Chickens

[sarah86]

me and mark always buy free range chicken and their eggs, and many of you in the Uk may have seen Hughs chicken run this week on tv. well its spurred us on to look at getting a few chickens of our own. we have a small but nice sized garden which could easily accomodate 6 chickens and we have an area at the end which is perfectly sized for a chicken house. i have looked on the internet about what the houses have to have and then looked at the price of the houses but was amazed how expensive they are. now my question is, is there a way of converting a garden shed into a chicken house? maybe adding to ledges and perches for them? what would i need exactly?

also are they fairly easy to look after?

 

[cheesy feet]

also are they fairly easy to look after?

Yup, they'll eat pretty much everything Round my mums house the next door neighbour keeps them for eggs and they give us some.Very tasty.

 

[st24rsap]

my other halfs parents have around 20 chickens and ducks in total, a nice size garden with small pond just for them. They use what was an old shed but reduced to only about 4ft high, it has a ledges in there for them to perch on and a compartment at the back for laying the eggs. They have had chickens for years now with no problems, apart from the odd cat taking a likeing to them

 

[grahamsokel]

Yes you can convert a garden shed,All you need is a roosting perch and some nest boxes,make sure the nest boxes are not under the perch though

 

[sid.sarah]

hi, we have 2 chickens we bought them last summer and they era brill they run the garden untill the spring because they hev recked it they are being built a run and then they will only be alound out when were there as i groe veg in the summer too and they just eat it all even the rubarb!!!!! (witch i thought was gonna kill them but no chichens are not alergic!).

ill show you !

they are eating an egg they we droped on the floor! they eat any thing!!!!!
The fence you see is no good they just hop over it which is why we have now removed it! they do need a run with shed or house! in a small garden they just reck it!! but they are very funny to watch!!!!

Sarah!

 

[grahamsokel]

Its not a good idea to let them eat raw eggs even if you drop them.
if they get a taste for them they can become egg eaters and it can get to the point they will eat them out of the nests

 

[dingweding]

go to ebay buy a second hand one, is very cheap

ps, you can buy eggs there too, many ppl sell eggs of a lot of kinds chicken, you can hatch them,
those chicken are really stunning.

 

[PlecMama]

go to ebay buy a second hand one, is very cheap

A second hand chicken house? they are mega expensive still, I search ebay for month. Making your own seems to be the best option. No matter how simple something is, they always want to charge you the most money possible to sell you one. My neighbour cut an old shed down to about 3ft and put the roof back on, that worked well, he hinged the roof in two halfs so you can lift it up on both sides to air it out.


oh also best add - chickens are like small tazmanian devils when let loose in a nice garden. The destruction is amazing. Build a henhouse with a decent run and keep them caged in if you want to stay sane. We let ours out in the evening down the bottom of the garden (where Bu's swing/slide etc are) and they were fun to have around, they are really brave, not chicken at all, they flap up and sit on you and Pecky use to come and sit on the table in between us.

I miss my chickens

 

[Howldaloom]

HEY!

I work for someone who has free range chickens.

He has some red ones and light sussex for sale. plus a young brown cokeral.

he is very placid and gorgeos! he is brown flecked with white sploge on his back. he is a beauty.

let me no if you want any