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Cluck, cluck...more questions!

Ally Hunt
by Lovemoney Staff Ally Hunt on 19 June 2009  |  Comments 2 comments

Many questions about keeping chickens have been answered but even more have been raised - what are pop-hole door openers and hopper feeders? And will we ever make a decision?

Well, I'll start by saying how thrilled I was with the amount of feedback for my last blog: To chicken...or chicken out.

My husband and I read all of the responses last night and were amazed at the number of kind souls that took the trouble to comment and share their particular words of wisdom from their own experiences. Wonderful, heart-warming stuff!

I've learnt that chicken guano is a great fertiliser (if quite smelly), we'd have to be patient as not all hens lay straight away, the fencing/hedges around the garden are hopefully high enough, rescue hens need a lot of TLC but can be incredibly rewarding and I particularly love Dave's tip that chickens eat slugs (finally, somewhere to throw them!).

The trouble is, while many questions have been answered, even more have been raised!

Going away and leaving them overnight still worries me - I'm intrigued to know more about hopper feeders (as mentioned by Arthurian), automatic pop-hole door openers (caralouise1974) and will also have to do some research to find out if anyone boards chickens locally.

It also seems that keeping chickens can be an awful lot more expensive than you might think. Are there ways to reduce the set-up costs (in addition to Rockydog's excellent suggestions)? Or is the eglu actually a bargain?

I'm seriously concerned about welfare, particularly where Mr Fox is concerned. Even if the henhouse is fox-proof could they still be terrorised on a nightly basis? And finally, as I still have memories of the avian flu crisis a few years ago I would be interested to hear if is this still an ongoing concern for free-range chicken owners?

It's not getting any easier!

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Comments (2)

  • Dave
    Love rating 52
    Dave said

    re feeders - I have used these sorts of things for feeding 250 or so very free range birds in the past (they had free run of over 15 acres of woodland). They're good because they only release when pecked and spray a little around the area, encouraging a bit of foraging and scratching. They only really work with dry pelletes though.

    re The Fabulous Mr Fox - Your methods are also dependent on how humane you wish to remain as time goes by. If you have a fixed area the birds roost in, I have found using close to the ground electric fences around ug-in old metal milk crates and metal sheets in front of a fence keeps them out, but they will constantly try to get in so checking is important. Doing it again, I'd use garden slabs instead of crates and sheets of metal.

    Report on 19 June 2009  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • Swansswimmer
    Love rating 5
    Swansswimmer said

    Ally, Looks like you and the family have decided to keep a few chooks. Henhouse and cost will be determined by how many hens/bantams you will start with or might expand to. We bought a hen house sufficient for 8 bantams/6 hens 5 years ago and buying two 'nearly' point of lay bantams each summer we now have 7 bantams of which one is too old to lay now, she is welcome to her retirement and one is just not going to mature. (we have had two deaths - natural causes and one escape). We regularly enjoy 18 eggs per week in the summer months, but no eggs from Mid November to firstweek January. This is not a frugal investment - but if you want pets that are easy to look after and that say thank-you with fresh eggs - they're great. As for leaving them, we have two drinkers and two feed points (one in the henhouse behind the swing door - great for the winter and bad weather days). The water topped up each day is preferable but I have no hesitation in leaving them for 2 nights. As for chicken sitters - I doubt you'll need these - neighbours. friends are happy to help (especially if they have children) with the egss a great incentive. Go on - do it and let us see soem pictures of your new pets. I recommend Light Sussex - they lay regularly, white eggs, do sometimes go broody - so if you want to hatch some bought in fertile eggs make good Mums and if you have the heart make good birds for the table too. As for avian flu - if it's coming it's coming. Why treat this mattter any differently than Human flu? Two years back I decided that if it came to Cambridgeshire I'd invest in a cover to keep the wild birds and their faecies out of the run and confine our hens in a smaller run that I could move when the grass was looking over grazed/scratched.

    Report on 12 July 2009  |  Love thisLove  0 loves

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