Chicken Keepers I Need Your Help - with the basics!!!

[MrsOnTheMove]

We are looking at getting chickens, have done quite a bit of research but need help on couple of things.

1. If you Free Range your chickens do you still require a run.

2. We live in a rural area - the garden has a 6ft high wall around it and fully enclosed. Is there such a thing as fox proof??

3)We have a v.small vege patch which I gather they would love to destroy! How do you protect your vege areas?

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Well that's one less job off my list

1. You don't need one but it is handy to have one if you are ever out and don't know whether you will be home by dusk to close them in safely in their coop. Or just for general peace of mind when you are not at home. This is what we have done: they have a big enclosure (about 10 x 7 m) under some large fruit trees so when we are out they are protected as much as poss from predators (and here, unfortunately, it also includes big birds of prey, hence the need for trees as a canopy). When we are at home they just free range anywhere they want. It really depends on your situation and how protected they would be when you are out. If you are planning on having a cockerel, it would be part of his 'job' to spot predators (we put it in the contract with ours ) so that also helps.

2. Not sure about foxes and 6ft tall walls since foxes are not a massive problem for us here. Sure someone else will come along who will know. My guess is that nothing is utterly fox-proof .

3. They will eat anything that looks and tastes interesting. Given the chance, mine even eat tiny bits of plastic, bits of polystyrene, and dog biscuits if they manage to find any . So best to protect your veg while it is in its more fragile stages, and any fruit/tomatoes that they can access. And, yes, use them to help clear and fertilise the area afterwards . If the veg patch is small-ish then chicken wire should be ok. If it is bigger and it is too expensive (vs the cost of growing veg) to fence it off, then I would recommend having an energetic 4 yr old permanently on chicken-shooing duty outside .

Thanks WAP

I did think it might be an idea to have a run anyway - am not sure whether the wall would keep out a fox (though DH is convinced it would)

Am sure the girls will love shooing the chickens - not sure the chickens will love the girls!

lol - they'll all love each other I'm sure

you could also distract them with a very interesting compost heap, full of titbits and insects - veg will seem so boring by comparison!

I've used electric fencing around my veg patch when it's in use to deter hens, rabbits, badgers etc. Most effective but not terribly attractive, if that is a consideration. Hens are fantastic at weeding!

I've heard somebody with a walled garden saying that they had a fox come in that jumped onto the neighbours adjacent shed but I think you'll just have to wait and see (and hope for the best).

Do you think that the scent of a resident dog would deter a fox?

a trace line of electric fence (like for a horse) about a foot off the top of the wall might be enough to deter any foxes who get as far as the wall

No thready, because we have a bloody huge Great Dane and the foxes still wander through the garden/paddocks at all times of day without a care in the world. I think you'd have to have a really predatory animal in residence to deter foxes. .

I am going to get chickens one day (DH says: after the canaries die)

We have a large garden, well fenced, including a sadly under-used veg patch.

One day my chicks will come.

Never underestimate the ability of a fox to get into your chicken run. A 6ft wall won't keep Charlie out and the scent of a dog won't either.

If you don't want garden-destroying chooks get feathery-footed varieties.

it depends on where you live. in the 9 years at our old house we had teh fox once, in teh 4 months we've been here we've had it 4 times (I feel like we're just providing expensive fox food now). they can jump walls, climb fences and trees and if tehy are hungry or have cubs they will be determined. we're going to try electric fencing i think