Anyone Keep Chickens?

[Scott]

Yep.... serious question haha.

I know we have quite the diverse group here so just wondering if anyone keeps them. I'm thinking of getting some for the new house but not sure if my layout and plan will work. Also curious about various other factors such as weather... holidays..... cleaning out.... etc.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Yep.... serious question haha.

I know we have quite the diverse group here so just wondering if anyone keeps them. I'm thinking of getting some for the new house but not sure if my layout and plan will work. Also curious about various other factors such as weather... holidays..... cleaning out.... etc.

I’m working on training an army of chicken ninjas. They have a barracks in the garden, were training them in ninjitsu and Krav Maga.

 

[Citrus_9]

There is a bright side - if you don't like or want to drop the idea, they're delicious, highly recommended. My grandfather used to keep rabbits for meat. But when I was a kid, I never related the fact that they suddenly dissappear from the cages and we have some nice fancy dinner same evening... 🥺

 

[ubuysa]

My brother-in-law keeps chickens at home. I can ask him for some Do's and Don'ts if it helps?

 

[AgentCooper]

I know forum member @KippleKat keeps chickens... although she hasn't been online since April 1st

 

[Scott]

I’m working on training an army of chicken ninjas. They have a barracks in the garden, were training them in ninjitsu and Krav Maga.

Great idea, keep those foxes at bay

There is a bright side - if you don't like or want to drop the idea, they're delicious, highly recommended. My grandfather used to keep rabbits for meat. But when I was a kid, I never related the fact that they suddenly dissappear from the cages and we have some nice fancy dinner same evening... 🥺

Irony is I don't like eggs. I just think a bit of life around the garden would be nice. I'm not a "pets" guy as I like my freedom so I'm hoping chickens..... or a goat... would be a happy medium. Love a bit of chicken curry though haha.

My brother-in-law keeps chickens at home. I can ask him for some Do's and Don'ts if it helps?

Definitely. My main concerns are......

The coop & run would be on an astroturf surface separate from my main garden. Not a great deal of sunshine but plenty of air and daylight. My plan would be to lay down sawdust for the run. I would let them out for a run around the garden which is quite large and has a mix of grass, astro & dirt etc.

With 2-4 chickens in mind, what sort of cleanup routine would be required. Replacing straw/sawdust/etc.

With a secure run & coop in mind, & a fresh clean up, how long could they be left... for holidays/vacation. Is a week, 2 weeks possible or would they require more looking after?

Any special requirements for winter? They can be chilly up here at times. Not to mention wet and miserable. My idea is to have the coop as a shelter and also a sheltered area in the run.

Any preferred materials? I've seen plastic coops which i thought may help with clean up. I am considering making my own fully modular coop but would need to get some basic drawings together of actual coops so that I can get the nesting heights correct etc.


My house has a huge garden to one side. The house extends to a conservatory and then into a garage. One side of the conservatory is to the garden, the other side is to the patio area and an un-used space that I'm thinking will be good for the chickens. They would have a fair bit of free roam when I was about, I would let them in the patio/kitchen area and they could pass straight through into the garden area when the weather is nice etc. I think it would be a nice wee space for them but my main concern comes from when I'm not there and all they have is the astro/run/coop.

I've asked to see if there's anyone local to me that can come and see what they think also. No hits as of yet though. Doesn't seem to be much of a done thing here

 

[ubuysa]

The coop & run would be on an astroturf surface separate from my main garden. Not a great deal of sunshine but plenty of air and daylight. My plan would be to lay down sawdust for the run. I would let them out for a run around the garden which is quite large and has a mix of grass, astro & dirt etc.

With 2-4 chickens in mind, what sort of cleanup routine would be required. Replacing straw/sawdust/etc.

With a secure run & coop in mind, & a fresh clean up, how long could they be left... for holidays/vacation. Is a week, 2 weeks possible or would they require more looking after?

Any special requirements for winter? They can be chilly up here at times. Not to mention wet and miserable. My idea is to have the coop as a shelter and also a sheltered area in the run.

