That reminds of when people say they can't get a dog because they have a cat.

Well, when I got my first pup, I had two cats! Ok, yes, at first there was lots of hissing and spitting and raised hackles and faces being batted by paws (dog's face, cats' paws), and this went on for a few days, but gradually settled down.

Eventually, of course, you could find them all snuggled up together, fast asleep!

The dog had been put in its place, i.e. the lowest of the low!

Hello, I have spent the past few days reading through all these posts as I prepare my garden to be chicken ready. I am a little worried that many of you seem to have a lot more space than my medium sized garden. I am getting ready to order a coop and would like your thoughts please. It seems I am not allowed to post a link - it is from Chickencoopsdirect and is the Sussex and double run.

We are hoping to have 3-5 Pekin Bantams. They will be in the run most of the day during the week but out in the garden when I get home from work. I have a corner spot in the garden in mind where they will be sheltered by a fence at the back and side of the coop/run, It is in sun in the morning and shaded in the afternoon.

Any suggestions and advice welcomed!

Thankyou

Hi jac99

Lovely to have a new hen keeper on here with us. Just fire away with any questions you may have. It is never a problem as we are a friendly bunch on here.

Because you are new to posting on the forum you are not allowed to post links yet so is this the one you are thinking of getting?

https://www.chickencoopsdirect.com/sussex-with-large-run

If this is the correct one you are thinking of getting I would say it would be fine because you are getting Bantams and will be letting them out when you are home. I wouldn't say it would be big enough if they were full size hens.

Not all of us have big gardens on here so please don't worry about that. There are some posters that keep their hens in coops on their allotments. So anything goes really as long as you consider their safety, well being, keep them clean and care for them properly.

Hope that helps

Edwink

Hello and thankyou, yes that is the one!

Thanks for putting my mind at rest. There is so much advice on the internet I end up second guessing myself.

There are also so many products out there I wonder if you can recommend the basics that I need. For example I know I will need layers pellets but are some brands better than others?

Are there any products you have tried that you have thought never again?

I know I will make plenty of mistakes along the way but any help to avoid rookie new owner errors will be appreciated,

Thankyou

Hi again

For the layers pellets it is best to shop around I always say. Obviously those of us with lots of feathered friends buy the 20kg sacks and for us the choice is Dodson and Horrel. Dodson and Horrel also sell 10kg sacks but I don't think they sell smaller bags than that. Bantams will obviously consume a lot less pellets that full sized hens so maybe just check online for the amount of feed they should be given every day. Maybe the person you are purchasing them from will be able to give you advice on their feeding amount

You will need to worm your girls from time to time. Some say every month, some say 3 months and others 6 months. We worm our girls every month because that's what we prefer to do as our girls are out and about picking up anything that looks tasty enough to eat. You can buy a separate worming product like Verm-x or Flubenvent or there are others out there to choose from. We use Verm-x because you can continue to eat the eggs once they have been wormed. With other products you must withdraw the eggs for a certain period of time once they have been wormed. You can buy Verm-x layers pellets for their feed which has wormer in the mix but that is basically worming them all the time which personally we feel is not necessary. Verm-x sell the worming pellets in all different size containers so for your 3 to 5 Bantams you need the smallest container they sell and that would last you a fair amount of time.

Don't forget they will need to have somewhere to dust bathe so you could encourage them by having an area of bare soil in their coop. They will soon be scratching around and getting the hang of having a wash in that area. Or you could provide a container like a cat litter tray with a mix of soil and a little sand for them to use as a bath.

Any container can be used for their water as long as it is not too light so they can perch on it and turn it over. You can buy specialist feeders and water containers but they are really just another expense. For their feed you could just scatter it in their coop every morning and evening as that will give them something to do during the day to stop them getting bored.

Hope that helps

Edwink

Hello and thankyou again. That is the brand I currently have in my Amazon basket so hopefully that bodes well.

My job for the weekend is to dig a border around my base area to sink some wire and rubble into to try and head off any rodent visits from the start. Any advice as to the best rat proof wire to use please? Is chicken wire tough enough or do I need to use something more like aviary wire? Any suggestions welcomed....

Thanks again for your advice

The best wire is aviary wire as the holes are so much smaller than chicken wire. Rats can elongate their bodies and squeeze through chicken wire very, very easily. So the smaller the holes the better.

