About to venture into chicken keeping!

angeldaisy

I'm getting some chickens and have lots of questions, I know there are a few on here that keep chickens so would really appreciate any advice / wise words on what to do and not do!

I've been given a coop which I'm in the process of cleaning and renovating.

The chickens will have access to the back garden during the day, which also raises a question. How do you introduce dogs to the chickens. They've never chased them before, but there's always a first time!

What equipment do I need to buy. What food is best for them, can they be given scraps - not that there are many in this house!

I'm thinking of getting 3 as the coop is a 4 chicken coop, is 3 okay?

sorry for all the questions:o

FlowerGarden

I kept chickens a few years ago and loved it but had to give it up when I moved house:( Not sure about the dog chasing question as we were able to keep the dogs and chickens separated.

I used to feed them Organic Layers pellets when they got to laying age (about 24 weeks) but they are twice the price of regular layers pellets. There is an option to get non-GM food and they are priced somewhere in between. You will need a hen feeder and a particular water receptacle that stops the water from getting too dirty.

There is a ton of information out there on keeping chickens. I found the best website for beginners was www.backyardchickens.com.

St. Leibowitz

Some very knowledgeable and super helpful chicken people in the Smallholding forum.

Topics > Society & Culture > Farming & Forestry > Smallholding.

angeldaisy

Thanks for the advice, just found another website which looks helpful!
https://www.farmfowl.com/guide/

L1985

Hey we keep around ten hens v old style. In a run until 2 then left run free.
Couple of things if their being fenced in you'll prob have to clip their wings or even just one wing so they can't fly over the fence. We did ours but they can still roost happily 6feet up and they were done 2years ago so I think they have forgotten they can fly now.
Make sure they have access to grit for roughage as otherwise the shells will break.
Clean waters essential.
Expect them to root and dig up everything it's what they love doing we have a whole farm yard for them to go through but they still make bee line for ye flower beds
They will roost themselves every night but make sure they are locked up away from mr fox!!
Regarding the dogs it's a tough one-what type of dogs do you have? We have 2and have no problems but did have a problem with a dog before. Constant supervision the first while to make sure they know they are not toys have a bucket of water or something handy in case they start chasing as it can go bad v quickly:( but our two eat with the hens over house scraps and not a bother.
Hens eat nearly all house scraps by the way it's v handy!
Good iv wrote a book here

L1985

Oh and you wouldn't need to buy much equipment just a feeder which you'll get in any pet shop or market and we use a normal drinking bowl but you can buy one.depends if your going to fence or not after that. Threes a good number depends on the size of your coop and how many eggs you want-you will prob get 1-2eggs a day sometimes three in the summer with that number then:)

aonb

Ive kept hens for years - love them to bits - their eggs are so superior to anything you buy in a shop - plus they make great pets!!
3 is a good number
Its always best to get your 'maximum' number of hens at the same time - better than having any incoming/new hens being beaten up by the established 'flock'
Some things to consider -
they MUST be safe at night - you should have a door on your coop and close it every night. You should have a run to keep them in during the day when you arent around - if you live in the country, foxes are a major issue.
Their pellets should kept dry - and they should always have access to pellets during the day. Take the pellets in at night, to prevent attracting rats.
Water is critical - always have access to fresh/clean water.
When the cold weather comes in, you could give them a handful of mixed grain which "warms" them overnight (stays in their crops longer) - in the afternoon, so they will have eaten their pellets.
Scraps are fine, but hens are buggers for not eating their pellets if they can get scraps. They will ALWAYS favour scraps over pellets Try to only give scraps in the late afternoon, after they have eaten their day's pellets.
The nutrients/balance etc in pellets are what they need to produce eggs
Hens need daylight to produce eggs (this is why they slow down laying in the winter).
Having said that my hens would sell their souls for cheese, cooked pasta, cooked rice, grapes, natural yogurt - the list is endless!
A hen will produce an egg every 26 hours - as they age, their laying will slow. When they are young/in prime, your 3 hens will produce 3 eggs/day, slowing down during the dark days of winter
If your hens have access to your back garden, they will decimate it by scratching. Poo around your patio/back door will be an issue!
Their wattles will be a good indication of health - get to know your hens - a red, erect wattle is a healthy hen. Dark red/purple/pale is a sign of potential problems.
Their crop (where they store their food to grind it down) is also a good sign of hen health. It should never be swollen/squashy (its a sign of sour crop) - give them natural plain yogurt now and then. Google a list of foods hens should never eat! If not free ranging they ned some grit - oyster shell - but if have access around your garden, tiny stones/gravel will do the trick
I put eggshells in the microwave for a minute, break into small pieces, and feed to them, for calcium - never throw an eggshell away!
Their poo should be solid (there will be a white "topping" which is normal/healthy) every few poo's there will be a fizzy/runny poo, also normal

