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Be very careful of foxes
Sister in law used to keep hundreds, one night the foxes got in and killed the lot
I moved into a new property recently with a reasonably sized garden. I just saw an advert for heavy duty chicken runs by a company called Omlet and it reminded me that I quite like the idea of providing rescue hens with a home. Has anyone on here any experience with keeping chickens in a garden?
Be very careful of foxes
Sister in law used to keep hundreds, one night the foxes got in and killed the lot
Obvs that's the main concern but these Omlet runs claim to be predator proof.Originally Posted by adrianw
Just be prepared that if you keep chickens, there’s a good chance you’ll also effectively be keeping rats too.
If you ain’t got a proper run or they get out they will wreck your garden.
We have had chickens for years.
Omlet do make decent stuff, but it is expensive. You do tend to get what you pay for though, so we like Omlet gear, another alternative is Green Frog Designs, but I would say they aren't quite up to Omlets standard.
Foxes and red mites are the two main issues - as well as the obvious bird flu 'quarantine' going on at the moment. Keeping the hens in as part of the bird flu restrictions will protect them against the foxes to a good degree, but foxes are VERY determined and urban foxes (if that is where you are??) can be extremely brazen compared to their countryside dwelling cousins.
Red mite is much easier to control when the chooks are kept in a plastic house, eg Omlet, as the red mite eggs are VERY hard to eradicate from timber hen houses. Chickens do best when they can be moved around so that they can be kept on grass, they will be happier and the eggs will be better. Don't underestimate how much mess they can make if you keep them in one spot!
HTH
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And your lawn mower when you mow over all the stones/rocks they throw everywhere!
We had an Omlet Egloo but let the hens roam rather than stay in the 3m x 1m run. They are good and easy to clean and will protect from foxes as the cage turns 90’ at ground level to create a larger base that’s more difficult to get under. Put stones on the top and/or allow the grass to grow through and it becomes almost impossible for a fox to get in.
The roosting box is off the ground with an externally accessible sliding door for ease of shutting them in at night.
We sold ours because my wife saw a small Shepherds Hut style coop which she thought would look better in the garden and TBH, I actually agreed with her for once!
We’ve got 4 rescue hens in our garden, I re-purposed a wooden elevated kiddy play house that’s about 5ft up on 6 sturdy posts as the coop.
I’ve run two scaffold planks up in a dog leg to the door, and the chickens very quickly learned how to walk up and down them to their new home. They’re locked away inside at dusk and let out again at first light.
It’s all fenced in with standard chicken wire (the bottom dug into the ground), and currently it’s covered from the top of the roof to the edges of the large run with fruit mesh and tarpaulin whilst the quarantine measures for bird flu continue.
I provide them with dust baths under the elevated coop, with red mite powder mixed in, they love dust bathing! As somebody else has said, they quickly grub up every square cm of ground they can access, I use bark chippings to stop it turning into a mud bath, and they enjoy scratching around in that to find the sweetcorn and meal worms I secrete into it. Keeps them busy, along with the chicken swing. :-) I’ve got a portable run to move to new bits of ground for summer use.
They’re incredibly entertaining to sit and watch with a cup of tea for a while, and it’s nice to see them having a second life. During the summer we got 4 eggs a day, that dropped to 1 or 2 a day over winter, but it’s back up to 2 or 3 now as the days get slightly longer.
It’s easy to spend a lot of money on fancy chicken runs, water and feed troughs, decent pine straw and the layers mash and treats, so not sure they’re cheap eggs as a result, but keeping them happy is a nice reward in itself.
Funnily enough, just setting this up.
Nestera coop + 4mx2m permanent run with option to free range in garden once restrictions are lifted.
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“Don’t look back, you’re not heading that way.”
That looks great! :-)
My overriding memory from keeping hens a very long time ago was that if one laid a particularly large egg and bled a bit as a consequence, the others would pile in with beaks and turn the first hen's poor, stretched foof into something out of a warzone. Bloody savage things.
We had three for a while when our daughter was young. Two disappeared in separate incidences (presumably grabbed by foxes) and the third I had to 'put down' after it was discovered it was a rooster and started making a bloody racket every morning! We did get a few eggs though and the chicken that I euthanised tasted delicious!
