Does anyone here keep chickens?

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

And their names are?

[hundredandone]

I called mine sage, onion and gravy. I wonder if that gave the foxes a clue... PGC do PM me if I can help at all. My coop has ahem, flown, but actually it'd be dead easy to knock one up from scrap from a skip or buy the timber if you wanted a pukka job. The rest is cheap. :))

DM is keen to form the ED Hunt. I suggest we hunt on bicycles as my hunter is out to stud just now. Other things we might need... loud voices.. disgraced former tory mp... couple of chinless bankers. A horn. ( Yes, we guessed you would have) We should be able to gather all that easy. Since we wont be hunting with dogs we wont be breaking the law will we

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

I certainly will - need to sound the neighbours out first!

[ChavWivaLawDegree]

My chickens

http://blufiles.storage.live.com/y1pHpY7ZId26qPGiMDDUXpySIX9vkBgsDhsN3grP-I_j8sTmgg40wCSNy3Axj5ug3X0u2nMJjKV4Ms

http://blufiles.storage.live.com/y1pHpY7ZId26qOkzHZqJmCZWha1n28XLDg2SkCSqEzAUX8iWBinLNeeUXr8-ZphqgpxhKBiAyqthlo

http://blufiles.storage.live.com/y1pHpY7ZId26qOM943MqGzOUPHJSVs6hwoVRKJDh9cvGioBM1dp1sjQ_cl8X4oCwUabY00XQyMLLG0

http://blufiles.storage.live.com/y1pHpY7ZId26qNLSE15wNG4LevFEhROTIUuNQtxkN_PmSG2_0vVam4bHFQSf-L6sKf15zcZzNX-sR4

http://blufiles.storage.live.com/y1pHpY7ZId26qP8PqE0UKoxhCEEcpGFT8kdOJ-yOtfyE-QSXjx02skdehZinlILqbrvdBstFbTGycg

[Michael Palaeologus]

You must be very proud :))

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Bucolic bliss! They look lovely.

[LizzygotDizzy]

I actually imagined the "run" to be a bit bigger than that, quite small isn't it, can you let them out to run around the yard and do a Rocky Balboa impression and try to catch them to put them back again? Lol

[ChavWivaLawDegree]

I'm supposed to leave them in for a week, before letting them run around the garden, but yes, I hope to free range them as much as possible.

[blinder999]

>I have a white one, creamy one, a brown one and a black one

McNulty, Kima, Carver & Daniels?

[lozzyloz]

I think chickens might be female. Clue: Egg.

[blinder999]

lozzyloz Wrote:

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> I think chickens might be female. Clue: Egg.

haha I though some pedant might mention that

[hundredandone]

LgD. If you think they're crowded then you never saw Hugh Fearnley -W's show about chickens. Let alone battery hens - nobody will let the cameras into a battery egg unit, the conditions are fantastically cruel. Actually free-range hens are not the massive birds that we are used to putting on the table for roast dinner - about half the size or a bit smaller. If I was a chicken....

[Michael Palaeologus]

CWALD your back lawn is in need of good dose of chicken poo.

[ChavWivaLawDegree]

It needs some grass too!! I've got some grass seed, need to dig and level it first! Any volunteers??

[ChavWivaLawDegree]

I've been asked a couple of times recently waagwan with my chickens, so thought I might as well post an update.

They are doing really well. I have four chickens and they lay 4 eggs a day between them usually.

I got them from a place called mumbles farm in Kent. You can call the owner Gill on 01732356746. I got them for ?10 each a couple of weeks before they are ready to start laying.

The feed I get is organic and I get layers pellets and also a bag of corn for about ?10 each from Titmuss feeds.

The only problem I have is that I have let them take over the whole garden and they produce copious amounts of poo! I am about to fence off the end of my garden to stop them crapping over the whole thing.

Some people have problems with foxes, but I seem to be ok as I have a dog and a cat so the foxes seem to leave them alone. The other problem with chickens is that they get mites and fleas so I bought some drops to get rid of all the parasites - I know it's not organic - but it's better than finding little red mites crawling up your arm when you pick the chickens up!

Amanda

[ChavWivaLawDegree]

Fox/es got the chickens a couple of days ago - blood guts and feathers all over the garden - but only one carcass left, so at least it looks like they ate them instead of just killing them for no reason.

Going to try to amke the garden a bit more fox proof and fence off a bit instead of letting the next batch be quite so free range. It may be less fun for them, but at least they won't get ripped apart by foxes (hopefully).

If anyone wants to come with me to get their own chickens, I'll probably go in about a month, so can show you where the farm I got the others from is.

[Cassius]

So sorry to hear that - fingers crossed that the foxes won't get lucky next time. I'm sorry I'm not sure about your childrens ages, but hope that they weren't too upset by the experience.

[AcedOut]

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(deleted as only read the first page - doh!)