Part 0800.0005

[Yolky]

I thought that this may be helpful. Add the things you wish you had known.

 

 

I knew that chickens pooed alot but x that alot by 10 and you get nearer to the amount, especially in the first week when their tums can be a bit squiffy from moving.

 

That putting the chickens on slabs and using hemcore would revolutionise my chicken keeping lol

 

Give them bokashi/garlic powder in their food from day 1, it makes a huge difference.

 

The aim of the game with chooks is poo management

 

That they are such individual characters and so lovable that you want more and more. *glares at prudence*

 

It will have been 6 weeks on friday and I am loving every minute

[shaun]

Get some purple spray in stock!

 

Use a 'segmented' feeder, to avoid wastage

[spratly0]

I agree with Yolky, especially about the concrete run! We have had our chooksters about the same length of time and started a walk in run after 2 weeks - we did a concrete square with dirt in the middle and aubiose on top - big mistake i can never tell whats poo and whats dirt/mud when its all scratched up! (are rectifying this by concreting the middle next week)

 

I too was not prepared for how much i would actually love them, finding them so amusing and want more I'm so glad that i stopped work, was on holiday when they arrived and never went back, i feel so lucky

[Electricbarbarella]

that i would bore everybody silly with cute tales of my lovely chooks,

thjat i wouls want more.

That Aubiose is the best thing in the world ever

and hosable roosting bars are pure genius.

[sandyhas3chucks]

here here!

 

chook chook hurray

[TheChookKeeper]

I would have to say the noise. My girls are nice and quiet most of the time, but if they want to be let out into the garden, and I fancy a lie-in, they let me know.

 

One starts with the bok, bok, bok, BOKARK! Then a second starts up, and that then seems to upset the others, so I have 5 doing it.

I don't think my neighbours love them in the morning (especially at the weekend).

 

That said - I have been putting them back in their eglu run earlier recently, at about 6pm, and that seems to keep them much calmer in the mornings - who knows why!!!

[dancing cloud]

That watching my ex-batts grow into confident cheeky individuals would be one of the most rewarding things I've ever done.

 

That I could become proud to call myself a hen-mum.

 

That I would spend so much time hen-watching.

 

That cats and hens can like each other.

 

That I would become so addicted to this forum!

[jomaxsmith]

I certainly didn't realise quite how many stones were in my borders, until the hens relocated them onto the lawn. They make a lovely sound when hubby does the mowing; the sound he makes when mowing stones isn't quite so lovely!

 

Jo

[Aga n Chickens]

Hello all

 

I wish I'd known that chickens will go after anything edible, if it is meant for them or not.

 

Before our chickens arrived OH and I had imagined sitting on the patio after work on a warm summer evening, having a nice meal with chickens free ranging and running round our feet.

 

The dream was shattered on the first decent evening when we took out a bowl of salad and placed it on the table...2 chickens jumped up and marched right through it !

 

Not content with the salad that had been decanted into their food bowl, we were forced to try and eat our pizza at arms length out of the range of frantic beaks.

 

Now whenever we have a decent evening we compromise, chickens out for the first hour then once they have been bribed back into their run with corn and brassica thinnings, it's our time to eat.

 

Kind regards,

 

Christine

[Angels4]

Just the amount of pooh. Before I got the girls I was on the forum for ages, and whenever I read a post about the pooh I would laugh and say to my self "I've seen bird pooh, how bad can it be?"

 

I was not prepared for THIS amount of pooh!! But I wouldn't trade this experience for anything.

[josephine77]

I certainly didn't realise quite how many stones were in my borders, until the hens relocated them onto the lawn. They make a lovely sound when hubby does the mowing; the sound he makes when mowing stones isn't quite so lovely!

 

Jo

 

Yes, my hens are quite the archeologists too - they have kindly dug out many ancient relics from my borders - I never new I had so much old brocken crockery in my soil. It does make mowing a bit of a challenge!

[Chuckov]

I would say, that when they get bigger that they really can wreck your garden! We have an entire bare border now down one side of the garden, and my lovely herb bed is now non existent

 

However, we've just sold our house so we'll hopefully be moving on to wreck another garden!

[Steve.]

That I wish I'd ordered more than 5 ... as we scoff them all ... although they aren't yet laying correctly as they are still babies.