Can someone give me an idea of cost in terms of looking after chickens?

Once you've bought all the basics (coop, run, feeders, medications etc) the actual "running costs" of keeping chickens isn't very much at all. I've got 17 hens and 1 cockerel (at the moment) plus 12 chicks. To feed the big ones, it costs me around £20 - £25 a month for food, bedding and treats. Having said that, I get at least a dozen eggs a day so I sell quite a lot of them at £1 for 6 and that pays for their food with a bit left over for bedding etc. Really, they cost me nothing to keep It's the chicks (the hooligans ) that are costing me!! I made the decision not to use a vet if at all possible because so few of them really know much about back-garden hens. (Except my vet who doesn't charge a consultation fee for ex-batts)

Good luck with your persuasion, and once you've got your girls you'll wonder how you ever managed without them

i pay £6 for layer pellets and use a couple of bags a month for 9 girls, hempcore for bedding at £7ish a bale, luckily i havent had to use a vet for them yet, same as Mo I sell any excess eggs at £1 for six, and when they're all laying it soon builds up.
Greens etc from the lottie and i think they actually dont cost that much to keep.

your main expenses, aside from the set up for coop etc (plans for building your own are on the sticky at the top of the forum to savea few quid if your're handy with a hammer) are:

- Feed - each hen requires around 100-125g of pellet a day. sack of pellets (25kg) is around £7,
- grit - if moving around your garden the birds will pick up most of the grit they need but a bag of grit is only around £5 and last you all year.
- drinkers and feeders are usually around £5 each
kitchen scraps, peelings etc - free as they would be going in the compost bin or rubbish bin anyways
- mite powder - approx £10 per tub and last you quite a while depending on how often you treated for mites. In the summer when they are active you mighth dust fortnightly in which case a tub will last you around 2 months
- wormer - flubenvet is £20 per 60g tub and will medicate an entire sack of feed. you only need treat for 5 days, once a month (or at least we do others may vary) so you are probably looking at spending £20 per year on the wormer for 4 hens as it will last you. Dont go buying bulk wormer for a few hens as it will go off before you use it up

- vets - unfortunately there arent enough poultry vets about, although this is improving. A vet consultation is usually around £24 and then the cost of the medication. i try not to use our vet - even though he is excellant with chickens - unless i need antibiotics for them. if so i pick up the phone and £35 later there they are. For a small number of chooks you probably wont see the vet much at all. we tend to have him round often as not only to we breed lots of birds here, but we also take in rescue as well so we get to see all states of bird so our vet is a regular!

As maureen says, if you get a good hybrid layer, then you will get around 250-300 eggs per bird in your first year and you can use that as a source of income by selling eggs to offset the feed costs.

My run down of costs are:

Home made run used from an old rabbit hutch and other wood beams I was able to get from freecycle. I even managed to get some wire mesh from there too.

Food, for 5 chooks costs me £7 a bag (it can be bought cheaper if I go further afield)
Bedding, I use recycled paper now - which I shred myself but this does require more cleaning than sawdust or chips. But if you prefer dust you can ask around your local timber yard and they will possibly supply you with a huge bag that will be enough to for a couple of months. My only concerns with that the smaller particle of dust would cause breathing problems for the girl's (They were ok with it, but i'm just a paranoid mother hen).

The feeders can be bought cheaply enough, there are a variety of places online that sell them, the bigger the better as you don't want them to run out when you are not around.

Bramble's has made a lovely water trough for he's girl's which hooks up the mains this would be ideal if you have a standing run rather than a movable one.

And I won't take a chook to the vet, just to be seen would cost me more than the chook was worth. I ask advice from the forum, which usually does the trick, but it's not cost effective or nothing else can be done then sadly she will be culled. That to me is the hardest bit about having my girl's.

I too sell my eggs, but as they cost very little to look after the money is being saved for a bigger run for when I finally get a big enough garden so I can have more than I have now.

For a very small number of hens you wouldn't even need special feeders or drinkers. An old sponge tin or similar for feed and a two litre milk container would do if you were scrupulous about cleaning.
Moving the ark around the garden every day or so would prevent a worm build-up (plus a bit of powdered garlic every other day in their feed, garlic also helps to prevent disease)
You could also find out if there is someone in your area who would build you the house and run, perhaps you could supply the wood.
A retired farmer, God bless him and long may he live, has built me a lovely house for twelve large hens plus a cockerel to go in the field for £120 and he supplied the wood! It will outlast me!!
So you see, if you put your mind to it you can do it all quite reasonably.
And the taste of a just-laid egg? You couldn't buy one in the shops.
P.S. anyone living in Devon, I can divulge this dear man's 'phone number.

Same as above really although my feed seems to be lasting longer than Hans Mums. Bag seems to last between 2/3 months for my 5 girls. There's plenty of reasonable places to shop in Hertfordshire. If you're any where near Stevenage you're welcome to visit my girls . Just PM me.
You wont regret getting them- they add that extra dimension to the garden.

Thanks so much for all your advice, Lettucegrow I might just take you up on your offer! As you say there are plenty of places to buy chickeny bits, I have seen all sorts in GJW Titmuss and the like - in fact I actually own a few feeders from there because the ones that are like little round houses with windows make excellent homes for rats which I also keep.

The eldest's boyfriend loves chickens and birds and I think he would be happy to help me look after them (he's not young, definately sensible and would be useful for holidays etc!).

However I just thought of something, the space in the garden (at least this year because I could always lift the raised beds and resite next year) is all under a pair of damsen trees - there's a possibility that fruit could fall somewhere chickens could reach - would this cause them harm??

Also I have seen people mention electric fencing - what is this for and would I need to install it considering they would be going in a back garden with 6 foot fencing (and obviously in a secure run and coop)?

A fox can climb a 6' fence with ease, but they don't like electric fencing. As for the Damsons; they'll relish them, but probably have the sqirts if they eat too many!

I've got three dogs who have free back garden access day and night so we very rarely get anything in the back garden. I do know we have foxes locally though and they are not at all fearful of humans, I have had to practically chase one to stop it helping itself to the contents of a black binbag we had left outside our front door a couple of weeks ago! So I guess an electric fence is a safer bet, just in case we get a confident fox!

dont mix your dogs with the chickens either - sometimes it works, other times it doesnt and when it doesnt it is heartbreaking. so if your dogs have free access to the garden, shut them up while you let the hens wander and free range.

I can second what Brambles is saying.

Even tho I have a fencing around my lawned area to keep the dogs off... they go loopy trying to see through the fence and even jump up placing their paws on the fence edge to see over when the girl's are free ranging.
If they hear the girl's flap their wings - it gets worse and there hunting instinct is at the forefront of the mind and nothing else matters, apart from getting the chooks.

You don't say what kind of dogs you have, but can guarantee that more of less every dog has a hunting mode they switch into - please be very careful.
(I have Rottie's and my neighbour(s) who I have loaned my chooks as temp gardeners have Westie & Highland Terrier, and a Staffy).

I have a damson tree in the area my chickens go to 'play out' - they love them. Not many fall because when they are ripe I pick them, but the chickies jump up and liberate a few!

They can be as cheep or eggspensive as you want them to be (sorry had to be done), feed is definitely cheaper if you buy in bulk £8/9 for 20kg £4/5 if you only buy 5kg. Wilko' do a lot of chicken stuff that you can order on line and pick up in store at no extra cost including runs, feeders straw etc you'll definitely save a few quid there.

Graham.

You'd be feeding any other pet - but you wouldn't get eggs. That's the way I look at it.