Chicken virgin

[Headnavigator]

Setting out on the adventure of keeping a few chooks on the Spring - layers and for the pot, hopefully. I also have a fancy for a couple of Guinea-fowl. Anyone out there with advice to offer?

 

[dpearce4]

A couple of things i have learnt over the 5years we have had some are.

1. make sure you have an intigrated mite control system. Red mite can kill chickens and your chickens will get them. there are some good prodcuts out there for them, daitom powder (buy large tubs 2kg plus it dont go off and you will use it and its much cheaper), we have also started to use Red Stop Solution expensive but works by making the blood unpalitable to the mites.

2. Get some silent rawr if you can its petitised lion poo, stops cats and foxes (used it after a fox attack) never seen foxes since.

3. Use layers pellets that have the grit in, the eggs will be much better for it.

4. dont bother with names for them gave up after the 3rd batch of chickens.

5. get a hen house bigger than you think u will need. if your starting with 4 chickens you will end up with more. we now have 16 at any one time. just like beekeeping it becomes addictive.

6. dont expect to have a good looking garden after you get them. they eat everything, but you wont need a lawn mower any more.

7. if your in town dont get a cockeral your neighbours will hate you for it.

8. if you work get some sort of run and door that works on daylight.

9. be prepared to hunt high and low for eggs as they will lay them in lots of places you didnt think of.

 

[Drew]

Lots of good stuff
4. dont bother with names for them gave up after the 3rd batch of chickens.

More

6. dont expect to have a good looking garden after you get them. they eat everything, but you wont need a lawn mower any more.

Good stuff

9. be prepared to hunt high and low for eggs as they will lay them in lots of places you didnt think of.

4. My Mrs is still naming them after half a dozen iterations... and claims they know their names.

6. Don't expect anything other than a desolate wasteland wherever they roam.... Seriously keep them fenced in .

9... in places you can't figure out how they reached, and in places that are very hard for you to reach... normally resulting in injury (Slips, twisted ankles, scratches and scars (berberis and roses :-( )

 

[george]

Handle them from an early age so they are used to it . Makes life a lot easier if you need to catch them up in a hurry .

Dont offer an alternative to their roosting box . My Banatms found a handy perch in the garden and roost out there regardless of the weather . Came out last Winter on frosty mornings to find a nice layer of frost on the outer feathers . Didnt bother them but the other half freaked every time .

Have fun with them , but dont expect to save money on egg buying .

 

[Oscarmonster]

With regard to red mite don't waste your money on chemical treatments, most are ineffective. Lime wash the inside of your chicken house, maybe twice a year. We had a terrible infestation which was eradicated overnight with lime wash.

 

[enrico]

When we are in the garden ours free range, if we go out they get locked in a large bomb proof run, wire dug deep in, wire roof, wire sides, also covered roof with Perspex so they have a dry run otherwise it soon becomes a muddy mess. Tree growing in middle to give the some shade. Within that we have a hen house that we lock them up in. The fox has never tried, walks round the outside and then gives up!!! ( so far!) you have to be hard, as long as you try your best be philosophical if the fox does get them! My wife has trained them with corn, she shouts and they come running to her, luckily they are not intelligent enough to know they are going to be locked up so a bit of corn in their run and they all go in, red mite......tons of it, like varoa just have to keep the numbers down although I might try the lime wash!
Thanks
E

 

[Oscarmonster]

What you need is lime putty from your local building conservation suppliers. Mixed with water. Farrow and Ball do some other shades but our chickens were happy with white. After application the outside of our chicken house was crawling with the mites which weren't killed, the inside was mite free and has remained so for about 5 months since painting.

 

[Luminos]

9. be prepared to hunt high and low for eggs as they will lay them in lots of places you didnt think of.

