Put me off chickens please

[ycbm]

I'm thinking of getting some chickens to lay eggs instead of buying eggs with dubious welfare standards.

Please tell me why I shouldn't!

 

[Flyermc]

i cant help because im also tempted, but they would be garden chickens and im worried about them not having enough space, making the lawn a mess for the kids (if they had more room) and what to do when the snow comes (we live on the edge of the moors on top of a hill, so normally get a good covering of snow over winter) we live in a tiny house, with no garage.

having said that, id love some chickens

 

[CMcC]

Smelly when you have to clean them out, especially if the ground is wet. Hen food is very attractive to rats so you get rats in the run. Horrible when the fox gets in and kills them.

On the other hand: Fresh eggs are nice and if you get good layers and have a surplus your friends will be very grateful.

 

[millikins]

They do attract vermin however careful you are storing feed. If you let them go free range they can do an astonishing amount of damage to a garden, you can end up sick of the sight of wonderful fresh eggs, other than that, no

 

[D66]

Smelly, rats, have to be looked after if you go away, very expensive eggs, expensive way to feed the Fox, hen house - £200, 6ft high wire mesh run with roof and door- wire dug into soil.

 

[Clodagh]

My OH says that instead of having my chickens we could just get Fortnum and Mason to deliver half a dozen by helicopter whenever we need some.

 

[Clodagh]

On the plus side they are tame, rewarding, great fun, huge timewasters and proper free range eggs knock the socks off any other.

 

[Nudibranch]

Sorry, can't help there. Chickens are great. Yes, possibly the most expensive eggs you will ever eat but they're so entertaining. Mine aren't even great layers as they're a rare breed but they do look beautiful. In fact breeding them has become a bit of an addiction. And surplus cockerels are so much better eating than supermarket birds.

If you have a secure run and house for nighttime foxes are less of a problem. Touch wood I've never lost one to a fox yet despite there being a brazen vixen who strolls through the back field in broad daylight. I think having a dog helps.

 

[ycbm]

On the plus side they are tame, rewarding, great fun, huge timewasters and proper free range eggs knock the socks off any other.

Sorry, can't help there. Chickens are great. Yes, possibly thr most expensive eggs you will ever eat but they're so entertaining. Mine aren't even great layers as they're a rare breed but they do look beautiful. In fact breeding them has become a bit of an addiction. And surplus cockerels are so much better eating than supermarket birds.

Oy! I said put me off

Sadly I have a lot of room, already have rats that the cats catch, don't mind smells, need to have holiday cover for the horses anyway ..... Clucking well useless you lot

 

[KittenInTheTree]

Two words, OP: Jurassic Park.

Do you want to wake up one morning and find that you're about to be eaten by the tiny descendants of velociraptors? Because this is how it starts. One minute you're pricing yet more wire mesh, the next bam - grisly death by carnivorous pullets!

That or they'll deliberately infect you with some kind of mutant strain of avian flu that turns people into zombies.

HTH.

 

[planete]

Far less hassle buying organic eggs and no more expensive once you have counted all the initial outlay, food, parasite prevention and treatment, fatalities, and other setbacks. Been there, done it, no more thank you.

 

[ycbm]

Two words, OP: Jurassic Park.

Do you want to wake up one morning and find that you're about to be eaten by the tiny descendants of velociraptors? Because this is how it starts. One minute you're pricing yet more wire mesh, the next bam - grisly death by carnivorous pullets!

That or they'll deliberately infect you with some kind of mutant strain of avian flu that turns people into zombies.

HTH.

...

 

[ycbm]

Far less hassle buying organic eggs and no more expensive once you have counted all the initial outlay, food, parasite prevention and treatment, fatalities, and other setbacks. Been there, done it, no more thank you.

Really useful, Thank you!

 

[PapaverFollis]

I agree ref. the velociraptor comment. Have actually had a group of chickens pull a pincer movement on me, as described in Jurassic Park. Albeit only in order to steal my toast... But still. Frightening.

 

[D66]

I agree ref. the velociraptor comment. Have actually had a group of chickens pull a pincer movement on me, as described in Jurassic Park. Albeit only in order to steal my toast... But still. Frightening.

Agree with this too. We inadvertently ended up with two cockerels who have been fine until this week. On Friday they both attacked me spurs to the fore at chest height. . One is now oven ready.

 

[Leo Walker]

Chickens are amazing. Mine all have strong and interesting personalities. And they come in all shapes and sizes. I dont like them too chickeny looking. This is one of my current favourites

and this is my breeding pair

I keep them on sand with covered runs and it keeps them clean, dry and theres no smell at all. I just rake it all over twice a week and clean the bedroom at the same time. The rest of my garden is big plastic chips and/or slate so I have no issues with mud at all.

They are very intelligent and respond well to clicker training. Mine live to eat and will do anything for food! The ones I have raised from chicks are incredibly friendly and love people. There is nothing quite as sweet as watching chicks learning about outside for the first time. I find it fascinating that they just know how to be chickens despite being raised in a box in my spare bedroom for 6 weeks!

 

[Clodagh]

Even commerical organic eggs will have been procured from chickens that have been conditioned when young to not do too much outside. Seriously, the eggs from your own chooks will so far surpass any bought egg. You may not want to consider what they have eaten in your yard to produce such bounty...they are the original omnivores.

 

[Clodagh]

Oh, and LW's chooks, while lovely, will lay very few eggs. Get some innoculated hybrids, you can get pretty colours that lay coloured eggs as well as brown ones. Keep them for 3 years then cull and replace. That way they have had a great life and you don't end up with runs full of non productive chooks that stop you having room for laying ones.

