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Original poster

Chicken keepers - a couple more dumb questions [bit thick emoticon]

40 replies

handlemecarefully · 11/07/2005 12:34

Got my 3 chickens on Saturday. They are in a forsham ark. I understand that I have to keep them holed up in there for 7 days so that they develop a homing instinct for the ark, and want to return there to sleep at night.

My question is - I have only got the ark at the moment and no fox proof electric fencing. So when I eventually let them out it can only be when I am in the garden with them. When I need to go back into the house, or go out somewhere I will need to catch them and return them to the safety of their ark. How do I catch them - where can I buy a big net? I've looked on a few poultry supplies websites to no avail.

Also, I do intend to provide them with a safe enclosure in the garden so that they can roam free at will, safe from predators irrespective of whether I am in the garden with them or not. I've seen this poultry netting
save me from the big bad fox

does anybody have it?,is it effective, and more importantly is it easy to install? (since dh and I are about the least practical people you could care to meet)

Would be grateful for your wise words and guidance

OP posts:
Original poster
handlemecarefully · 11/07/2005 13:13

I suspected that I might have to keep bumping this a bit since it's only a few mumsnetters with the chicken bug...

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Original poster
handlemecarefully · 11/07/2005 13:38

.

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MrsDoolittle · 11/07/2005 13:44

HMC - I would love to have chickens. Maybe I shouldn't do this but thia is another forum I am into, I think it would be moee helpful.
Downsizer See what you think

MrsDoolittle · 11/07/2005 13:46

Can't spell for toffee today.

Original poster
handlemecarefully · 11/07/2005 13:54

Thanks Mrs D.

Best hold off getting the chickens in your case right now - got enough on your plate haven't you

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MrsDoolittle · 11/07/2005 14:03

Obviously you have read my rant

Original poster
handlemecarefully · 11/07/2005 14:05

You've got to let it all out!
Best that way....

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fishfinger · 11/07/2005 14:07

have amilaed pph

she leaves hers out int he day I think

Tommy · 11/07/2005 14:09

you probably won't need a net - my friend (and I!) just catch her hens and shove them back into their little house thing. Don't know about the net though - they do have something so they can roam around their world. I can ask them and get back to you but hopefully someone who knows what they're talking about will be along soon

Original poster
handlemecarefully · 11/07/2005 14:24

Tommy - I can't imagine catching mine without having to do a flying rugby tackle...(too old for that )they seem quite quick off the mark.

Wouldn't dare leave mine out during the day Fish - not without electrically fenced / netted area. Definitely have foxes around. Saw one last night at dusk. Thanks for emailing PPH for me

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Molecule · 11/07/2005 14:28

Not sure I know what I'm talking about, but my sister has electric netting (hers is bright orange), and it appears to work, before they were plagued by foxes and badgers (the latter dug up through the floor of the hen house, so locking the hens up was no deterrent). I'm sure it is easy to put up and move; just standard electric fence poles etc.
Hens tend not to wander too far, so you should be OK leaving them out in the garden, unless there's a busy road/no fence between you and neighbours. Catching them will depend on how tame/docile they are, some are easy, some quite impossible.

Original poster
handlemecarefully · 11/07/2005 14:31

ummmm - perhaps their first outing should be when dh is around too so there are more pairs of hands for catching them....

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Original poster
handlemecarefully · 11/07/2005 14:32

Molecule - would you need to get an electrician to do it do you think?

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PrincessPeaHead · 11/07/2005 16:27

well I'm afraid we are so fox heavy around here that mine are not let out at all. they live in their ark and a big extension run which just gets moved every day for fresh grass.
I don't think you need a net though . Chickens are a. very stupid and b. very greedy and if you just call them and open the door of the ark and shake a tin of corn around in a noisy fashion before sprinkling a bit in the ark they will all come pelting back to eat. May take a couple of days for them to click on that one, but not that long. And I don't think they need a full 7 days in the ark - they should be pretty safe to let out after 3 or 4. The first couple of days you could let them out about an hour or so in the late afternoon, and then use the corn to get them back in, and then they should be fine after that.
PS don't give them corn too early in the morning as it blocks up their craw - if you want to get them back in in the morning use layers pellets instead. Corn should be kept for afernoon/evening.

