chickens arriving in 2 days!!

[crkm]

I am very excited (as are the dc) as my first chickens complete with eglu arrive on thursday!! Am also starting to wonder if i am going mad and have made a barmy decision to want chickens in my garden!! Any tips for a novice chicken keeper? words of wisdom any one? heeelllppppp!!!!!!

ooh how exciting.
i was bitten by the chicken bug this year too. i got 6 in an eglu cube to start with but im off on one now and deliberating which new house to buy to house the masses of them i want
they are SO much fun to have around. and im not really much of a pet person tbh.
enjoy!

no words of wisdom, but we just inherited a friend's hens a couple of weeks ago as they are going to live abroard.
My dc's (5 & 2) think they are fantastic, and I am pretty pleased myself .

my dc (15, 7, 5 ,3) have already named them! not sure the cat will take to them though........

apparently they are ok with cats. and vice versa. never seen it in person mind... do keep us posted

will do!! tomorrow i have to chicken proof the garden (to prevent escape !) and stock up on tins of sweetcorn - which i gather is a chicken treat!! maybe i should get rid of all the chicken in the freezer - not sure how appetising it will be after thursday!

we had roast chicken for lunch yesterday, told ds2 (2.6) that we were having chicken and he just said "nooooo".

my kids LOVE the chickens but dont give a seconds thought to eating chicken for dinner! they are 5, 4 and 2 tho... maybe they just havnt made the connection. lol.

other treats my chooks love; raisins (used to love em before they got totally spoilt on the following), (leftovers of) pasta, rice, tuna or any fish, remains of corn cobs, and the most voraciously received; grated cheese [surprising i know]

mine are free ranging most of every day. so i use the treats to round em all up and lock them in the run again at about 7-ish. never fails!

interesting on the corn cobs, I have seen a pic of them hanging up in a run, but didn't know if cooked ones would be ok - they will be getting those in future.
Ours go mad for pasta and potato, also like the greens off carrots - which is great as the kids have grown a tub of carrots and are always pulling them up and discarding the greens - now they bring them to me for the hens.

re roast chicken - ds2 is only just becoming vocal, and with the new hens is saying "kins" (chickens) all the time now, so wasn't best pleased when I said what was for lunch. He didn't actually seem to associate what was on his plate with the birds outside though.
ds1 (5.10) knows damn well that they are the same thing, but that ours aren't eating birds and we get ones to eat from tesco .

god mine go mental for corn cob cast offs

as for greens of carrots, i wouldnt know. bloody wild rabbits have broken into my veg patch and eaten them all

have been eating v small carrots ever since. [humph]

Both my cat and my dog have been fantastic with the chickens!

The cat is aloof and ignores them.

The dog was desperate to get at them when they were stuck in the run for the first 5 days but when they were allowed out, he went into the freshly vacated run, lay down in a patch of sun and the three chickens trooped back in and lay down next to him

thats so cute about the dog!