To keep chickens

[Mirrorwriting]

I’m in a built up area and really want to keep a couple of chickens in the garden. Aibu

We live in a London suburb. The people next door have chickens and they are no problem at all. (although the cockerel was a noisy bastard and I was not sad when the fox got it). However friends of mine in Walthamstow keep them and what with feed and vets bill and intermittent laying it seems to cost them an absolute fortune. They are really just pets to them.

We just get the vet to dispatch our chickens. Same as the rest of our animals.

You are being vvvvvvvvvv U. You do not inflict your chicken sounds on your neighbors. Noise pollution from my neighbour's bloody wind chimes drives me insane. We live in a terrace, it's so selfish.

Het the chickens! I love the sound they make, mine chatter but they are only loud if I lie in.
If you take the food away at night yoy’ll discourage rats, and I agree eith others that bantams are best. My pekins make minimal impact on the garden and they are so friendly.
We do live rurally but I’d have them in town too.

I loved my girls- I had 3 pekin bantams but I concluded my garden wasn’t big enough so rehomed them- they weren’t smelly or particularly noisy until they laid an egg- I miss them

Mine are very quiet and you can stroke them-proper wee pets and lay tasty eggs too. Go for it, you won’t regret it!

@myview2 Are they silkies? Mine are bog standard ex battery girls but I wouldnt mind adding a bit more glamour to the flock.

Seconding the silkie love here! They’re great with kids, don’t tear up the garden too much and are hilarious to watch.
We have a rooster and four girls, semi-rural area; he goes in a dark box to sleep between March and Sept and thankfully he’s not too much of a crower.
Silkies are notorious for going broody though, but they make up for it by their gentle nature and comedy bouffants.

My advice is to read, read, read and then read some more before even going to look at a chicken! Don’t skimp on your coop and aim for a plastic one as it’ll be easier to clean and less prone to red mite.

PPs who said frequent cleaning is vital are dead-on, especially in the summer. You can also get special fly traps which are utterly revolting but very effective as you will get flies, even if you clean daily.

Be prepared for them taking over your heart, too. Here’s a pic of my man!

Just wanted to say.. I'm loving this thread and i think more people should upload "chick pics" loving the the look on that last fella!

My neighbour had chickens and they were extremely annoying, always woke us up very early at weekends.

I love my girls. They have a massive fenced bit and a coop that gets cleaned once a week. They eat all my weeds and kitchen scraps. We live in the country. We get about 7 eggs a day at the moment and everyone wants them as they taste amazing. We have no food waste - they eat it all, no weeds. Bedding goes in the brown bin. They cluck loudly when they lay an egg ‘look how clever I am etc’. In day time we let them wander and roam the garden and they don’t do any damage. But they have an enormous coop and that is in a state! I just throw bark and weeds on top - they love the bark and happily peck away. They come inside occasionally to annoy the dogs but other than that - best recyclers you can have ! X

We have chickens in our suburban semi detached garden. We have 3 pekin bantoms which are smaller than regular chickens. This works well for us as they don’t make as much mess. They are all hens so no loud crowing. At one point we got a 4th chicken and the increase in chicken poo was quite significant so 3 is a good number for us (number 4 turned out to be male so was returned to breeder as per our agreement on purchase). They are cheap to feed. We do keep an empty flower bed for them to scratch around in to avoid them doing bit in the beds that are planted. And we do have to cover flowerbeds when we first plant them up to give them a chance to grow without getting pecked. But they are a lovely addition, nice to watch wandering round the garden and keep us in a good supply of fresh eggs. I would seriously consider going for a smaller breed if your garden isn’t huge. Also make sure you buy a sturdy coop for them as foxes can be quite determined to break in if there is any weakness in the cage/coop.

He is gorgeous, isn’t he? He’ll come and sit on you for 30-40 minutes and then ask to go back out to his ladies.

He’s got quite the female fanbase around here, I can tell you!

Fine if kept clean. We couldn’t sit in our garden because of the smell of our neighbors chickens. They brought a surprising amount of squirrels into the area and we use to watch the mice running up and along our fence. Thank goodness they moved.

Yup. It’s vital to clean every other day or so, depending on numbers and set-up.
I’m about to change my guys’ bedding from straw to some compostible wood fibre gubbins that absorbs more moisture and is a bit more hygienic for them. It doesn’t cost much more, which is good.

Get on over to the chicken section and fill your boots, OP.
Iirc, it was a good couple of years from wanting chickens to getting them, during which time I did lots of reading and talking.

There will be bad moments - our dominant hen went berserk with her first batch of chicks and killed all but one. We were met with carnage and my (then) nine-year-old DS and I had to euthanise the couple that were still alive. Not pretty, but a sobering lesson for us.

Our Next door but one neighbours have been keeping chickens for about a year now (no rooster though) and it's been unexpectedly lovely! They are so cheery to hear, chattering and complaining in the morning, plus our neighbour talk to them in such a lovely way (I don't think he knows we can hear him!).

Our cats avoid them, and we also have a fox living in the garden behind ours and they all rub along together. Their coop is a brick built shed that's been extended with a sturdy full height wooden aviary. Am v jealous!

Don't get a couple of chickens. They're flock animals and need a group. And they don't smell or attract rats if you keep them clean and remove their food at night. And they give you lush eggs. We are suburban and loads of people around us keep chickens. Everyone here gets them at point of lay then you don't risk getting any cockerels.

You find that cats and dogs often get along well with chickens, which surprises many people. Our neighbour’s cat is a beast who terrorises the area, but he hangs out with the birds quite happily.

Chickens absolutely are noisy. We used to have chickens and our neighbours have chickens (no cockerel). They quite often wake me up before my alarm in the morning.

MyOtherProfile, our Hen's are kept clean and the food is never left out for long. We still have a rat problem, they're now stealing all the eggs as they lay. We are really struggling to get rid of them.