 

[Fragglerock]

Smelly when you have to clean them out, especially if the ground is wet. Hen food is very attractive to rats so you get rats in the run. Horrible when the fox gets in and kills them.

On the other hand: Fresh eggs are nice and if you get good layers and have a surplus your friends will be very grateful.

All of these. My neighbour had was looked like a well fenced run for them including wire over the top but they still had three lots killed by a fox. She doesn't have them any more.

 

[ycbm]

That's a seriously brilliant chicken!

 

[Moobli]

I won't put you off. I got my first hens ten years ago and had a period of being without a few around four years ago but missed them about the place and definitely missed the gorgeous, free range eggs! Get some, get some!

 

[Leo Walker]

Oh, and LW's chooks, while lovely, will lay very few eggs. Get some innoculated hybrids, you can get pretty colours that lay coloured eggs as well as brown ones. Keep them for 3 years then cull and replace. That way they have had a great life and you don't end up with runs full of non productive chooks that stop you having room for laying ones.

Yeah mine are pets and eggs are a bonus. I do have a swedish flower hen chick I'm growing on who will produce normal size eggs in good amounts. You can go for hybrids and have more eggs than you know what to do with or you can take a small hit in egg production and go for one of the rare breeds and help support them, or go for comedy chickens like mine. Basically with a bit of planning if you want chickens you will be able to find some that appeal to you visually and lay as many eggs as you need

 

[Nudibranch]

I'd go for Light Sussex if you like the look of a traditional hen, or Rhode Islands. Or a cross between the two if you want maximum eggs. Bluebells are regular shaped but prettily coloured. If you want big, fluffy and friendly, Cochins are the bees knees and ours still keep us in surplus even though they're not top layers. With their feathered feet they dont scratch too much. Something like a Wyandotte bantam will keep you reasonably well supplied at a smaller scale. Rescues for moral points and lots of eggs... Or of course crazy chooks like LWs for looks.

 

[Clodagh]

I breed wyandotte bantams in non standard colours, they are a great breed, robust, not prone to diseases and good layers. They do go broody at the drop of a hat though, but if you keep on top of that you can break them quite easily.
A selection of my chooks. This pic is a couple of years old now, and I have less booteds and more wyandottes. Booteds are great but are prone to a disease called Mareks, which is soul destroying to witness, so I only have a few old stagers of them now.

Oh and there is a modern game and a dutch in there too. Mods are fabulous, proper little velociraptors but no eggs to speak of. Dutch are great too but like roosting in trees.

 

[tda]

Smelly when you have to clean them out, especially if the ground is wet. Hen food is very attractive to rats so you get rats in the run. Horrible when the fox gets in and kills them.

On the other hand: Fresh eggs are nice and if you get good layers and have a surplus your friends will be very grateful.

All these reasons. Foxes can and will get in. It's soul destroying when they do x

 

[Equi]

If you want them, get them. I loved my chickens! The only issue i ever had was that they either like to die suddenly for no reason, or look like theyre about to die and refuse to - so have a broom handle ready :/ When i decided to get a cockeral i loved him to bits he was the bees knees...but over a few years all the lady chickens died and he was alone, but i didnt actually want anymore chickens...but i loved him so ended up with two more hens and the ******* died a week later! The two hens pottered about for a while then one died and i was back to square one cause i didn't want more, but she was an egg breaker and didn't lay so there was no way to rehome her. I ended up letting her potter about alone despite feeling very bad about it and eventually she took sick and had to be dispatched.

Also, they are racist. So stick to one colour

 

[brighteyes]

I love my chickens. They are friendly and funny and I know that I saved them from a horrible 'reward' for their 18 months service laying eggs flat out. Keep them relatively penned up but let them free range for a couple of hours in the early evening, then they don't stray too far. Don't get more than you can manage to keep tidily. The eggs can then be more than guilt-free. They are delicious.

 

[ycbm]

You succeeded, thanks. I don't like them as pets, just not for me. And I know we also have rats, weasel, stoat, mink, fox and badger as potential predators. So I think I'd best give chickens a miss.

 

[Apercrumbie]

Here’s a reason: cockerels are evil. Even when they’re not doing anything, they look at you with their evil orange eyes, waiting, waiting for the moment to terrorise you. We had bantams when I was a child. Our first were supposed to be three Mille Fleur bantam hens (also known as Booted Bantams I believe). But you’ve guessed it, Millie actually turned out to be a Miles. He was tiny. And deadly. Years of terror followed. Ours were free range which meant that the children could not be because Millie would chase us (remember the t-rex running down the road in Jurassic Park? Think that but small and feathery) before flying up to try and scratch our faces. God knows what the neighbours thought of our parents when they heard the screams. The hens were also terrible layers. When Millie (I refused to rename him Miles) attacked a visiting child and scratched him quite badly, we rehomed him and his hens to a friend who had a large secure run well away from children.

We then got some Silver Pencilled Wyandotte bantams – not as pretty as laced Wyandottes but lovely little hens. We sadly no longer keep any but do miss having them. Apart from Millie.

 

[MotherOfChickens]

not all cocks are evil, I've had some lovely ones-from Gollum the Scots Grey, to Colin the cockerel (Marsh Daisy cross silkie) to Jackson, a fab Marsh Daisy cock. I agree that they're mostly either horrid or thick as mince, but the good ones are splendid.