what should i know before deciding whether to keep chickens?

[mumnosbest]

i had fresh chicken eggs from a friend and since then have this romantic notipn pf keeping chickens.please fill me in on all the bad/hard bits. how many chickens do you have and how often do they lay. are they classed as livestock? can anyone keep them? are there any risks with children eg salmonela?

The thing I find hard is having to arrange for someone to shut them up / let them out if you are away overnight. But they are great - very funny and the eggs are fab.

We have 2 chickens and between them they lay about 10 eggs a week through from New Year to the end of the summer. I'm not aware that there's any salmonella risk, although I think there might be with duck eggs.

thanks. i have a few willing chicken sitters.

We got 4 chickens about one month ago. They are great. My DD loves them and they all cluck around her whenever she goes in the garden (probably because she is always feeding them!) We had ideas of them free-ranging in the garden but they poo EVERYWHERE and because my children are small and have no notion of wiping thier feet before they come in the house we have just ordered some poultry netting. We are going to make them a run (it will be about 20m long) under our woody bit of garden.
The house we bought it really flimsey (a cocoon one) so I would spend money on a decent coop. See the other threads on this forum.
The eggs are amazing, 2 of ours are now laying, the yolks are so creamy and bright orange.
We love them, they seem to make the garden come alive.

You need to check your deeds to make sure it doesn't say no poultry.

They will wreck the garden and crap everywhere if they free range. Even if you have a movable run/coop you will end up with no grass as they will dig all the grass up within a couple of days every place you put the run down.

It is better imho to fence off a permanent area of your garden for them, and they do need quite a bit of space. I've got 8 chickens in a 20ftx9ft area. I dig it over frequently and put garden lime and stalosan down to stop the ground going sour. It gets like a mud bath in the winter so I've just ordered a roofed, walk in run to cover a good section of the run.

Be prepared for them getting mites, lice and worms and you'll need to treat accordingly.

Agree with other posters that they wreck the garden and despite my romantic notion, cannot free range if you use your garden at all, for anything, full stop. Loads of poo, scratch up the ground, borders, beds etc. I have also found it quite stressful getting them through their first winter with us as I am constantly worried about the fox. Also one of ours leaps off the top of the coop to escape, despite wing clipping. Have had to make many coop mods. Despite all this we love our two ladies who now have a fenced in patch in a rough bit of the garden and the kids are obsessed with the egg collecting. We tend to get 10-12 a week.

Yes agree re the shitting everywhere. If they're scratching around in garden you have to be careful to shut the door otherwise they will come into your house and shit everywhere.

Also, people enthuse about them eating slugs etc, well they do, but they also eat the hostas that you're trying to protect in the first place.

Thanks all. Glasses are becoming slightly less rose-tinted! Sounds like lots of mess and lots to think about which is fine as I'm in no rush. Have to move house (will need to consider garden) and wait for new baby to be a bit older (no free time just yet).
Please keep all the facts coming, I'm not put off yet!

The amounts of poo they produce is truly epic. They also smell in the warm weather, so you need to keep on top of hygiene. You can't add the poo to the compost heap or plants because it's acid and will cause problems. I clear mine up and put into the wheelie bin.

You also need to worm and de-mite regularly as infestation can lead to illness and even death.

Their water freezes in winter, as does the poo, so you need to chip it off the ground

They destroy absolutely everything they can get their feet/beaks into, so you need to control where they go. They don't really fly, but can easily jump five foot if they put their minds to it.

On the other hand, they are fun to keep and are very entertaining. They're generally friendly and mine follow me all over the place. As long as you get a routine going and keep clearing up, it's fine. It's only if you leave mess to build up that it comes unpleasant. I spend about 20 minutes outside every evening sweeping, hosing down and disinfecting and I have three hens. Their bedding area is cleaned daily and I just use newspaper which can be rolled up and chucked. My colleagues collect papers for me

Remember that any chicken sitters will need to visit twice a day - once to let out and once to shut in for the night - and they will also need to clear up the poo as well.