Any preferred materials? I've seen plastic coops which i thought may help with clean up. I am considering making my own fully modular coop but would need to get some basic drawings together of actual coops so that I can get the nesting heights correct etc.


My house has a huge garden to one side. The house extends to a conservatory and then into a garage. One side of the conservatory is to the garden, the other side is to the patio area and an un-used space that I'm thinking will be good for the chickens. They would have a fair bit of free roam when I was about, I would let them in the patio/kitchen area and they could pass straight through into the garden area when the weather is nice etc. I think it would be a nice wee space for them but my main concern comes from when I'm not there and all they have is the astro/run/coop.

I've emailed BiL with these questions and will forward his reply as soon as he sends it.

 

[ubuysa]

@Scott, I've had a reply. It's my BiL's daughter who keeps chickens and this what he said:

Chickens need looking after. Actually are quite high maintenance if good welfare is intended in enclosed areas. ***** has to check her chickens every day. Collecting eggs, checking water making sure no holes have appeared in the fencing. She lost £400 worth of ducks one night a fox got in. The chickens can be let out during the day to run around. They usually know when it is dark there is danger and make their way back...but not always. Regarding going off for a week or more not really. A couple of days max. Here is a good link. https://poultrykeeper.com/general-chickens/looking-after-chickens-ten-easy-steps-to-getting-started/

That looks like a useful site...

 

[Scott]

Brilliant info, pass on my thanks

I'll have a browse through that on my lunch

 

[CMP01]

I don't keep chickies but my mum does (and it's out of control, she has too many now lol) and guess who used to get too involved? Yeah... well, I'm a softie so...

Anyway, a few things I can think of off the top of my head...

I saw astro turf mentioned, I'm not sure about that. Don't know if they'll try to eat it at all (guessing it wouldn't be good for them) and they are smarter birds than ducks (which are dumb as hell, bless 'em, and will eat stones if they're wet and shiny like a snail... mum has those too, and bees, btw) but for sure they'll tear it up to get to the dirt for dirt bathing (it's a thing) and bugs/worms etc nm whatever their poop might do to it. Better to have real grass or dirt/hardpan for them to do whatever, though grass/lawn won't last long either.

If you're a big softie you'll want to check with local vets for their ability to deal with chicken patients. Mum lost a few from fairly regular chicken issues cos the vets simply didn't know that side of things.

Feeding and sourcing food is easy enough but they'll make a mess anyway (food and poop) that you'll want to clean up asap lest rats cometh. Accommodation and a secure pen is easy enough. It helps to rim the outside of the pen or run with spare house bricks/tiles/slabs at ground level etc to prevent unwanted escapes (oh yes, they can dig pretty well if they want to) and unwelcome intrusions.
Just know foxes are cunning as hell and can find loopholes in your defences pdq.

Bedding can be sourced pretty easily tbh. Straw, shredded/coarsely cross cut paper, coarse sawdust (not too fine) are all good (Mum used to get local offices to save their shredded paperwork for the purpose) It will need changing depending on how many you have, especially in the summer due to potential explosions of mites (Mum lost some to that too, once mites take a hold they are hard as hell to get rid of and'll suck chickens dry given the chance) and you'll need to have them seen for parasites etc at least at the outset. You'll need extra bedding along with insulation in winter. Bubble wrap, styrofoam bricks/panels/plastic sheets etc are all good wrapped around/secured against the outside of their house, as long as they don't eat it and while leaving some ventilation of course, or better still a double walled home.

So, um yeeeah... can't think of anything else offhand. It'll take some work and outlay to get going but once you hit a rhythm it'll take care of itself for the most part, minus feeding, cleaning etc. I actually like chickens, and when used to you can be very sweet and friendly (moreso than ducks, which, again, can be sweet but are as dumb as a... shiny, wet, snail like stone...)
Just remember that they're basically mini raptors that'll hopefully learn to see you as food provider instead of... (especially if you choose to keep a rooster like I did... omg the scars and unhappy neighbours...)
Overall though it can be a good and fulfilling life experience, I kind of miss it a bit tbh. I would definitely recommend you find and subscribe to a local poultry keepers group on fb etc, they'll be a lot of help for any of the above.

