Topic: Spare Land

[Delilah]

Now I've got my plot the ground which was once used for veggies at home will be vacant soon, except for a small bed which will be used for asparagus.

Ideally we would like to keep chickens but can we currently buy birds with the Bird Flu scare, I seem to remember reading that it wasn't possible to buy at the moment but I may have been mistaken :-\

Advice on how many birds to area of land would be helpful, clipping, where to buy from, what sort of enclosure would I need and can I actually keep birds in a resisdential area?

Really I'm just searching for any advice atall :)

Thanks

[Jesse]

Buying chickens now shouldn't be a problem, I'm not sure if you can buy from a market but I don't see any reason for not buying directly from a good breeder which would be my preferred option anyway. Or you could look at rehoming some ex-battery hens.

You will need a run where you can fence them away from your garden. I tried to let mine free range in the garden and they gradually wrecked it. Now they're confined in a large run (about 5m x 5m for 6 hens, you don't need that much space though) and are only allowed out when I'm there to supervise them. If you have foxes visiting you will need a fox proof run, but you definitely need a fox proof henhouse so they are safe at night. One of our hens didn't go into the henhouse on christmas night, it was dark when I locked up and didn't notice, foxy had a nice chicken meal that night :'( We haven't experienced a fox problem during the daytime yet, thankfully as our chicken run isn't fox proof. There are lots of chicken houses and runs on the market, we use a childs small playhouse from Focus and a picket fence around it to make the run. As long as you can close it up at night, it has some ventilation holes and you can add perches then it will be fine.

At first I clipped their wings, but I don't do it anymore, they know where home is and have never tried to fly away. Clipping their wings didn't seem to stop them from jumping over the fence of their run so we had to make it higher.

Keeping hens in a residential area should be no problem at all. Make sure any food is kept secure so that rats don't become a problem, and make sure you don't leave too much food left scattered around on the ground. I've never seen rats where our chickens are, I'm sure there's the odd one like there would be in most places where the compost bins are kept. I keep my compost bins in the hen run, when the compost needs turning I empty the bins, let the hens scratch about in it for a couple of days before putting it all back into the bin again. If you're in a residential area you don't want a cockerel, they are noisy! Hens will happily lay without the need for a cockerel and you can hatch eggs without a cockerel, you would buy fertilised eggs (ebay sell them as do lots of breeders), but you need to plan ahead what you'll do with unwanted cockerels that hatch, we fattened them up and ate them!

The biggest expense is getting the hen house and run set up and buying the hens. After that they eat layers mash and crushed corn, a bag lasts a long time, and a little bit of straw or wood shavings for the nest boxes. They eat a lot of the scraps from the kitchen and reward us with lovely eggs virtually all year. As we have 6 hens we have excess eggs that I sell and the money goes into their food bill so effetively we get to keep hens and get our own supply of eggs for free. I lightly clean out the henhouse about every fortnight to once a month, that's a matter or taking out the wood shavings and putting in fresh ones. Once a year they have a good scrub out with disinfectant. I worm my hens every 6 month or so using Diatom, not very expensive and no need to withdraw eggs when using Diatom.

Kitchen Garden magazine usually have an article every month about keeping chickens. :)

[undercarriage plan]

I'd love to get some too, Delilah, but I'm concerned that with the new outbreaks of flu this week, and the panic that's bound to follow on, cos it always does, that it may not be far off, that chooks are made to be kept under cover...So I'm holding off for a while, and because I haven't even built the run yet.. ::) still trench digging.. :P

[Delilah]

wow Jesse thank you, what a brill reply, the area we were thinking of using is approx 2.5m x 7m and would you believe we sold our girls playhouse last year ::), we do have some leftover picket fencing though, approx 1m high would that be high enough?

How long is it before a hen starts laying?

Lots......... I think you secretly enjoy digging trenches :o ;D...............................food for thought though, would be shame to keep under cover kinda defeats the object of hens in the first place?

[undercarriage plan]

Yes, hence my cunning plan re birds in the PT, but I now actually need to use the PT for plants, so they'll have to be put on hold... :( and no.....I hate trench digging, and when I have finished, I will post a pic....and you will realize why....I hate digging trenches....the PT one was a walk in the park compared to this, it's slowly turning into a moat....though if I do get chooks, I'll need to dig a deeper one round the chook run..... :P

[Jesse]

We originally put up 1m high fencing but they simply jumped over that ::) so we bought some of that trellis type stuff from the garden centre and topped the fence with that, so now it's about 4ft high. The younger ones were able to jump over but once hens start to lay they become heavier and less agile, now all 6 of them can't jump over the top. They are large breed chickens, bantams might be a different story.

Because of the bird flu thing we netted over the top of the run, using the same netting as what we use on the cabbages, if you find they jump over your fence perhaps net the top, within a few weeks they forget (chickens aren't such bright sparks!) and it's unlikely they'll try to jump over again. I think ours were more determined because they had been left in the garden and once they started destroying it we fenced them off so they knew what they were missing out on.

They're around 6 months old when they start laying. You can buy point of lay hens, we bought our original 3 at 4 months old, the other 3 were hatched during the summer (see photos on other thread) and have started laying over christmas.

[jaggythistle]

  Most people that show hens......keep them under cover... it saves bleaching
  of the feathers you see...it also has the practicality of no messy runs either
  because no matter how big a run you give them it will always turn to a
  quagmire come winter...as long as you remember 1 thing...thats to leave at
  least 1 portion wire only....and situate your air vents accordingly...do check
  with your landlord,council,housing association...as there are a lot of obscure by laws out there.... feeding....well its mainly old timers that feed with mash it can
  and does build up round the beak area and nasal cavitysand can if not taken care of cause infection...better idea is to go with layers pellets....less waste
 and you can fill pellets into hoppers which can allow you to get away now and again...ie weekend and such....housing can be as cheap (tea chest conversion)
 oer as expensive as you like(saw a triple house with runs sell for £700)..maybe
 not the cheapest way...but you get what you want is to self build...as for stock
 well the cheapest option is to go the egg route.....but...like that word  ;D the possibility of hatching cockerals which you dont want is there....by the way jess
hens do remember...I always take a bag full of sweetcorn  when I got to stables....owner has 15 houses and runs and before I even reach the runs they are running to me...because they know I always bring them a treat.....few of them will sit on my lap to be fed too...the hens are an endless source of fun...and
 it can become very addictive......soooooooooo have fun !!!!!!

                                         JAGS

[Jesse]

I never knew about the bleaching feathers thing, you're right about them getting the run mucky, we're on clay so it becomes very muddy in the winter, can't wait until everything dries out a bit. :)

[northener]

Only just read this Jesse sorry to hear you've done same trick as me. TOp tips both you and Jaggy you've learnt me a thing or two cheers.

[loz2006]

They suspended poultry auctions for a time here in the UK but theyve just started again.  Our main problem is the fox.  Its killed I dont know haw many of our hens.  The whole flock goes, its very upsetting.  The only thing we've found is to ensure the run is totally enclosed, with a roof on.  That seems to work.

Lorraine