Dogs: Ive always had terriers at the same time as my hens. I introduced the dogs to the hens, while on the leash to see how the dogs reacted. There have been threads on here (or maybe the smallholding forum) about dogs/hens. I havent had a problem because the dogs were 'trained' - or trainable!

Good luck with your new hens - as long as they have good food, fresh water, a dry/draught-free shelter, you should be off to a good start!

aonb

p.s.
where you buy your hens from is really important - apart from making sure that you buy healthy hens from good stock - you need to buy from a reliable source so that you know you are getting point of lay pullets - buy too young from an unreliable source and you might end up with cockerals :eek: Oh and for a first time hen-keeper, I would recommend boring old hybrids - they tend to be healtheir and lay better - some pure breds might not be suitable for a novice!

angeldaisy

Brilliant advice thanks so much.

Just wondering, the person I got the coop from had tarp wrapped around 2 sides of the wire mesh on the coop. Is this necessary?

aonb

The SIDES of the coop? Dont know what that was for - unless to deter a fox climbing over - although you would think that would help rather than hinder.

One thing I did do that I consider to be the best thing I did for my hens, was to get a net cover to put over the top of the run - I used a pond cover/net - it keeps the wild birds out (1) preventing them eating the hens food (2) preventing the wild birds bringing parasites into the run

One other thing to be aware of as a new hen keeper is the dreaded RED MITE. The most revolting little buggers - Ive had 2 infestations in my coops and it was a nightmare to get rid of. They suck blood from the hens at night. The hens will stop laying, will be reluctant to go into the coop. Coop hygiene is very important, although I think until you get infested (hopefully you never will) there is no deterrant really. Run a finger along the ends of your perches during the day - if there is a smear of RED (i.e. hens blood!) you have red mite. If your coop has a felt roof, its more inclined to harbour red mite. Just be aware of it, and fingers crossed you will never get it!

Other yukky things are lice/fleas - Ive never had a problem with either. I line my coops with a good thick pad of newspaper. Clean it out once a week - just take the whole pad out and into the compost heap. If you can get your hands on DIATOM EARTH (cheap, can buy it online from http://diatomaceousearthireland.ie/ and many others) is worth its weight in gold - I put a couple of little scoops in the house every time I clean - magic stuff. Humans/dogs/cats/ can use it!

Bumble Foot can be caused by your hens jumping down from high perches!
Sudocrem is always good for cuts
RED (blood) attracts the other hens to peck, so cover any cuts up with sudocrem or that purple spray
Scaly foot is also yukky - watch their legs for lumpy changes!
All these things are just to be aware of, you most prob wont ever encounter!

Hens are incredibly nosy, and will beat a path to your back door, looking in begging for food. My lot had to be banished from the patio cos of the poo. Make sure to get them into the run at dusk - shake a box with pellets/grain in and they will come flying!

Oh, if you have low boundries around your property, and they fly over you will need to clip their wings! Just one wing. to unbalance them. May not need to do it, but if you do, tuck the hen under your arm (might be a good idea to get them used to being picked up from day 1!) pull out the wing, and second person clips the wing feathers - about 6 or 7 of them from the wingtip inwards. Painless, and the work of seconds.

