Everything almost in place for our chickens. Do we have to wait till spring or can we get them now?

[fryalot]

thread title says it all really. Is there an optimum time of year for bringing chickens into their new home?

oh eck!

Have added that to his little list

He told the children today that we are getting chickens, so it is really going to happen

Once you've told the Dc there is no going back, you will be nagged to within an inch!

OK, cannot find the link I wanted but this is useful asaccomodation you can see which of their houses is a similar size to yours as they give bantam/chicken numbers.

They do also state footage for houses and runs.

Good luck!

i am under the impression that the larger breeds (orpingtons, cochins, brahmas) ought reallyn not to have to climb a big ladder to get up to the house, for the foot damaging if they jump reason. bumble foot is actaually an ilness they can get from it apparently. and they do need more height than others in the house so they are not up ion the ventialtion draft, can give them sniffles/respiritory problems.
hen-houses.co.,k (i think thats them - kintaline farm in scotland) has loads of info on keep/housing chooks.

id get 2 of each for sure! what a nice bunch to start off with

i am planning a shed, more than big enough, so they have somewhere dry to hang out if its pissing down. then ill add 3 6'x6' ready made run panels (off ebay) to that to make a walk in run which i can lock them in at dusk. then all i need to add is perches, nest boxes and a pophole - all of which can be purchased ready made from steve fisher woodworking

Also remember never to use roofing felt on a coop, the mites just love to live hidden underneath.

yep... and i see on that plan that they use overlap which might be a bit of a haven for the old redmites...
maybe think about using marine ply so theres less places to hide for the mites...
or i dont know how effective it would be to treat the interior with a wax oil or danish oil or something...
or creosote. mites cant live on creosoted wood (no idea where you get the stuff tho)

Somebody asked about ducks? If you're worried about noise, don't get Call ducks - as their name suggests, they're noisy buggers! And they don't lay many eggs either.

My absolute favourites are Indian Runners. They lay gazillions of huge eggs, the quantity doesn't seem to decrease with age, and they don't make much noise. They're funny and cheeky and are stunning to look at. They do poo quite a lot, but it's not really been a problem for us because our garden is quite large so with only 4 it's manageable. We have an old child's plastic sandpit as a pond and tip it out once a day and refill - easy peasy.

I LOVE my ducks, even more so than my chickens!

here
squonkl I think you are near me, this place may not be too far and it is lovely, is where I got my girls from, I have 2 warrens, a black roack, a light sussex and 2 mber stars.
or here. they are both near each other huddersfield penistone type way.

we got our hens a week ago after posting a similar qeustion on here and being told go for it! they have settled in before the cold weather and are happily sunbathing in the garden today... we got two amber stars ( really tame, already eating out of our hands etc), a speckedly 9 quite shy) and a black rock ( quite skittish - if i hadn't seen it lay eggs i would swaer it was a cock!). we got our house chickens etc from moorlands lpoultry near leek if that is any help, found them very helpful and they have a poultry delivery licence so will deliver your hens to your door!