Similarly, be prepared to hunt high and low for a broody hen...they hide themselves away anywhere

 

[pargyle]

I'd agree with most of the other posts - we still name our hens but it is a fact of hen life that they will sometimes either die or need to be 'despatched' - we have ex-battery hens and they lay great eggs and soon become 'naturalised' but the survival rate beyond a year or so is about 50%. Vets bills (which inevitably include putting the hen down) are expensive so the one thing you need to learn is how to kill a hen cleanly and humanely and when it is necessary - more so if you are rearing for meat !

We have found that you can tell when a hen is not up to par very quickly - their body language tells the story - if they are hunched, immobile and tail feathers down then there's a problem. Could be that they are just moulting but sometimes it's sour crop or a variety of other hen complaints which you can treat yourself if you can recognise the symptoms.

We give ours organic feed pellets and corn and a diet of fresh veg from the allotment, they will eat just about anything, you will never have any kitchen scraps to throw away, the hens can have them - adding shell improver to the feed is good for shell production and it's not expensive.

If you want your garden to stay intact then a permanent closed run is essential and a 'tractor' (a moveable run that you can move around the garden) if you want to let them have a run on the lawn to rotate the area they will destroy scratching for grubs and grass.

Don't underestimate Mr Fox - daylight raids are not unknown and foxes are everywhere these days. If your hens are not locked up at sunset and safely enclosed then the fox willl be waiting - Foxes will bite through normal chicken wire so fox proof mesh is essential. They will also dig under anything - paving slabs or horizontal chicken wire outside the run helps to stop foxes digging under. They can climb 6' fences and jump extraordinary distances so a roof on the run is also a must.

Lastly, like beekeeping, there is masses of information on the web and it's actually a lot easier (but more time consuming) to keep hens than bees - but read read read BEFORE you start out - it's a big commitment in time, energy and money - home produced eggs and chicken are the best in the world but you could probably buy Fortnum & Masons best organic for less than it will cost you in monetary terms - very much like beekeeping ! Phil

 

[Luminos]

I also have a fancy for a couple of Guinea-fowl.

What's the decimal equivalent for Guinea-fowl?

 

[Brosville]

A few points - for a beginner, ex-battery layers are ideal, they're cheap, usually amiable creatures, and can go on to lay for years after they've had a good rest and refeather.
if you want some for the pot, they are about the worst choice, you'll ideally want birds bred for the job (perhaps buy some "broiler type" in at a few weeks old, and feed them up)

To explain, commercial pressures have meant the diversification into two very different types of chooks - layers, bred to give enormous quantities of eggs on the least feed input, and broiler birds bred to put on weight as fast as possible on least food, and the resultant breeds are very different.
Around 50-60 years ago, a lot of people went for the best of both worlds - a Rhode Island/Light Sussex cross which gave sex-linked offspring (you could tell what sex they were by their plumage) - the hens were good layers, the cockerels made good meat birds. If you have the time/inclination, I'd suggest you could do far worse than emulate them.

Never leave them in a scratched bare run, you'll have disease problems - either use something like a "tractor" or Sussex Ark so you can move them to fresh grass regularly, or arrange for "strip grazing". If you do get problems in wet weather, add dry straw or the like, rake up and compost regularly.
It can pay to keep them in until later in the morning to encourage them to lay in the nest boxes (they'll tend to lay in the morning) - you'll need to give the house a window, food and water so they can "get going" with the natural light.

Good luck, they are delightful creatures, and there's no substitute for still-warm eggs!

 

[pargyle]

A few points - for a beginner, ex-battery layers are ideal, they're cheap, usually amiable creatures, and can go on to lay for years after they've had a good rest and refeather. "

Yep - dead right - ex-bats are also well vaccinated and usually about a year to eighteen months old so laying well - and will go on laying (although the egg laying does eventually tail off) for at least another couple of years. They come a bit featherless and clueless but they soon get the idea and develop into real personalities !

Bros is right though - ex-bats are not for the pot ! There are specific meat birds available as chicks which will reach pot size in as little as 8-10 weeks so you can get a flock started in spring to be table size (or freezer) by the end of summer to take advantage of the natural fodder available.

