|
  |
|
|
Keeping Chickens for the First Time.
By Sarah Barnard of Ethics Trading
Keeping Chickens in Your Back Garden! Last October we decided we could support a few chickens in our back garden and we began to research how we could make this happen reasonably cheaply. After getting advice from a friend who has chickens free ranging in her garden and after calling the local council about the regulations on keeping livestock we discovered many things! Some breeds don't like being penned all day and our house is a council house so our hens have to be securely penned so they don't escape and wreck other people's gardens. We're also not allowed a cockerel. Some breeds lay better than others, some are friendlier..... But somehow through all that research we kept coming back to the idea of rescuing a few battery farm birds. We contacted Hen Rehomers UK and in October we adopted three tatty looking hens who had no idea of what outside was, of what grass was, of what to do with freedom to move, or how to cope with rain, sun or snow. They'd not been able to ever fully open their wings before they came to us. But within a week they were scratching about and filling out nicely. Hen Housing
Our hens are currently housed in a recycled rabbit hutch with plenty of space for them to roost. They had a perch put in but they refused to use it. One section of the hutch is dark and cosy and used as a nest box while the rest is just extra roost space or shelter should they need it during the day. It's also on legs so the hens can shelter underneath and so that rats can't get at them during the night. The hutch has a good layer of wood shavings throughout both areas and the nest box has either straw or shredded paper as well. Freedom to Run
Our hens have a custom built run made from wood scavenged from skips and an assortment of wire mesh in different sizes depending on where I sourced it - much was gifted, or obtained through Freecycle so the size of mesh wasn't all the same but it still works. The hutch is inside the run and there is a door so we can get in to collect eggs, feed and water the birds, put them away at night etc. The run is 8 feet long by 5 feet wide by 5 feet high. Before you get your hens
Make sure you have somewhere to keep them.
Make sure you have food for them and you have found a local supplier of poultry keeping supplies.
Make sure you are allowed to keep hens and that your neighbours won't mind!
Make sure someone is willing to check your hens daily if you go away. There's so much information on hen keeping that I'll be preparing more intel in a few days..... |
Red - our boss bird.
PLEASE VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S WEBSITE
No reactions yet.
Please login or sign up to rate this intel.
Please login or sign up to add a comment.
When our neighbours moved here about 15 years ago they brought hens with them. I guess they thought it would be all right as we are near the middle of town, and there is no countryside nearby. However, the hens were killed by a fox, and they never replaced them. Since then, we have seen foxes with increasing frequency. So I would advise anyone thinking about keeping hens to make sure that the henhouse and run are fully fox-proof.
The copyright for this content entitled "Keeping Chickens for the First Time." has been specified by the contributor as:
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0
Details 
This content may be copied, distributed, and modified, as long as a) it's for non-commercial use, and b) the original author is acknowledged with a link back to the content page.
If you use this content according to the license specified, you must link to the following URL:
http://sarahbarnard.qondio.com/
|
 |
May, 2012
2008
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2009
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2010
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2011
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2012
January, February, March, April, May
|
|
Not a member yet?
Qondio is a powerful network for making it online. If you have a website to
promote, we can help.
Sign up and get in on the action.
|
|
Welcome to Qondio! Discover the awesome power this network can deliver by going to our About page. Or you could skip straight to the Sign Up form.
|
|
