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Its a great ideas for many reasons but also daunting. Where to start?
We also have a healthy local population of cats.
Get some chicks first?
Water and feed.
Nahh ... cats don't really do much to chicken just foxes and dogs.
🙂
Never kept them in a built up area but they are dead easy if they have enough land just let them out in the morning and lock in at night
My cat never tried to kill them but you will need a cat proof run to avoid this depends on space I guess and whether you consider that to be cruel
1 egg per chicken per day in summer about 3 a week in winter
Where to start?
Find one that is a keeper. You cant sell them on classifieds.
Never kept them in a built up area but they are dead easy if they have enough land just let them out in the morning and lock in at night
Foxes are spotted quite often in my garden during the day.
Dibs on hora's chickens.
Nahh ... cats don't really do much to chicken just foxes and dogs
Our's have been bringing next doors chicks through, mostly as they are free ranging all over the place and have no idea.
Check for any issues with council/land use.
Make an enclosure to keep them safe and out of your neighbors garden. Make sure there are no blokes to make a lot of noise.
Go for it.
mikewsmith - MemberNahh ... cats don't really do much to chicken just foxes and dogs
Our's have been bringing next doors chicks through, mostly
Chicks, yes. Chicks are little birdies aren't they but not chicken.
decent water proof house & nest box. plenty of grit, no cocks to start with just hens. They'll eat most things including mice. Food wise layers pellets plus some mixed corn each day. Ours lay good eggs, particularly the Leg Bar which lay blue eggs with huge yolks.
My wife is selling the full kit for keeping 2/3 birds: £150 for a s/h eglu with feeders, food, supplements etc. wire and bits for building a run available for extra. Stafford - pick up, opt delivery if you are on the way to somewhere I want to go.
My cat killed my neighbours chickens, but didn't eat them.
Make sure you get a spray or diatomacious earth to prevent red mite, as once you have it, it can be very difficult to get rid of.
Also, they will trash your garden 😀
Find a keeper? The good thing about hens is they have variable head angles 8) ...just like my Patriot.
The fridge or freezer shirley ? 😆
Make sure you call them Paxo, Sage, Onion, Parsley, Thyme etc 8)
Roasting is best.
I live rurally and my neighbour keeps chickens.
They occasionally all get slaughtered by foxes or whatever (heads and gore left in the strangest places like they do it on purpose), and they regularly crap all over my front door step!
I hate them. For what it costs to feed them, and the inconvenience of keeping them, you might as well just buy your eggs.
(And cats do kill them by the way- one night here 8 chicks were eaten by my next neighbour's cat, which lives 3 miles away!).
restless - Member... diatomacious earth to prevent red mite
Get some of this ^^^.
I get bitten during the summer time because of birds nests outside ... 😡
Great at first when they lay eggs. When they get out they wreck your garden. When they stop laying they just eat and wreck your garden. I wouldn't have chickens again.
gavtheoldskater - Member
When they stop laying they just eat and wreck your garden.
Roast chicken?
Bokonon, I'm pretty interested in the Eglu, can you contact me please?
Chickens are ace, great eggs better than anything you'll buy int shops. loads of good advice above particularly about Mr Fox and Red Mite. Great if you have kids also. The waste when you clean them out is brilliant for the compost bins.
Forgot to mention that we are about to up our "flock" from 5 to 16. Will have the old hen house available if anyone is interested.
One of my neighbours keeps chickens, and he feeds the local fox twice a week with food scraps etc. He says if you keep the fox fed, it won't bother the chickens. Seems to work too.
I've had chickens for 5 years now, built a home for them out of salvaged stuff
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Most people don't know that it is illegal to feed your chickens table scraps. Ie the left overs.
There is good reasoning behind this as ones fed table scraps are significantly more likely to be carriers of Salmonella and thus be a public health risk.
Oh don't bother with herbal wormers either. Get something effective like Flubenvet.
They're easier than you think, especially if you're allowed to keep poultry in your garden. Just don't add up the cost of the feed, building materials, hens, scaly leg treatment etc and divide by the cost of supermarket free range eggs.
we've got 3, these are our second batch, they are rescued battery hens.
We have an Eglu, within a 'run' with its own gate and they get let out into the main garden most afternoons. They are great to watch as they potter about the garden, They do trash the garden, but i'm not much of a gardener so not too bothered.
They stop laying so often when it it is colder, shorter days.
Looks like too much hard work to me, but we built a run a few months ago. It was from all sorts of scrap wood, pallets and stuff, sister probably bought the coup cheap off ebay or was given, she's pretty savvy that way. Our only brief was she wanted to be able to stand up in the run. B-i-L has extended it since our initial build. As above, they're rescued battery hens, I think.
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They look like prime fox food!
It won't be long.
Nom nom nom.
beefheart - Member
They look like prime fox food!
It won't be long.
I think the key is shutting them in the coup at night. That's the management bit I'd struggle to be disciplined with. I don't think you can just leave them to their own devices.
Cats like coops too
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From what I've seen, cats can not be trusted.
Ooh don't get ex batts either. Well they are a good idea if you want to try keeping chickens and don't want to commit long term to it as most don't last very long.
Ideal for Hora really.
Go for ex batts
They'll eat most things including mice.
Say what?!?!
We have them in our garden and they are great pets.
They need locking away at night to keep the foxes out but you can get doors that open and close at dusk/dawn if you are late home or away for a night. They just need feed and water and cleaning out every few days.
Downsides are they do mess up your garden a bit by flicking the contents of the flower beds onto the grass so we keep them in an area at the back. They also crap a lot, I knew this before we got them but I was amazed at just how much crap something that small can produce.
My experience is they are fairly easy to keep and enjoyable to have. The stuff i read online was nothing but horror stories so may put you off.