Does anyone on here keep chickens?
I have five and would like to find anyone with the same interests!!
Vanessa
Hi Vanessa,
I don’t yet keep chickens but we built a big run (incorporating the childrens old wendy house) over half term and we are waiting for occupants! A friend was going to give us some of his but I know he had a visit from Mr Fox so he may not have many spare. We have put a six foot high fence round the space, do you think it needs the top covering too? Partner is talking about Marans. What chickens do you have? I will be needing some brains to pick.
Jenny.
Oooo Hello Jenny.
Well I have five bantams. Two Pekins, a Brahma, Wyandotte and a Maran!! They are pets and the girls love them to bits. Mine are free range in our urban garden (trashing it this time of year). In the summer they are fenced off with flexible building mesh and moved around weekly so the ground never gets worn out. I am chicken mad (can you tell)?
Mr Fox can dig as well, as for the top I dont know. There is a brilliant website for help and advice called. Pekinbantams.com, you dont have to have Pekins to get advice. They are just like me, MAD about chooks!!
PM me if you need help. But Marans are big birds Jenny! Nice dark brown eggs though. Just remember when thinking how many. The more chickens the more poo! They do plenty of that!! But love em…
Vanessa
Hi Jenny
I have 3 girls a Maran, a Bluebird and a Rhode Island Red. I love them, they are such characters no matter how down I’ve been they always make me smile - plus they give us wonderful, healthy eggs.
I think chooks should be given out on the NHS!!!
from one chicken lover to another _ swanie
Yes, that is a weird question, but I confess to having had a desire to keep chickens for a very long time. It dates back to the days when my daughter had rabbits and guinea pigs - always thought they were far too much work for no reward (she wasn’t much interested in them). Am still thinking about it. I was brought up next to a farm, so I have a general concept of what needs to be done, but would have to learn to do it properly. Three questions for those of you who keep chooks -
- will my neighbours be bothered by them? I don’t intend to keep any cockerels, but my garden is only 1/3 of an acre and it’s a residential area
- has anyone used an eglu - are they any good? I read that they were easy to clean and fox proof, but they look v expensive and awful small
- do you have to bop them off when they stop laying, or can old birds happily co-exist with layers without upsetting things? I’m not soppy, but I don’t like finishing animals off before their time!
Sarah
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Hi Sarah,
Hopefully I can answer some of your questions and you’ll find yourself selecting breeds etc!!
- I spoke to my neighbours at length before getting my chooks, like you I didnt intend on having a cockerel either (and still dont). You have a much bigger garden than me! Mine is about 35ft by 40ft, mostly grass with shrubs. I’m surrounded by houses and 6ft fence panels.
- Eglus are lovely and very practical but yes they are very expensive. You can get a nice wooden ark for less and house more birds.
- My girls are only 18 months old so havent got the bopping off bit yet, but have always said that unless the bird was in pain I wouldn’t cull it. I do however have a man friend who can cull!
I also have two cats and they all co-exist very well…
I got fertile eggs from Ebay early this year and popped them under one of my broody girls, 21 days later we have little fluff balls strolling around the garden. Nature at its best, it was lovely. I rehomed them all once they were 12 weeks old. It really was a great experience for us and my girls (age 7 and 5).
I think keeping chickens is like watching a huge fish tank in the back garden. I’m always watching them, good for the heart and very relaxing.
Hope this helps.
Vanessa xx
Thanks for your comments Vanessa and Swanie,
Last night we met some friends in our village who have had chickens for about three months now so will be swapping notes with them. They have bantams, which I think would suit us better to start with. We built another pond (we did number one in the summer) at the same time as we did the chicken run, so I hope I don’t get my fish tanks in a muddle…
Jenny
x
Vanessa - you’ve really fired my enthusiasm again! Thanks for all that info. I’d omitted to tell you that I have a cat, so it was good to hear that isn’t a problem. I shall be googling for run designs this week and will present them to over-worked (his version of things) husband as soon as I know what I want.
Like Jenny I think bantams would be a good start, but I’ve always fancied having a little speckledy hen (French?) - this is going to be such fun! Family already think I’m bonkers, so there’s not a lot to lose is there?
Sarah
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Welcome to the bonkers club, rareybird.
A person who shall remain nameless (she knows very well who I am talking about!) suggested the acronym ‘BCC’ stands for ‘British Chicken Club’ - so much nicer than the title of this website.
Off to bed before the sky falls down.
Yours,
Chicken Licken.
