General Chat

Probably a daft question..... but I have two dogs..........wouldn't the electric wire harm them? The collie especially would be watching them like a hawk through the fencing........not to harm but just with the intention of herding them up lol. The Rabbits and Guinea Pigs ignore her but her nose is always up against the wire. xx

An electric wire is the only absolutely sure defence against foxes.

Hawks can also be a problem - you may need a wired in roof over the run.

my brother has kept chickens and turkey for years

he keeps them in a fenced off area and the only way to keep the foxes out is to build an electric fence it may seem cruel but unless you want them taken by the foxes it is the only way to protect them.

Ah you can;t beat fresh eggs.
The wendy house is a great idea just make sure it is raised off the ground.
.When we started having chickens years ago we used a garden shed made it totally fox proof. and a fox proof run Ours is about 2-3 feet deep.
..Although our chickens run free if we are going out for the day and know we wont be back until well in the evening we just let the roam in their run. which is very large.and they will go in when they are ready.then we dont have to worry about the foxes.
but to do that every thing has to be totally fox proof.
including the wooden house.
we even had ducks raise chickens .we had a broady duck and diddent want to add to our ducks so placed chicken eggs under her .
and in the summer its great just sitting down the garden with them ...they have great characters..but i never go down to them in sandles.ouch.

Good news Muffy

I just had 6 little balls of fluff hatch out yesterday.
There's nothing like it!

xxxx mick

*clips Muffy round the ear regarding the names on page 3*

Er, Missus, could you think of some other names, please? Otherwise another clip round the ear may be in order, lol.
x

Noooooooo don't worry. I especially couldn't hack being woken up to that !!!! LIttle girlies only here lol xx

Don't get cockerals though think of your neighbours my neighbour has about ten cockerals..not very nice getting woken up at dawn !!!!!!!!!!

Aw bless them xx

You've got me all excited. I love getting new hens. I'm going to apply for 6 sad little battery hens tomorrow to join my girlies. The last time I adopted some they wouldn't come out of their house for days. Not used to grass and freedom. Poor little things.

aw i want some chickens !!!!!!

Wish I looked like Felicity Kendall lol.

Ta Joy............They'll be thrilled I'm sure xx

EGGallent mrs good life lol

i hope the girls enjoy their new pets

We are definately getting the chickens !!!!!!!

Went to see them today.......they're kept really clean and are in lovely condition.......going to get a pair of hens to start off with and take it from there. If all goes well I'll think about getting a couple of rescue ones in the near future.

I want to call them Nugget and Drum but OH thinks that's in bad taste lol.

Collecting them on Wednesday.

Thanks again to everyone for your advice. Much appreciated xx

Thought my idea would appeal Muffy, it will be nice for the girls to feel they have rescued the hens too.
Good luck, don't forget it will be one more thing to think about when you want to go on holidays lol
Lizxx

The children are going to *donate* their wendy house to the chickens they've decided lol. We're going to build a huge run coming off from that for the daytime and let them roam around the whole garden for portions of the day when I'm around.

Inside the shed I'm going to build a highish shelf with a ramp leading up to it and make sure there is a perch for them too.

Two wooden boxes on the high shelf with straw in for them to bed in.

Typical!!! the wendy house cost me a bomb and it's mainly been used to play with the rabbits in anyhow lol. Now it's a very pretty hen house. Hey ho lol xx

I'm noting all the advise down......thanks so much.......I'm getting quite excited about getting them now !!! xx

Hi Muffy, I've kept hens for over 10 years. They don't smell if they are regularly cleaned out. Now quails smell awful.... anyway, we have about 20 hens in a big henhouse inside a wire enclosure that has a roof and is buried about a foot in the ground to stop foxes digging their way in, which they try to do. Yes, we have seen rats and have to deal with these. (Rat poison in a pipe the hens can't get into.) They are let out of their enclosure at lunchtime and free-range around the garden for the rest of the day, taking themselves to bed at dusk, when we shut the pen's door.

My girls and one boy are all different varieties so we have all different coloured eggs which are pretty - white, cream, light brown, dark brown, blue and olive and I'm about to buy some hens that lay a brick-red egg.

For rescued birds look on the Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's "Chicken Out Campaign" website which gives you a link. Be warned that when these poor hens arrive they don't look very pretty to start with - my friend described hers as looking "oven-ready" as they had so few feathers. But now the feathers have grown back.

hi, Muffy, a couple of basic points, ensure the henhouse is at least a foot off the ground, ie on legs/stilts. Next, when closing the hens up at night, make sure they are perched and not sitting on floor of house. In practice the floor shoud be latticed to allow air to circulate and also allow droppings to pass thru. If buying at 18 months, they will be good for about 2yrs, best to buy at "point of lay" about 6 months old. Hello Jill from Derek in France

gillie im leaving mine 8 months could be wrong will wait and see the answerxx

hello muffy , there bbrilliant at recycling feed them all your raw veg waste including egg shells and some pellets then bag the doodys for next year compost, also if you feed ours cauliflower we get 4-6 oz double yolk eggs, if your worried about foxes have a humungus cage so there 99.8% frre range lol, we use straw for bedding or if you have a shredder thats even better, and get it off freecycle, sorry if this has all been said but i was eggsited