Keeping Chickens!

npsmama

this may br very stupid questions but...

our garden is 20feet square (walled) - is this too small?

i had chickens when i was younger and our cats never gave them a 2nd look. Were these freaks of nature? Are cats and chickens incompatible?
What about chickens and 1 year olds?

freakshadow4

Hiya, I keep 3 hens, and very sweet they are too. We've had them about 18 months, they started laying in January, and we generally get around 10-15 eggs a week, which is plenty for me and OH.

There are loads of cats in our area, never had any probs so far (also been lucky wrt foxes). We also have two dogs, no probs at all with the chooks. We have a home made ark, courtesy of a handy father in law and a big pile of off-cuts, and generally try to let them free range as much as possible. This has several advantages, as mentioned above, but my personal favourite is that there is less cleaning out to do when they poo outdoors!

We tend to let them out in the morning and leave them unsupervised for most of the day, but we are quite lucky to have a quite large lawn surrounded by plenty of bushes and shrubbery for them to roam around under.

I think different chooks will eat different things, so basically try them with a bit of everything to see what they'll take. I'd recommend http://www.practicalpoultry.co.uk/forum/
Loads of great advice and very friendly. I learned a lot from there!

Basically, they are unlikely to save you money, but they are great pets, fun to watch, and the eggs are a bit of a bonus.

I'm sure they'd be happy in a fairly confined garden, you could always start with one or two and get more if it works out.

Be aware that if they do roam, they will poo totally indiscriminately, ie all over the lawn. I'm not sure how this might be viewed by those with small children, anyone care to comment? (My wife is due today :j, (:eek: ) so I'll be taking notes!)

Also, they can sometimes be a bit noisy in the mornings, which may not please the neighbours. Not in a !!!!-a-doodle way, just a bit squawky when they want out or are laying. [Please note that "!!!!" was not in my orginal post! Prudesoft v1.8 needs upgrading!]

annaangeluk_2

I know there have been other threads on keeping chickens so I apologise for starting a new one but I have a few specific questions that I couldn't seem to find answers for!

I'm moving to a new house next month that has a massive garden (whoo hoo!) and I've decided I would like to get a couple of chickens.

How expensive is the initial outlay, roughly? Meaning 2 chooks, coop plus any equipment etc?

Do chickens get on well with inquisitive 5 year olds and kittens?

Can chickens be left in the coop over night if I need to go away? (I often work away so would need to leave first thing in morning and wouldn't return unti 4pm-ish the following day)

Are they hard to look after and do they make a lot of mess?! Basically, where do they poop?? Would that be all over the garden? Do they attract rats?

Do most urban neighbours mind having chickens next door?

Would a responsible 8 year old boy be okay looking after them If I'm on holiday? (A friend's little boy has offered to look after them while I'm away. Obviously his mum would oversee things but she has refused to get that close to them!)

Thanks in advance for your help!

Anna x

tanith

I'm not sure about some of your questions but I do know they have to be securely contained from foxes, my daughter recently lost the mother of 3 baby bunnies to a fox in the middle of the day... the damn thing bit through some galvanised wire to get at the rabbits and the mother went for it to try to save her babies... she was so badly injured she had to be put down... and this was in an urban garden in West London...
So you defo could not leave them to roam the garden unattended IMO....

annaangeluk_2

tanith wrote: »

I'm not sure about some of your questions but I do know they have to be securely contained from foxes, my daughter recently lost the mother of 3 baby bunnies to a fox in the middle of the day... the damn thing bit through some galvanised wire to get at the rabbits and the mother went for it to try to save her babies... she was so badly injured she had to be put down... and this was in an urban garden in West London...
So you defo could not leave them to roam the garden unattended IMO....

That's awful. If we do get the chooks will def only let them out when I'm there. My daughter and I are home during the week by 3.30pm so will only let them out then. Poor bunny.

Pink.

Hi Anna,

You should find some of the answers to your questions on these older threads:

Keeping free range chickens - Help needed

Does anyone keep chickens in an EGLU?

Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

Ever thought of keeping chickens?

Cheap eggs - Keep some chickens!


Pink

daveyjp

Check your property deeds and contract. Many properties in urban areas have a restriction that only domestic pets can be kept at the property.

Penelope_Penguin

annaangeluk wrote: »

I'm moving to a new house next month that has a massive garden (whoo hoo!) and I've decided I would like to get a couple of chickens. Well done!! You'll soon be hooked!

How expensive is the initial outlay, roughly? Meaning 2 chooks about £5-10 each, coop plus any equipment etc? Anything you like - cheapest is to build a movable ark and run from scrap timber. More expensive housing can cost £hundreds.

Do chickens get on well with inquisitive 5 year olds and kittens? Our cats are frightened of our cockerell, but cats and hens usually ignore each other. Our children grew up with hens, and they've always got on well together.

Can chickens be left in the coop over night if I need to go away? (I often work away so would need to leave first thing in morning and wouldn't return unti 4pm-ish the following day) They should be OK. We leave ours over a weekend with enough grain and water, and have never had a problem.

Are they hard to look after and do they make a lot of mess?! Basically, where do they poop?? Would that be all over the garden? Do they attract rats? Really easy to look after. We don't have rats (as far as we know ).

Do most urban neighbours mind having chickens next door? Ours don't; we live in small rural town.

Would a responsible 8 year old boy be okay looking after them If I'm on holiday? (A friend's little boy has offered to look after them while I'm away. Obviously his mum would oversee things but she has refused to get that close to them!) I would think he'll be fine.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Anna x

We've had hens for 11 years. We've now graduated onto rearing our own from eggs. Please ask if you have further questions.

Penny. x

Stephen_Leak

If anyone in the south-west is thinking about starting to keep chickens, now might be a good time to do so and Bath Cats and Dogs Home should be able to help.

I don't know the background to this, but evidently they have 10,000 (yes, you read that right, ten thousand) chicks to re-home!

Their website is http://www.bathcatsanddogshome.org.uk.

Seakay

This sounds very intriguing but I can't find any information on the website.