It is a good idea to get used to picking them up. If you tuck their head under your elbow/armpit, they will immediately go docile/calm.

Oh and the last thing - when you get them on day 1, LOCK THEM INTO THE COOP for the night immediately. Then next morning open the door. If they find THEIR OWN WAY out of the coop, they will find their own way into it that night. Much much much easier than you trying to herd them into the new coop on their first few nights - they will roost on the roof/ANYWHERE except inside the coop til they know its home!

mattP

My dogs kill the hens if they get half a chance, so it goes without saying that the hens get panicked and scatter if the dogs come up to their run Maybe its just some dogs are calmer - My neighbour's hens love clambering over his sheepdog, and he only loves the extra attention from them!
I saw someone mentioned layers pellets... personally I'm against giving them often. Ive ten hens and get between 2-4 eggs a day, and I only feed them scraps from the house (and of course they can go forage too). The eggs they lay are great quality! However if there aren't much scraps coming out of the house for whatever reason ill give them the pellets - next morning theres usually 6 or 7 eggs, but no where near the quality of the other eggs. Its kind of like "good food takes time"
I give them everything from the house (except chicken - for obvious reasons - and citrus fruits - I read somewhere that they're bad, they never seemed to eat them either way). I always steep it in hot water the night before so its nice and soft when they get it. They also go mad for elder tree berries and blackberries :P

TopTec

angeldaisy wrote: »

Just wondering, the person I got the coop from had tarp wrapped around 2 sides of the wire mesh on the coop. Is this necessary?

Wind break or sun shade? I saw a coop locally with one side covered in plastic sheets. On the prevailing wind side, which is west over here so i assumed that that it was for.

TT

angeldaisy

So the chickens will be arriving this weekend!!

Just finishing renovating the coop so we should be ready to go.

These ladies are ex-battery hens that are being rescued, I'm assuming they may need more special care??

Anyone done this before??

aonb

Have had ex-batts before. God love them they can arrive in a pitiful state, but with good food, they will re-feather quickly.
Get some CALCIUM into them to help with that process - if you can buy some LIMESTONE FLOUR (equine grade) and put a spoon into their food every day for a week. Tiny bit of cod liver oil will be good too, in their food. Make sure their coop is as draught-free as you can make it. Watch for pecking - if they are very bare, they can peck each other when the feathers start to regrow, then if there is a spot of blood, the red will attract further pecking, so sudocrem (white!) or that purple spray (vet or chemist) will cover up the red, and also help healing. I think I mentioned giving them a bit of mixed grain (Fancy Feeds do a lovely mix) which will 'heat' them up for overnight - give in the late afternoon only (so they eat their pellets, which has all the nutrients they need) and it will stay in their crops longer/overnight.
They will be very reluctant to come out of their coop - they've never been outside before - just leave the door open in the morning, and one brave one will venture out, and the others will follow. If they are VERY scared, you might just pick one up and put her directly outside the coop door, so the others can see her. Put pellets in a hopper very close by, and water close too. Put a scattering of grain on the ground to spoil them and tempt scratching/pecking. If you can wait for them to come out themselves it will be better, as they seem to find their way back into the house better at night. Otherwise, start rounding them up well before dusk, its no fun trying to get them inside in the dark - tho when its dark they just stay put. Just make sure to get them inside the house on the first night.
If you have space in your run, a DUST BATH is a wonderful thing - take a tire or old sandpit or some big container, fill with sandpit sand, or a mix of dirt/sand - they will dust-bathe in it and great to keep their skin clean - the clouds of dust when they shake off is hilarious! (needs to be under shelter to keep the sand dry)
They only know pellets, so keep them on that for the first few weeks, while they settle in - rather than treats/scraps
Flat/shallow dishes of water
They have to 'learn' everything as they have never been outside their cages, you are doing a very kind thing, rehoming a battery hen. They should start laying pretty quickly, but not immediately
Good luck!

aonb

mattP wrote: »

