Chickens, chickens, chickens. I remember how many questions I had when we were first planning to get ourselves some chickens, so I’m always happy to answer questions for anyone else heading out on the road to first-time chicken-hood.
On that note, there were three questions questions in the email this week.
Question one:
I am thinking about keeping a few hens in our garden. We used to have hens at home (Dad is a farmer, of sorts) so I am familiar with them. What is stopping me is what we do when we go away. We don’t go away that much and I have some people who have said they are willing to help out but I’m not sure how much work it would be for them. If the house is attached to a closed run can the door be left open so they only need to be visited daily? I read on the Omlet website they can be left for the weekend- how does that work? Do they sell a special feeder? Any advice welcomed.
It’s not really that much work for someone to pop in and look after your hens. Our neighbours positively love it as it means they get tasty eggs while we’re away (they’re so much better than shop-bought eggs).
If you are only going away for a weekend, the feeder in the Omlet coops will be more than enough to keep three chickens adequately fed, and they shouldn’t get right through a whole drinker in that time, either. For a longer period you will obviously need someone to come in every day or so to check that they are properly topped up, but that should only take five minutes or so.
Your chickens will put themselves to bed at night, so they will only need to close the door – not run around catching them from the furthest corners of your garden.
We clean our chickens out once a week, at the weekend, but they could go a fortnight if necessary if you don’t want your neighbours to have to shake out the droppings trays and hose down the roosting bars.
In short, then, it’s a very easy job for someone else to look after your hens for a few days while you take a break. A cat or dog would be more work.
Question two:
Hen coops. There are a lot about of quite a range of prices. I have seen pictures of the Eglu but wasn’t keen on it as there isn’t a proper raised perch for the birds. I liked the look of the Eden project house but people on the Omlet website reckon it might be cold. Then there are plenty of cheap wooden ones, is the downside of those and ease of manoeuvre and cleaning?
We use an Eglu Cube and are very happy with it. Our hens seem pretty happy, too. It’s large and airy, very easy to clean, and comes on wheels so we can easily move it around in the hen compound.
We can’t speak for the Eden Project hen houses as we haven’t tried one out (but would love to if the Eden people are reading) but from the looks of things the benefits with regard to ease of cleaning will be pretty much the same. The Eden Project coops are also made from recycled material, so are friendly to the environment.
Of course, you can save money by opting for a wooden ark, which is considerably cheaper than a plastic hen house, but unless you buy a very large one you still won’t get a raised roosting bar, although I’m not sure how essential this is. So long as your birds are able to grip a perch it doesn’t really matter if there isn’t a lot of height difference between that and the floor of the coop.
The other trouble with a wooden ark is that it will not be as easy to clean as a plastic hen house. The reason we opted for an Eglu Cube is that you can easily slide out the waste trays and shake out the contents into a bag (or onto the garden), and by lining them with newspaper every time you clean them out you make the job even easier the next time around.
Question three:
I’ve just moved to place with a garden after 16 years of high rise living. I’m really keen to keep two or three chickens (preferably ex battery ones because they have a pretty rough time of it) but I have masses of foxes around where I live (Ruislip). Do you think it would be a foolish decision to keep them? I don’t want to just provide a local take-away service for the resident (perhaps not so fabulous) Mr Fox. I have seen foxes coming up to the back door and also have seen the remnants of a battle with a pigeon on my lawn.
I was thinking about getting one of the Eglu houses which they say are fox resistant but that doesn’t mean fox foolproof does it. Also I wonder if this would mean I wouldn’t be able to let them out of the Eglu at all. I quite like the idea that they can have a little wander around at the weekends at least.
Anyway, I’d welcome any advice you could give me.
If you are happy to stay in the garden when your chickens are free ranging then I doubt that foxes would venture too close. Unfortunately, though, if foxes are a problem in your area you will probably have to keep them shut up for more time than you might like. If that is the case, I would recommend buying the largest run you can afford. At a minimum this should be an Eglu Cube, but if you can run to a proper compound, then so much the better.
The Eglu run is built using very strong wire and has a skirt of the same material running out across the grass to prevent digging. This should be enough to keep foxes out of your compound, but you still need to keep an eye out for evidence of fox activity, as they are wily animals and can be persistent. They may not be able to dig beneath the skirt in one night, but if they work out where to start, it is conceivable that they may be able to make an entry after several days of sporadic digging.
Do you have any questions about starting out with chickens? Click on the Contact tab at the top of the page and send them over.
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