excited new chicken keeper!

[littlebrownmouse]

Have just bought an eglu on e-bay and DH has been to pick it up, so after our holidays next week, we can go and purchase our chickens. I am unreasonably excited about this, but am worrying about alsorts of things.
Will our eglu keep the foxes at bay?
If I let them out in the day and then have to go out eg. school run, will I be able to get them back in so that wretched foxes don't eat them?
In our book about chicken keeping, the man doing the looking after is skinny and bearded, DH is neither, will this matter?

Defo get DH to grow a beard. The chickens won't thrive otherwise.

I think (but I have NO knowledge whatsoever) that they are OK outside during the day.

PS Am a bit envious - would love chickens but no space. (When dch leave home, chickens can have their room )

Somebody started a thread about their new eglu and new chickens the other day if you're looking for tips and what you need to buy etc.

If the eglu has a wire bottom then it should be fox proof. If you let them out during the day chances are they will get eaten. We had totally free-range hens for 4 years or so but we lost several flocks to foxes last year and now keep them in high security wing.

The eglu runs don't have wire bottoms I don't think, but my top tip is to put it on paving slabs and fill with something like aubiose/hemcore/easibed (google it) - it mops up the poo a dream, you can hose down the paving slabs every time you clean it, it all composts to give fabulously fertile manure! Otherwise a fox could dig under, and they will trash your lawn!

Are you in an urban area? If so then if you leave the chickens out without someone in the garden then they will become a fox's dinner unfortunately. You should keep them in the eglu and run anyway for 5 days to start with so they learn that that is home.

I don't have one but I think the eglu "skirt" is supposed to make it pretty fox proof.

I have no problem getting mine back in run by bribing them with small amount of mixed corn. Which is just as well since previous method of trying to get 4yo dd, 18mo ds and dog to assist me in herding them was a resounding failure!

We are thinking of chickens ,we still have the base for a redundent shed ,I had thought thta the chickens would need to be on grass but would you recommend the slabs adn why

Thanks

I have a electric poultry net thing and move them around the grass. However they do pretty much muller the grass if you leave them too long in one spot....

The main reason for a slab base is so foxes can't dig under. It also means you have an area allocated to them rather than risking them trashing your whole garden. You would need to put a layer of hemcore or something down on top of slabs. prob.easiest to clean etc.

It really depends how high a fox risk you have, how big your garden is, how big your run is and how much if at all you want to let them free-range throughout your garden.

A permanent run is great if it is big enough to leave them in it if you're away etc as you know they're safe.

We have an eglu and so far fox has not got in despite trying. We do let them out in the garden and unfortunately the fox got one last week. We only had 2 chooks and the other one is shock - half her tail missing too.
Good luck with your chickens. By the way DH not bearded but the chickens lurve him!

Wouldn't go for the slabs - chickens love to scratch and peck in the grass and dirt,seems kind of cruel to me. And they should get used to putting themselves to bed when it gets dimpsey,thye generally naturally look for somewhere safe to roost. Took mine a couple of days to get the idea but they are always in now when i go to shut them up for the night. Except one who went to roost in the trees before we clipped their wings and hasn't come back.

my dh has a beard but a pot belly. all our hens but 1 have been eaten by the fox. hmm maybe he needs to lose weight?
slabs will keep out the fox but it's not so nice for them i think eglus are fairly foxproof. no wonder you are excited - it's such fun!

numptysmummy - the slabs are great - I put a thick layer of easibed or something like that down, and they can scratch to their hearts content, and it keeps their nails short! It also stops the ground becoming poisoned, and it does mean they can't be dug into .

Thanks all for advice, chickens are now installed and I have another thread running about getting the wretched things to put themselves to bed.