Some breeds don't lay so well and you have to decide what you're going to do with them once they stop laying. They generally don't make a lot of noise, but can be a bit noisier in the warm weather and some hens try to get up very early and try to crow .

Hybrids are stronger than pure breeds.

chickens are delightful, pets and companions............ no seriously bear with me on this one!!

I have two, Pinot and Bubbles and they mix with my two cats and my Doberman, causing much hilarity. Christmas two years ago had the chickens sat in an old roasting pan with baubles round their necks etc..... oh how I laughed and how pleased were they come boxing day to still be alive ;-)

Basic rules, for me not everyone, get an igloo, the wooden ones are very attractive and I had one for a few years but they are a nightmare to clean properly and as I eat what comes out of their bottoms ;-) I want to know it's super clean. Max 15 mins once a week and it's spotless.

House training, easily done. No really! they are similar to dogs! Let them out into their run first thing for about an hour. They will do their big business in this time. I then let mine have free range of the house, although they do just tend to follow me or the dog around and I rarely if ever get an accident.

They are hilarious in so many ways, they have real trouble dealing with stairs, the three stairs we have into our sitting room seem to be ok but the real stairs have them flumoxed hahaha

If ever you have to go out suddenly and want to be sure they are safe a small handful of corn will entice them back into their run no problem.

I wouldn't be without my two.

But do be vigilent, the snow this year clearly showed how often the fox is pacing around their coup...... I lost my last Ladies over 6 years ago when they were taken / murdered in the night, a scene I never want to witness again and it took me over 4 years to feel I could be responsible for my ladies. Out with the old fanshiond but very attractive wooden hen house and in with the plastic but oh so safe home. Believe me their little beaky faces are so worth it, very little effort, lots of laughs and fantastic eggs.

(p.s. although you should appreciate that the eggs are yummy straight away, for me going back to Waitrose organic eggs when the girls were off laying in the winter totally convinced me that nothing is better than really fresh eggs)

and here ends the party political broadcast for the Poultry Party ;-)

"The amount of poo they produce is truly epic"

Yes, that is in fact the stand out feature of chickens.

Whether they wreck the garden depends how big and how wreckable your garden is - ours is large and not particularly manicured, so apart from a couple of dustbaths they have built under the hedge they haven't done any harm, and they have done a lot of good in raking moss out of the grass and eating the ants (we had literally 100's of ants nests in the lawn before we got chickens). Ours are entirely free range all the time (get shut in at night except when we forget) but we live surrounded by a commercial pheasant shoot, so the foxes have, shall we say, moved elsewhere.

Little more to add. Agree with all the comments about the mess they can produce. We use chippings for the run, and other main areas they like to use, and have nets to prevent them going into the other garden. They do like to make dust baths mainly (as has been said) and peck around.

Erm, running out of negatives now. The eggs are lovely and my hens are very friendly and run around with the children.

Oh dear. Have I been ruining my compost? I usually put bedding and wastage straight into the compost bin!

No chicken manure makes fab compost. It just had to rot well

I don't get a huge amount of poo! ? certainly nothing worth cleaning up!

Where the heck is it all going?

I have a large garden and dog poos are regularly cleared up which means a military type sweep of the whole area but never find any of the chicken's. A bit of a hose down of the patio if I've let them out too early but otherwise nothing!

Oh and they rid your garden of moles.

Just my experience but when we moved here, it was a new plot an ex garden center so never been built on and therefore new grass; we were inundated by the blasted things. Ruined the lawn.

I'd always wanted chickens and our handyman said they would do the trick (after all sorts of sonic things etc failed) I thought he was having a laugh as he knew DH and myself were debating the issue.

Totally fantastic! not one mole hill since; they all moved next door at first. Nextdoor are great friends of ours luckily, from long before we moved here but oh how we laughed, as they poo poohed the idea! thinking about it I'm not sure they did laugh quite as hard as us!!!!!! then they had my ladies for a couple of months over the last summer whilst we were away and BINGO!!!!!