Enjoy them! THey are entertaining. But SO THICK...

fishfinger · 11/07/2005 16:29

ha! I got it totally worng
they are battery hens {runs}

PrincessPeaHead · 11/07/2005 16:30

ps not v good on electric fencing I'm afraid because I don't use it. But it is all pretty idiot proof, stick the stakes in the ground, and make sure that you don't earth the wires on anything including long grass nettles etc. And make sure you always turn on the electricity - foxes aren't like horses who will be kept in place by a single unelectrified tape because they recognise it as electric fencing. Foxes are clever buggers and listen for the click...click...click... of the fencing battery. The minute it stops, they barge in and eat all your chickens .

Good luck!

PrincessPeaHead · 11/07/2005 16:32

they are very happy! and alive, which they wouldn't be if I let them out....

anyway you are clearly an overprocessed seafood product with some very dodgy orange colouring in your coating....

NoPearls · 11/07/2005 16:36

Poultry may be thick but they have hidden talents. We have 3 Sussex Light bantams and we kept them in their coup for a few days then opened the door expecting a mad charge for freedom. It took them a long time to work out how to come down then run and even longer to work out how to go back up it for bedtime.

They have come to terms with the local cat population's curiosity - with three of them I think none of the local feline's are brave enough to take them all on.

We now have them in a pen and that is within a sealed off corner of the garden as they decimated the lawn last autumn and we are trying to sell the house so need something more attractive. Knowing how dim they were, we put up a low bit of trellis to keep them in - about 3/4 ft tall. They eventually worked out that if they jumped enough they could get to the top and over into the greenery. We added another foot. Within a few weeks they could jump that. There is now another couple of feet of plastic coated wire mesh and now they can fling themselves up, grab hold of it, clamber up a bit and then their bodyweight tips them over the top - about a six foot drop.

Yes, they have their wings clipped...

PrincessPeaHead · 11/07/2005 16:40

love the idea of highjumping light sussex!
My ark is one where you go up the stairs to bed (as it were) and with new chickens you always have to bodily shove their bum up the stairs otherwise they don't know how to do it. they always get rather clucky and indignant - bit like if you shoved a stalwart member of the borsetshire Womens Institute up a churchtower staircase - "excuse me, what ARE you doing? that's QUITE enough..."

MrsDoolittle · 11/07/2005 16:42

PMSL at the WI hens, PPH!

NoPearls · 11/07/2005 16:49

DH used to go out there, find the three of them clinging to each other pitifully on the ground floor of the coup. Hard heartedly he would try and enourage them up the ramp buy rattling the corn. After half an hour the PPH-approved 'shove up the bum' approach was tried which would just result in squawking and confusion. Then DH would turn all soft and pick them up and lift them 'upstairs' and tuck them in.

Hmmmm - who do I know who kept telling me 'just let her cry, she'll go to sleep in a minute, she's got to learn sometime' a few years ago?

PrincessPeaHead · 11/07/2005 16:51

It isn't easy shoving them up the stairs it is? Because you have to ge tyour whole head and shoulders into the ground floor to do it and you ALWAYS end up with chickenshit on your elbows. Yeuch.

Eggs are lovely though...

MrsDoolittle · 11/07/2005 16:55

Lovely

redsky · 11/07/2005 17:34

Ours are kept in one part of the garden all day by some green netting held up with stakes - it looks exactly like the stuff in your posting. We have had to anchor it at the bottom with tent pegs about every 2 ft cos they seem to be able to wriggle under it sometimes.

Ours sleep in their 'omlet' at night - no bottom shoving up the stairs thank goodness - they just 'retire' as soon as darkness falls then I go and shut the door sometime before I go to bed. It's all very civilised!! (unlike the rest of our household)

Original poster
handlemecarefully · 12/07/2005 09:06

Thanks PPH, NoPearls and Redsky...

Actually I will rather proudly say that my chickens have done quite well on the IQ front. We've got a Forsham ark with a ramp access to the upstairs too, and whilst I had to shove them up this on the first evening (getting covered in chicken poo as described), on day 2 I let the ramp down at about 20.30 and as it started to get darker (21.00 ish) they took themselves up independently, without prompting from me [pride emoticon].

If you are still around, I've a question on the subject of chicken s**t. Their droppings were a bit runny yesterday - could this be because dd gave them a few chopped grapes (which she had decided that she didn't want). I am feeding them on layers mash for their main diet, but I thought that you could give them the odd bit of kitchen scraps. Should fruit be avoided?

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