Yorkshire Chickens

Penelope_Penguin

MoJo wrote: »

Is that an oxymoron?
Never heard of city farms, will have to look that one up....

Here's my favourite

We bought hatching eggs from Jody Fendick at Raw Green Cottages near Barnsley - she's fab and gave us loads of advice. She had lots of different breeds at all ages from hatching eggs right through to laying hens.

I've been to Selby Livestock market, too (open Saturday mornings) and it was :eek: :eek: :eek:

Penny. x

MoJo

Who'd have thunk! In Sheffield, might have to plan a trip.

I've got my chickens now, got them at the end of May and all is tickety-boo. Next project is piggy-wigs

davidfendick

Thanks penny - hope you had a good hatch last year

Dave & Jody
Raw Green Cottages

Muppet81

Hi Mojo,

Pleased that you found your girls in the end. Enjoy! They are addictive little things.

Smoffi

Do your chickens make a huge amount of noise?

I am trying to convince my wife about getting chickens but she is worried about upsetting the neighbours with the noise...

Please keep this updated with your progress and pitfalls cause Id like to learn about this side of things

tryingtobegreen

smoffi, where abouts ru
if ur also south yorks u can come and look at mine. I have pekins and they dont make a mess of ur garden. I had 3 other chickens when i first started (dont remember what variety they were) and my god did they make a mess. They scratched at every piece of grass till there was none left! Not good if u like a nice garden

RHYSDAD

Smoffi wrote: »

Do your chickens make a huge amount of noise?

I am trying to convince my wife about getting chickens but she is worried about upsetting the neighbours with the noise...

Please keep this updated with your progress and pitfalls cause Id like to learn about this side of things

Consider that almost certainly you'll get rats. Dirty, filthy rats. We did and we got shot of our chickens because living in close proximity to other people and having rats is not a good thing. You should consider strongly whether you're comfortable with the two (chooks and rats) together.

Cockerels make the noise, hens are relatively quiet but do shout a bit when they lay an egg or they are spooked.

Smoffi

Living in Wolves - West midlands and have been thinking about it a little.. now you mention rats I dont think so...lol.. mrs and kids wont like them at all

thanks for the offer of looking at your chickens.

tryingtobegreen.. do you experience rats?

Lotus-eater

Smoffi wrote: »

Do your chickens make a huge amount of noise?

I am trying to convince my wife about getting chickens but she is worried about upsetting the neighbours with the noise...

Please keep this updated with your progress and pitfalls cause Id like to learn about this side of things

There are loads of threads on here about the upsides and downside to keeping chickens, have a search.

Chickens don't make much noise, my neighbours were worried when I got mine originally, but now they like the soft sounds they make when they are looking around for food, happy little clucks
As RHYS says, they can make a noise to announce to the world that they have laid an egg (not sure where that comes in the chickens evolution, you'd have thought that was the last thing they wanted to do!) and they will let you know if you forget to let them out one morning, but that's about it, as long as you have all hens, it won't be a problem 99.9% of the time.

There is a strong possibility of rats, there are things you can do to make the situation as good as you can, good hygiene, only giving the chickens just enough food, or getting a food on demand feeder, emptying the water every night and refilling in the morning.
Keeping the coop clean and keeping the chicken food inside or in a rodent proof container. Keeping any spare bedding material away from any rat liveable areas, they like to make nests in it.
I have stopped using straw now and use a cardboard base and newspaper under the roosting bars, as someone on here advised, (thanks whoever you were :T it works really well and saves me having to buy and store a bale of straw) I use wood shavings in the nesting box and have a big bag that I bought from the feed merchants, that will last a couple of years.
The paper and droppings go straight into the compost bin. Great for your veggies.


It sounds bad, but it's not really, if the worst comes to the worst, then get some rat poison, from online (not that expensive, mine has lasted years) and that will deal with the problem.

tryingtobegreen

Smoffi, on the subject of rats/mice.
Touch wood i have not had or got rats/mice. My neighbour at the bottom of my garden has traps due to him having a very large avairy. He also does not have rats/mice.

I can only speak from my expierience but do mimick alot of what lotus eater said.
My chickens, dog(4mth lab) and 2 and 4yr old children make alot of mess with dog doo, toys and chicken doo. My chooks, dog and kids all free range. I work and find plenty of time to clean up after the little critters. Its NOT hard.
I have 2wooden coops and 2eglus (big 1 and little 1). If u can get an eglu then DEFO do. I find cleaning the eglus takes seconds but the wooden ones take an age and smell if u dont do them. mine are done weekly! the eglus can be jet washed and the poo just falls out of the trays, no lurking in corners etc but the wooden coops need a real good clean as u dont want the chooks getting mites etc which is another draw back to wooden ones.
if ur coops are off the ground then rats/mice cant hide under them so have to journey to ur garden. If the food and water are not auto feeder which can be costly then put them in the coops if theyre off the ground.
Basically, if ur home had poo, wee, food etc left on every surface then U woould not be in tip top shape, ur home would stink and u would have rats and mice, if u treat the chicks in the same way as ur self then expect the same results