Chickens, and keeping the chickens happy...?

[Girlracer]

I am currently toying with the idea of buying a couple of hens to keep at home.

I don't have a huge garden, but what I do have is a very large 'run' which was designed for 3 indoor cats to get a bit of fresh hair. The cats are no longer here, and it is wasted currently, so wondered about using it for a couple of hens? It is quite a big space, both in floor space and height.

I planned to get a hutch to place in the pen, and do an area of bark/grit within the pen, and maybe create some space slightly off the ground too.

Would they be happy living solely in this space? (sorry not great photos, they don't show you the full size but gives you an idea).

I do have a small lawn, but would be worried about escape routes in the garden, but potentially could have a secondary moveable pen on the lawn that they could also spend time in during the day on days when I am home?

I have looked after hens previously but only in so much as feeding and watering not in actually creating an environment that keeps them happy.

Any tips?

 

[Clodagh]

That looks great. Don't buy them at the moment, the bird flue restrictions are a nightmare, hopefully they will be lifted come spring.
If your cage set up is fox proof then I would put an open fronted house in, I use a log store, it has a perch in it, I will take a pic sometime but my broadband is too slow to upload pics to photobucket at the moment. If you put a bedding like hemp down you can easily clean it out and they will enjoy scratching in it. You can feed them greens, apples, sweetcorn.
I do like my chickens to have grass, they graze like small cows, so it might be nice if you let them out on the lawn sometimes.
Bantams take up less room and do less lawn damage but do lay smaller eggs, you need to think if it is eggs or beauty you are after, both don't really happen.

 

[jrp204]

If the cage has a roof you will be fine to get hens now. It looks plenty big enough.

 

[Emmangel]

It looks big enough to me. I think there are currently good deals on buying eglu hen houses at Omlet. I have one and it's fab !

 

[horselady]

That looks great! When the time comes you are going to get the hens why not get some from the BHWT? Mine have all laid an egg a day since they came and the eggs are massive plus you are doing a good thing and The recommended donation is £5 per hen. Much less than the £15 you pay for normal POL hens.

 

[Equi]

That looks great for hens! They would be more than happy there, but generally they dont go to far away from "home" anyway, so letting them into the garden for a few hours shouldn't be too much of an issue. If you have anyone handy enough, i would get them to build a coop high as possible but low eough for you to reach in the bottom to clean out etc....in my experience they like to get as high as possible. I have mine in a stable, with purpose built roosts...nope...they all got up to the window and roosted on the top bar of the window..as you do. I have nest boxes on the floor they use, so they dont need a nest box for the rooost.

This is chickens current set up as the last chicken ever..special girl. She sleeps right at the very top of the window bars and enjoys hopping up over the stable partiton then up her scaffold on to the wood then up the bars lol

 

[Girlracer]

That looks great! When the time comes you are going to get the hens why not get some from the BHWT? Mine have all laid an egg a day since they came and the eggs are massive plus you are doing a good thing and The recommended donation is £5 per hen. Much less than the £15 you pay for normal POL hens.

That looks great for hens! They would be more than happy there, but generally they dont go to far away from "home" anyway, so letting them into the garden for a few hours shouldn't be too much of an issue. If you have anyone handy enough, i would get them to build a coop high as possible but low eough for you to reach in the bottom to clean out etc....in my experience they like to get as high as possible. I have mine in a stable, with purpose built roosts...nope...they all got up to the window and roosted on the top bar of the window..as you do. I have nest boxes on the floor they use, so they dont need a nest box for the rooost.

This is chickens current set up as the last chicken ever..special girl. She sleeps right at the very top of the window bars and enjoys hopping up over the stable partiton then up her scaffold on to the wood then up the bars lol

Thanks so much guys! We are in the process of 'doing' the garden at the moment so we will be ready for them soon. I will definitely go to BHWT!