Made up my mind

[MrsC]

I want some chickens, have a nice space ready in the garden. Any advice from the experts?

[frias]

I'm no expert but I love my ex-batts. They give me hours of pleasure just watching them learning how to scratch and peck and taste new foods. And once they grow new feathers they look lovely too. If you're lucky they also lay lovely eggs.

[Glutton4...]

I'm no expert either, but echo what frias said - ex-batts rule!

[MaureenHall]

Ex-batts give you so much pleasure it's unbelievable!!! Wonderful girls

[HayleyB]

God help you

[Glutton4...]

God help you

She doesn't have to get as many as you!!!!

[HayleyB]

Nah but it's adictive like........... you....

[Glutton4...]

Wot - me an addict (hic) - dunno wot you mean!

[ckfe]

if you decide to keep chickens in your garden do you need to have some kind of permission from the council or something first? i own my house but i just know that if i decided to keep chickens the next door neighbours would complain to whatever authorities they thought they could complain to

[MaureenHall]

It does depend on whether or not there are any rules and/or regulations in your deeds as to whether or not you can keep chickens in your garden. If you've got neighbours who'd complain about "anything" then it's going to be difficult. However, there's a trend at the moment towards self-sufficiency and if your neighbours like the sound of having fresh eggs (either free or for pennies) and you can assure them that chickens don't make much noise (less than a dog in most cases), they won't attract rats (any more than a bird feeder does) then you're already halfway there The next bit is sorting out the new home for the chickens and deciding which ones and how many you'd like!

[Snadger]

Just DO IT MrsC!!!!

After getting mine I wished I had had joined the chook keeping fraternity years ago!

[julesapple]

I read the Rule the Roost section for many weeks before finally committing myself to getting chooks. I then spent ages badgering anyone and everyone for answers to my daft questions. The advice was, and still is, invaluable.

But I couldn't, for the life of me, understand why all of the members raved so fanatically about chooks. I mean, let's face it, they're just chickens, right? WRONG!! Being bitten by the chook bug is inevitable but, once you've been bitten, it's incurable. You've got the bug for life, there's no antidote.

I bought four chooks initially (3 wks ago), but increased to 6 this week. I'm still trying to come up with space for more. Yesterday I ordered two books on coop building from Amazon......

.......totally, utterly, truly, madly, deeply chook-addicted. And loving it!

Jules

[Flummery]

Get a decent sized house. We wanted 4 chickens so got a house suitable for 6 (they still all sleep in one end though!)

Make sure you have a good sized area for them to scratch/dig in. DEFRA says 1 sq metre each but it's better to have more and you'll prevent feather pecking and other boredom traits. My run is 2.5m x 3m and has a sunken area (they love this to get out of the wind and have a sneaky kip) a huge planting tub full of earth to dust bath in, a perch and a bucket of water. The house is raised so the feeder hangs underneath and the whole lot (roof too) is covered in half in by inch weldmesh. The floor is flagstones so nothing can dig inside and is covered in a deep layer of woodchip (softwood).

You'll need a shed to store layers' pellets, corn, bedding materials for in the house (e.g. dust extracted sawdust, Easibed, Auboise etc) and other stuff - poultry spice, limestone flour, Red Mite powder, cleaning stuff.

Mainly you need time to enjoy them. Make the run big enough to go in and have a garden chair there and sit with them. I always talk to mine when I'm in there, and now they talk back! 2 of them came up this morning to 'tell' me things!

I spent 6 months reading up on this and several other forums and got a decent idea of how much work and time it would involve and what problems chickens could have.

After that - GO FOR IT!

[HelenL]

Hi Sue,

Dave & Neil have chickens on the allotment now. All different colours. When you see them, you'll want some for your garden.

Helen.

[bluemoon]

Getting my chickens was the best thing I ever did, Mrs C. I agree with Snadger, wish I'd done it decades ago.