Beginner chicken questions

[Madratlady]

My dh is desperate to get some chickens (and I'd love to have some too but I'm the more practical one). If we got permission from the landlord to actually get some, we'd like probably 3, and I'd like them to be rescued/ex battery hens. I can find lots of info about chicken care online but my questions here are:

• how noisy are chickens? Will they upset our whingy neighbours?
• Will they destroy all of our grass? Not that i care at all but the landlord might
• Will they be ok with our cats if the chickens stay in a pen that the cats can't get into?

I don't have chickens, but my neighbours do and they regularly come and see us.
We have a large garden and get visits from the same 4-6 chucks everyday.
(I would love some).

Double glazing keeps the noise out (but tbh I like the cockerel first thing!)

Our grass is fine, however the woodchip we had spread on the beds has proved too tempting and is now all over the lawn on a daily basis, which has wrecked our mower

I have a cat and so do next door - and they just ignore the chickens.
Hope that helps!

We have 2 chickens, and they make very little noise. The grass is fine, but they dig endlessly in the borders.

Our 3 cats pay no attention to them at all, in spite of being enthusiastic hunters, and I've seen the hens chase evilgingercat

As long as you don't have a cockerel, the neighbours shouldn't hear a thing. My chooks do sometimes set up a kerfuffle if they sense danger but it only goes on for a few minutes.

I had ours in a run on the grass all winter and I thought they'd destroyed it but it has recovered amazingly well now that they are off it and spring has sprung. We moved the run around every week but with all the rain it was pretty soon a mud patch.

Cats might stare and stalk but they won't attack the chickens, IME.

Good luck - we've had ours for just over 6 months now and we love them - they are real characters, have got really tame and the eggs are fab. You'll never want another supermarket egg. We're getting 3 more once we have built a bigger, fox proof run It's a bit addictive.

Chickens will see off a cat no probs. One flap of the wings and the cat will scarper. They don't make any more noise than any other birdsong and I like the noise personally. They do scratch up the grass but at the moment we're trying to clear a portion of the garden for a veg plot and the girls are doing a marvellous job of raking it all over.

I think BHWT will rehome a minimum of 4 but I could be wrong. I would definitely advise at least 3 anyway.

Would they go into other gardens? Our neighbours already dislike the cats, I don't think chicken visits would be appreciated!

They'll wander anywhere if there's no fence. Even into the kitchen if the door's open!

Once they know where home is though, they'll always come home to roost.

But if you leave them to wander, you will lose some/all to any passing dog or fox. I had a fox kill one in my v well fenced garden a few weeks ago - I saw the damned thing, bold as brass, coming up my garden in the middle of the day.

My girls are not getting a lot of free play time at the moment until the new run's built. They just have a small one attached to the coop.

I had 4 until Saturday, now I only have 3
Mine have destroyed the grass completely in their run, this was because when I first got them they were kept in the run but now they are free range.
They are very good at de-mossing the lawn and haven't destroyed the other grass. They do dig though.
Mine aren't noisy, next door have quite a few bantams and they make a bit of noise when they lay an egg but it's not annoying.
I don't think BHWT have a minimum limit on numbers, although they might not let you get just 1 as she would be lonely!

I have had mine just over a year and I now only get one egg a day so don't get ex-batts for their laying power.
They are funny though and probably won't be bothered by a cat, mine aren't, they even chase my dog away when he tries to 'share' their scraps.

We're renting too and our landlord said we could have them as long as they never come in the house . They are in a permanent walk-in run though as they would definitely trash the place. I've let them out on a few occasions while I was there to watch out for foxes (we have loads) and they'd dug up my bulbs within the first 30 seconds! The second time they uprooted a hebe, I was really surprised how good they are at digging as I'd only had ducks before.
Noise-wise they sometimes squawk a bit when they lay an egg but we have gulls and magpies here which shout constantly so the hens sort of blend in iyswim. Most of the time they are quiet or they might grumble to themselves a little. My neighbour who was sceptical about us having them because they are close to her patio says she actually likes to hear them 'chatting' and finds it quite relaxing.

If they do want yo attack you lawn, cutting it regularly helps to stop that. Usually then they pick one spot (if there is no tempting bed as an alternative) and scratch there.