Oh, and then there's the egg song (also a thing) but I'll let you discover that wonder of nature yourself.

Sorry if this was a bit of an info overload but good luck and enjoy.

 

[Scott]

What a fantastic post. Thanks very much for the pointers and insight.

I got the chicks on Saturday. We got 3 in total, Phoebe, Pumpkin and Oreo (Named already). I spoke to the guy I got them from about what I had planned and he said it will be fine, even the astro, but they will need time on proper grass etc as you say. I have a large garden that they will get to spend a lot of time in for their dirt baths & foraging. I have worm rich grass as well so I think they will like that, look forward to see if they thump the ground to get the worms up haha.

I've ordered Easy Chick for the bedding, read it's some of the best. I've built an extension to their run already so that it'll house the large feeders that I have purchased.

Locally there are a number of people that keep chickens, found out through the power of FB. We have a few really good vets around and I'm in the countryside, close to a lot of agriculture, so I have no doubt that they will know what's what.

Looking forward to it all coming together

 

[KippleKat]

I know forum member @KippleKat keeps chickens... although she hasn't been online since April 1st

Sorry guys I've been AWOL lots going on at work and now doing some charity work with little ones! I do keep chickens, in fact I got two new ones recently so I now have 6 feathery terrorists.

Meet Giblet and Popcorn! They lay blue eggs

Yep.... serious question haha.

I know we have quite the diverse group here so just wondering if anyone keeps them. I'm thinking of getting some for the new house but not sure if my layout and plan will work. Also curious about various other factors such as weather... holidays..... cleaning out.... etc.

Right, main things to consider are your neighbours. Check with them first as chickens can be pretty loud, mainly when they are laying eggs they like to do a thing called an 'egg song'. You should also check your deeds, some houses (usually only ones build circa 1996 onwards) may have a covenant stating no poultry. We have a covenant stating no poultry but I wrote to the housing developer and requested specific permission as my house was built 28 years ago now, the neighbours were all happy with my plan and the developer said no problem as long as I don't get a cockerel and our neighbours agree, so you can get around the restrictions in some cases like I did.

They'll need a secure covered run for when they can't free range, if you are planning that sort of thing and be prepared to have to legally lock them in most winters from October to April when it's avian influenza season. DEFRA imposed a mandatory chicken housing order in 2020 that lasted from early December until the beginning of April this year. So make sure the run is big enough, we have a 3x3metre walk in run which houses the 6, 4 are bantam breeds so they're tiny and the two pictured above are full sized clucks. If you put in perches and other enrichment they are generally fine in that sort of space but I wouldn't add any more to my current flock due to our run space.

We clean out the droppings every day, takes about 10 minutes to do that, wipe down the roosting bars and change their water etc. At the end of the day we pick up all the droppings in the run and compost it all. If we go away we get a pet sitter that looks after hens to come round. They have an automatic coop door which lets them out at first light and it closes when it gets dark, they put themselves to bed. We have a treadle feeder which you can put about 5kg of food into and they can step on it to release food when they're hungry so it stops rats and also means they don't need us to top up their food every day. They're pretty easy to care for but they can injure themselves fairly easily so you'll want some basic poultry first aid supplies on hand to treat minor cuts and things. Other health problems can be more complicated so check out Google for your nearest avian vet for emergencies. I'd recommend going with hybrid vaccinated hens as a first timer. We got pure breed bantams which weren't vaccinated (as this is the norm for pure breeds) and learnt the hard way and sadly lost two of our hens in the first year to infectious bronchitis.

Anything else you want to know just ask, I have a load of information on chickens floating about. I've been on some advanced chicken keeping courses too, oh and I have a chicken keeping blog...now if I actually had time to update it