Chicken people - question

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Ilovefoals

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I'd love to get some chickens and we have a large run and shed that used to be for dogs which my husband can convert.

What are the best breed of chickens to get regarding ease of keeping and friendliness?

Also, in the winter are they ok left outside in their chicken house with plenty of straw or do they need heat lamps??

Rest assured, I will do extensive research before getting any chickens but thought some of you guys could share your personal recommendations.

Thanks!
 
If you want year round eggs the commercial hybrids are good, the pedigree breeds lay well but not right through the winter. Rescue birds will give you some eggs but can cost as much a a point of lay and will be past its best.
Ours stay out all winter, when it is v cold we shut the hen house up at night. They will need a nest box to lay eggs in. Your run needs to be fox proof, bury the netting underground or run an electric wire round the outside of the run a few inches off the ground. Bio-security means you'll need a roof for the run and hang the feeders to deter rats.;)
The eggs are good though!
We have had lots of different breeds - how friendly they are mostly depends on how much you handle them. One bantam cockerel had to go as he attacked us whenever he could.
 
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We have a mixture of bantams (small ones!) of various breeds like silkies, sultans and polands and then some bigger ones such as araucana (lay blue eggs) and leghorn as well as some mixed breeds. I like to have a mixture as they are nice to look at and I get different size and coloured eggs.

My favourites are faverolles, we have salmon ones they are lovely to look at, easy to keep and very friendly even the cockerels. I wouldn't get anything with too much feather on the feet or with a big crest (such as the sultans or polands) if you are after easy keeping as they do require some 'maintenance'.

You could consider ex-battery hens, will have plenty of laying left in them and after some TLC should become friendly.

Mine live in old sheds, adult chickens don't need heat lamps they have lots of think feathers to keep them warm!
 
We homed a dozen ex battery hens 18 months ago and they have been brilliant. They were in a state when we got them but soon recovered and it is lovely to see them enjoying their freedom. They have become very friendly.

But the friendliest chickens we have had are Brahmas, they are fantastic. If I sit on a bench in the garden one of them will ALWAYS jump up and sit next to me. They are beautiful birds but not the greatest layers, though ours have been wonderful broody hens and mums.
 
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We have 4 commercial hybrids - cant remember their mixes now but each one is a different colour. My OH made a hen house and it looks like a dolls house - he made them each a box inside but I have seen them ALL sitting in the same box. We bought them at 17 weeks and I think they started laying at 22 or so weeks. I never thought I would get as much enjoyment out of them as I do. They are very amusing. We get four eggs every day from them. They have a run but we put them to bed in the house each night to keep them safe. One of them can squeeze through the fence and nearly got caught by my JRT who fortunately yaps a lot so now she hears him coming and makes a run back for the safety of the chicken run - it really amuses my mare who has been seen to follow her back to run :) like a security guard lol.
 
My most friendly birds are my faverolles, the next best are my ex-batts. The ex-batts cost me 50p each and they lay better through winter. Avoid the Buff Orps they eat loads and hardly lay anything.

Bantam wise my Pekins are friendly but do not lay that well. My silkies are flighty and not very friendly. Barbu D' Uccles are pretty some are friendly, they lay well and do not eat much.

Hens ideally need a secure house raised off the floor, they need a good sized area to scratch around, water and feed which are again raised off the ground. The feed needs to be sheltered from rain - either under cover or a feeder with a "hat". You need a good cleaner to prevent foot mite, red mite, northern mite etc (I find poultry shield is best). You also need to worm them. Apple cider vinegar added to the water seems to promote health and improve laying.
 
In the past we had Black Rocks, but they pecked each other to death!!
Now we just have plain brown ones, we bought them at point of lay, early this year and we get about 16 eggs per day, we have 17 chickens. We feed them Layers Pellets, Layers Meal, and mixed hen corn. They do have a seperate dish of grit but never seem to eat it.
We have flat washing up bowls for water. We also give them ALL the kitchen scraps which they go mad for, also if we get too many marrows in our garden we smash one up in there and they love to peck the flesh and seeds.
They have a wooden house with purches and individual nesting boxes, we bed them down on paper shreddings from our paper shredder we shred everything so does our neighbour and we have enough to keep them going(they are fully cleaned out and all new bedding once a week)
Ther run is a large one and well netted and about 7 foot high to keep foxes out and our dogs!! As its muddy at the moment we put straw in there, they love to scratch about in that.
Good luck with your chickens.
 
We have 5 Blubell girls, nice but thick, 2 Rode Island red girls and a cockeral, lovely looking birds and good layers, 6 rescue warrens, though past their best are lovely and good layers. Six rhode Island x warrens/bluebells point of lay. Two pekin bantams and two Silkie bantams and two chicks bantam is raising, hens eggs so don't know what they are!

The bantams are housed seperately from the hens, in a stable. The hens have a huge run with a buried fence and a roof. They have a purpose built hen house and spend a lot of time, particularly in winter roaming the garden which they enjoy. No need for heat lamps. Clean water daily and good food is all that is required, I do add chicken mineral to their feed, and worm with a vermalux wormer once a month. I feed mixed corn for breakfast and layers mash for lunch. I also feed greens, which we grow for them if kept in the run and all kitchen scraps except meat. Their eggs are in great demand. I also use straw in thier run when wet. In fact Steeley dan seem to keep thier birds the same as we do!
 