We've got a couple, wasn't keen to get them at first but Ive become quite attached to them now, we do have a huge garden though, took ages to chicken proof the perimeter. They hate this current 'flockdown' they are in, poor buggers.
Cheers..
Jase
I kept hens for about 2.5y and loved it. I had six to begin with of which four died of natural causes. The last two the fox got after I left the aviary gate open by mistake.
The aviary was a metal frames fruit cage and the sides were thick gauge wire mesh that I took out to about 60cm at ground level. The fox walked in through the open gate but never got in the sides/bottom.
I've just spent a couple of days taking the whole thing down because I need to move it to a different location in the garden. Mine was 5m x 7.5m with a green frog design hen house.
Omlet big aviaries do look good with the price tag to match. I still think the green frog design hen houses are better.
I have written an extended essay on keeping hens if you want to read my tips. Post your email/PM me and I'd be happy to share
They're great fun. The eggs will be far superior to anything else you've ever had from a shop. Can't wait to get a new flock
We currently have 5, a mixture of "posh birds" and rescues, with another 4 (yeah right..chicken maths) due to be collected by my good lady on Saturday.
We have a chicken compound at the bottom of the garden, which i built myself, along with their coop. As we live in a sub urban area, complete with foxes, i've strung electric fence wire at the bottom half of the compund fencing which has proved fine in preventing fox access, so much so that the feathered fiends now take delightin screeching their heads off and rushing to the fence when they see a fox in the hope of attracting it to shock itself.
Currently, over winter we are getting one egg a day, but that will increase as spring comes so with 9 birds we'll get roughly 6 eggs a day (they are great gifts ) which have a fresh taste so different and more tasty than shop bought eggs.
They don't need the most expensive coops, feeders, bedding etc otherwie it's very easy for their eggs to be the most expensive "free" eggs you ever had. They do largely look after themselves.
Having said all that, they are fascinating, amusing and affectionate creatures, that will amuse and reward you with their antics as they get up to mischief in the garden when allowed to roam free (after flockdown of course).
One thing it is worth spending moeny to get is an automatic coop door that opens at dawn to allow them out, and closes again at night as it saves you havijg to get up to let them out and shut them in again and also means that you can get away for the weekend, without having to arrange "chicken sitters"
Wife’s aunt has kept chickens but stopped a good few years ago and now has turkeys. Apparently they’re easier to deal with and don’t leave bald spots on the grass.
Yes. We’ve kept them for twenty years, only stopping recently Omlet make the gold standard of coops - expensive but worth it. We have had the Cube for the past ten years.
They are indestructible, fox proof, and very easy to clean. They also can’t harbor red mite like wood does, and of course they don’t rot.
Worth every penny, and if you decide you’ve had enough, very easy to sell and they hold their value.
Does that help?
So clever my foot fell off.
Kept them for about 10 years.
Top tip would be to put a roof over the roof of the aviary else it will get very muddy.
They can be a bit smelly and there's a far bit of chicken shit to clean up. Little and often is the key.
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It certainly does! Many thanks.
Lots to think about. Just entered a busy stretch but will get my thoughts together and no doubt have some follow up questions in time.
Thanks to everyone who contributed here and via dm, much appreciated!
Having kept ex-batts for a while another thing to bear in mind is that they can get ill just the same as any other pets/livestock. Vets aren’t always very cheap so can entail lots of research and self treatment. And not everyone wants to euthanise their own hens if it becomes necessary. So worth asking your local vets if they cater for hens or have any special rates.
They are very entertaining to watch.
Remember they have to be locked in at night, every night.
My neighbour who kept chickens regularly used to moan that the fox had got his chickens again. Couldn’t seem to connect it to having no proper fenced and not locking them in at night.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
and lots of flies too !!!!
That Nestera coop above is the rebranded version of the Green Frog Design version we have, as mentioned in my post above.Funnily enough, just setting this up.
Nestera coop + 4mx2m permanent run with option to free range in garden once restrictions are lifted.
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I didn't realise they had changed their name/been taken over.
