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Friday 7 December 2012

Getting New Chickens, by Mum

 There are some things you may like to consider to cater for their needs :-

~ ditto Scrungee's advice re: straw. This will not only give your chooks a scratching base, but, the fertilised straw will be a boon to your compost heap! It will also make cleaning out a lot easier .

~ decide before you buy any chickens just what it is that you want them for (and thus save on disappointment!). If you want eggs all year round, you should be looking at a hybrid breed. If you want a pure breed, bear in mind they go off lay between Nov/Feb. If you want a dual purpose breed (for eggs and meat) then that will also dictate which breed will be best for you.

~ when considering which breed of chook you will house, consider egg laying frequency and egg size vs cost of feed/space. So, for example, a bantam breed lays eggs approx 35g in weight. A medium sized chook will lay and egg approx 55g in weigh but eats more than a bantam and needs more space per bird. A large breed chook could lay around 75 - 90g eggs but, clearly take up more space and eats far more!

~ chickens *need* to dust bath; this is to help them keep lurgies at bay (such as red mite). You could accomplish this by providing a tub with spent soil/wood ash/sand for the chooks to roll and bathe in. Failure to provide an alternative and you may find they will dust bath in your flower pots.

~ to combat the lack of "grass", feed them your veg peelings/bolted crops. The colour of their egg yolks will be governed by how many "greens" they eat.

~ bear in mind that you can feed back to them their egg shells (I bake mine in the bottom of the oven when I'm baking cakes/bread or a roast) crushed up and added to their food. The calcium in the shells is beneficial in producing strong egg shells in return and will save you the cost of buying oyster shell (which fits the same purpose   )

~ chooks like company; a solo chook *will* be okay ... but, it is better to have three (do not confuse "three" with a "trio" - a "Trio" means two hens and one cockerel!). No matter which breed of chook you go for ... Cockerels are noisey!! .. even bantam breeds!!

~ if you are housing in a wooden shelter, red mite will be your worst enemy and you will need to treat them frequently (yes, even if they have lots of dust bathing material to hand)

~ hens are "delicate" creatures; one day they will be chooking around quite merrily and the next, you may find they have gone to that great coop in the sky. Be prepared for that! They hide illness extremely well!!

~ urban foxes absolutely adore the growth in back garden chicken keeping: so, be prepared.  Earlier this year, I had a cheeky blighter attack one of my hens just a few feet away from where I was gardening and it was the middle of the day!! (Suffice to say, he dropped my hen and scarpered once I became "aware" )

~ consider *where* you are going to source your hens from because the reliability in breed description can be *very* subjective!

~ consider how much of an "investment" you wish to make in chooks. My source will sell fertilised eggs for approx 50p each - but, you don't quite know if they will hatch, if the breed is definate or what sex you get. My source will also sell newly hatched chicks for £3 each - again you don't know for sure what sex you are getting. They also sell adolescents for £5 - £8 each and you are still taking a bit of a gamble. They will sell POL (point of lay) hens for between £12 - £15 but at least you know what you are getting. Oh and these are pure breeds. Now, by that same token, I visited a garden centre earlier this year and they were selling their hybrid hens for ..... £28 EACH!!!

Hope I haven't overwhelmed you with information, but these are all things you will need to consider before you dive in (and I wish I had been told too )

When my current flock are in the big coop in the sky, I will be looking to breeding dual purpose birds.

Oh and I also keep ducks! So, as an aside ... have a thunk on which you may prefer.

[Adapted from an enquiry thread, Z]