Wow - I like the new title ‘British chicken Club’!!! shame we cannot post pics of our girls. we started off with the grand plan of two years then into the pot with them but of course that is now impossible.
I have a little wooden hen house with an attached pen, however I tend to let them charge round a fenced off area of the garden - mine are keen diggers.
One thought about bantams they are better escape artists then the heavier breeds so be prepared to clip some wings or keep them penned. If you want speckles go for a Franch Maran - they are quite chunky and lay beautiful dark brown eggs(you may be able to get a bantam version)
Happy chicken watching Swanie
Hi mummyv
Sorry I am a bit slow joining the thread, yes I have 12 chooks at the moment. Silver Laced Wyandottes, Partridge Wyandottes and crosses from both including two 2 week old chicks - I know silly time of year for babies but mum had other ideas! Mine are all ‘free range’, we have 12 acres they wander around at the moment. Have 5 cockerels and the rest are hens (well the chicks look like hens at the mo, but I have been known to be wrong!).
I love them as they have such little characters, some of the boys can be a little naughty but still it’s nice to hear them. We get a fair few eggs from the girls, small white eggs but extremely tasty ones.
Lynn
Hello chuckies… I don’t have my own, but the small private yard where I keep my horse is run by a friend who has loads, so they roam around the paddocks during the day. We’re down to about 20/25 now, although 18 months ago there were over 100!!! They are mainly Rhode Island Reds, ex-battery hens who were past their “sell-by” date for battery hens and were due to become chicken soup, so we gave them a second chance. They take a little time to adjust, as things like outside, pecking, roosting are all alien concepts for them. But they DO adjust, and now are still pretty good layers. Added to that we have a Barbe D’Uclle (sp?), she’s the smallest, and a few Brahmas (the largest!) and a few others I can’t remember, a Dutch breed with lace-edged feathers, very pretty…
But when it comes to different breeds, another friend is the queen!!! I’ve lost cound of the breeds she has, and she does keep breeding groups with cockerels as she has 5 acres or so to play with…and no neighbours…Silkies, Pekins, Marans, Brahmas, lots of different bantams… She mail-orders fertile eggs and hatches them in an incubator. She only started her collection a year ago, many of hers are still quite young. She did loose a semi-mature hen to a crow, who flew down and took it, so if anyone’s just starting out, if you have rooks/crows in your area, then do make sure the run has a mesh top until the birds are mature/large enough. Oh, and if you do buy eggs to hatch, bear in mind some will be cockerels, and you will have to decide what will happen to them - if you have too many together, they do fight, and also can be very aggressive with the hens, we had to ‘dispatch’ several as we got upset with the way they were ‘gang-raping’ the hens!! Poor girls…
Chucks are lovely, and very theraputic, and those free-range eggs are SOOOOOOO much nicer!
Shannon
Lovely to meet you all fellow chook lovers. I am getting some blue egg layers next spring, thought I’d cross a cutie pie pekin with a araucana hen. They should be lovely looking birds. I feed mine layer pellets but they do have a lot of scraps from the kitchen and the odd bit of corn. They love the crusts from the kids sandwiches! Bananas, lettuce, rice and pasta (they go mad for that).
coo coo Vanessa
Jenny, with your name you have to be Henny Penny! Anyone incubated eggs in their cleavages yet? Perhaps I could fit a couple in my mastectomy pocket! Sweet chicky dreams, all. XXX
That’s a good idea and environmentally friendly too. No electricity. Not sure on humidity though, you’d have to keep it moist. Maybe some nice snoggy loo roll!!!
Plenty of humidity here (hot flush city) - would probably scramble 'em tho
S
Oh dear, you feeling hot then! Maybe a turkey egg or two!! I had chemo yesterday and my face feels like it’s been on the beach too long…Fried egg anyone?
Thrilled by this thread! I’ve got nine motley hens running on an acre of scrubby woodland. Also an organic veg patch, some flowers and a bit that might be a pond someday. And a cat. All of which keeps me sane. xx
My ladies are moulting!! Leaves and feathers blowing about the garden looks a right mess. The poor things, why they have to moult in the winter is beyond me. At least I can wear a hat whilst not having hair. They had porridge and raisins for their tea tonight!! Lovelys. xx
What a mental picture Vanessa, bonkers woman throws porridge and raisins to chickens, feathers swirling as she goes. Sounds great. Count me in. Plans for henhouse on kitchen table. Husband in despair.
Sarah
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