We have a fixed, fox proof, run and a tractor. The fixed run has the coop attached and there is a pvc tarpaulin over the majority of the run to keep the rain off. We use chipped wood mulch on the floor of the run which keeps the base relatively dry - even in last weeks monsoon the hens were still walking on a relatively dry surface and we add to it on a weekly basis; then, about every 3 months, I have a really good shovel out and onto the compost bin or allotment it goes - best fertiliser there is I reckon - another good reason for keeping hens. The coop gets fresh wood shavings on the floor and straw in the nest boxes (not hay) and gets changed weekly. Spraying coop with red mite spray weekly seems to keep these little blighters at bay.

Good luck with them.

Find ex bats at

www.bhwt.org.uk/cms/re-home-some-hens/

 

[MJBee]

Guinea Fowl - lovely to eat, lay eggs that require a jack hammer to crack, and generate more noise than the noisiest cockrell.

Great little birds providing your house is soundproof and you have no neighbours

 

[Luminos]

Great little birds providing your house is soundproof and you have no neighbours
...hmmm, that's got me thinking, MJBee...

 

[Headnavigator]

Thank you so much everyone - far more interesting info than on any website and I trust you lot (well we're all in it together, aren't we?)
Hope to start in the Spring with a fixed fox-proof house and run as Reynard already visits nightly. While we may well get a couple of ex-bats to start with I quite like your ideas Brosville, and your comments about using wood shavings Pargyle are really helpful.
We have fallen out with new neighbours already who entered our garden and cut our trees (without permission) in their attempt to recreate suburbia from a country garden so the lovely noises of the Gleanies will be just recompense. And a cockerel maybe!
Used to help family with poultry fifty-plus years ago - can one still raise capons in a domestic setting? And will the gleanies actually lay in a nest-box? they never would when I was a kid (my job to crawl under the hedges to find the eggs). Lastly we know rats (and badgers) are about - anything we need to do about them?
Thanks again.

 

[enrico]

We clean ours every day so rats no problem, I have heard badgers will have a go but ours never have! Our main problem is when they sit on our spade when I am trying o dig! If you buy them from a chicken supplier ask if they can clip their wings for you, once you have seen them do it you can o it yourself easily. Ex bats will never fly! Watch ex bats for feeding properly as they often clip their beaks. One of ours was clipped badly and can't pick food off the floor so has to be fed in a deep dish.....ahhhhh!
E

 

[Brosville]

Design the hen house to be rat (and fox) proof in the first place - there are lots of advantages to having one "off the ground" with an area underneath the house (it gives them somewhere to shelter when it's raining), and there's nowhere for rats to hide.
I've never had a problem with getting them to lay in the nest boxes - they should be reasonably dark, and with shavings or straw to make them comfy - particularly when you first get the birds, it can pay to keep them in until at least mid-morning to get them used to laying in the boxes (but provide a window, and food and water).

"Capons" have pretty much died a death - looked upon as cruel to make them capons - go for a "meat breed" as used in broiler farms, or the RI/LS cross!

Here's my bantam house

 

[Erichalfbee]

And a cockerel maybe!

Don't unless you have a back up plan.
Upset neighbours are neither here nor there but they report you to Environmental Health. THEN you have to do something.
It happened to us. We used to live in a small rural hamlet and before we got our cockerel I asked everybody if they would mind. The first I discovered that somebody DID mind was when I got a noise abatement order.
Luckily we had an undercroft and I used to snaffle him away from his ladies when I went to bed and he slept in a dog crate. EH was OK with him crowing away during the day.
I never did find out who complained.

 

[busybee53]

What a nice chicken house Brosville. Chickens = divorce for me. I must not go there. Bees are enough (apparently).

 

[theboynelson]

I would say, buy them point of lay, me and the missus got an incubator for a wedding present, I would say that approximately 70% of our chickens have come out as cockerels, there has been mass slaughter gone on as a result.

Also with red spider mite I always use ant powder, it's cheap and effective.