You will also need to be wary of foxes coming to visit too. It doesn't matter if you are in the countryside or in town foxes will try and get to your hens if they are given the chance. I would try and dig the wire as far down as you can before putting rubble on top of the wire. Then the best thing you can do is put heavy paving slabs around the whole boundary of the hens hut and their coop. The best way to make sure your hens are safe is to check the boundary around their hut and coop every day to make sure nothing has been trying dig underneath. If it does happen there are other preventative measures you can take like hanging a mans shirt or any item of males clothing that has been worn on the hut as this will deter the foxes. Foxes are very territorial so the scent of another male will put them off of visiting. There are other measures to put foxes off which I will explain about in another post at the weekend. Hopefully you won't ever need them but always worth knowing about.

Hope that helps

Edwink

Interesting about putting a shirt out to deter foxes.

Don't they mind women then?
Is it just big fierce men?
Not big fierce women?

It is the scent of a male that puts them off especially the male foxes as they are so territorial.

Men's urine is another that can be used. Soak a cloth in their urine and hang it on a boundary fence at the bottom of a garden for example or on the hens hut. Or just get a male to have a pee along the boundary fence as that does the same thing in putting foxes off. Only thing is when it rains you have to do it all over again because obviously the urine scent goes as it is gradually washed away.

Edwink

"Well, it's like this, officer........."
"My wife told me to, m'lud........."

Thankyou again, aviary wire shopping it is!

I had seen your tip about male urine in an earlier post and have already warned my sons that they will have an unexpected role in the care of the chickens!

I am hoping that having two sides of the coop against a fence may provide safety on those sides from digging underneath. But I guess it may provide its own difficulties from an aerial attack. I have also put fence spikes on top of the fence.

I have this afternoon discovered an old fashioned style animal store rather than a modern pet shop. Had a cup of tea and a chat with someone there for half an hour and they were really helpful and reassured me that my understanding and planning isn't too far off track.

Are there any plants/shrubs which deter either foxes or rodents?

Thankyou for your ideas, this is all very exciting!

Hi my first post on this thread as I've just discovered it.


We've kept hens in the garden for around 5 years now. Our first 3 were kept in an area fenced off. After 2 years during some absolutely freezing weather Mr Fox despatched them, taking one for supper and killing the other two.


Our next attempt was 6 hens, moved into a much more secure fenced area- not covered and they managed well, the biggest problem was pigeons also treating it as caf! central! A couple died, and then another, and another- no symptoms just dead. Then we were down to two, Snow White and Tufty. They had a great time, jumped and climbed out of the pen every day and free ranged all over the garden, returning at night to their house. Sadly after being chased by visiting dogs (they chased our dogs and the Labrador is scared of them) Snow White died. Tufty being all alone was upset and started pulling her feathers out.


Fast forward 2 days later, despatch Tufty? Re-home Tufty our most timid hen to date? Buy her some friends? Well guess what we couldn't kill her, didn't want her picked on so she has four new friends!


Pigeons were blamed for the earlier demise of the majority of the second batch, so now we've bought them a covered run with the Hen House placed inside. 6x3 metres, with 2 metres having a tarpaulin over it- the keep the worst of the weather off the Hen House and keep an area dry, they have a large Lilac bush inside the run that holds them all when they want to be on it, a low wall for hopping and climbing and several branches they perch on. This weekend I have to make a swing for them.


The new ones have started laying, so we're getting 4 eggs a day at the moment, tufty always laid 6 eggs a week, and has started re-laying hers are much bigger green eggs, so she must be happy and is now boss hen because she is older and they came into her patch!


I'm going to follow this thread with interest and try to read through it all over the coming weeks.


Thank you.

thank you, for the advice, well she has cooled down a lot, the other two attacked her so bad they drew blood, so bathed her wounds and purple sprayed her, but they are still attacking her, they where fine in the coop at night but early this morning the noise was so bad, went to check her and there was blood so brought her into the house bathed her then but her to rest in the cat basket, she is currenty enjoying been in the garden in the rain the other two are back in the run but can see her, i keep trying to but them all together but its hell on earth she gets so stressed,
am supposing be rehoming five more in Aug but with all this going on i'm not sure.

Two sides against a fence could mean that you are not aware if a fox tries to dig underneath from the other side. Is this where you are thinking of digging the wire in to?

It is always a worry with foxes possibly trying to climb over. How high are your boundary fences? The fence spikes are an excellent idea to keep your hens safe. On the tops of our high gates we have gripper rod, these are the rods that carpet fitters use to hold carpets down and they are really pointed and sharp. Another idea as we have done is to fix black netting above the fences. We did this by extending the height of the fence posts with strong wood screwed to the posts then fixed black netting securely and tightly from those extended posts. Our fences are 6ft high and with the additional black netting they are 8ft-9ft. We used black netting as it is not as visible as green is so doesn't look unsightly.