A friend of mine has around 12 rescued from battery farms (the number goes up and down a little over time). They arrive in a very sorry state - missing feathers and some on death's door - her vet bills are enormous (a number have hormone implants to stop them from laying so that they can gain strength - that's around £200 a hen). They are a real delight in her garden (even the baby rats milling about after the hens' food are rather cute. She lives in a rural setting, so rats aren't uncommon) and are fascinating to watch. New arrivals have to find their place in the pecking order (literally). For her it's a real labour of love - especially as she is a vegan, so doesn't even eat the eggs produced.
Potentially high vets bills may be a hard stop for me, or at least a reason to wait until I've met some financial goals.
Also I need to make sure I have enough time to look after them. Take August for example. I'm pretty much on tour for all of it so wouldn't be around at the house that month.
Don't know when the name changed, but have to say they are a fantastic build, recycled plastic and 25yr guarantee!
“Don’t look back, you’re not heading that way.”
I wouldn't take my friend's vet bills as typical though they will surely mount up. But if you're away for a month you will definitely need someone to stand in for you.
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You may find these interesting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY21_zM3ntg
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...g-1942124.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8539877.stm
Steve
Not sure of current prices but a chicken used to be less than £20, so vets never really came into it for me
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Last edited by xxnick1975; 8th February 2023 at 18:34.
I did some home remedies for a chicken who got injured and was being attacked by the others. Mum and I mixed Calpol into milk and syringed it into the chickens mouth. Also applied some tumeric.
She stopped laying for a month or so while she recovered and then went on to lay again at the same rate as the others.
I wouldn't take a hen to a vet. YMMV
https://www.bhwt.org.uk/hen-adoption/
Ex batts, £5 each iirc
That's a great resource. Many thanks!
Noted.
Thanks for the links.
Ours cost a tenner each around ten years ago, but we ended up spending £100 on an operation for Chook Norris as she’d got a compacted crop and by that point our daughter had formed something of an attachment to them.
10 years with a mix of Buff Orpington’s, Legbars, Marrins and rescue hens, last one, Molly had to be dispatched a few weeks ago.
We have had some real characters over the years and great fun.
Pitch
I salute you!
I never knew I needed hens in my life until reading this thread. Unfortunately we are in an urban setting so can’t see the neighbours being too happy.
The pun names are just another reason to keep them.
Yolko Ono
Sal Manella
Chick Jagger
The list goes on.
Hence the expression 'hen pecked'
Chicken notices a spot of blood on another chicken and will peck at it.
Other chickens then join in.
Chicken often dies....very bloody.
One of the assailants gets a speck of blood on herself, and they all pile in on her....and it all kicks off again
As a kid, I remember going into the chicken coop a few times and it was like a bloodbath.
There used to be 'chicken blinker specs' that clipped onto the beak to stop the birds from seeing the spots etc...
We also used to save eggshells, boil them, and grind them down almost to dust.
We'd then mix it into their feed which helped strengthen future egg shells.
I can understand her enjoyment at having them. I'm not squeamish at all, and have dispatched all sorts, for food and vermin control, when required to do so. But you can get to think of them as pets, as opposed to 'just chickens'. Not least because watching their antics can be addictive, and they can be quite friendly. I used coloured leg rings to tell them apart and Mrs Green and Mrs Yellow soon become characters, not only that a fully grown chicken is a substantial bird. I am guilty of spending more than their worth at the vets.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
My brother in law lives in Perth Australia and keeps three which he bought just for the fresh eggs they would produce, but they are now his girls and one even sits on his shoulder when he is feeding them, as he says "Girls with benefits" :)
My friend is passionate about animal rights and she is trying to give her rescued hens the best life she can. Killing them if they can be nurtured back to health and to enjoy a life they couldn't when in batteries is not an option for her. That is despite the cost which over the year is significant. For her, I think they are a cross between pets and mission.
For the Star Wars fans.
Hen Solo
Chewpecker
Princess Layer
We also had a 4th - but I can t remember what that was now!
Chook Skywalker?
Obi Wan Henobi?
Last edited by Tooks; 14th February 2023 at 12:51.
Our last three were Nuggets, Drumstick and Hot Wings… 😁
So clever my foot fell off.
Superb!
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