a fairly large sized garden but im only 18 and mum says its a definite no no. Ive been reading all the threads on chickens and am desperate to get some!

Your not the only one!! I really want them too, but indoor hens wouldnt be a good idea (our rented place doesnt have a garden - booooo). Im determined the day I buy a house, is the day my freinds family boyf etc move the stuff in, while I get started on a veg patch, and building a coop.

I dream about it!!

JOxx

chrislee765

I think i might just build a coop and stick it in the garden. When mum gets bored of looking at it, she might let me get some chickens

I got a nice vegetable patch.. going to get it ready for next year! Im well excited.. just alot of hardwork digging.. but it will be worth it!!

Alfietinker

Hi all :hello:

I haven't got much time on here until tomorrow but thought I'd ask an 'advance' question

How big would a chicken run need to be? I've wanted chooks for ages and finally hubby is 'thinking' about it (fingers crossed very tightly).

We are out the house for 13 hours a day and I'd feel nervy leaving them to fend for themselves when we're not about - particularly in the dark winter evenings. So we thought the best solution would be a huge run with its own coop - a but like a large aviary. We'd have a large mesh 'box' and would put mesh on the ground to prevent foxes digging under. We could also put straw etc in there and replace as necessary.

We've got a few fruit trees and could build a large run beneath them about 8 foot square, with a coop on the side of that so we could shut them in at night.

Would this be too small for 2 chickens? Obviously when we're about at weekends and summer evenings we can supervise them running about but for the most part they'd have to make do with the run.

Just wondering if this was feasible?

Got to go now before hubby sees this!!!

Thanks in advance.

I know there's been chicken threads on here before which I can look through tomorrow, so I hope this isn't repeating anything.

[Deleted User]

I have had hens for quite a while (not now as we downsized)

The bigger the space the better as they can bully one another badly. They need to be shut in early enough and also to be let out every day so they do tie you down. We had a lovely coop with a drawbridge type staircase and they would go upstairs at dusk every day

Foxes can and do, climb into runs and are on the prowl at dusk. If you have set your heart on it then I would say go ahead and perhaps look at the fordham arc for ideas

A small run would get dirty as they poo all the time and it needs regular cleaning and moving so that the hens have access to grass. Our final run was about 25 x 15 feet and it could just about cope with the mess of three hens. We did start by keeping three hens in a coop with a run about 10 x 6 and it can be done but they were much happier in a bigger run. Warrens are the best breed for a confined space and they are regular layers. They were fun and they become good pets and will follow you everywhere.

Lydia.42

Hi
My OH and i kept chooks for about 3 years. We lived on a farm in the middle of the South Downs, and NEVER lost one to a fox.
They had a secure hen house (made by OH's lovely Dad) which had a sliding door at the front which was left open all day, and a removable top for easy cleaning.

Whoever was up first would let the 'guys' out, and they would have free run of the large garden all day (BTW the garden was basically in the middle of the farmers fields, so i would have thought if anyone was gonna have fox trouble, we would). During winter months, they would put themselves to bed about 4ish when it got dark, and later during the summer months.
We would just shut the door when they were all in/before we went to bed.

We kept Bantams (just love their cool little trousers), and they would run to greet you as you walked up the garden path. They eat almost anything (ours were a bit spoilt and loved left over sweetcorn/pasta/rice/grapes that were past their best.....you name it). Their favourite was cheapy value rich-tea biscuits - great treats for taming them and getting them happy to come to you when you call, and take food from your hands. We had 6 hens (averaged about 5 eggs a day), and were gutted when we moved and found that the deeds to our new house specifically state no poultry could be kept :mad:

Also, we had 2 cats who just used to watch them chooks sometimes out of curiosity, never went for them.
We found the chooks were really happy being able to run free, and meant they could grub about eating creepy crawlies, and ultimately happy chooks means lots of eggs. (also, chicken poo is great for the garden!)
Hope this helps. Good luck and enjoy your chooks - can't compare proper eggs to shop bought!

astep70uk

We have always had hens on my parents farm, just free range and not in a pen. They too used to put themselves to bed and we just had to lock them in. One thing I would say though is putting mesh on the floor of the pen may not be such a good idea. I know that hens love to scratch the ground and maybe this would prevent them doing this??

Jay-Jay_4

....and don't underestimate how quickly they will reduce a piece of grass to a muddy pit so ideally you would move the whole thing to another part of the garden every so often to rest the trashed bit.

Alfietinker

Thanks for the tips everyone - got some time to spend on here now

As much as it would be nice we really couldn't let them run free when we're not there. We have 'open' fences that aren't really secure and we've spent the last 3 years doing up the garden. If we did get chooks they'd be in the vegetable plot - not a good combination them roaming unsupervised!!!

Labour and caring for them isn't a problem.

I would dearly love chickens but I don't want to get any if they'd be miserable. So here's the only practical way we could do something.



The ground is bare earth at the moment but we can spread straw/bark chips or similar so we can change frequently.

Would chickens be less destructive of raspberries than currents? We could put a 10 x 8 run in amongst raspberries but this would need to include the coop too.

Any comments would be appreciated, but as I said, they can't run free.

Also, any comments on taking in ex battery chickens? Would a novice succeed? We don't eat a lot of eggs so I'm not worried if they're not 'regular'

Thanks guys :T