Home grown chickens to eat? (Merged Discussion)

ampersand

ampersand wrote: »

Well done betterlife -

Store the feed you buy in a tightly lidded container - metal- if you can.
You'll be astounded by the ingenuity of four-foots getting in and plundering, and more riskily, fouling, your girls' munch.
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Because rog2 is modest - I'm bumping[not for the first time;) ] this lovely piece he wrote quite a while back:
(just tootles off to find it)

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Well. despite best efforts and pms with The Author, Sir rog, I regret neither of us can presently find the lovely and memorable post he wrote.
rog suspects it's been buried with a merging of several Threads.
I simply say IF you can find it, please flag it here for us to enjoy again.
It has stayed with me and I'm sure I have already marked it on one of mot's Threads way long ago.

Mely

destiny_star2006 wrote: »

i think watching jamie oliver last night has really made me and my oh think properly about where we buying our eggs and meat and my oh doesnt want to buy eggs from supermarkets anymore so if i get my own then we wont have to!
And the money we save from buying eggs will let me be able to buy free range chicken meat!As we buy at least 6 eggs per week and ive always bought smart price eggs as we live on low budget but i certianly wont be doing that now¬
And i also bought the 2 for £5 meat chickens for the same reason but as i say what i will save having my own eggs can let me add that little more to buying better meat!

Dont forget that chickens lay for only a relatively short period of time. And they DO attract rats, so make sure the coop is well away from the house. I would personally never keep them. But i always buy free range eggs.

Mely

betterlife wrote: »

hi, i have another question, if i just get a couple chickens and let them have free range of my garden, would they lay there eggs anywhere or just in there house. my garden has 6ft fence all the way round is this safe enough. how high would my fence around the veg patch need to be. also i have 4 children 8yrs, 4yrs, 2 yrs and 6mths they play in the garden and have large trampoline, also there is a patio and flower bed is there anything else i should know before i decide. what if i went away for weekend do they need to be looked after or are they ok for 2/3 days with food. thanks

I wouldnt let them roam the garden they will poo everywhere! Also they will go in the house at every oportunity(if they can) and eat what they can inc. dog and cat food.

Mely

betterlife wrote: »

hi everyone thanks for advice, i have changed my mind though and we are picking up 2 ducks on saturday! khaki campbells cant wait. have bought a 2nd hand plastic dog kennel today its perfect just need to make a door for it. top of garden is nearly fenced off and getting organised. im so excited ,this breed is very egg productive and as im getting a male aswell i can have ducklings.

Awww ..that sounds ideal! You can really enjoy them, as they are confined and the mess will be confined too. Dont forget to make sure you lock them up everynight,you can guarantee if you forget they will be no more by the morining. Let us know how things go!

Lotus-eater

betterlife wrote: »

hi everyone thanks for advice, i have changed my mind though and we are picking up 2 ducks on saturday! khaki campbells cant wait. have bought a 2nd hand plastic dog kennel today its perfect just need to make a door for it. top of garden is nearly fenced off and getting organised. im so excited ,this breed is very egg productive and as im getting a male aswell i can have ducklings.

Good luck with that. I've had them and they are incredibly messy things. You will have to move them often enough so the area doesn't get too trashed.
On the upside they will eat all the slugs they can find on your vegetable patch and manure it at the same time.
They will need/love water to swim in, a small pool will do, but you will have to probably change the water everyday as they will mess it up very quickly.
The KC drakes have only one thing on their minds and that is reproduction, it is advised to keep at least two females to one drake as otherwise he will wear them out. If you get hens, he will also go after those. If you had asked before, I would have advised not to have a drake.
I don't think they sit very well on eggs, so if you want ducklings you will have to use a broody or an incubator.

What else?.. Oh yes, good luck with getting them in every night and they lay everywhere, sometimes even in their own water.
The egg shells are porous, so you must get to the eggs very quickly and clean them if they have any muck on them.

Good luck

ampersand

betterlife wrote: »

hi everyone thanks for advice, i have changed my mind though and we are picking up 2 ducks on saturday! khaki campbells cant wait. have bought a 2nd hand plastic dog kennel today its perfect just need to make a door for it. top of garden is nearly fenced off and getting organised. im so excited ,this breed is very egg productive and as im getting a male aswell i can have ducklings.

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Morning bl -
None of us would wish to quell your enthusiasm, but please absorb the posts that some have written about kc's.

Good luck.

Lotus-eater

Funny story about my ducks, I woke up one morning and looked out of the upstairs window and saw two ducks on the roof of my neighbours shed! Wondering how the hell they got there and how I was going to get them off, I turned around with one leg already half in a pair of trousers and sort of half realised they weren't moving.
My NDN had decided to mount two plastic ducks on the shed overnight

My OH went through the exact same episode... I didn't tell her before

Although its been a few years now since I had a KC drake I seem to remember that he was very aggressive as well, my DD was afraid of him.

betterlife

hi thanks for all advice, my parent had a farm garden when i was a kid we reared ducks then. i am buying them off a duck farm who breed, show and supply ducks/egg the owner has given me loads of advice and says she will take them back if we dont get on. she also said they make good mums and her hens raise there ducklings naturally. fingers crosed anyway x.

turbo

Hello, I need some advice on keeping chickens. My husband would like to get some chickens and intends to keep them in a narrow piece of garden between our house and next door's house (which is only about 4 feet away). Do chickens make a lot of noise.? Are they smelly ?
This small strip of land is in a very shaded area and the rest of that side of the garden is our vegetable patch. If any one had any suggestions about what we could grow in this shaded narrow strip it might dissuade my husband from wanting chickens. We also have 2 dogs but the vegetable garden is fenced off. Next door also have a dog.

Turbo

MaximumImpact

Chickens are smelly!! Well, what they produce is and you need to clean them every day and dispose of waste to keep vermin away and the smell to a minimum. How small is the strip of land? Chickens trash land like it's going out of fashion as they like to scratch about for food. They will also trash your veg garden given half the chance.

They need to be kept secure if you have dogs as a dog will easily kill a chicken for fun. They will need a secure henhouse as well......

There's also the upside of never needing to buy eggs but don't be mistaken...chickens do need quite a lot of care..worming every year..fresh feed and water twice a day...balanced diet...