Soon to be chicken keeper looking for advice!

[DigWeedSow]

Hello,
After much deliberation DH and I have decided to keep chickens. The house has been built and the run is currently being constructed, a chicken keeping course for beginners has been booked and we've been reading up on the practicalities!

So, I was wondering about the other equipment needed such as feeders etc. What will we need and what have you found works well for you and your chooks? Also is there any preferred brand of food? As a complete novice any other advice will be gratefully received.
Cheers

Feeders and drinkers never worked for me. I use ceramic dog bowls after trying plastic, steel, all possible feeders. They knock them over, the food gets congealed, they're a nightmare.

Mine eat anything put down for them, and food doesn't seem to affect their happiness or egg production. But I don't give them chicken or eggs .

They poo a colossal amount. I mean it's unbelievable. Shocking volumes of poo. Be prepared for that.

They're also quite noisy, cockerel or no.

They're real characters, and lovely to keep ,mine are so individual, I love them.

Fox proof the enclosure run and house before you do anything else. we have 8ft high mesh fence and we have buried the end in the ground as they will dig as well. make sure you can always be around to put them away or organise for someone else to do it. keep the food in one place and make sure you don't over feed or the rats will eat the excess. have a poo cleaning strategy in place - old clothes, brush, somewhere to put it because there is lots of it and it smells. if you have near neighbours don't have cockerels. buy your birds from someone you trust. don't be tempted by the boxes of chicks - they will all be boys that someone is trying to palm off on you. but most of all - have fun. there is nothing like a boiled egg and soldiers from your own hens and sponges taste fantastic.

Thanks for the advice.
The place where we are taking the course breeds chickens and will have point of lay hens available for us to buy so will be getting them from there. The thought of tiny fluffy chics is appealing though .
We are planning on 3 or 4 to start off with (ladies only) are there any breeds that you would recommend/avoid for beginners?

I'm very anxious about foxes (one of the reasons why we've put it off for so long) as I have seen them in the field next to us. The run has a small enclosed section with a roof that sits on flags which is attached to the chicken house and has a lockable door which in turn opens on to a larger run with 6.5 ft high sides. We are also planning on fencing off a large part of the garden so that they can free range while we are out in the garden to keep an eye on them.

PP never thought about using ceramic dog bowls, after looking at some plastic feeders yesterday I can see why you use them.

Our neighbours are almost as excited as we are as they have always wanted to keep chickens and have lent us their extensive book collection so we've got them on board (think that they may be after any spare eggs we have!)

If you get chicks do not use bowls, they drown themselves readily. After 10 weeks they arnt so dull
.My best layers are white leghorn and speckledy, but the nicest friendliest chicken is by far is the Poland, she looks beautiful too, but only lays thrice a week. My Orpington is friendly and a good layer, as is my light sussex, both look nice in the garden too.
Wonderful pale blue eggs with thick yolks are lavender aricana, but they're not friendly, in fact, the two I've had are contrary little brutes.

I wouldn't have a silkie again, they're very high maintenance and when wet look like hell. They don't lay much either.

We've got two of these, one for grit and one for layers pellets. They are fixed to the wall but you can lift them off if you want to clean them (they don't seem to get messy though) and we've found they work quite well. We started off with this type but it was awkward to refill and the pellets got damp so very wasteful and a bit rubbish! For water we use a traditional galvanised drinker similar to this. We just take it with us when we go to shut the coop at night and leave it by the back door where there is a tap and then refill and return when we let them out in the morning. Very easy and they always have fresh water. It did freeze a couple of times in the winter (tbh honest I think anything would have) so we had to remember to leave it empty otherwise it would be impossible to get the top off in the morning! For mashes and leftovers I just use a heavy china souffle dish type thing that I got in a charity shop for 50p, much cheaper than a dog bowl and I bung it in the dishwasher.

Lastly, are you considering any kind of roof on your larger run? Only I've seen foxes jump a wooden fence near my house with the greatest of ease and that is about six foot.

We've had ours just over a year now. They are hybrids which we've found to be very easy and hardy as well as ridiculously friendly .

Oh yes, good point pixel- we have a roof as the fox can scale amazing heights. In my area we also have mink to watch out for, they are brutal and fast .

A second thought, my bowls wouldn't be any use in an uncovered area in case of rain, pellets disintegrate.to mush when wet and it's a waste.

I also have a hybrid (I am a chicken enthusiast) and she is friendly and lays well, though not the prettiest of my bunch(but being hybrids they all look different anyway so that shouldn't put you off)

I wanted proper brown 'storybook' hens, so mine fit the bill, but they are actually quite easy to tell apart. They are Rhode Island Red x Light sussex (Goldlines) so although they are mostly red they have some white feathers in their tails and round their necks. When I got 'brown' hens I didn't expect them to grow to be so pretty .

See, they're so varied. mine is not pretty, she's a scraggy thin thing with a ridiculous comb. She's so red as to be almost black iykwim, and no markings at all. Friendly though

Wow there is already wealth of the great info to start up with chicken keeping.

Ooh thanks for so much info We were thinking about putting a roof on the larger run and what you have said makes me think it would be wise to do so.

We finally got our chickens today! A Warren, Bluebell, Black Rock and a Speckledy are now settling into the run which in the end we roofed as we didn't want to take any chances with foxes. Looking forward to getting to know the ladies and anticipating lots of eggs!

Thanks for all of the advice

They sound lovely .

Can I jump in please and ask more about the poo?
Do you literally just brush it all away? Any other options? How often and best tools for the job?
Tia

I've got one of those plastic scoops you use for cat litter and pick it up with that, but ours are on woodchips. I suppose it might be different on concrete? For instance I imagine you could hose it all down now and then? I have to top up the woodchips every few months because of I tend to throw some away when I'm scooping, plus it keeps the run fresher. You wouldn't want to brush it, it's quite wet and would just stick in the brush and be horrible, and you'd be smearing it around!
I spend about 5-10 mins a day poo picking the run and the coop, it's not a big job if you do it regularly.

Well I've been out this morning on my first poo picking trip! Quite shocked by the amount that they do and I'm anticipating record winning vegetables with the amount of compost I should get

Part of our run has a flagged floor where the house sits and most of the poo seems to be on there. I've used a wallpaper scraper to scrape up most of it and at the end of the week I shall hose it down.