Buying Chickens - What to look for

trotter_inc

Morning!

I've just converted an old out house in to a chicken house and am just about to go about buying my birds. I've done quite a lot of reading up on how to keep them and am pretty confident that I'm ready to get going, though I have some (hopefully not stupid) questions:

1. I was hoping to keep both hens for eggs and chickens for the table, is there a difference between hens and chickens for the table? Is it just age? A chicken will eventually lay eggs, right? But chickens for the table are usually fattened and slaughtered before they start laying eggs, right?

2. Can both sets of birds be kept together and fed the same food? My local co-op sold me pellets for laying hens and whole wheat, he said he was 'pretty sure' that both the hens and chickens could eat it.

3. For my hens I was going buy either light sussex or rhode island reds. Is there a particular breed of bird suited to being kept for the table?

4. What age birds to buy? For hens which are advertised as "point of lay", I understand that they are ready to start laying, but roughly how long will it take to get them laying? Weeks or months? For chickens which I intend to eat, what age of bird should I be buying?

Sorry if these are basic questions, but I thought I better get the basics out of the way before I start calling poultry dealers

ddogsbollix

now... im not well up on keeping chickens for eating but i know a bit about the egg layers.

• rhode island are a great breed for eggs and friendly but i wouldnt use them for meat as they would not get to a proper weight for killing. light sussex grow quite big and they would need a higher maintence then the rhode island. and for that reason get rhode island over sussex
• hens will start laying at about 6 months these are called 'pullets' you can buy them at this age and start feeding them laying pellets and they should start laying within 2 weeks. in my opinion dont buy pullets that are already laying
• finally i see no reason why you cant mix them but when the hens are nesting use newspaper not straw or hay as you will have a problem with lice and stuff.

07438991

Hope this helps...

I get my eggs from Tesco & keep them on the top shelf of my fridge. I have heard that you can keep them in room temperature as well.

Chickens would be from Tesco or Superquinn and I find they are quite content on the bottom shelf of my fridge.

Please note that if you wish to keep chickens for the long-term a freezer is best!

redzerologhlen

07438991 wrote: »

Hope this helps...

I get my eggs from Tesco & keep them on the top shelf of my fridge. I have heard that you can keep them in room temperature as well.

Chickens would be from Tesco or Superquinn and I find they are quite content on the bottom shelf of my fridge.

Please note that if you wish to keep chickens for the long-term a freezer is best!

Easy kept...I like the sound of that. What breed were they??????

07438991

Chic....kens......

Never attacked me once, very placid little buggars!

littlesthobo

No expert here but we have some laying hens at home a variation of different breeds red hybrids etc, these would not be great for table as they dont tend to have much meat on them. If your planning on getting chicken for slaughter then you should be looking for broilers which would be bred specifically for their meat. They'll eat pretty much anything, ours get a mixture of pellets, maize, bread, and anything leftover from the table as long as its not gone off.

Best of luck with it. Also its important to make sure they have access to plenty of water.

trotter_inc

07438991 wrote: »

Hope this helps...

I get my eggs from Tesco & keep them on the top shelf of my fridge. I have heard that you can keep them in room temperature as well.

Chickens would be from Tesco or Superquinn and I find they are quite content on the bottom shelf of my fridge.

Please note that if you wish to keep chickens for the long-term a freezer is best!

Thanks for taking the time out of what is probably a very busy and interesting life of yours to write this.

trotter_inc

Thanks for the replies guys. I got 3 rhode island reds last night, they look fantastic, was surprised how content and placid they were. Will keep all the tips in mind, I already have a supply of hay from my father in law who is a farmer, will see how it goes and switch to paper if I see any sign of lice.

I'll give the hens a few weeks to settle in and will look in to getting a few broilers then...one step at a time

07438991

trotter_inc wrote: »

Thanks for the replies guys. I got 3 rhode island reds last night, they look fantastic, was surprised how content and placid they were. Will keep all the tips in mind, I already have a supply of hay from my father in law who is a farmer, will see how it goes and switch to paper if I see any sign of lice.

I'll give the hens a few weeks to settle in and will look in to getting a few broilers then...one step at a time

No problem - if you need any more tips just gimme a shout!

trotter_inc

How long should it take for hens to settle in to their new home. They seemed pretty nervous all day yesterday and this morning, they haven't moved or eaten much, they are staying put up on a high perching bar, should I be worried? How long will it take for them to relax and explore their new surroundings?

I am keeping them in an old out house which I've cleaned up, it's very similar to the shed in which they were kept in where I bought them. Their nesting boxes are open all day, I didn't put a door on them as I wasn't sure if they needed it, is this Ok?

The poultry dealer I bought them from said they were laying already, how long will it be before they're able to lay in their new home?

ddogsbollix

you really should have bought laying pullets..... but ya they will take awhile to settle in maybe a week depending but i would say they will fine in no time. dont get to hung up on them

trotter_inc

ddogsbollix wrote: »

you really should have bought laying pullets..... but ya they will take awhile to settle in maybe a week depending but i would say they will fine in no time. dont get to hung up on them

Turns out they are point of lay pullets! I rang the guy I bought them off this morning and he said they were point of lay, when I picked them up he said they were laying. He said to give them another while and they'll be laying soon enough.

sh1tstirrer

trotter_inc wrote: »

ddogsbollix wrote: »

you really should have bought laying pullets..... but ya they will take awhile to settle in maybe a week depending but i would say they will fine in no time. dont get to hung up on them

Turns out they are point of lay pullets! I rang the guy I bought them off this morning and he said they were point of lay, when I picked them up he said they were laying. He said to give them another while and they'll be laying soon enough.

They will take a month or six weeks before they start laying. First few eggs will be small after a few days they will have normal size eggs. You can eat the small eggs, they could also have the odd extra big egg with 2 yolks these are also safe to eat.