My dogs kill the hens if they get half a chance, so it goes without saying that the hens get panicked and scatter if the dogs come up to their run Maybe its just some dogs are calmer - My neighbour's hens love clambering over his sheepdog, and he only loves the extra attention from them!
I saw someone mentioned layers pellets... personally I'm against giving them often. Ive ten hens and get between 2-4 eggs a day, and I only feed them scraps from the house (and of course they can go forage too). The eggs they lay are great quality! However if there aren't much scraps coming out of the house for whatever reason ill give them the pellets - next morning theres usually 6 or 7 eggs, but no where near the quality of the other eggs. Its kind of like "good food takes time"
I give them everything from the house (except chicken - for obvious reasons - and citrus fruits - I read somewhere that they're bad, they never seemed to eat them either way). I always steep it in hot water the night before so its nice and soft when they get it. They also go mad for elder tree berries and blackberries :P

Hi, very interested in your comment re pellets.
On one hand I would consider 2-4 eggs from 10 hens a pretty poor 'return', but I appreciate your issue with pellets - I assume its because its commercially produced etc?
On the other hand, Ive always fed organic/decent quality pellets to my girls. When I fed mostly scraps/leftovers/human food, I found I was getting crop problems - sour crop - and worm problems (I now use a wormer) - and poor egg production - rats were a problem also. Some of my pure breeds were becoming 'obese' too! I find that the hens are healthier on the good quality/organic pellets and mixed grain, they are also in better condition (feather and poo-wise) than when I fed mostly kitchen scraps/leftovers etc. My hens have always free ranged. I take the hoppers of food in every night, so rats are no longer a problem (scraps got tossed about too much, and the rats would come anytime there was 'nice' food about) Just my 2cents worth...

angeldaisy

Aonb, your advice has been invaluable, thank you so much. I'm getting excited now to not only be getting my chickens but also to be able to rescue them which is a huge plus.

It's tough to read that the rescue organisation is having to leave behind nearly 2000 hens which will be killed because they don't have homes for them.

I think that we sometimes forget to think about where our food comes from.

I wish I could take more, but I'm doing what I can.

You Mirin?

Out of curiosity, how many would you need to own to get ~35 eggs per week?

L1985

Hi angeldaisy about the chickens if you are taking rescue I would advise buying some normal ones as well. Our rescue ones didn't have a clue of normal hen behaviour didn't know how to roost scratch the ground dust baths etc. We got three free range ones and they started showing them proper hen behaviour and it made some difference. There is only so much you can do for them but after you have them a few weeks and their feathers have started growing back I'd advise that.
Re the 35 eggs q it depends. Hens slow down laying in the winter but we turn on a light in their house (a normal light ancient bulb actually) until 9/930 at night and it encourages them to keep laying.around 50 at least I'd say but their v sensitive if they get a fright or weather changes etc they stop laying.also as they get older they slow down. They say you never make money off of hens.....

sadie06

Some great advice here, and an interesting comment about the pellets.

I see you are getting ex-battery hens, and would advise that if you decide to get more hens in the future you continue to stick to the common breeds. The common brown are very hardy I found, but the best hen we ever had was a Light Sussex. Such a hardy girl and a great layer.

Our one excursion with a fancy breed (a Plymouth Rock) was a disaster. She was beautiful, but a nervous wreck and prone to so many ailments.

The tarp I would suggest was for shelter. We always put tarp along the run during winter so the hens did not have to go all the way into the coop to take shelter.

Very little investment is needed at first, but if it goes well for you I would suggest a light activated motorised door if the door into your coop is small. It was the best thing we ever bought as it meant we needed nobody to look in on the chickens if away for a weekend. Expensive, but we sold it on very easily when we stopped keeping chickens.

Three is the perfect number to begin with, but try to never let it fall below three. If you only have two (which some sites suggest for beginners) you can be left with a traumatised bird if something happens to one of them. This means careful planning if you decide to stop keeping. The third time we fell down to two hens we had to think quickly, and re-homed our remaining two as we were not prepared to start again with a young bird.

Enjoy your lovely eggs!