No more moles

SusieB, it's probably the size of your garden. Ours free range around our garden which is about 1/3 of an acre, and though they do poo profusely the poos seem to disappear after a day or so and are pretty speed out. we do get the occasional bit of poo on our shoes, but we're not overly bothered and just have a no shoes in the house policy.

We've only had our chickens for about 4 weeks but they are already at home and part of the furniture. (literally, I keep finding them in the kitchen when we leave the doors open on a warm day) No eggs yet but I wouldn't be without them, they have such characters and they have a mutual love affair with our 7 and 2 year old. The birds follow the kids round the garden and sit on their knees for grapes. :o

We compost our poo too, just set up a separate one for the chicken poo and coop Cleanouts and rot well. Makes excellent veg fertiliser!

Ahem, when I say our poo, I do mean the chickens!

CWTG, I love the chickens in the house, DH isn't so keen and he has come home unexpectadly at lunch and caught me on the sofa ................. with my ladies! honestly I think he would have preferred to find me with the window cleaner!!!!

Still wondering where all my ladies poo is going? I do get a lot out of their hutch each week, maybe they are shy and will only poo in private! I can relate to that!

I shouldn't laugh but your post about "speed pooing" made me really chuckle as at the weekend DH startled Pinot and she projectile shat up his leg!!!!! never done it before and it was only a tiny bit but OH HOW I LAUGHED

SusieB house training? really? My previous girls poo was every where and soooo wanted them to come indoors, one sat on the window sills of whatever downstairs room I was in tapping on the window with her beak, DP would not let the poor darling in, my new 4 get here in a few weeks, how I hope your right, will kick DP and kids of sofa, so they can sit with me!
OP, they do make a mess, but they are sooo funny, I never thought I'd love them mad birds so much, I don't even eat eggs! Just getting some as they are great pets :)

They are fab. I just had three in a huge pile today laying their eggs together and having a good natter. I have green and blue egg layers as well as brown and cream. We compost everything, makes fab stuff for the veggie garden.
Poo is epic, I have today given me of them a bath as it was caked round her rear end (surfeit of slugs, she's been wormed recently and will be again). It really stinks. They are so funny though.

I have eglus and wouldn't have anything else as I feel my ladies are pretty safe when I'm out, they free range most of the time as we're usually working from home. The eglu means that I can go away weekends, leaving enough food and water for them and they sort themselves out with bedtimes and laying.

What you need to know is that they will bring you immense pleasure and lots of absolutely delicious eggs! We absolutely love our little flock, they are funny and are real characters (yes, seriously!). They are always pleased to see us, charge over in hope of treats and if I am empty handed on that front, I get a good old peck on the foot from head honcho hen!! Love em, they are gorgeous.

I got caught talking to them last week by my neighbour which was a bit but I can't help it!!!

However, on the practical side, you need space, you need to be able to check on them regularly, or have someone do this if you are away.

Expensive, but I highly highly recommend the automatic door if you can do it - it works on the light and is absolutely a complete life saver. Means you don't have to shut them in. They just take themselves off around 30-45 minutes before it is dark and the door eases down to keep them safe.... Then when we are away, we just need someone to look in every 3 days or so to collect eggs or top up food/water. Dead easy. We have had ours for 5 years or so, and it works like a dream. Well worth the money (something like £80-90 I think)

YOU WILL NOT REGRET GETTING HENS!!!!!!

where do you get an automatic door? Sounds amazing!

We don't shut the pop door, the run door is locked and the run is rodent and fox proof - bespoke by DH. The have fll access to veg garden currently which is netted above our heads as the do Flo over the 6' fence even with a wing clipped and we have Hawks etc around that regularly take birds inc pigeons.

We have 4 pekin/bantams and tho they scratch the lawn they don't dig it up / make bald areas.

Poop is reasonable, they have shredded paper in nest boxes and either sawdust or shredded paper under roost bar and all goes into the enclosed compost bin along with scraps and some grass and fantastic compost, I also dissolve 3 poops in a watering can and feed the indoor plants.