convince dh that chickens are ace.....

[Shhhh]

Evere since dd brought a book home from preschool weeks ago about chickens she has sewn a seed in my mind (or laid an egg ) about getting chickens.

Dh however is not keen.....

We are on a housing estate and not rural BUT I think it will be lovely having an animal and esp something so "goodlife" iykiwm.
We are not the type to live off the land etc BUT I think it will be nice for us to have egg's and to show/teach the dk's life and the egg process iykimw...also something I think they can be involved in iykiwm.

Help..! Am I mad or do you think chickens are a good idea.? Our garden is average size tbh and I have looked at the omlet/eglu as they look ace and easy for starting out..Any views.?

How hard is it with chickens.? Easy to look after/feed/clean etc.? I have 2 toddlers....am I mad to consider chickens as well.? Are they fairly self sufficient as long as fed/watered/safe/cared for etc.?

Can't believe there is a mn section for chicken keeping and I have only just found it..!

Easy to look after, but think about what you will do when you go on holiday, and when they stop laying.

Hols, our neighbour would probably look after them. She is elderly and never ventures far.(We used to have an indoors cat and she regularly came and kept him company of a night )

When they stop laying....? expand further please..?
I guess they lay egg's (around one a day/other day) and I assume this decreases over time. Isn't life span of a chicken around 4ish years..?

Like you and I, hens have a finite number of eggs in them, they will lay maybe 150 to 350 the first year dependant on breed then less each consecutive year until one day....still a hen, but too old to lay!

So: the pot, or what?

ah right. So you are thinking "what happens when to old to lay egg's"..?

Well I guess you can keep them as hens..until its the end for them..?!

Dh asked tonight "So when they die can we eat them...surely thats a life lessons for the dk's" .

No way would I want to do that!

They'd be tough old birds too, after laying (you hope) several hundred eggs!

lol..!

bump for more advice...

What do you need to know?
fyi we have 4 (and i've just had palpitations thinking I'd lost one but found her in my dining room!!!),
they eat a mix of layer's pellets and mixed grain.
They live in an old shed, adapted with perches and nesting boxes, with an attached netting run so they can be out but fox resistant, and we let them have free run of the garden when we're about.
We clean them out each week, compost the "output", dd1 sells some eggs to pay for the feed - and keeps an accounts book. They are actually hers, for a birthday present last year.
We don't have a cockerel, because don't want stressed hens of he treads too much, don't want chicks and have one dd who can't run away if he's aggressive.
They are complete timewasters as you watch them dustbath instead of getting on with chores.
What more do you need?

We have 2 hens and the eglu. The eglu is exensive but easy to keep clean. They make great pets and I am delighted we got them. The kids love them and they are easy to handle even by 5 year old. They have a bit of the garden netted off in better weather and are in the eglu with a run extension if I'm out because of foxes.

We have 3 hens and a cockerel and they are the best pets ever. We also have a rabbit which the kids have totally lost interest in (as predicted) but a year on and the hens are still the best thing. They love collecting the eggs and as we have one sitting on a clutch just now, dd especially is beside herself with excitement that we might have chicks.

They are really low maintenance (clean once a week, droppings in the compost bin) and absolutely fascinating. As Loggedout says you can spend ages watching them doing their thang

GO FOR IT!

It took me 6 yrs to persuade DH that we NEEDED (!) chickens and finally he agreed a few weeks ago. we now have 3 girls and they are fab!
we have 3 or 4 eggs a day and you just can't beat your own chickens eggs (no pun intended!), shop ones just don't do it for us anymore!
great for the kids, fertiliser (garden already looking nice and green apart from the bit of 'weeding' that they did when they first arrived (mainly budding daff's sadly)

agree with other posters though, be clear about what you will do when they are no longer laying. chicken breeder told me that ours could live to 8 years and several of those years could be egg free.
we live on a farm and next door uses a 'hen despatcher' on theirs, not sure I could do that - have visions of geriatric hens living here for many years!

they are also great company! i have my morning cuppa with them and they eat a few crumbs and things from my hand while i chat to them.

