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Thread: keepin hens in the garden

  1. #1

    keepin hens in the garden

    We are buying a house with a huge garden, semi-urban area.
    I am thinking to keep our own hens in the garden (in their own small cheap-and-cheerful house), to get fresh eggs and to get fun. My 8yr-old child is already very excited abut the idea (never mind she already asked whether we can have also a horse).
    I understand there will be some work, cleaning, bla bla, whatever, ...
    Not sure how happy the neighbours will be, perhaps I can occasionally bribe them with a few fresh eggs.


    You guys have any experience with this kind of thing...?

  2. #2
    Admin brett's Avatar
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    Yup, had bog standard Warrens for a while. Ususally 4 (3 atm)


    I think they are great, not much work to do and 3 or 4 eggs every day.


    They are in an 6ft plastic mesh enclosure so no need to lock them up at night.


    They love kitchen scraps and everyone at work brings in old bread etc

    They aren't particularly noisy - but we are pretty rural (Don't have a cockerel tho )

  3. #3
    Master Travs's Avatar
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    When I was a youth, one of my mates family used to keep them in an 8ft or so mesh 'hutch'. Although this was a council house on an estate in Coventry, not exactly a rural area.

    it was a novelty to me. But thinking back on it, they stunk. Don't think there was much issue with noise.

    One day I went round and they'd all gone. His dad had killed them and ate/sold the meat.

  4. #4
    Master molehill's Avatar
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    Ideal would be to keep them in an ark on the grass, that you can move every few days, with covered hutch and nest box included.
    If you let them free range they will destroy most of what you plant in the garden (unless you cover everything with netting) and then start on neighbours gardens - not so good.
    I don't know your area but most suburban places have a healthy fox population which will kill the chooks eventually if they are left out. 3 hens in an ark are easy to look after and 20 big fresh eggs a week should do you fine!

  5. #5
    Moderator noel's Avatar
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    We have chickens and I can confirm they destroy plants pretty well. We have ours free range, but only because there are lots of gamekeepers around to kill any local foxes.

    They are quite fun to have around the place, and the eggs are great.

  6. #6
    Master wheezing donkey's Avatar
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    Dad was an avid poultry keeper. We children had the job of killing the rats that inevitably accompany poultry.
    In my early 20's I worked on a large commercial poultry farm. The rule of thumb was that over lunch time ( 12.00-13.00) everyone kept out of the cabins as the boss was in them with his .410 shotgun, blasting at the rats.
    I was a bit of an oddball until I was abducted by aliens; but I'm perfectly OK now!

  7. #7
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    Beware of the RED MITE.

  8. #8
    Moderator noel's Avatar
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    We had red mite once and cleaned them with some mite powder. They've not had it now for about a year. They spend a lot of time playing in dry sand/soil patches that they've dug up, so perhaps that's why.

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