L1985

You Mirin? wrote: »

Out of curiosity, how many would you need to own to get ~35 eggs per week?

Oops sorry I just reread that I thought you meant per day!! Around 7hens should guarantee it. We hve ten and get around 8/9eggs per day on a bad day you get 6 a good day you get ten but it's usually the 8.lol I thought you were thinking of selling eggs or something sorry!however if you are baking free range eggs are amaZing. Ours get pellets but from 2in the day they have te whole farm to run around and they love it.the taste from the eggs is unreal even compared to other peoples hens that are in a coop.

aonb

Just as a rule of thumb, a young hen, in prime laying condition, will lay ONE EGG every approx 26 hours. i.e. not absolutely every single day.

DAYLIGHT plays a huge huge part in egg production. This is why egg production falls off in wintertime - so for example, if your hens are kept in a shed or dark run, it will effect production.

Hens will lay well for the first 2 years, but taper off a bit as they age, stopping eventually.

Stress, bad diet, parasites, trauma, change of conditions, sickness will all effect egg production.

angeldaisy

Well my little ladies have arrived home. Bless them, they're very stressed but have eaten all the corn mix I gave them, but didn't touch the pellets.

They don't look as bad as I expected, but are very flappy and anxious. They're in their roost part of the coop, but are coming down for water etc.

I think I'll leave them in the coop and run for a few days to let them settle down, before leaving them out.
There are lots of strange noises and experiences for them at the minute.

angeldaisy

One week in and the girls have settled quite well.
Still a bit nervous but gaining confidence.

Dogs are still over interested so have been cautious about letting them free range. I tried leaving them out yesterday evening for an hr or two before bedtime and keeping the dogs in. They had a ball, didn't venture too far but had a great stretch and scratch around.

Would highly recommend having them, as a bonus we've had between 2-3 eggs a day which really surprised me!

aonb

Hah! Is there anything better than knowing you rescued these poor hens than getting some quality eggs too! You could give them the odd bit of cat food (pate) or tinned tuna if they will eat it, since they are laying - give them a little bit of a protein boost? Great to hear they are settling so well

angeldaisy

Absolutely, will try the cat food!

So far this week we've used the eggs for a fab chocolate cake and amazing Yorkshire puddings for dinner today! Looking forward to doing lots more baking :-D

Ave Sodalis

I loved having hens. If you get a chance, I would really recommend making a dust bowl (a shallow hole in the ground). All of our chickens loved ours. This was only problematic because they all want into it so we had to expand from one small hole to enough to fit ten chickens. About foxes, we also got very good advice (too late unfortunately) to drill a hen size hole near the top of the coop so if a fox or a minx gets in, the hens have a way out. The hole should be out of the wind if possible, to avoid drafts.

They are very funny little creatures. They all have their own little personalities. Ours used to sit on the window sill, looking into the sitting room. We gave our last two away to a neighbour who had loads of hens as we lost the rest to a fox (who had gotten brave/hungry and was taking them by daylight, despite us having a dog). One of them still point blank ignored humans. The other had survived 3 fox attacks where she was carried off until the dog made the fox drop her. We trained our dog to start barking whenever the chickens kicked up a fuss. He would then run towards the coop and we got him outside in time, it always worked to chase off the fox (although it always came back).

lazeedaisy

Hi,

Excited for you.

We had our dogs and hens in the garden together for 5 years, until the fox cleared us out in jan and feb of this year.

I loved ther company, spent hours and hours with them all.

I used to heat their food in the microwave during the winter and they laid eggs all year round. I was given that tip by a very old guy who used to have hens as a child. As a treat I used to buy them a pack of sesame seeds,

lazeedaisy

I used to make lemon curd, or when we had a glut, pickled eggs, and froze them, cracked them and froze the whites together with a note on how many egg whites on the label,

One of the dogs used to help himself occasionally to the eggs, he loved them,

I miss them, and they used to sit on the back step, until mr fox came up to the open door, dogs around and took one of the hens, he did not stop until they were all gone, day after day no matter what we did.