We collected our three hens today, named by my lovely children as: Sophie, Roma and Ketchup! They are a Barnevelder, Maran and White Leghorn. The idea is to let them free range around the garden but that depends how kind they are to my flowers. If total devistation happens then they will be confined in a run and perhaps allowed out on special occasions. For the time being they are confined to a small run until they realise that this is their new home. The henhouse was made by my husband using old timber that was destined for the skip. I look forward to some fresh eggs and lots and lots of lovely compost for the garden.
I don't seem to be able to attach more than one photo so here is the picture of the henhouse.
Cor, well cool! Must not let Ava catch a glimpse, or the kids come to that or else I can see another project taking place in our garden!
Oooohhh so envious! Would love to have chickens, but alas, garden not big enough, and lottie is too far away to keep a daily eye on them :'( I hope they reward you with lots of home grown eggs! ;D
fantastic!
When I have my acre garden in the country, I will have chickens.
(And ducks!)
Do i see a touch of the River Cottage design there?I'm sure that you will be well rewarded.But yes they will cause havoc if let loose in a flower garden.They should rid you of a few nasties though(http://www.planetsmilies.com/smilies/animal/1/animal69.gif)
I really don't like birds at all but my lover has found out that I'm allowed chickens and bees on the lottie and he is going all out for keeping chickens as two of the other lottie holders have them and lots of experience with them.
I'm trying to sway him the other way as a friend of ours keeps bees and I'm not scared of them!!
Sam
Good oh. Our hens wander freely around the garden. They do a certain amount of damage. They are lethal in a veg plot and to any soft fruit. They are also great dust bathers in newly dug, dry soil! They also love Perlite and will empty a plant pot in no time to get at the little white granules of it in the compost. They also love pecking white polystyrene packaging. The hate Sedums and Sempervivums which they destroy in seconds.
They also catch and eat frogs and newts of any size.
BUT we have very few slugs and snails and they spend hours stripping the greenfly off plants (they usually leave some of the leaves though).
The ducks are even worse as they dig little round holes in the grass.
BUT we would not get rid of them for anything.
Have fun!!!!!!!
Oh they are soooooo lovely. I would love to have chickens (bantams as a preference) but haven't the space. Green with envy!
For those of you who are frustrated chicken lovers with small gardens - the solution is here. I've got a backyard about 5m square and keep 2 very happy hens in an eglu. They also get let out to play in the backyard ie try to get through the barriers protecting my salad bed but do enjoy trips to our allotment. We get lots of fun and about a dozen gorgeous fresh eggs a week. The compost heap gets the soiled straw and chicken droppings. The slugs and snails get eaten! Kitchen scraps we can't compost get recycled into eggs. For more info and pictures visit www.citychicken.co.uk. There is a link from this site to the eglu site.