Door too small for Jersey Giant?

[Solitaire]

Hello everyone! I'm thinking about getting chickens - we've just moved house from a house that had a covenant on it preventing us from keeping them before. BUT (there's always a but!) I'm really worried about lots of things!

First - is the garden going to be too small for 2 hybrids (thinking at the mo of starting with Omlet hens)? It's about 22' by 25', but not all of that is grassed.

What happens if we can't free-range them - i fear lots of foxes may be resident!?

How noisy are they REALLY? I don't want to alienate the neighbours just yet - we've only moved in a week or so ago!

On the same lines, what about the smell?! Our neighbours seem to spend a lot of time outside... Oh, and the guys on the one side smoke, even though we want them on the other side of the garden, will that affect them in any way?! At the mo, we're not mentioning chickens at all outside - I don't want the nieghbours to get in first and say they don't want us to have them!

We live effectivley on a main road with BIG lorries that hurtle down it, so will the girls be ok with the noise? Will it scare them?

ARGH! So many questions - and then there's my other half who I'm trying desperatly to convert his "IF we get chickens" to "WHEN we get chickens"! I'm wondering whether he's going to read the issues on this forum, then decide they're too much bother... NOOOOO!!! Can someone put my mind at rest please?!

[Ness3103]

hi ya

 

i've only had mine since last friday and i was worried about the noise and smell. i have to say that mine have been very quiet, in fact my children are far noiser i live by a main road and it hasn't affected them. we only had half the roof on the walk in run so on the sunday they were subjected to a lot of noise from power tools and hammers, at first they were a bit unsure but soon ignored it and sunbathed while we got on with the building as for the smell, i poo pick (when i remember) but it doesn't seem to smell yet

 

my oh wasn't really interested but i took him to visit a couple of eglu's so he could see how easy they'd be to look after, and after he'd cuddled a couple of chickens and saw they didn't smell or make too much noise, he was almost as excited as me

[quickcluck]

Hi Solitaire

 

Take a look at this thread you might find it interesting!!

 

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=44553&hilit=+small+garden

 

these are all NORMAL worries you have and if you browse about on here you'll find no end of info

 

Chooks are not generally too noisey, but all are different,

 

smell? They dont smell!!! I put bokashi and garlic powder in the food and that sorts it out

 

If they are not going to free range make sure you have as bigger run as you can fit in, with plenty to entertain them and they'll be fine. If you are looking at an eglu and can add an extension - brill...

 

The best thing to do is visit someone with chooks to see how they manage

 

viewforum.php?f=14

 

and I can't recommend Omlet hen parties enough, they really are a fantastic insight and educational when you are thinking of delving into the chook world...

 

Hope this helps. Keep us posted!

[Solitaire]

Thanks for starting to put my mind at rest! I'm always the same over things like this I've got it all sussed in my mind what I want... (this next bit is just to play with the smilies ) a and a and a , with one called Mistress Meeka, and one called Toysher... And then if all goes well - to try to help some ex-batts when the inevitable happens to the first...

[quickcluck]

Solitaire, can i sugest 3 instead of 2 girls??? Some says it's better, just incase some thing happens to one and then you have a lonely girl, and are faced with difficult intros....

[Solitaire]

Tis a good point - but... (there it is again!) ...am I going to be overrun with eggs and poop?! Then again - can you ever have too many eggs? Wouldn't there still be intro issues if we lost one and had to add another to make it back up to the 3, or is that not so bad?