Originally Posted by rybev:
“How easy is it to keep back garden chickens?”
The hardest part is buying the materials, building the hutch and the run. They will usually be happier in a secure run than this "free range" running around a courtyard or open field garbage that idiotic chefs on TV perpurtrate. When you get chickens, you will notcie that they dont really flap around a vast amount and a lot of the time, will burrow in to the dirt laying down or huddle in the corner. It's nice if you give them a big run and plenty of room, but contrary to popular belief, they really dont need it at all.
Originally Posted by rybev:
“But how expensive is feed”
As someone else said, a few quid a week. All you need is grain, tap water and a bit of hay/straw for the bedding in the hutch and for the run. Usually, you'll need to muck them out and change the bedding every fortnight or so, depends on the chickens, amount of them, etc.
Originally Posted by rybev:
“what's a reasonable "low" number of chickens”
Really depends how many eggs you want, what breeds you get, whether you have a rooster, etc. We started with a few chickens and got up to about 15 chickens, 10ftx20ft run and hutch within. With those 15 chickens, we had more than enough eggs for a family of four and gave the excess to our next door neighbour who was a pig farmer and he used to give us dead pigs for us to butcher every once in a while.
Originally Posted by rybev:
“how time consuming are they?”
Not very much at all. You'll need 15 mins to let them out in the mornings, check on eggs, top up feed, etc. In the evenings, you'll need to go out and periodically check on them in 5 min bits, wait till they are all in naturally, then you can close their hutch door.
Originally Posted by rybev:
“Just after a bit of general info really if anyone can offer any.”
- As someone else said, dig down deep for your fence, a good few feet, trench all the way around, sink your poles deeper, then as you hang the chicken wire/mesh, pour cement in the base of the trench when building. Never underestimate how devious and horrible foxes are and how they can burrow in.
- Get quite a few slug/snail beer traps for the garden. When you're gardening during the day, get all the snails out of the traps and play rugby with the chickens. You run around the outside of the run, getting the chickens attention, then throw a snail over the fence. They all run around, flipping it up in the air, wrestling around and pecking the snail out of the shell. They love beer soaked dead snails or live ones. Great fun for them.
- You can make your own feeders, very simple. If you do go on holiday, you can leave enough food and water. But you will need a nice neighbour to let them out of bed and back in the evenings.
- Really consider a rooster and all the implications. On the good side, you will get increased egg production as hens hanging around a rooster are less likely to get broody and the hens generally bully each other less/are better behaved. On the downside, they are noisy, so if you have neighbours close by, consider them all first.
- Remember to clip their wings on a regular basis. If not, they will try to jump and fly/fall with style from the hutch roof over the fence.
- Really keep an eye on the hutch and do make sure when you clean it out, you do it properly. In spring and summer especially, some people do get lice problems. We never had them with our hens, but I know quite a few people who have had them and they are difficult to get rid of.
