chickens

[Melissa93]

I've been thinking about Maybe getting chickens next year, this may*sound silly but this year ive grown tomatoes and strawberries and I love it being able to grow things myself its like an achievement, planning on growing cucumbers, tomatoes, strawberries and potatoes next year and looking into other things as well. Obviously I know having chicken's is different to growing things but i like idea of being able to collect our own eggs and think it would be nice for my daughter learning about it as well, just wondering how people who have them find it looking after them etc, thanks xx

 

[binxyboo]

Stalking this thread - We are getting chickens in the next year or two.

 

[Melissa93]

I love the idea of getting our own eggs but need to know what would be letting myself in for first haha x

 

[binxyboo]

We were going to get them this year, but the discovery of an old water well in our garden threw everything into turmoil, as now, the entire garden needs to be replanned as we can't put anything over the well!!

 

[dgirllamius]

We had chickens years ago and they're really easy to look after. They obviously need somewhere to sleep and they will find their own way in you don't need to chase them round.

They're really fun to have and I used to love being outside with then. I used to bring them indoors a lot lol.

We also had a cockerel which caused no end of problems with our neighbours and went to court over it and everything lol. I'd love to have chickens again but we live in a flat now

 

[LoraLoo]

We had chickens they make good pets and unlike ducks don't really make much mess of your garden, I would only get them if you have a decent amount of space. Stay away from cockerels they are horrible vicious things and will attack you and your kids x

 

[Melissa93]

my garden is huge so will have plenty of space, do they make much noise? x

 

[Melissa93]

We had chickens years ago and they're really easy to look after. They obviously need somewhere to sleep and they will find their own way in you don't need to chase them round.

They're really fun to have and I used to love being outside with then. I used to bring them indoors a lot lol.

We also had a cockerel which caused no end of problems with our neighbours and went to court over it and everything lol. I'd love to have chickens again but we live in a flat now

are they cheap to look after once everything is set up? also apart from feeding and cleaning them out is there much else you need to do x

 

[LoraLoo]

my garden is huge so will have plenty of space, do they make much noise? x

Th not too bad in summer they can be early risers n a bit noisy but if you only have a few they're not too much bother. They're pretty cheap to keep and look after themselves and go in on their own at night you just need to make sure you lock up every night or foxes will get them. You may also need to clip their wings depending how high your walls fences etc are in garden x

 

[dgirllamius]

We had chickens years ago and they're really easy to look after. They obviously need somewhere to sleep and they will find their own way in you don't need to chase them round.

They're really fun to have and I used to love being outside with then. I used to bring them indoors a lot lol.

We also had a cockerel which caused no end of problems with our neighbours and went to court over it and everything lol. I'd love to have chickens again but we live in a flat now

are they cheap to look after once everything is set up? also apart from feeding and cleaning them out is there much else you need to do x

I can't really remember it was years ago and they were my parents chickens not mine so I don't really know. I think they only bought chicken feed on occasion and that was it. They don't need much else.

 

[Melissa93]

think I'll only have about 3, don't want to end up with too many eggs lol I'll probably have coop and run then let them out while we are in the garden, how do I go about getting wings clipped x

 

[dgirllamius]

Not sure about wing clipping, a vet perhaps? I'm not sure if ours even had it done and even if they did my dad would have done it (he's a gamekeeper so knows his stuff).

 

[Melissa93]

ok thanks

 

[Melissa93]

ok thanks

 

[WelshOneEmma]

We have 5 chickens, had them about a year. LOVE them! Yes they can be noisy (clucking = attention = treats) but if you dont indulge them too much they arent too bad. The are noisy when laying though!

Feed we get online, cost about £8 for a bag that lasts 2-3 months. Treats on top. Can give them left over veg too (but be careful with what you give) We get between 3-5 eggs a day, so sell the excess to neighbours. If you have any questions PM me - happy to talk about it. or you can check out our blog (needs an update) - https://emoeyschickens.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/day-1-today-we-brought-chickens-home-we.html

when Emilia is older we will get a couple more and she can have one that is hers. All ours lay different colour eggs so we will do the same so she can have eggs from her chicken!

 

[Pearls18]

It would depend where I lived, I would feel bad for the neighbours if we lived in close proximity to someone, I'd ring their necks if my next door neighbour got them but we're semi detached. My MIL lives rurally and has them, nightmare for the garden though!

 

[Eleanor ace]

I used to have chickens when I was a teenager, loved having them! The downsides were having to get up early (they needed to be out by 6am, this was early to be up for me back then ) and having them dig up the garden (my mum wasn't too impressed!). We had one bantam which was fine but the other chicken was like a blooming ostrich and with one scratch she'd have dug up a plant . But they were easy to keep and i loved holding them.

I really want a couple of chickens now but I don't think we can as we have neighbours on either side and chickens can be quite noisy. Also we don't have anyone to look after them when we go away.

 

[Melissa93]

think i may have to leave it for now then, I have neighbours both sides don't want to drive them mad haha ill have to wait till I can get myself a nice rural house with a nice big garden

 

[Rhi_Rhi1]

someone in my street has a parrot... I assume a parrot I don't know, all i do know is that is makes a horrible noise ALL day long! at first it was kind of like sitting in a rainforest lmao so we ignored it, made us feel tropical ya know haha. Now if i ever had the opportunity i would ring its neck :/

I know you asked about chickens, but i just wanted to stress how unpopular you might become with a bird in your garden, also every garden I have been in with chickens STINKS.

 

[Melissa93]

ok thanks I appreciate, don't want neighbours complaining, not that one side has room to really considering the house constantly stinks of weed and play music loud late at night and shouting as well lol but guess some of us are more considerate then others xxx