Buying Chickens?

[vim_fuego]

I got two Leghorns and two Cuckoo Morans for £7 each...a 20kg sack of layers pellets cost £7.70 which lasts 4-5 weeks...They also get all the scraps from the kitchen like veg scrapings and bread crusts plus any excess that is still in the garden...They like boiled rice and pasta as well!

During the lighter months I get an egg a day off each one...The Leghorns give me a big white egg just like you get in the States...We've had quite a few double-yokers (anybody remember these from years ago?) from these...The Morans give us a smaller brown to dark brown speckly egg...During this cold period I've averaged two a day occasionally three...The kids love them...They are really used to us now and allow us to pick them up pretty much all the time...They enjoy being scratched around the neck and generally being fussed...

I muck them out once a week...They exist on wood shavings as a base with a wedge of straw at one end which they arrange into a nest to lay on...There is a perch outside and one inside the coup...The sleep on the perch all the time even though I thought in the cold snap they would snuggle up in the straw...The shavings came from an commercial farm supply shop (West Cumberland Farmers) and cost about £3 for a bale which should last me about 4 months...The straw I picked from the fileds around us after the bailer had been in the field...It always misses loads and the farmer is just going to plough it over a few weeks later...four really stuffed IKEA bags of it has lasted me from last summer till last week...

They are a pleasure to keep...The eggs taste and look great...The excess I sell at work which covers pretty much all my outgoings so the eggs are essentially free...

Hope this helps...

 

[Scaley brat]

Working away mrs brat time is pretty much at a premium so I would be wary at the moment at starting this, plus I would like to look after the chickens my self to keep the strain off her.
Thanks for the costings Vim, sounds like you have a sweet setup there. I think this is something we could fit into our life, but maybe not just yet.
Going by Downsizers maths, I should have room for 3 or 4 birds if we did it.

one last question. I live in an ex-council house, i have neighbours either side and behind. Would I be likely to get complaints about the smell ? Or are there things I can do to keep it down ?

 

[Downsizer]

No smell at all if you keep them clean...I clean mine out every saturday, 1 hour max..no noise either if you haven't got a cockrell..

Day to day the only thing I have to do is make sure the food and water is topped up, and of course collect my lovely eggsDT_Xtremez_19:

You'll be surprised how easy they are...

 

[vim_fuego]

As long as they are fit and healthy they will eat up a whole 5-10 mins of your day if you're just putting some more food in the feeder, topping off the water and putting the eggs into a lovely wicker basket lined with a gingham cheque teatowel ala Little House on the Prairie...It takes me less than 30 mins for a standard change of bedding and 45 mins when I'm spraying for mites...

Every few months I'll dust them for red mite which involves 2 people for ease and takes about 20-30 mins depending on how long it takes to catch the little feckers...

 

[FOMz]

collect my lovely eggsDT_Xtremez_19:

And they are loveley!!!!

 

[Scaley brat]

Thanks for all the good gen, I'll bear that in mind when I talk to mrs B about it.

putting the eggs into a lovely wicker basket lined with a gingham cheque teatowel ala Little House on the Prairie.

Vim, you bloody scare me sometimes DT_Xtremez_31:

 

[chumleywarner]

Omlet.co.uk have a great website, their coops are well smart but expensive. I bought a dog kennel from a local shop for £40, altered it slightly for the chickens, made the whole front hinged for cleaning out and put a perch in. The omlet site is good for info about health and welfare.

 

[Vushtrri]

http://www.bhwt.org.uk/


if you are still want chickies....and the feel good factor thrown in as you give them a new life as well.

 

[dumbsumpy]

Rand Farm Park (on the A158 toward skeggy) sell chickens of many breeds. Also, on the road between Wragby and Bardney is a re-homing place for ex-battery chickens, which soon grow into healthy egg-layers.