Start up

It depends on how you want to keep your chickens really Loubear - do you want to keep them in a small fixed run, or let them out to free range? Either way you'll need to know they're secure - we have ours in a large fixed run, but they come out every day into the garden (about half an acre) while we're around - not when we're out because of foxes, neighbours' dogs etc. The run is enclosed with an electric poultry netting fence powered by a battery, but this is expensive. A small run would probably be made from wood and chicken wire, buried a foot or two into the earth to stop foxes digging in underneath. They'll need some shade for when it's hot and sunny, and somewhere to shelter when it's windy and rainy. Drinker (get a plastic one, then you can put apple cider vinegar in the water), a feeder, some grit if they're not free ranging with access to natural grit, some oyster shell for the calcium they need for egg laying, wormers. Also suggest you treat the coop - especially if it's second hand - with Creocote (B&Q, about £10 a tin) - scrubbing well into all corners and nooks to kill off any red mites lurking - quite likely to be there, even if the coop looks clean.. they can kill your birds, so definitely worth taking precautions. Let it dry and air completely before putting your chooks in. Use wood shavings inside, not sawdust or straw. For other things, look in the 'Sticky' thread for 'Essential Store Cupboard Ingredients' which will give you lots to think about . You might also want to consider if you'll take them to the vet's if they get poorly - it's a cost I hadn't thought of, and at 35 euros per consultation plus whatever medication they need, it's not cheap! But definitely worthwhile in my opinion . Enjoy!

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For your "bog standard" hybrid chickens, they're around £6-10 (unless you're in London, where they'll probaly be £600-£1000!).

Hybrids lay more regular, sometimes a bit earlier than pure breeds. Each chicken has a finite number of eggs in it - both hybrids and pure breeds lay the same number of eggs - the hybrids lay them all at the start of their laying life and genearlly live for 4-5 years. Pure breeds generally live longer, and lay their eggs more spaced out. So with a hybrid you may get 5/6 eggs a week, where as with a pure breed you may get 4/5 eggs a week.

I've 5 hybrids, and get 4-5 eggs a day for 5 days and two days it drops to 3 eggs a day (odd pattern, but that's how my lot roll ).

Warrens - seriously, they're silly tame. There's a thread recommending breeds here - http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ead_69849.html

Chicken feed - generally pellets unless you're getting ex-bat hens, in which case they're better off on ex bat crumb... It's around £7-£10 a sack, but depends on your region and what brand you buy. A chook will eat around 125g of feed a day, so you can work out what it'll roughly cost you. For my lot, it works out at a cost of 6p per egg, based on their price to buy + feed cost. The coop and run I built did cost me a lot of money, but I've seen foxes in broad daylight where I am, so wanted to make a safe, secure coop + run.

You need to worm them too, with proper wormer - not herbal stuff. It's around £20 a small tub, but with 3 chooks it'll last you ages. If they're on the same ground, you'll want to worm them every 3-4 months. I buy marriages pre-medicated feed. It's just over £10, but means I don't have to worry about mixing the worming powder up into the feed - you need to feed them the medicated / treated feed for 7 days, without them having anything else.

There's other cleaning/medical supplies can get for general cleaning etc.

Bedding wise, I buy a bale of straw - which costs £3 I think (can't remember - it's not expensive anyway, and a bale of shavings - £7). The straw lasts me a year at the very least, and shavings usually 6 months odd. I could get away without having them, but it makes cleaning up after them easier.

Be warned though - they poo alot. Everywhere Oh and the'yll eat anything that they can get hold of. All that nice grass and plants that you may have - I'll give it a month before they're no more You'd be wise to fence off areas that you dont want them to go.

I have 2 chooks in 2 areas, a closed run for night which gives them 2.7sqm a bird and a larger open area which gives them a further 24sqm to roam. They still feel this is a little small so will scale the 6ft fence or 5ft wall to wander around the rest of the garden. They could hop over the wall into next door but have never done so, they just wander across the top.

Mine have 3 covered areas their coop, an outside day coop and an alternative night perch in their run. The latter they created themselves, I've just covered it to keep the rain off. They prefer if outdoors during the summer as its cooler than their eglu, they go back to the coop in autumn. Fickle birds....

They eat layers pellets and grass and both lay most days. I would recommend getting different coloured egg layers mine are white and green, so that way when they stop laying you are alerted to who has stopped. This I find quite useful as I can check them over to make sure there is no underlying problem.

My staples are feed, corn, bedding (wood shavings) for the nest and used to line the poop tray, cider vinegar, and worming treatment, poultry spray good for covering wounds (birds can be evil to each other while they sort out the pecking order), and oyster shell. You will need good secure bins to put feed into to keep out any unwanted vermin, I have 3 clipped lidded plastic dustbins, food and water bowls, somewhere for them to dust bath. I have a covered sandpit!!!

When you get them, you'll soon find you spoil them rotten, mine will come and eat grapes out of my hand if I halve them.

Thanks for all the responses. I do have a couple of books but they seem a bit vague. I don't have much of a budget, what would be a ball park figure for getting set up as cheaply as possible?


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I spent about £400 ish all told, coop, enclosure, food, bits and bobs and birds. Its an initial cost to get them and no doubt you will tinker a bit, and don't have to spend like I did, but it tails off. All I spend on these days is food and thats really cheap in comparison to what they produce.

The problem is how do we cost what you need to buy, if you don't yet know what you want to buy. Its a bit of a chicken and egg question.

How big will you make your enclosure?
Where will you store their food?
On what type of surface will you keep them, concrete/grass/bark?

There are a lot of permutations, if you tell us what you'd like to achieve, maybe we can bang our heads together and give you a better idea of what it will cost.

Things I think you need to consider,

What is the purpose for getting chickens? Save money/Make money/rehome rescue birds. All viable reasons, but all create a different set of scenarios.

Where will they be during the day?
How much space will they have?
Will I build them an enclosure or will they have free run of the garden?
If they are free will I poop collect every day!!?(chickens go to the bathroom a lot, some can be picked up with a spade some are slurry.)
Where will I store their food, inside/outside?
What will I feed them with?
How do I stop vermin getting at their food?
Will I buy chicks, Point of Lay birds or rescue some hens?
Do I want pure breeds or Hybrids?
Do I want just egg layers or dual purpose birds for meat also?
Where will I keep the eggs?
Do you intend to sell surplus eggs?

All these questions have a bearing on how much you will spend, you say you only want 2-3 birds. If you get hybrids most will start laying if Point of Lay after about 4-6 weeks. You will generate between 14 and 20 eggs a week from 3 birds, can you cope with this, or is this more than you need for personal consumption? Pure breeds will generate less but cost you more to buy and will carry on laying for a lot longer than the hybrids.