| The Quick Guide to
Keeping Chickens!
Chickens can be one of the most enjoyable
and rewarding pets you can keep. And when I say rewarding I really mean it
- chickens will reward you with fresh eggs each morning, helping you to
reduce your food bill and - because there are no food miles or packaging
involved - your carbon footprint. Hopefully your eggs with be organic and
free range too! If you're thinking about keeping chickens, read on to see
if it's for you...
Taking the decision
- First, decide if you have enough time.
Chickens are really easy to look after and are no more work than, say,
a rabbit or a guinea pig. The chicken house will need to be cleaned
out regularly, about once a week - but if you place old newspaper
under the roosting bar, this should only take about ten minutes.
Chickens will need fresh food and water daily. And you will need to
collect the eggs! Also think about who will look after the chickens if
you go away on holiday. Is there a friend or neighbour who could pop
over once a day, in return for the collected eggs?
Home Sweet Home
- Chickens need a safe and secure home - a
purpose built chicken house or ark with an integral run is the best
bet. Some companies such as Forsham
Cottage Arks or Eglu
sell starter packs, including house, chickens and feed, and will
deliver it too. Local breeders, such as Little
Morton Farm in Derbyshire, also often sell chicken houses along
with the birds.
- The house needs to be fox-proof. A
hen-house rested on a scratch mat (a sheet of fox-proof wire, which
will often come with the starter pack) will keep your chickens safe at
night. If you want to keep free-range chickens, you also need to know
that they are safe from predators in your garden or paddock. And make
sure that you shut chickens into their house just before dusk.
Choosing your Chooks
- The easiest way to buy chickens is to
buy point-of-lay hens. This means that they are just reaching the age
when they are about to lay eggs - usually between 18 - 21 weeks old.
There are many different breeds available, including rare older breeds
and hybrids. The hybrids have been bred specifically for egg
production and can produce an egg each every day. Three or four hens
are plenty to provide a small family with enough eggs. Our hybrids -
Amber Stars and Lohman Browns - are particularly friendly birds, and
have been brilliant with the children.
- Unless you want to breed chickens and
hatch out your own chicks, you don't need a cockerel. If you do decide
to get a cockerel, please consider your neighbours - they make a lot
of noise early in the morning! Also be wary of getting a cockerel if
you have small children, as they can become aggressive and
territorial.
- When your hens first arrive, keep them
shut up within their run for a couple of weeks - this helps them to
remember where their home is, so that when you let them out they know
where to go to roost. During this time it is a good idea to talk to
them regularly, so that they become familiar with you and recognise
you as a source of food - especially if you feed them with little
treats such as sweetcorn from time to time. This will help to make the
chickens tame, and therefore easier to pick them up when you need to.
Go with the Grain
- As well as needing fresh drinking water,
hens need layers pellets, available from farm supplies stores. The
pellets provide all the nutrients the hens need, and you don't have to
feed them with anything else, especially if they are free-ranging and
scratching for grubs and worms. However, our hens do appreciate a
couple of handfuls of whole grain, which we give them in the
afternoon. We also give them some of our kitchen scraps: cooked rice
and pasta, bread (soak it in a bit of water first) and - their
favourite - sweetcorn! You should make sure that you do not feed your
hens with meat or with anything salty.
- Your hens will also need some grit -
this is usually provided, along with a grit container, as part of
starter pack. The grit helps to break down the food they eat.
Free-range hens will get a certain amount of grit from pecking around
in your garden.
- Hens love to make a dust bath - a big,
earthy hole which they can roll around in to clean their feathers. If
you don't want them to dig holes in your garden beds, provide them
with a cat litter tray, or similar shallow container, filled with
children's play sand. You can also add red mite or flea powder to the
sand, which will stop these little pests from becoming a problem.
And Finally...
Hopefully your hens will be happy and
healthy, but here are some of the things that can go wrong:
- A broody hen is the problem you are most
likely to encounter - your hen sits on the nest box and won't budge,
becoming belligerent if you try to move her. You can take this
opportunity to hatch some chicks of your own, if you can get hold of
some fertile eggs. Otherwise, remove the broody hen from the nesting
box and place her away from the other birds in a temporary run,
keeping her as cool as possible. After a couple of days she should
have come to her senses!
- Red mites are parasites which hide in
crevices in the henhouse then come out at night to feed on the hens as
they roost. A tell-tale sign is hens which are reluctant to go into
the roosting box at dusk. Sprays and powders are available to treat
the hens - and the whole house will need to be cleaned out and
sprayed, too.
- Poultry fleas lay eggs in the nesting
box bedding, and can be seen on the hens, usually around the head.
Again, flea powders and sprays are readily available.
- An egg-bound hen is unusual, but can
cause discomfort for the hen. This is when a large egg has become
stuck and cannot be laid. The hen will look very miserable, will not
feed, and may be very still. This happened to our hen Rosie - to see
how it was dealt with, click here!
Further reading
This is just a short guide to give you a
sense of what's required for the first time chicken keeper. For more
information try one of the following books:
- Starting with Chickens by Katie
Thear - a short and to the point guide book that covers just about
everything you'll need to know. May be included in the price of your
starter pack.
- Keeping Chickens: The essential guide
to enjoying and getting the best from chickens by Jeremy Hobson
and Celia Lewis - a useful guide that's also packed with lovely
photographs.
- Hen and the Art of Chicken
Maintenance by Martin Gurdon - an amusing first-hand account of
living with chickens.
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