Friday OT - chickens

essex-commuter

Does anyone here keep chickens?

Thinking of getting a couple but need to do research first. Ease of looking after, cost, vetinary bills...any positives / negatives really!

mudcow007

i have friends with "clucks" they reckon they are easy to look after

Read Me

Anonymous

Apparently a great prank is to release 9 chickens into your school/office/local old peoples home labelled 1 through to 10 but exclude number 2.

peat

They will shred a patch of grass in hours and they will attract rats.

But there are benefits. Ummmm, fresh warm eggs!

fnb1

easy to look after, just need to clean their coup out periodically, upside, best eggs you will taste(if they do not have access to a grassy area, give them green stuff (salad etc) regulary keeps the yolks nice and strong/yellow, downside, they can and will seriously trash your garden if you do not have them in a well fenced area of their own.

Can be a nuisance (and traumatic for kids) if you have a lot of foxes around (or badgers as they like chicken too and can get into places foxes cannot, i.e. stronger, better diggers etc, rats can also be a problem in some locations as they come after the feed, but the rats are usually about anyway you will just notice them coming into the open to take feed from the chickens coup).

Vet wise, a few basic probs that are esy to deal with over the counter remedies other than that, the more serious stuff they do not survive well form anyway.Treat them as a farmer might, chicken gets sick = a former chicken, replace with new heatlhy one.

When choosing, I would suggest going for a point of lay chicken, i.e. one that is almost ready to start laying, choose on 'personality' if you will, ones that looks confident and not too flighty and do not run away, (like a scared chicken) if you walk up to them, these are best for 'pets'. Coup wise, I would suggest an 'eglu' (google it) expensive but easy to keep cleaner and the runs are more fox repelent (but not neccessarily proof). Had chickens now for about 4 years, one orignal and 2 newcomers (after one of the orginals decided to commit suicide when ill). They started off with free run of the garden but now have a electric fenced area that I can move around to suit, each has it's own character and can be quite a theraputic interactive set of pets. Enjoy!

SimonAH

Can't at this house unfortunately, but used to have chickens at the last house (moved two years ago).

We had three raised from littl'uns rather than ex battery hens (not as virtuous but my daughter was very small and the rescue hens can be in a real state when you get them which I didn't want to put her through).

Ease of looking after;
Really easy. Make an eye-level hen house, change the straw once a week, collect eggs once a day. Simples. I rigged up a layers pellet hopper which held enough for a couple of days (so you can go away for the weekend) which worked really well. Apart from layers pellets, all your kitchen scraps, lawnmower trimmings, hedge clippings, slugs, lost children, neighbours cats - anything you throw in the run gets eaten. It WILL be bare earth within a week.

Cost? Really can't remember, but a sack of layers pellets lasted us a month and really wasn't a lot - about eight quid I think.

Vet bills? You are kidding right? They are chickens.

Positives
Eggs, lots and lots of lovely fresh eggs. Really nice creatures too - weirdest thing is the slo mo feet and the fast forward head, like two animals bolted together at the waist.

Negatives
Do not position the run where the chickens can see a kitchen window. If you do then they start shouting the second you come downstairs in the morning. It's not that they're hungry, Oh no, they just want the company (I'm serious here). Few things more annoying than shouting chickens before the first cup of coffee kicks in.

Caveats
Do not allow your daughter to name a chicken after her grandmother as it is not easy to relay the information that you had to shoot Grandma Elaine when her foot got frozen one really bad winter.

DonDaddyD

Wtf do you want to keep chickens for!?

mudcow007

SimonAH wrote:

Do not allow your daughter to name a chicken after her grandmother as it is not easy to relay the information that you had to shoot Grandma Elaine when her foot got frozen one really bad winter.

eugh or eating grandma's eggs :shock:

SimonAH

DonDaddyD wrote:

Wtf do you want to keep chickens for!?

Because. Just because.

...and also, you know how when you had potatoes at your grandads house when you were a kid that he had grown in the garden and they tasted like the best spuds in the world? Well home laid eggs are just like that, only more so. The difference between even the best free range organic eggs from the supermarket and ones that you collected from the hen house that morning is massive - I mean really hugely massive.

rjsterry

Oh, and if one of them get's injured, you will need to separate it from the others as they will peck any exposed flesh.

pangolin

DonDaddyD wrote:

Wtf do you want to keep chickens for!?

