animal husbandry ( chicken coup )

[Riz]

Salaam and Hello fellow growers,

For a while now I have been interested in keeping chickens in the back garden in a home made chicken coup, the young egg laying hens are very cheap to buy and I wanted at least 4 of them to start me off.
I have a friend who used to keep them and he had around 4 as well and they layed eggs after a while (they like to get to know there surroundings before they start laying). I think he was getting around 3 eggs per week from each hen so a dozen eggs per week, he has 4 children as well and they all seemed to love the chickens around the back garden and the neighbours didn’t mind either as my friend use to pass some eggs over to them every once in a while,

So maybe next season if all goes well I will construct a chicken coup at the back of the garden ill have to bear in mind the cats that wonder in my garden in the evenings as well , i want to keep my chucks safe and happy, ive been doing some reading and I found out that the hens only lay eggs in a place they feel safe and secure in so thats the first thing i will attempt to do. I am looking forward to constructing the chicken coup ( even though they can be bought) having chickens in the garden is great for pest and weed control and not forgetting the supply of nitrogen rich manure. Does anyone keep chickens ? or thinking about it in the future please let us know and we can compile a factual thread about the Do`s and Dont`s of keeping chickens in the back garden.



The previous year i had my heart set on a pair of "peahens" i did so much research via the net and found out much info as i could, i even tracked down a farm up north that breed them and sell male and female pair for £100 and they come in various colours, I was reading some intresting facts about the peacocks, most of them live till around 30 years and they make great "guard dogs" with high pitch wailing sounds they make espically at the breeding season, they usually perch on trees during the day but sleep on the ground in the evenings, there are plenty of trees in my street so that shouldnt be a probelm, I had to sort out the housing for them in the evenings but i needed more space for them so the peacocks are on the back burner for now...

[~Obsidian~]

Any body else watch the infamous Jamie Oliver exposé on chickens? Well you can rehome ex-battery hen chickens, they still produce eggs but not as many as required for the chicken industry :( so if you want to give them some freedom then go to this page (http://www.bhwt.org.uk/adopt_some_hens.php). Also, heres (http://www.jamieoliver.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=28660) a page with some reviews from people who have already done so.

I would love to do so but unfortunately I don't think it'd go down well with the neighbours or fam:( and I will be too busy also :(

Plus with my four cats and the neighbouring ones as well as the prowling foxes? Downright massacre :eek:

[Riz]

i like that idea of it though, brings you back to nature, probarly our ancestors were all farmers at one stage and kept livestock, its the kind of thing i would like to get into, if one can produce even 15% per annum of vegatables to consume its a great start, even though the prices of vegetables have shot through the roof they are still pretty cheap at the moment to buy, Eggs are now expensive to buy and if you have your own chickens you know exactly what you are feeding them thats the beauty of it, you are the farmer and the consumer, lots of people are getting into growing and keeping some sort of livestock these days,
its quite difficult even to get a council allotment, in some places there is a 2 year waiting list for them.

[farah]

at our previous house my father kept three chickens and loadsa chicks for a short while and the neighbours had chickens as well, the chickens seemed rather aggressive :( - they used to come into the conservatory and poop everywhere...
they were rather mean to the cute chicks and our kitten as well... mum made him give the sycos away but it makes such sense to keep them as neighbours and our gardens were big-ish - the neighbour kept chickens, a dog, rabbits and who knows what else basically as a way of keeping her kids out of the street as it is a bad area and the eggs saved her money as well I suppose since she was on the dole and with this credit crunch you might as well do the healthy and beneficial thing of growing your own veg & fruit and animal husbandry

[Kirsten]

I've wanted to keep a couple of hens for awhile now. It just seems like it would be really nice to a) have fresh eggs and b) know that the chickens that you're getting them from are actually being well cared for and not being kept caged up 24/7, stacked, etc... unfortunately keeping chickens in my area is illegal (as is so much else, sigh) unless you own a chicken farm.

[Te'oma]

Up until the summer before last we used to freerange about 100 chickens a year. Ours were meat birds so we would kill them before they got to the stage of laying eggs but I do know from experience that the bigger the chicken, the bigger the eggs.
Another thing to keep in mind is that if you have only hens, one or two will start taking on male characteristics and behaviours like crowing

[Riz]

Up until the summer before last we used to freerange about 100 chickens a year. Ours were meat birds so we would kill them before they got to the stage of laying eggs but I do know from experience that the bigger the chicken, the bigger the eggs.


so what happened to all your chickens ? you gave them away !?

[globalart4u]

for a chicken coop to keep the foxes etc out:

house the hens in one of those first storey houses where they have to climb the stairs and they can be locked away overnight

if you can put thick steel sheet underneath the hen house and barriers where the foxes cannot dig under or break through the wires

works a treat - i think you can buy these from certain places - only know as i wanted one but we have so many foxes that i discovered this was the best way to keep them safe overnight

[Riz]

bloody cats are the biggest nuisance on my street seriously, i have never been a cat lover..

[~Obsidian~]

:eek:

[farah]

Asalamu alaikam

this was in the news recently:

Wanted: Homes For 10,000 'Scraggly' Hens

Campaigners are desperately trying to save 10,000 battery hens from slaughter and find them happy new homes instead.

The Little Hen Rescue charity hopes families will adopt the chickens as pets and help nurse them back to health.

The rescue bid began with the announcement that a battery farm is set to close, leaving its owner little choice but to kill any chickens without a home.

"He's given us a date - the slaughterman is booked for June 29," Emma Haines, who works for the organisation, told Sky News Online.

Hens can live for seven or eight years but are often killed when they are much younger, according to the charity.

Turning on the persuasion, Ms Haines said chickens can be the perfect recession pet as they are cheap to care for, help teach children about animals and many still produce eggs.

"They are easy to keep, all you need is a secure coop and a run.

"In urban areas, some people let them out of the run in the evenings."

She added: "They are scraggly and may not have many feathers but after a couple of months they are beautiful and glossy. They make wonderful pets."

All of the rescued hens are being rehomed with the co-operation of the farm owners.

The Norfolk-based charity believes the battery hen industry is down to consumer demand and is not the farmers' fault.

"The credit crunch is often used as an excuse for buying a cheap chicken, but it is cheaper to have your own hen and never buy another battery-farmed egg again," Ms Haines said.

Battery farming has become increasingly high-profile with celebrity chefs Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall being among those who have spoken out against poor conditions.

Shops including the Co-Op, Sainsburys, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer have all agreed to phase out the use of eggs from battery farms.


Poor hens

Source Link (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20090508/tuk-wanted-homes-for-10-000-scraggly-hen-45dbed5.html)

[Nife180]

Awww...I hope people adopt the hens, Even animals have been affected by the Downturn of the Economy...