Keeping chickens - advice for a first timer

[AmbitiousHalibut]

Hello,

We are hopefully moving house soon and will have a garden that should be big enough to accommodate some chickens. It's early days yet but the kids and I are learning about them to try and see if we would be able to do it well (as in, so that the chickens would be happy and healthy). It would be partly to have delicious free range eggs, and partly as pets, I guess.

If you have chickens already, what's the one thing you wish you'd known before getting them?

Thanks.

1. Chickens will attract rats (or at least chickens being messy eaters will leave food around which will attract vermin).

2. Foxes will be lying in wait trying to kill all of your chickens if you let them out or leave the shed/run door open while you go and do something else.

If you are aware of that going in you can mitigate the risks.

They make a lot of mess, and have funny little personalities - including vocally complaining if you ever displease them!
A treadle feeder will reduce rat problems, if your chickens are clever enough to use one

Treadle feeder.

Build two runs/areas. One small secure one for when you’re out, on holiday, back late etc. Fox proof underneath and above. One larger but less secure for everyday use. It could be movable fence. You can leave the door open to the secure one when you go away so you don’t need people to let them out.

A long run under a line of bushes stops them destroying your grass.

They are so good for kids. I got them for the eggs but the kids love them.

I love our chickens (and ds is utterly delighted that we currently have a broody hen on a clutch of eggs).
I wish we'd got a nice big plastic coop from the beginning, and an automatic door opener/closer.
Our chickens free range in the garden during the day and they have made a big mess - you don't realise just how much grass they eat and how much they love scratching holes to dust bathe in. But they are so happy it makes up for that!

That chickens will attract rats.

That it is illegal to feed them kitchen scraps.

I don’t think they attract rats! The rats and mice are already there, chicken feed is just a convenient assembly point :) I bring my chickens’ food in at night, pigeons and other small birds hoover up the rest. It’s not bigger rat magnet than people that feed wild birds and have food all over their gardens 24/7.

They are lovely lovely creatures with great personality. They can also be cruel and mercenary, they are omnivores and will eat mice!

Hens are actually quite noisy.

I’ve had wooden coops before, finally invested in an Egu Go Up with a run. Best thing ever.

Mine free range in a part of the garden during the day. If you value your garden, section a bit off for them.

If you hatch you must be prepared to dispatch! I have a 60% cockerel hatch rate every year. I use a brinsea mini-eco incubator and but hatching eggs online.

Also consider quail. Much quieter, gives eggs quickly. They don’t take though and fly so you need an enclosed aviary type setup.

There is always a fox around!! They try their luck most nights, the coop is on a standard run-through through our garden. We have cameras so see exactly what they’re up to.

When there was no eggs anywhere during the early days of lockdown we had some!

Fresh eggs make the absolute best poached eggs.

Thanks everyone! Lots to think about here.

Definitely get a plastic coop (solway, eglu, arkus, greenfrog). Much easier to clean which makes mites less likely.

Automatic coop door.

Treadle feeder to keep rats away.

Make sure you have somewhere to separate ill and injured ones. Also good to have for if you new chickens to existing one.

No matter how many chickens you think you will have you will always end up with more. They are addictive!

Get a poultry first aid kit together.

Chickens like to sunbathe. On their backs with legs in the air. They look like they are dead. Almost had a coronary event first time I saw that.

Chickens are ace, so much fun, easy to keep compared to some pets and the eggs are fantastic.
It is a passion when we go away though to get a neighbour/friend to shut them up and let them out in the morning.... An automatic door would fix that but I don't have one... Yet.

A pain not a passion! 😆

We got 3 silkie chickens in March and going very well. No rats or foxes yet (though all protected from foxes). DS worships them and no downsides for us. There is a chicken keepers section on MN.

Aha, thank you @KoalasandRabbit. Our move keeps being delayed but I'm still dreaming of those chickens!

They go broody for weeks and practically starve themselves. We have some fancy breed who are the fussiest eaters alive. Love them though. No rats here (but we have three cats).

We've never had a rat issue. Ours are in a big enclosure about 12ftx15ft and we put breeze blocks and fox proof chicken wire in the foundation. They are allowed out into the garden at times but be warned, they will TRASH your garden. So if you're hoping for nice flower beds and chickens forget it. This is why ours have their own area and they're let out supervised.
They are brilliant though.
I would say DO NOT hatch your own if you can't deal with despatching any males, there's been a massive increase in cockrals looking for rehoming due to people hatching their own and not thinking of the possibility they could all be males.

We've had one out of three girls go broody and have to put her food and water very close by. It did make me wonder if we should have got 4 as sometimes the white and black one seem like they are a couple, white one has a wing around black one at times and it was the brown one getting broody. But then other times the brown one is in the middle of the three snuggled together.

Though the brown one was trying to hatch all of their eggs.

That it is illegal to feed them kitchen scraps.

This. I am always surprised that so few chicken owners seem to know this and there are legitimate disease control reasons for it.

Also to add, obviously they come under the rules of Defra so you should dispose of them properly when their time comes.

I had some rescue hens because someone else got them then couldn’t keep them. I have three bantys now. They are great fun. We let the first hens free range until they were really wrecking the garden. So we have fenced a good section off. Don’t believe the sellers of chicken coops regarding space and the amount of hens. It is far too small. We have a wooden one as it came as a job lot with the chickens (4) it varies to the amount of eggs. We were getting three sometimes four a day then two of them went broody. We are getting one at the moment. I am currently training them to go from their pen to a smaller pen of Omlet netting which I can move around the grass. They line up at the gate. They really are funny. Most children love hens. There is a thread on the pets section if you open up more.

They poo a lot! They like to dig little holes in the ground.
We got an enclosed coop which we move around garden, contains the mess and they get new patch to dig ever now and again.