Chicken info

Trewsers

Trewsers

Well-Known Member
Oct 13, 2004
56,666
18,046
113
54
On an island
OH has agreed to put planning permission in for a chicken house at long last!:dance:
I may have asked this before, but can you recommend a particular one to buy or construct and can you chicken owners tell me of a real beginners guide I could buy to keeping them? Have previously looked after farmers cluckies for a week when they went away, but that only involved feeding and letting them in and out. So, not very experienced! Can anybody point a chicken novice in the right direction?
Cheers!:biggrin:
 
Yep, definitely need pp where we live! Even if I opted for putting it in the back yard, cos it is a listed building I'd need Listed Buildings Consent which is nearly has hard to get as planning permission!lol.
It is mainly cos we have a dispute with the neighbour, nobody else would mind, but I think better safe than sorry - don't want any more trouble.
I am thinking of siting it near the stables, makes sense cos Joe will get used to them and I'm down there most of the time anyways.
 
We'll be getting chickens again. We'll be going for another Eglu from Omlet.

http://www.omlet.co.uk/shop/shop.php?cat=Eglu

They are easy to maintain. Nothing rots, you jet wash them and they don't need time to dry out, they are the best things out they to deal with red mite and alike as they are so practical, they have a double wall so they stay cooler in summer and warmer in winter.

Can you tell how much of a fan I am :giggle:
 
We have a wooden chicken house from Practical Poultry, I think, but an Eglu would have been easier to look after. However my OH likes the rustic look (as may your local authority!). He made a coop to go around the chicken house, which the birds are in early and late before we are up and about (automatic chicken house door opener :biggrin:), out of hazel sticks and chicken wire - very rustic. They like a tree in their coop if they can have one.

Whichever house you get, be sure the nest boxes are LOWER than the perches. Otherwise they will sleep in the nest box and you will get poo on your eggs.

There's a nice little National Trust book "Henkeeping" which has most of what you need to know. If you want something in more depth let me know and I'll consult my chooklibrary.
 
Thanks Jane, will try and get a copy of that book you mentioned. I only need to know the basics, don't think I'll become a county chicken breeder or show-er or anything!
 
We keep our chickens in the back garden. Our back garden is about 10m wide and 30m long.

We let them have full free range for a while but not for long. The don't destroy established lawns, but they will dig holes in long grass and utterly ravage anything resembling a border. Those big feet can scratch! As for vegetable beds, well, the less said the better, and they will find their way in through the protective fencing.

So now they live in their bit of the garden at the back, with lots of trees and the compost heap to keep them happy, and are only allowed out onto the lawn under heavy armed guard. They like it best first thing, when there is dew (and worms :tongue:) on the grass.

We have trained our Welsh Springer to round them up and put them away!!!!
 
Humm. Perhaps best not to mention the bit about the veg patch to OH. He's spent most of Easter creating a wonderful set of raised beds (we went wood-scavenging on the quad bike was great fun !!!). They are going to be his pride and joy, I can just tell.......
 
popularfurball said:
I'd love to have chickens - how badly to they destroy lawns? Is it feasible to have them in a back garden?
Click to expand...

Used to let ours wander about. They are a bugger for exploiting any slight hole in the leawn though and love to create dust baths! Every spring and summer I would buy a roll of turf and patch in the bit they created.

Having said that, I loved having them bobbing about. I've said it before but they'd come into the house and sit on my lap (along with one of my cats) to watch Neighbours when they heard the theme tune! :happy:

I was devasted when they got foxed in broad daylight depite having 6ft fencing round the garden and all the cats. :cry:

I will do the same again when we get more, difference this time is that I'll bung up a strand of electic along the top of my fence.
 
Thanks Trewsers for starting this thread. We are thinking about starting to keep chickens too, so the info is very helpful.

We have a little outhouse at one end of the barn which just cries out to be a henhouse!
 
Next door rescue ex battery hens and they lay a lot of eggs when they get their health back its quit rewarding seeing them in her garden.
 
For those of you that are thinking of chickens, obviously rehoming ex batts is very rewarding but beware.

We have had a number of different kinds of chicken, one of which was the "Warren" or "ISA Brown" standard ginger battery chicken. She laid big, gorgeous brown eggs without fail every day for 18 months. After her second moult she stopped, and has never laid another egg since.

Of course this is what they are bred to do, but it's not what you want in a house chicken.

I would highly recommend another commercial breed, the Bovans Nera. Bessie our Bovans is still laying ENORMOUS brown eggs (it makes your eyes water to think of it, she is only a skinny little thing) at least 5 times a week, and has been doing so for two and a half years. She doesn't stop for the moult either.

Cream Legbars are very pretty, lay a beautiful blue egg, and can be sexed as day olds if you ever fancy babies :biggrin:

Another really good book for those who'd like more detail is Keeping Chickens by Jeremy Hobson and Celia Lewis.

Enjoy your chooks. Could we have a subforum on Dogs Cats and other animals - Adults who Keep Chooks? :giggle: There are some very knowledgeable henkeepers here on NR, not rank amateurs like me! :redface:
 
OH is the chicken expert in our house :nerd: I'm the pigeon expert :smoke: and if you need to know anything about dinosaur just ask my 10 yo son (aparantly they use to taste like chicken)a:)
 
I've kept chickens for 15 years, the best for longevity, hardiness and egg production have been black rocks, a hybrid, my last one died a couple of months ago aged 12 years, she was laying until last year. I have a pair of silky bantams 13 years old but no eggs from her now and the average is only 80 eggs a year at best. I bought some warrens last year, they have a lovely life roaming in acres of lovely grass, fruit trees, brook, stables ...... but the eggs get lost in the undergrowth they tend to peck them too. I keep 3 marans in some chicken fencing ( the cockerels fight if they're loose) it's brilliant and a good way of keeping them free range, happy but contained. It can be electrified to keep foxes out. Ours have wooden pens and 10 are in a brick building, All are locked up securely of a night, any runs are underwired.
 
Thank you all so much for the info and joining in with this thread - I love NR cos there is always somebody that can help!!!
Can hardly wait, OH is very earnest about this venture and we intend to spend some time over the weekend weighing it all up.
He's just finished another raised bed near the stables - so still not going to mention the cluckies potentially wreaking havoc on that score..........!!!
 
newrider.com
Top Bottom
Back