I want to get some chickens

Jessey

Jessey

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Dec 20, 2004
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Suffolk, UK
I am keen to become more self sustainable so am thinking this is the year to grow some veggies and get some chooks....one insy little problem, I have quite a long standing fear of birds, especially pecky ones :oops::p I know its silly but there we go. But fear is no reason not to do something, though I've got to be able to manage them without having to be too up close and personal all the time.

So being scared of them I know nothing about them, so I have lots of questions;
Will they put themselves back into a coop at night so I can just shut the door? (we have a foxy around the field)
How often do wings need clipping?
How many do you need to have? are they happy with just 1 friend?
How much care do they need other than letting in and out, feeding, watering and mucking out?
 
I was hoping someone might have answered by now, as I'm awaiting replies with interest. It's something I quite fancy myself but the things that put me off when I looked into it several years ago now were a) chickens live longer than their egg laying capacity so you have to have loads of retired chickens or 'deal' with the non-egg layers (they might have produced a bird that lays for life now), b) they attract rats, c) they scratch up your garden - not a problem for you if kept in your field, d) They do hum if not cleaned out regularly, e) really not sure about foxes - I see plenty of them around in the day time so wonder if the chucks would be safe roaming about and f) by the time I'd paid for feed, bedding, potential vet bills, vaccinations? (I've a feeling they have to have something to keep mites away and you can't eat the eggs for a certain amount of time after), it would be cheaper to just buy some local free range eggs lol.

Really hoping someone with actual experience of keeping chickens will come along and disprove all my misgivings though ...
 
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I also had thought about getting some chooks, but I changed my mind because of all the points that @Bodshi has brought up. I have a couple of friends that keep them and they seem happy enough looking after them but they have also lost a couple by a fox and also a buzzard. They do have to shut them up at night and then let them out in the morning. They also have to treat them every so often for feather mites, apart from that I think its straight forward enough. Sorry not much help but I'm sure someone on here is bound to keep some and let you know.
 
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I used to look after the farmers chickens - what fun they are!lol
At night they used to troop back in, so funny! And in a morning they knew when it was time to come out. I collected their eggs too - it was nice getting the warm ones:p
I enjoyed feeding them too, and they had a splendid cockeral. He had about twenty odd and some bantams in a different house. I didn't actually do much cleaning out of them as I remember, I think I might hsve swept up a bit and maybe laid more shredded paper in each little basket (for want of a better description) they sat in to lay. Biggest threat there wasn't just the foxes it was their neighbours dogs:(
Some of the hens could be a bit funny about me taking their eggs. I did get a little bit pecked but nothing serious!
 
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There used to be a really good chicken keeping forum, something like "down the lane" if I remember rightly. Plus if you google ex battery hens you can get loads of info of their site. And google eggloo.
 
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My daughter has hens. Keeping birds is like keeping horses. Both simple and complicated. Foxes do not vanish in day time and chicks given freedom can kill each other. Dont take this on lightly if you dont even like birds.
 
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Ive got around a dozen chickens and 2 ducks. They are lovely and I wouldnt be without them but they do make a mess and churn up ground - also, badgers are a serious threat. I dont let mine free range unless i am actually at home and pottering about. Otherwise they have a coop within a foxproof/badger proof run. Id recommed a plastic recycled house like a Solway, you dont get redmite in them and they are easier to keep nice and clean and dry. Also, try to choose placid breeds if you don’t like flapping ;)
 
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ps they do put themselves to bed but it can take a bit of training initially until they get used to a new place and if you aren’t home by dark in the winter you might have a problem with predators.( If it gets dark at 4.30pm for eg) You can however buy an automatic pop hole opener/closer, Eglu do them.
 
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Foxes are the no. 1 problem. If they range free and it's quiet the fox will have them. The fox had my last 3 and they were fenced in. I had that orange Flexi netting but it was old and the fox found a dibit in the ground which the chickens had excavated.
We had about 20 chickens when I was younger and we used to sell the eggs. (Before all the rules and rregulations). Then for many years we had none. I acquired a couple from a friend a few years ago, as they moved house and had no where to keep them, then brought another 2 but one died shortly after I got it. Minimum is 2 so they have company. To be honest even with 2 you can very quickly get in undated with eggs. Remember there are rules on selling eggs. You need to research. I remember reading on some website about this. Certain criteria means you have to register as a producer in order to sell them, you also have to date stamp the eggs. I think if you give them to friends/family for no return you don't have to register but if money changes hands you may well have to.
You can have chooks and don't have to really handle them.
They usually get in a routine of putting themselves to bed. It's only if you want to put them to bed before dark you have to catch them.
Mites are only a real problem in the hot weather. You see them in the hen house and can buy stuff to spray in the house and dust them.