You can get ex-battery ladies from a hen rescue charity, they are usually 1 yr old but still have plenty of egg-laying future in them. Tend to look a bit ugly, till feathers grow back - "oven ready".

Chickens are also great pets for children. They require only a small amount of care and can be really friendly.
Its also helped me teach mine about the birds and the bees, well the birds bit anyway. Ho to act around animals, responsibilty for things that re reliant on you etc etc. And they make very good handwarmers

Ex-battery hens are a great idea but can come with a lot of health problems so be fully aware of what you could be facing.

We live in a cul-de-sac with a fairly big back garden and we have ten layers. We also kept a couple of turkeys for Christmas dinner and raised meat birds last year too but the kids do not go into the garden to play - it's really too messy for them now. The snow and rain over the last couple of months has trashed what was left of my lawn! But we've decided to turn the back garden over to growing food anyway so that suits us fine.

I think hens are the best thing since sliced bread, they really are. Our girls are so friendly, they produce loads of yummy eggs and they have managed to worm their way into our affections despite wrecking my garden. I'd say go for it!

awwww I so want some..BUT don't think I can convince dh ...

The points you have all given are valid and reasons why I think they are a good idea (educational for the dk's..etc)

Hmmm........think I have to work on him a bit harder...

So, a few ask about "when they no longer lay egg's"..surely they will still be good pets.? TBH,my main reason for them isn't for egg's although I do think its a good choice to teach the dk's I just think the fact "they need looking after" if good enough for the dk's iykwim..?

I so hope I can change dh's mind..

Can I ask, do they damage your lawn.? I thought about keeping them in an eglu/cage one and to move them now and then....BUT will the grass they walk on be dug up iykiwm...or can the lawn stay nice.? Just not keen on the garden becoming a mud bath if I allow them to roam at various times.

I don't have a lawn anymore - does that answer your question? :p

In fairness the lawn getting trashed wasn't the hens fault. It was really mossy and they cleared the moss, we reseeded it and it was looking brilliant until Autumn/Winter brought the constant rain and snow. Our soil is very clay-ey and was getting destroyed because of the incliment weather, add to that ten fat hens walking across the sludge and we have no grass left. I'm sure it wouldn't have been quite so bad if we only had two or three, or if our garden had better soil, or if the weather hadn't been so bad over the last five months.

Ours free range but there's really nothing wrong with keeping them in an eglu or cage with attached run - those have the added benefit that you can move them around if/when the garden underneath is looking a bit patchy

Thanks bcb .

So I guess if im careful then the lawn should survive

Our 3 girls are 100% freerange during the day and our lawn looks fine. they poo a fair bit but it dries quickly and we sweep a couple of times a day and it keeps it under control (and me slightly fitter!)

they have however decimated the flower beds (minus the daffs!) and there's no point sewing seeds as they just follow you and eat them.

the poo is good fertiliser though!

We have had our eglu for about 6 months. we have three girls. the children love them, and we eat loads of gorgeous eggs. The girls free range when i am home, and are very easy to get back in the run - just chuck some sweetcorn in!! The garden does not look too good now - they pecked everything green - and all the flowers. But we wouldn't change them for anything. (anyway the kids did more damage to the lawn than the chickens did!)

can I bump this again....

Dh is dead set against us having chickens , BUT I have just found that that my ds (who is due to move very rural in scotland this month) wants chickens...

The home they are moving to (from what I know) has a chicken run/home already BUT im a bit about her using it again...

Is it safe etc..? Hygenic iykimw...What would she need to do to it to ensure new birds can move into it..? I think its stood dorment for years..I think its the wooden type and I have been telling her about this section on mn and have been reading about red mite etc...
Whats the best thing to do..?

just realised ds means dear sister....(well it does on this thread anyway!)