Get ducks instead. Nicer eggs! And far more fun than chickens. A couple of khaki campbells will lay as well if not better than a hybirid chicken.

Plus if you get a drake you may get lucky and have lots of cute baby ducklings next year!
 
Well we've got bantams, coz we seem to like them - they're a mixed bag, mostly crossbreds and home-reared. IMO bantams are a little bit more flighty and less "friendly" than hens are, tho' they are fun.

Why don't you (as has been suggested) get some ex-battery hens? They'd make a good starting point and you could see how you got on with poultry keeping.

Re. keeping them in a house or whatever at night, as long as its as fox-proof as you can get it, they'll be fine, their own warmth will keep them warm in there. But foxes are a real problem and you'll need to think about how you're going to deal with predators. We went the whole hog and built a purpose built chicken run coz we got fed up with foxes just coming in and basically helping themselves to our prized fowls!

You can get coops which you can move around; the fowls go up to roost at night and there's space underneath for your poultry to have safe space for scratching etc during the day time.

The other thing you'll need to do is watch for parasites like lice and red mite, and worm regularly. I use Diatomaceous earth for red mite (Nettex do a powder under a brand name but can't remember what it is!).

Also (awful subject - but necessary) you'll need to know how to, er, um, dispatch your stock when necessary for humane reasons (or indeed if you want to harvest them for eating!). Best to ask an experienced poultry keeper to show you, if you can't find a smallholders course or anything.

Good luck! Keeping chickens is fun and rewarding; and at least you'll know how your eggs have been produced.
 
Just to add, if we get cockeral chicks we give them to a neighbour at a suitable age, he despatches then and gives us pheasants as a swop. OH worked with poultry for years and cannot now despatch them himself as he used to 'cos we know them.
 
The best chickens we ever had were Black Sumatra Game. Fantastic birds. OK, the eggs were smaller than the Light Sussex or Rhode Island Red laid but they were such fun to own and stunningly beautiful.

Pic (not mine)
DSCN4024.jpg


This is our old cockerel, showing a marauding peacock the exit! :D Yes, he did win even though he was alot smaller.

fighttwo.jpg


fightone.jpg


They had a chicken hut and a run and they were fine in all weathers. We had perches in the hut and they would roost on those for the night.
 
We have always had some.
Easy to keep, plenty of eggs.
We used to show them too! My favourite was a Huge Cockrell we called Captain Hook!
Now we have Rhode Island Reds, (when mr Fox isnt eating them!)
No heat lamp needed.

When we were little Mum used to put Cadburys Creme eggs in the run and said the hens had been given special allowance from the Easter Bunny to deliver them! :D
 
While there is a chicken thread, could I ask another chicken question please..

We got some ex batts a month ago. They didn't look too bad - all missing a few feathers here and there, but not bad. They have a huge purpose build run - with 7' fence dug into the ground, and a nice little hut. It took them a while to get used to free range, but they are all coming out a lot now. One still stays inside a lot. Two of the six look fantastic now, two loog fine, and two look thinner - with a few feathers still missing. There are a few feathers in the hutch each day, and one of the poorer looking ones has quite a red bottom where the feathers are missing. I'm wondering if they are getting bullied by the fatter ones. I put a feeder in the middle of the hut, and scatter corn and layers pellets around outside the hut each morning, so they could get food from different sources. There doesn't seem to be any argueing when I shut the door at night, or in the morning. We are getting 2-4 eggs a day. Any ideas? Do I remember a suggestion of putting vaseline on the tail of the ones that get bullied?

Sorry for diverting from your thread OP. I'd reccomend ex batts!
 
Wow thanks guys! So many different breeds and great tips. My hubby is going to customize the shed the dogs used to sleep in and fit roosting perches and nest boxes. He's going to make a little chicken door which we can lock at night. The run is attached to the shed and was big enough for 2 collies to run about in so should be plenty of space. Once they get to know you, is it ok to let them out of the run? Will they wander off or stay in the garden. Our land is not fenced except for the horses fields so I'd hate for them to go missing!

ETA - My friend has some ex-batts so I'll quiz her too! And Faracat - those chickens are gorgeous!!!
 
we've recently built a purpose-built run and coop for my mum's new hobby..chickens. She got a variety of types, for appearance and egg colour so we have marans, legbars, a light sussex, a buff sussex, a bluebell, an orpington, a nera and some others whose names i forget ;p. Some will lay more than others but egg output wasnt a priority for mum

we've found this Haynes manual really interesting and informative, for example when listing some breeds it says whether they're easily tamed/flighty/shy etc. Also details pests, common ailments, how to build a coop. basically all you need to know starting out with chooks
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chicken-Man...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1289937371&sr=1-1

if given total free range they will still usually come running when there's food being dished out but you may have to hunt for eggs. ours are contained within a large run simply because my dog would have em in a shot given the chance.

what i would advise is if getting your birds from different sources try and quarantine them for a week or so just to be sure they're healthy. and when introducing new ones to your flock, do it at bedtime as they become familiar with the newcomers overnight and there's not such a kerfuffle the next day.

We all find em fascinating to watch, and quite relaxing, like watching fish in a tank. They all have different characters and quirks and they're so funny to watch at night as they queue up to get into the coop. and the eggs are yummy!
 
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