Remember you only clip wings on one side to unbalance there flight. If you clip both sides they are still balanced and could therefore fly. It's only after there moult once there feathers grow back you need to clip.
I can't remember so don't quote me now. I think they moult once a year. When the go into a moult they will go off lay for upto couple of months.
Cleaning out depends on how dirty they get. Depending on size of coup, whether you you free range in an electric fence area. If it's muddy they will need more cleaning out. I free ranged in an electric fence area so they had plenty of grass for them to scratch and eat. So they stayed pretty clean, only cleaned out every couple of weeks.
A friend of mine has four chickens which I had to feed whilst they were away recently. They only had a small run and to be honest it was not big enough. They had soil with bark chipping which did encourage scratching but the chooks were really speedy and pecked at me everyteI went there. I personally think they were bored and hungry. My 3 had 10x there area and never ever rushed at me.
 
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About eating chickens - yes when I was A child my mother kept chickens and we ate them. I dont know the rules for you rural folk but my daughter is not allowed to eat her urban chickens, they mustnt go in the food chain - only the eggs. And she isnt allowed a cock. BecAuse of the noise.

There is some sort of registration system which is optional but which she does as the Department notify you if there is something like bird flu about.
 
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I'm vegetarian.

Lots of people sell eggs here, and lots of other veg etc just at the end of their driveway, never known any backlash from it but I'm only looking for my consumption anyway.

My thought was they would just free range at the field, I've seen quite a few people suggest it can help with worm burden in the horses as hens scratch about and eat anything that moves. We definitely have foxes, I'm back before dark to shut them in but there before light in the morning this time of year.

I would get over handling them eventually, I definitely need ones that don't flap too much, I'd want rescues but not sure if straight from a battery farm is a good plan, my friend had some and they were by far the flappiest as not used to people.
 
Pros and cons but I’d say the cons outweigh the pros with chickens. They are prone to just dying, kind of like sheep :oops: also they can make a fair mess.

I had to get my landlord involved after I paid a lot of money to get my side garden simplified and made easy for me to keep but look good, his chickens in less that an year ruined it. They were dying off and he said he was t getting any more, then he turned up with 10 young reds. I saw red myself and went to my landlord who gave him a copy of his title deeds for the property which stated clearly no poultry. He hasn’t spoken to me since.
 
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Plenty do free range round farms. I think you have to accept loosing them to the fox. Personally I get very upset. I want to get some more as I still have the coop but I am going to get some new netting. Possibly two fences.
My friend use to have lots and sold the eggs. He's lost several lots and just replaced. Last year he had 30 killed in one night. He replaced them and the fox got in again after a few months. He's given them up now as he got fed up with the carnage.
 
chunky monkey said:
Plenty do free range round farms. I think you have to accept loosing them to the fox. Personally I get very upset. I want to get some more as I still have the coop but I am going to get some new netting. Possibly two fences.
My friend use to have lots and sold the eggs. He's lost several lots and just replaced. Last year he had 30 killed in one night. He replaced them and the fox got in again after a few months. He's given them up now as he got fed up with the carnage.
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I would only free range in the day then coop them at night but it does sound like possibly lots of angst to do.
 
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joosie said:
Lol "retired chickens"... you know you can eat them right? :p
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I saw them being killed on one of those Gordon Ramsay grow it and then eat it so you know what you're eating type of programs, and it completely put me off! Not that I could kill them like that because it involved putting an electrified probe down their throats, but wringing their necks doesn't hold any greater appeal to me either :eek::p
 
Oh dear are you vegetarian too?
Our neighbour offered to show me how to wring a chickens neck once. I declined, unsurprisingly! - But it was interesting to watch and see how quick and painless it was.
 
joosie said:
Oh dear are you vegetarian too?
Our neighbour offered to show me how to wring a chickens neck once. I declined, unsurprisingly! - But it was interesting to watch and see how quick and painless it was.
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No not now, although I have been in the past. I know it's hypocritical but I just don't think I could bring myself to kill my own food, especially if it had been a pet up until that point. I don't even like it when OH catches and kills fish for us to eat - I always hope he won't catch anything. Silly, I know...
 
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