Hen house corner

squeaky

Hiya

We have several good threads on chickens which you can find in the Food section of the MEGA Index sticky at the top of the Old Style forum and, as soon as I find it, I'll merge your thread into our main one on keeping chickens which is Hen house Corner.

The usual rules apply - since posts are listed in date order you'll need to read from the beginning to catch up.

Alfietinker

Thanks squeaky - I was just making my way through that very thread

[Deleted User]

alfietinker that is fairly similar to the system we used. We did shut them out of the fruitcage when the berries were starting to set but it was only for a few weeks. They can jump pretty high to get the things they like to eat

We had warrens and then black rocks. They were both content in a restricted space. Warrens are the typical battery hen. I would get point of lay hens rather than rescue hens. Eventually the eggshells start to get soft but not for quite a while. You won`t know how old the battery hens are. The warrens I bought were bred in a battery farm and they had never seen soil or the great outdoors so buying them young like that is also rescuing them. The black rocks were prettier but not as good as the warrens. They would take turns getting broody and that can take several days of isolation to cure

chrislee765

Alfietinker - I dont see anything majorly wrong with your run, infact if i were a chicken i would be quite excited at the thought of living in that!
Our chickens have a coop inside a 18 x 25ft run, ive put some bales of straw in whole to keep the occupied. When were about though they can free range our garden.

Flaws with your design...
1. Foxes. Make sure you have sufficient security against them. (they can dig underneath)
2. Flooring. With bare earth it might get muddy quite quickly. Make sure you dont use bark chips (wood chips are best) as this can harbour bacteria.

Links to help you on your way:
Poultry Keeper Forum
Practical Poulty Forum
Battery Hen Welfare Trust (Here you should find out about keeping battery hens)

Good luck, and i dont regret getting my chooks one bit!

Alfietinker

Thanks for the links Chrislee - I'll be looking at them in earnest today

I've already emailed the essex coordinator at the Battery Hen Welfare Trust for some advice and am waiting to hear. Hubby isn't too sure about batteries, I just feel so guilty not taking them in (if that makes sense). A bit like rescue dogs - as much as a puppy is nice, there are so many dogs that need a home..... I digress...

We're still a long way off getting these, probably not until the spring I think so I'm just reasearching the feasibility at the moment (while hubby makes his mind up!)

I showed him the design and he's not too keen on making something that complicated. He's suggested digging up the currants and making a permanent pen there. The overall size would be about 10 x 6 foot with a solid block wall on one side (next doors garage). Any thoughts on this?

Janine xx

halloweenqueen_2

I'm lucky enough to be given fresh free range eggs by a neighbour who has several 'rescue' chickens. I know you can cook chickens a 'hot dinner', I remember you can put potato peelings in it and it smells lovely when its cooking but I don't know how to do it.
I haven't got a compost bin at the moment for a couple of reasons so i thought it would be a good use of kitchen scraps as well as nice for the chickens, as I get the eggs i can only benefit!!and it seems such a waste (no pun intended) to chuck the stuff in the bin.

squeaky

Hi, hq

We have a long running thread on keeping chickens, and this would be a good question to merge into it so i'll do that shortly.

I must admit that I don't recall seeing a recipe for hot lunches in it though

halloweenqueen_2

Well after the chickens being cooped up as battery hens and then rescued we wanna spoil 'em!!!!!!

Alfietinker

He said yes!!!! Loads of encouragement on the poultry forum convinced him we can do it We've agreed to wait until July and get this years crop from our currants, and then dig them up and build a run there. :J

Fingers crossed avian flu means there won't be restrictions in place by then......

We're getting chickens!!!!!!

beadysam

I luuuuurrrrrrrvvvveeeeee my chickens! Chickens are the best!
Alfietinker - you will NOT regret this at all - in fact I bet it won't be long untl you have babies toddling around too!
SAM xx