Sounds like you enjoyed your cuppa and chat. I agree with them that your understanding and planning isn't too far off track. Sounds as though you are going to be one of those caring and sensible hen keepers which is lovely.

Sadly I am not aware of any plants that foxes and rodents don't like.

Edwink

Hi welcome to our hen friendly thread.

Aww I am so pleased that Tufty is now ok and has new friends to keep her company.

Sadly commercial caged hens more often than not pull their feathers out. You only have to rescue some to see the poor condition some of them are in. It's so sad when they do that.

Looks like yours have plenty to keep them amused which is great. Marvellous idea to give them some shelter within the coop somewhere so at least that will keep them dry when it rains which is a bonus for them.

Do you have names for the 4 new hens yet? Do you know which breed they are?.

Glad you are going to continue reading on here as there are a lot of useful hints and tips within the posts.

Edwink

Glad she has now cooled down bless her heart. It is so difficult when hens don't accept each other. It's a bit of a catch 22 situation really because if you leave her in with them they are bulling her and badly at that. But, when you remove her then put her back they start attacking her again so you can't win. Is there anyway you could wire off a section next to their coop where she could stay during the day?. Then you could put her back in at night/bed time with the other two. That way she will be close to them during the day and they will not be able to attack her and might in time learn to tolerate her. Then eventually she might be able to go back in with them. You could try that and see how it goes.

With regards to getting some more hens this could actually help her whereby the 2 hens will be busy trying to sort out who is top dog with the new ones coming in to the flock. They may well forget about her totally whilst trying to find out what the new hens are about and sorting out squabbles with them. She may even tag long with the new hens for support so the 5 become 6 and then the other 2 will be totally outnumbered which could sort the issue out once and for all.

Hope that helps

Edwink

Hi Edwink


We have an Amber (ironically she's all white with white legs) called Walter, a Copper Black called Jacko (she's a beautiful copper black colour and shimmers in the sunlight, she seems to moon walk!), a Speckledy called Harriet, a Columbine (our most nervous/ shy one so far but they're still settling in) called Tuftytwo and then there is our original Columbine called Tufty, who has gone from most nervous and bossed about to Boss Hen and bossiest hen as she's older and bigger than the others.


We are thinking about getting a Cockrel as there is no-one other than us to disturb, as although we live in the middle of town, we are on our own hill and nearest neighbour is about 150yds away from us. What are your thoughts? We go to Durham Hens www.durhamhens.co.uk for hens and they had some smaller cockrels not sure of breed but they looked like little fluffy monkeys!


After our losses to Mr Fox, I was advised to urinate around the pen, and also let our dogs run free near the pen.

Thanks very much for your thoughts.

I have sunk the wire into the ground and filled a trough around the base area with rubble to try and create an underground barrier!

I have had a rethink about the coop/run after a few wet days in Norfolk and sitting looking out of the window considering how difficult it might be to clean out a combined low level coop/run in the rain and mud.

So I have now found a walk in run that will give the chickens a little more space but also I think will make my life a bit easier. This also means that I can have a little more space around the fence to be able to look for any burrows or signs of digging.

I have read that mint plants may be a deterrent for rats so think I will plant some around the outside of the run just in case.

I have also been reading about the use of herbs and spices to promote the health and wellbeing of hens, through providing foliage to eat or putting particular leaves in nesting boxes and dirt baths. Does anyone have any thoughts or experience of this?

Thanks again for all your ideas.

well today has been really calm,a bit of falling out but not has bad has its been, so hopefully things are turning am just catching up on all your lovely tales of hen keeping, i find it very relaxing and just want to be in the garden, with them.The next re home is the 20th Sept so if things are better may get some more,

I love Amber Star hens because they are so easy to tame. We had one here some years ago and she was the most lovely natured hen and would readily come and sit on my lap or my shoulder. I really loved that little hen.

Why not get a Cockerel I say. Our poor little boy was going to be put down at a few months old if a home was not found for him so we took him in. The poor thing was introduced to 15 hens at the time and they chased him everywhere. But, I warned the hens that when he found his feet and his voice he will get his own back. Once we heard the C*ck-A-Doodle-Doo that was it he had the upper hand and became their boss and the table was turned on them. He had them running everywhere so I said don't come crying to me little hens you deserve all he gives back now I have to say it was so comical watching him chasing them as he was about the same size as them and was trying to work out how he was meant to jump on their backs. In the end he started by doing this little shuffle with his feet and even now he is 4 years old he still does that little shuffle. It's a bit like ready, steady, leap.

Good idea about letting your dogs run free near your hens coop. Anything like that will help protect them.

Edwink