Chickens

A

anniedoherty

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912
Location
Yorkshire
www.boxtreegallery.co.uk
Sorry, it's not about dogs obviously but I wasn't sure where else to put this. I have been offered some Rhode Island Reds by one of my husband's friends but I don't really know anything about chickens. I would like to take them but I just worndered if anyone else on here kept chickens and could give me any good advice?

I have been doing a lot of research on the internet and found the Omlet web site the best so far but if there are any others I should look at I would love to know about them.

Thanks! Annie
 

Hi, we keep chickens. They are really easy to keep and don't require much a hen house with perches and we feed ours mixed poultry corn and layers pellets in the summer. They will happily eat most of your kitchen waste. I'll try and give you any advice I can - let me know any specific questions you have and I will try to answer them. Don't know of any websites though I'm afraid.
 
We had chickens for a while - they were really lovely. Maybe go to your nearest farm shop to get more info?
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Good luck.
 
My friend has 4 chickens Dolce and Gabbana and Marks and Spencers. They are funny things and love to spend the day rooting through the horses beds and out in the muck heap for worms etc. Great eggs although they are VERY free range (you find them everywhere!!) They happily live outside with a little house (which they roost on not IN! weirdos) and are in a big pen fenced with electric fencing overnight to keep the foxes away.
 
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Lol, love the names! I think mine will all have old-fashioned ladies names like Betty, Flo and Harriet etc!

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Mine was called Betty
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Father named his 'eggy' , Brother called his chook bacon, and Mum called hers Lightening
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Before taking delivery check on their age. Anything over two years old is starting to knock on a bit and has seen its most productive days.
 
Thanks for that alec. He has new chicks hatching all the time so I think I can have any age I want. What age would be best? Because I don't know anything about raising chicks I don't think I would want to get very small ones.
 
Hiya...I started with a few chooks a friend gave us, now we have somewhere in and around 20 over winter and usually double/triple that over the summer
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They need a secure coop and run/free range area. We built our own. Feed - layers pellets (have the correct protein & calcium levels for laying hens) plus ours get some corn as scratch feed just before being locked up, pellets can be fed ad-lib or measured. Rhode Island Reds (RIR) are usually very friendly little birds (we'll discount my little witch!) who lay dark brown eggs of a large-ish size. They're cold hardy too. Fresh water needs to be available all the time, we add 50ml of cider vinegar per 2ltrs of water one week in 4 for general immune boosting. Worming is just mixing Flubenvet into feed every 6 weeks.


Oh..and it's addictive
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If you're getting soft shell/no shell eggs your chooks need more calcium, not grit. Grit is utilised in the croup to break down feed and should be available ad-lib unless they free range. For soft shell layers, bake thier own eggshells in the oven for a few hours, grind to a powdery grit and add to thier feed (we just whack them on a tray on the bottom shelf and they get baked when ever the oven is used and retrieved when we remember). The ground eggshells must not resemble egg shells or the girls may go after their own eggs!

Ps. For grit use proper grit and NOT ground oyster shells as fed to budgies!
 
thanks.... havent got them yet but my mum was telling me they have to be fed grit, they will be free range running around the farm and being locked up at night
 
Then they most likely won't need grit..they'll be pciking up all sorts on their rounds scratching that'll do!
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I have two sussex, a light and buff, two welsummers and two little bantams which are light sussex X Frissian (sp)

We got the first ones as 14 weekers and it seemed forever till they started to lay, however they are fairly friendly and dont mind being handled..

The bantams were orphaned at three days old (and given to us by the school caretaker)! so we hand reared them (not hard) and they are always the first at the door!!! Strangely, although it seemed a shorter time before they laid eggs it obviously was much longer!!!

Ours have been laying for about six weeks now and we have had more than 150 eggs. The larger hens are older (2 years) but they still lay an egg most days, the bantams lay everyday without fail.


Great fun to have around, love the noise they make!!!
 
I did a head count earlier - we currently have 2 roosters, 16hens, a duck and a drake
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Plus about 34 chicks & 12 ducklings to hatch. Currently getting 10 hen eggs a day and a duck egg...it's blooming hard selling/using that many!
 
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