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jonnya

my garden

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Hi everyone.

 

We would very much like to keep some chickens but our garden falls a bit short of the size recommended on the eglu website. It measures 7.7 metres x 4.4 metres. It also has a small shed (approx 2.2m x 1.6m) taking up a bit of the ground area. Can anyone tell me if it's possible for us to keep some chickens - perhaps a smaller variety?

 

we were also considering putting in some raised beds - i suppose this would also take up some ground area so would this make it more difficult still?

 

Thanks,

 

jonny

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I don't know how big my garden is -but quite little compared to the larger ones that are shown by Omlet. Here goes:

Ourbackgarden-1.jpg

This was last winter, This year the eglu is the other way around and I have got rid of the log roll. Instead I just have hemcore in the run and use the log roll to stop the chooks kicking it out too much!! I guess you can work out the scale by looking at the size of the dogs football and the wheelie bins.

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I also have a small garden and we have had our chickens for a couple of weeks and they make a great additition. Ours are on chipped wood rather than grass and not very intrusive. You need the larger spave if you want to spin the run about. I think that as long as you have 3.5m by 2m you should be fine. We were told we would keep them in the run all the time if we wanted too.

 

From what I have read - I think it would also depend on what you want your chickens for. Bantams are good for being ornamental pretty pets but not particularly great egg layers like the Ginger nut and Miss Peperpot larger breeds.

I got the book Keeping pet Chickens from the Omlet Shop on line and that gave me loads of basic informaton of breeds. MIght be a good starting point.

 

Tiffany

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Bantams are definitely a good bet in a small garden. Mine is only about 7m x 7m, and some of that is taken up by the conservatory and two 2mx1m raised beds, so in practice it's not a lot bigger than yours!

 

I have three bantams at the moment, two cross-breeds and a pure-breed, and have been advised by folk here that I could have up to five bantams in the standard eglu run (I let them out mornings/evenings - when light enough - and weekends). Currently I'm getting about 9 small eggs a week, equivalent to about 6 standard ones, so I'm thinking of getting a couple more hens. They'll probably be pekins, as they scratch less than other breeds and are reasonably good egg-layers (though prone to go broody), as well as being very cute!

 

It's a trade-off really - if you want more eggs, you have to put up with bigger, more garden-destructive hens :)

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Thanks again everyone.

 

I am interested in bantams, but to be honest I wouldn't want to keep chickens and not get a decent supply of eggs from them. So are there any bantams which make good egg layers, or are there any of the larger breeds which lay plenty of eggs but which would also be happy in a smaller garden?

 

Thanks!

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OK - looking at the breeds guide, I wonder if the Sussex Bantam might be the right chicken - it lays well, is friendly, is small and since I live in Sussex, seems right.

 

Does anyone else keep Sussex Bantams who'd be able to let me know if they think these would ge a good choice?

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I'd get a mixture if I were you, maybe 1 sussex bantam, 1 leghorn bantam and 2 Pekins or something along those lines then you have egg layers and some cool little personalities?? :D Unless you purely wanted eggs then I'd stick with any of the following bantams:

Leghorn, Rhode Island Red, Welsummer, Araucana (for blue/green eggs?), and maybe a Sussex - although the other ones listed, except maybe for Araucana, should all be better layers than the sussex.

 

Hamburgs and Appenzellers are also supposedly good layers and are basically bantam size hens - my Appenzeller is same size as my poland bantam.

 

How many would you be aiming to get? :)

 

Or if just got 2 or 3 hybrids in your garden then you would have a very good supply of eggs and they would be fine in your sized garden. If you are in it for the eggs then this route is probably best. You could easily get 18+ eggs a week with 3 hybrids most of the year.

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I had a look at my garden last night and I estimate it to be three eglu and runs wide and two eglu and runs (with extensions) long so pretty tiny. Our two girls seem to have lots of room and we felt much better about this after getting 1m of extension to the run.

 

They free range in the morning whilst I have my breakfast before work and in the evenings when I get in. We are going to re-do their permanent run this year to make it a bit more exciting for them, but they seem very happy and are great layers

 

Let us all know what you decide to go for...

 

Flo

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