Britannia Ovens (esp Range cookers) your experience

[Cooks]

I have 5 girls in a cube on outside of a WIR of 12ftx6ft. They freerange for at least 5 hours each day, they used to have all the garden, but now they have their own netted off area which I am finding much easier.

[..lay a little egg for me]

4 girls in a wooden coop, allowed out from about 7 am to dusk protected by 50m of electric netting. This gives them about 150 sq metres of space, so I think that counts as free-ranging! Very happy with the set-up. We move them around the garden so they have about 3 months in each place, which is supposed to help keep the worm burden down.

[Falkor]

6 big girls in a cube which is outside a 3m x 4m Walk in run. These girls have the top of the garden netted off and get to free-range all day if we are home and a couple of hours eachday otherwise.

 

6 bantams in another cube with two extensions - they can free range also but seem reluctant to go further than 1m from the run door

 

2 bantams live in an additinal cube run extension and they sleep in a little wooden house which is raised from the ground using a kiddies plastic table. They can also free range if they want but are such wimps that they rarely leave their run at all!

 

2 13weeker pekins - live in a eglu with a shortended guinlu run. They are braver than ALL of the other bantams put together and keep trying to free range with the BIG girls

 

When i started back garden chook keeping I promised OH we would only have three in an eglu - Chicken maths is the best!

[veggiemad]

hi.

i have 3 ex batts in an eglu with 1m extension on the patio with easibed horse bedding covered with ikea clear shower curtain to keep dry. They free range when i'm at home between 1-4hrs a day (never in the morning though as i want tomake sure they eat their pellets! , they get half the lawn and all the patio , however then have to poopick all the time so i dont tread in to get to the washingline/ veg plot which is on other side of the garden !

i lure them into the run at around 7pm with mealworms and then they take themselves to bed and i lock up at around 8.30 when they're all in.

 

they seem happy - think, are feathering up well and now i'm desparate for more and a cube!!

 

i love these sorts of items too- gives me lots of ideas!

thanks

[chickenopolis]

We only have 2 chooks but we have a cube and a 3m entension run.

They stay in that all day when we go to work and when I get home, I let them out, clear out the run of the poo (which I put in my potato pots ready for next year - it's brilliant stuff).

I let them free-range in the garden but only when I am at home and in the kitchen and in and out of our garden.

If I haven't seen them for a little while I have a heart stopping moment, run outside yelling "Where are the chickens", to find them under their favourite bush, by our oil tank having a little rest and preening themselves.

Trouble is, I do this every half hour or so (although my husband would say I do it every 10 minutes...)

I think they like their free-ranging and if I give them an hour in the morning and then a couple of hours at night they don't complain too much.

Sorry, I have rambled on a bit, but once you get me on the subject of chickens I go on for hours.

[Woodcat]

Am I being irresponsible to let the free-range (the garden is enclosed) unsupervised all day?

 

 

That depends on your area. Mine free range in a garden all day however i am usually in the house.If i have to go out for more than a quick pop down to the shops they do get put in but that isn't that often. When you have chickens you have to make the calculation yourself. Do you have foxes in your area that come out in the day if not is the enjoyment your chickens get from free ranging worth the risk that they will be got by a fox.

 

Anyway my set up is i have a wooden house and small walk in run and an eglu and run with everyone including the bantams free ranging during the day and as Fur and Feathers said when they visited i have a lawn, and garden that isn't trashed even with the 9 i have.

 

 

Beth

[JS1]

I have three chickens in a wooden house with a smallish attached run with a covered 'feeding station' at the end. They are surrounded by electric fencing (I have 50 metres but use about two thirds of it) in a part of the garden which contains an apple tree and a plum tree (and a once-pretty flowerbed )

 

They are allowed to 'free-range' within the fencing from dawn until around 7pm, when I tempt them into their small run with a handful of corn. They then put themselves to bed while we're having our tea, and I lock them in before taking the dogs out for their final walk.

 

I'm at home nearly all the time (work from home) but, to be honest, that's not much use to them as I couldn't hear anything going on from the study. We confine them to the small run when we are charging the fence battery, but that's all. Apparently the biggest threat to chickens around here are pine martens, although foxes have been seen. I'm not sure what we'll do in winter if the predators are getting desperate - don't know how much confidence to have in the electric fencing.

 

Incidentally, we've surrounded the electric fence with low hurdle fencing as a barrier to the toads which were unfortunately getting fried. At least we knew it was working...

[Old Speckled Hen]

I started with an eglu, moved my first three to an arc and ordered a cube. The delivery time was too long in the end and I got impatient so I got a wooden coop from Flytesofancy. Have their extended run which hubby will convert to walk-in proportions.

My four are out all day every day.

We don't see day time foxes here. My three were, however, taken in the night when the arc door was not secured properly.

I don't worry too much when they are out though I don't think they get enough mash. I do get three eggs one day and four the next. Sometimes the shells seem a bit on the thin side and I have had the odd softie. When that happens they get cat food with loads of calcium powder mixed in. I give them their shells added back into their mash.

They seem happy girls and I just take the risk .... or should I say I make them take it