Animal Farm comes to a garden near you.

Are they (the hens, not the sparrows) shut in the 'house' at night, Chuckles? If so, could you put a feeder in there, and then by the time you let them out in the morning they will at least have had the chance to monopolise it.
It's what I do, then at some time roughly midday they get a feed of soaked flaked maize (not much chance for sparrows then, it's chicken chaos) in a trough outside and another of wheat about half an hour before they put themselves in and to bed.
The feeder stays inside, so if they want adlib food it's there anytime.
So, it's hand-feeding, really.

OM.

They are not shut in thier house as such OM, it is open into the run. The chicken house is one of the old dog kennels and run. I converted it into a sort of GH/poly a couple of years ago by putting wooden framed polycarb on all sides and a poly roof on it. To house the chickens I removed two of the sides and put a nesting box and roosting pole in the old dog bed area. These pics will hopefully make it clearer, I think ;D

This is taken from the doorway looking into the run



This shows the doorway into the old dog bed area



This is inside



So, hopefully you can see that wherever I put the food the sparrows can get at it I've now started only having the feeder in the run when the chickens are shut in it and am offering them food morning, midday when they are loose in the garden.

Good god Carolann thats a lot of eggs you've lost although I'd have thought the same with them going into moult. Amazing the places they find to lay though isn't it, I'm pleased I've only the 2 chickens now ;D My neighbour (small holding) had the same problems with his laying all over the place. Unfortunately he truly let them free range and never shut them up at night Mr Fox eventually had them I had rats a while ago but baited up and that sorted that. I now have bait down all the time in one of those special plastic boxes, it's being eaten atm but I think by mice.

Have the cocks been sold yet, sad really but thats to many cocks to have about. Whats a chaser

Here you go the first of the chicks for 2010

Dame Edna is now teaching the little ones which is great as it is her first batch of chicks, there are 5 in total.

Awh

We've got chooks too ;D Half a dozen browns.

There's some pics on my website: www.pdblake.com

Off topic PD I read your coffee recipe and will indeed give it a miss. ;D

Not seen anything about this but i will have a small piece of garden approx 10 foot x 8 foot that i'd like to keep a few chooks in.

Now before i start any new venture, i need to find out as much about it as possible especially if we're dealing with live animals. So i was wondering if any of you nice people have kept chickens ?

The ground is currently for soft fruit but these will be moved. I will use aviery wire or chicken wire to make up panels in order to create an aviery type area.
There will be a covered, sheltered and insulated "shed" for them to roost at night.
The hens would be pets / egg layers

Couple of questions....

Do chickens need soft ground or would it be better for cleaning and fox protection if it was slabbed.

Would 4 hens be ok ?

Are they noisy ?

I have a springer, i don't think he's be a problem. Any suggestions ?...he chases one of our cats but is petrified of the other !!!!!!

Any other tips, suggestions, choice of hen variety, cost of hens etc etc etc would be so welcome.


Many thanks

Andy

Hi Andy I have a mixture of Warrens (Brown) Light Sussex (White/Black) Wellsummer (Brown/Black speckled Gold) and my Bantums which are Silkies (White) and a Polish Cross who is Blonde, as Chuckles said the run and shed should be Fox proof first and formost, will you be letting the chucks have the run of the garden during the day or will they be in the run? if in the run then you may need to move it from time to time to give them lots of new grass as this makes the yolks nice and yellow. In my shed I have 3 troughs of Oystershell grit for the chucks to eat even though they are free range. They are very easy to look after and you can sort of train them to come home at certain times mine do even in summer. We have 2 cats and 2 dogs which have all got used to the chucks now, the chucks even go into the dog kennel to see if they have left any food. You can get X battery birds a friend of mine has them and they lay very well for him. They do stop laying when they go into the moult and make quite a mess and dont look pretty either all mine tend to moult at differant times so I still have eggs all year. What I would do is google Chicken breeds and have a good read about them. The Silkies only lay a small egg but they are very friendly as are some of the Light Sussex. The Wellsummers lay a very dark brown egg but the other two lay white eggs. If you dont eat eggs every day then you can get a glut of them but you could always sell them, lots of people will go mad for home produced eggs and they do taste a lot differant than shop bought ones a lot like veggies you grow yourself. Have a look in your local paper or if you have a Corn merchants nearby then have a look on their notice board to see if anyone has any for sale. Good luck and keep us posted on how you are doing.

Andy I have kept some in the small glass GH but it is bubble linned, if you can give them some earth to scrat in they will be very happy and happy chucks lay the best eggs.

Sorry to hear about one of your girls BS

The new girls looks like she could be a Black Orpington, my neighbour has one called Rose. Mmmmm a newbie does sometimes get bossed about, the whole pecking order of who is boss has to be sorted out again. They'll soon settle BS so don't worry. It's not so bad when you only have a couple of chickens, the problems are worse in larger flocks.

Both my girls a molting atm, one looks like she has been 75% plucked ;D I can see lots of new feathers coming through now, they do look a sight though. The down side is they go off laying, lack of daylight hours also effects them so I haven't had an egg for about 3 weeks now.

The weather this year has just cocked up all my girls they have all been moulting since the start of October and they are having a hard time getting back into condition, I have been giving them lots of hot mash breakfast and even some at night along with Rape seed as this helps the birds get through the moult quicker they are also having multi vitimins in their water but I thinks its these hot and cold days that are doing it poor things dont know if they are coming or going, I'm lucky if I get 9 eggs per day off 50+ hens. Sorry to hear about your chuck BS but the new one looks beautiful.

hmmm, looked in a book, deffo a black Orpington, lays 140-160 days a year it says. Hmm, so you're getting the plumage instead of a consistent layer....oh well, the other, the hybrid, Choco is still going strong.

No moulting yet of either 'old' birds, odd, or is to come yet, they're not moulting cause they're young?

I let the girls out today, while I was in the house, then went to put them back in the coop. Good god, those feckers can run. Used to be able to manage the two Hybrids easy enough, the Orpie has trained Choco to be Harry Houdini-like, mother of god, it was trying. Ended up shouting at them! STOP!!! etc etc

eventually got the hybrid in first then closed up, and trapped the Orpington and got her in too.

Oh yeah, what struck me, was that I'd walked up beside the compound area, and the Orpington was sitting on top of the coop, don't think its wings have been clipped, ok, no prob, Choco the hybrid was on the ground in the coop. Ok, no prob.

Just then, Choco let out a squawk, and what the heck to you think came out of the roosing area above? A bloody tabby cat.!!!

Choco legged it and I grabbe an iron bar to try and decapitate the cat which was JUST out of reach running to the far end of the coop. Me jabbing away, in a fit of frantic panic.!!! Then it turned around, and quick as a flash, got by the door, barely 8" wide, and scarpered.

That's when I decided to put the girls back in the coop....ruddy hell, thinking twice about keeping hens, too much/a lot of worry, esp after losing one recently....

Babyswan you warmed me up on this cold day. ;D

Ooooh LG are you smitten enough to have a couple yourself ;D I'd love to see a piccy of them As long as they can't escape from her garden LG they should be fine.