Any fellow chicken keepers here?

[Ruralidle]

2 Light Sussex, 2 Rhode Island Red & 2 Black Rocks looked after (mainly) by my 14 year-old. We have a decent hen house with auto opener and an electric fence but the hens are free range around our garden and paddocks in the day, when we are home to fasten the fence before dusk. They get warm porridge in the morning and spaghetti (no egg) at night but they still compete with us for our strawberries and lower growing raspberries! Some have been broody but we are getting 4 or more eggs a day average now.

[Kinsk]

I got 3 ex batts last February, unfortunately lost one to a prolapse but the other two are still going strong, well other than going on laying strike in the last few weeks, guess that's because we're going into winter.

They are lovely to have around though!

[Richierich]

Always fancied having some chickens, what sort of space do they need, I am in town so not a massive garden, laid mostly to gravel, apart from the deck. Is it possible to keep them, do I need planning permission? You know what I mean, permits etc.

[beardedwonder5]

Males crow. They start crowing (usually) before what I call dawn. Hens don't crow. A crowing cockerel (unless in a sound-proofed house) can be heard at least a quarter mile away. Unless you wish to buy in replacement hens, or already fertilized eggs, you need a cockerel to fertilize eggs. (You can buy fertile eggs via EBay.)

Escapee hens can eat all of your neighbour's most valuable plants,

The eggs, if you allow the hens to eat grass, worms, etc., taste very good.

[Richierich]

Do they need grass? I don't have any? What sort of room do they need? Not sure if I could offer them a huge place to live in...

[Ruralidle]

If you had just a small piece of grass for your hens it would soon become a small patch of mud because of their natural instinct to scratch and peck. I have to be honest and say that I do not know if you can keep hens without some "undeveloped" ground. They would certainly need somewhere for them to scratch otherwise it would be not much better than the battery house.

But the main point to emphasise is that hens do not crow, cockerels crow but hens only make a (comparatively) small amount of noise after laying an egg - useful alarm to the tasty products that hens can provide. Certainly the eggs from our hens taste far nicer than any I have had from elsewhere.

[Sam Newman]

We have 43 Indian Runner X Mallard ducks, 5 Paradise Shelducks 1 Brown Shaver rooster to X with my 5 Bardrock X Leghorn hens who are freerange, and I mean FREERANGE. I havn't fed them anything at all in about 3months, yet they are the healthyest, fattest, shinyest chooks around. They have a wormfarm to pek and scratch in, dustbath areas, a bumper crop of rye and other seeding grasses, plenty of bugs and small fish to eat and maggots from the rotting possum carcases that I sometimes hang above their nesting area. And 1 Turkey who is a darling. All birds are happy and the eggs and excess roosters are yummy. Moonflower, the boardercollie rounds them up when needed or if she gets bored.

[jdonly1]

Did some one say chooks
This is when we were building more pens

[Sam Newman]

what to do when your neighbour is eating your chooks?

[franyanne]

Hello, I am a fellow chicken keeper too, I have about 20 mixed chucks, marans, blue, coper black and a french weaten ( buffy my favorite ) some white stars and a few cream crested legbars and a few mixed hybrids, and one busy cockeral Rudolph. I have just fired up my incubator and ordered 6 Indian Game eggs, 6 sasso x light sussex eggs and 6 french la bresse Gauliose and am hoping Mr postman will be very gentle with them I love spring

[mitchamus]

I have never had much luck with posted eggs.

I bought 20 Indian games via post, & only 1 hatched.

[wheels]

I'd love to keep hens, and in particular for some reason banties. Unfortunately our deeds don't allow us to do so.

I thought about getting around it by keeping quail because they're game rather than poultry but am told that they can be really nasty to each other and at best have suicidal tendencies?

Phil

[Snags]

With quails when you see nasty you eat them as they are the boys
As for suicidal they usually get scared and fly up smashing their heads on the roof
So high roof or no scaring them, again fresh suicides are dinner too

I will go chooks and quails eventually, for meat and eggs.
its on the to do list.

[wheels]

Many thanks for the info.

Phil

[saucisson]

Sounds like you need a good Quail recipe book Phil or were you hoping for eggs ?