For their delicious bacon? Eggs I assume.

notsoblue

If you plan on getting layers, you'd better start accumulating as many recipes for quiches as you can. They produce loads of eggs and you'll be sick of them if you don't manage to find any other eager recipients.

pangolin

Stupid question - do chicken eggs by default turn into chickens? Or is this only if Mr Chicken is involved?

So no Mr Chicken = lots of eggs still but none of them do anything?

cyclingprop

I'd be quite up for chickens, maybe they'd eat the rat.

SimonAH

One other thing. You think they can't fly right? Like hell.

When I first built the run I put three foot chicken wire fences around it (note, chicken's flight feathers suitably snipped (note note, only do one wing so flight attempts turn into helicopter impressions)) and they kept getting out.

Doubled the fence height (in the slashing rain, with a massive hangover) and went back inside. Looked out the kitchen window to see a chicken balancing on the top of the wire staring through the window. Two seconds later another chicken landed on it's back and balanced there - I'm looking at a six foot high stack of chickens.

Good news is that they apparently got bored of it after that and stayed in the run. Weird.

vermin

I regularly exchange spare eggs for fresh veg with the guys in the upstairs flat. There is nothing untoward about that statement.

SimonAH

pangolin wrote:

Stupid question - do chicken eggs by default turn into chickens? Or is this only if Mr Chicken is involved?

So no Mr Chicken = lots of eggs still but none of them do anything?

err, yes.

And it's Mr Rooster.

pangolin

Ta. I'll file this one under "should have googled it to hide stupidity".

walkingbootweather

If you want some chickens I know where you can get some going cheep.

SimonAH

walkingbootweather wrote:

If you want some chickens I know where you can get some going cheep.

Those are pigeons you fcuking idiot.

walkingbootweather

SimonAH wrote:

walkingbootweather wrote:

If you want some chickens I know where you can get some going cheep.

Those are pigeons you fcuking idiot.

Bu99er. Anyone got a recipe for pigeon chasseur?

rubertoe

Can you eat them there chickens? or are they just good for laying.

This is a good Friday thread BTW - already LOL'ed twice - Thans Simon.

SimonAH

rubertoe wrote:

Can you eat them there chickens? or are they just good for laying.

This is a good Friday thread BTW - already LOL'ed twice - Thans Simon.

You're welcome latexdigit!

Yes, you can eat them but an ex layer is a, well, tough nibble and needs treating accordingly.

Grandma Elaine did end up in the slow cooker.

tailwindhome

pangolin wrote:

Stupid question - do chicken eggs by default turn into chickens? Or is this only if Mr Chicken is involved?

So no Mr Chicken = lots of eggs still but none of them do anything?

When a mummy chicken and a daddy chicken love each other very much......

il_principe

DonDaddyD wrote:

Wtf do you want to keep chickens for!?

Maybe so the kids actually make the link between animals and food?

peat

DonDaddyD wrote:

Wtf do you want to keep chickens for!?

Wtf do you want to keep children for?

And don't say 'to eat their eggs.....

asprilla

Peat wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

Wtf do you want to keep chickens for!?

Wtf do you want to keep children for?

And don't say 'to eat their eggs.....

Mine gets me beer from the fridge.

Corkscrew training will start next year.

walkingbootweather

Asprilla wrote:

Mine gets me beer from the fridge.

Can't beat a Speckled Hen

tailwindhome

Are chickens noisy?

walkingbootweather

TailWindHome wrote:

Are chickens noisy?

Well they've got drumsticks - I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

Boom - Tish

DrLex

TailWindHome wrote:

Are chickens noisy?

Yes, when disturbed, frightened or announcing their laying success. It's the rooster that tends to result in neighbourly noise complaints.
Wish we were a little more robust on chicken health issues; having a vet account for the rest of the menagerie means that on a couple of occasions, a £10 chicken has become a £40 chicken. They are effectively now pets.
Fnb1 & Simon have succinctly covered the major points, although I personally think that the iglu/eglu is woefully overpriced & a bit on the small side. Wooden ark & a fenced area is better.