Chickens-first timer

[Mortimer657]

Hi All,

Just looking for a few pointers with regards to keeping chickens (for egg laying mainly). What are the basic care requirements? What sort of breeds make good layers? What kind of expenditure am i looking at overall? Space, how much do they need? Am i best off letting them free roam the garden or is it possible to keep them in a coop/run of some description? How many would be a good number to keep? i was thinking 4 or 5 or am i way off mark ?

Im told the eggs from home grown organic chickens knocks the spots off of the commercially bought fare. I've grown really keen on the idea in recent months but have always held off to find out mroe information. I figure at least here im getting first hand person to person advice. What could be better than that eh.

Any advice will be very much appreciated.

Thanks all.

[darkbrowneggs]

Probably you might be best to go to your local library and take out a few books on chicken keeping just to start getting an idea of what is involved.

Basically you will need to keep them dry and safe from predators and preferably with some room to stretch their legs and have a peck around, and feed them adequate nutritious food clean water, and grit, but after that it depends on how fancy you want your set up to be

All the best
You will love keeping them and love their eggs - the main problem is the Morehens Disease they seem to carry
Sue

[Big Al]

pm on way.

[Polly Tunnel]

You do get the best ever eggs but it is expensive to set up,mnever work out the cost per egg, you'd give up!

I used to free range poultry for 7 years and then we had fox problems and I ended up investing in electric fencing which doesn't come cheap but every time I have poached egg on toast I think it was worth it.

[bennettsbrood]

Hello there, is great you want to do your research before you get the birds in - first step towards good husbandry is being ever thoughtfull of your stocks needs!

Too many people rush in!

Reading up wise, i found books by Katie Thear really usefull when i began - still find myself going back to them when im unsure of myself or my birds!

All the best.

sean.

[JulieSherris]

If you grab some waterproof ply, a few lengths of 2 x 2 & some chicken wire, you'll be able to knock up a small hen house easily enough. Yes, you can make it as fancy as you like - in my experience, the more ramshackle, the more the hens will love it!!

A quick search online for hen house plans will give you an idea & there are free plans out there aplenty.

As for the hens themselves, well, they do like to be free, but they will fly/jump, so if you have low walls or fences, make sure there's nothing around that could put them in danger. If you make a coop that you move around the garden, you can keep your grass short & fertilized & the hens safe.

If the eggs are just for your house, then 3 hens will be perfect - once they are settled, they will each give you an average of 6 eggs per week - some of my hens lay every day. some only lay 4 a week, a lot will depend on the breed as well.

Common brown hens are probably the easiest hens to keep, but like most animals, you have to worm them & watch for mites, but again, a search will return heaps and heaps of good poultry sites with help & advice.

I started with just 3 brown hens 2 years ago.... I now have 90 something chooks, ducks, & turkeys here, all free range running amok with 3 basset dogs & the laziest cat in the world - would I change anything? Oh no!!