chickens

[Madlentileater]

hi- posted re chickens on pets, but maybe here is better? any chicken enthusiasts out there?

Yep, got two and an eglu from omlet.co.uk

They are fab, had them 3 years now - easy peasy to look after

anything you need to know?

man, i wantchickens.
im getting chickens.
been looking into it and talking about it for ages...

go for it!- but invest in a decent run and never ever forget to put them away at night...sad story which will have to wait as dinner ready!

yes, got complacent didn't believe there were any foxes around then one day DD2 went out to see them and and found 2 dead, 2 completely gone....all very traumatic...have new ones now and very conscientious

I have 2 chickens (city garden) - they have quite distinct personalities (I do realise how very sad that must sound ) and I'm really pleased to have them. We have an Eglu, which is fox-proof as long as you remember to shut the run gate in the evenings - these are our second pair, as the first pair were "foxed" the only night I forgot to shut them in. The only real downside is a)the tendency of one to make bids for freedom, but we have friendly neighbours who return her and have learned how to clip her wings, and b) the unbelievable amount they poo. It can go straight in the compost bin, but the garden is basically a giant toilet these days and the bit they live in can't really be used by the kids unless in wellies.

We've had chickens a couple of years now. We've currently got 2 ex-battery hens, 3 hybrid 'meat birds' (did have 12 but have eaten the rest...), one partridge Wyandotte, one Maran, one silkie, 11 hybrid egg-laying types and 6 Maran eggs hopefully hatching in a fortnight! Four of the young hybrids are going to a friend next weekend, and the plan is we'll keep a few of the rest for eggs and eat the rest!

My husband really really wants to keep cockerels but there's no chance with our neighbours, so that one will have to wait until we've retired to somewhere with a bit more land and a few less neighbours!

Have chickens where i work

(2 of them)

as there is not much daylight anymor they have stopped laying for winter and we arnt expecting any more eggs until about march time!
(they havent laid since mid october)

also they arnt typicaly 'make as many eggs per year' as many chickens... they are much more 'beautiful' birds and their breeds mean they dont lay so many eggs as otehr eggs...

they are also VERY stubborn and although they have a massive chicken run (about the size of a large double bedroom in a very big house) the only lay eggs when they have access to their run and the whole entire garden.... if you shut them in their run for a couple of weeks (ie when a treatment is applied to the grass) for those weeks we have 0 eggs (or maybe 1 or 2 max between them for the total of 14 days!) i think they must be very spoilt hens!

We have 3 hens in a tiny city garden. Get 3 eggs a day even now in November. They do all have distinct personalities and can be very funny. There's a big dog fox round here so the hens are shut into the coop every night and I lean a brick against the door. The run has bricks round it to stop any fox shifting it to get at the coop.
We have a gingernut ranger, a light sussex and a black rock.
Pretty easy to care for although as ours are on paving slabs (no lawn) i put straw in the run and have to clean it out once a week, I remove the yucky straw, scrape the paving slabs (sometimes food and poo form a mat) but they are way cleaner than guineapigs or rabbits.
In the winter when i don't have veggies (I grow food in pots) I open the run so the hens can eat all the slugs in the garden. They often sit by the back door wanting to come in!

well, today I popped home from work and found DS1's new bantam OUT in the garden- very small, very fast, very flighty, and I was so sure they were all penned in- failed completely to catch her initially, managed i the end but not before mightily annoying two DDs in 6th form by asking them to come home and help me.....but I forgave all because...egg from new silkie and egg from new bantam!
glad to see, portonovo that it's not just me who couldn't stop at 2...or 3...it's just great the way they turn leftover pasta into eggs!