Keeping Chickens
Is it a good idea to keep chickens? The initial outlay for housing is quite high as we expect to buy something ready made and well-made, so we aren't looking to get our money back quickly, if at all.
The real question is how much work is involved? How will we manage letting the chickens out first thing on a cold, wet morning before dashing off to work? What about if we want to go away for the weekend and what about summer holidays? The other question is can we really be sure our coop and run our fox proof as the foxes often visit the back garden.
Any one with experience of keeping chickens in the back garden, who can answer these questions please do so.
5 comments:
I ran across your blog through my Google News Feed. I try to keep up to date on what's in the news about chickens.
As a keeper of 3 backyard hens in Chicago, I have to say YES it's worth it! If you want to buy housing pre-made, it can be a bit pricey to start. However, chickens don't require a fancy home. The main requirements for housing are dry, draft-free, yet well-ventilated. You do need a securely fenced run for them if you have foxes or racoons in your area.
As for how to incorporate their care into your life, it's not too much different than getting a dog. You have to do some morning care, and if you go out of town you need to arrange for a good care-taker to come visit. If you're sure the fencing around the run and coop is secure from predators, you can leave them with food and water for a weekend getaway.
I love my hens, and they are very easy to care for!
I would agree with Linda the commitment side of owning chickens is similar to but actually probably less than than for a dog.
To let then out in a morning you can get an automatic pophole that detects light and opens itself. For housing you can often convert an old shed or other building.
Chickens are delightful to keep and really enrich your garden.
If you are on holiday for 1-2 weeks usually you can get a friend or neight to top up feed/water...and no kennel fees!
We have a website that covers keeping chickens and a chicken forum for interactive advice.
It depends on how much space you have, IMO Karin. Our neighbour used to have chickens when I was a child and it was noisy and encouraged rats. I really doubt that it is a suburban activity.
That said, I think it is worth looking into new forms of co-operative chicken farming (maybe renting a bit of land with other people for chickens).
By the way, a little bird told me that we were evicted from our allotment because there is a plan to build on the site.
Thanks for the comments Linda and John. Some useful suggestions. I'll pay your chicken forum a visit, but the other link didn't work.
Well, you've seen our garden, Joe. While it's not enormous it's big enough to keep 3 or 4 chickens and be able to move them around a fair bit, although we will need to work with the slope.
Did your neighbours have a cockrel? I get the impression they make the noise and we aren't thinking of raising our own chicks so won't have one of them. As far as rats are concerned we shall need to be careful not to overfeed them and only give as scraps the raw vegetable material we would put on the compost heap, although not any part of rhubarb or potato peelings. Other people keep chickens around here, so I don't think it should be a problem from that point of view.
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