Used Omlet outdoor rabbit run Width 2.2m Height 2.05m Length 3.1m vgc.

[lortloaf]

Hello there, my wife and I are very keen on owning a few lovely chickens, but a few questions to which we cannot find answers..

 

We have found two breeders near us with the breeds we would like (Orpington and Pekin), one is Mother Hen's Poultry near Reading and the other is a Breeder on the Omlet website in Herts.

 

Mother Hen's Poultry advertises:

Day Old and Growers

 

Chickens : Buff Orpington growers, Mix Coloured Orpington Growers,

Light Sussex Chicks and Growers (bantam and large) and

Pekin Growers (mix of colours), Welsummer and

Light Sussex large week old chicks available 16/07.

But we cannot find a definition for the term "Grower." How old are these likely to be, and would they be sexed? It does not mention cockerels or hens/pullets.

 

 

Also the Omlet Breeder has Orpington hen's at 17 weeks old and Pekin Bantam's at 11 weeks.

I know Orpington's are quite big chickens and Pekin Bantam's would obviously be a little smaller - but could the age / size cause any problems? To be a little more specific to this question, it would be one Orpington and three Pekin Bantams, if that wouldn't be a problem of it's own.

 

 

We our building our own little hen house too, it will be about the size of an Eglu Cube so should house the four hens fine. We'll also be making a nice sized run for them for when we are not around to observe their free ranging (foxes in the area!)

Do you guys have any tips on a home made coop? (thickness of walls/floor, does it need insulating? how?) We live out in West London for you weather buffs!

 

Thanks in advance!

 

edit: ooh more questions I was wondering about! Dust baths!

Our garden is very grassy and the mud quite lumpy - how would you go about creating an artificial place for the chickens to dust bath (if it is needed), what makes good "dust?"

 

And very, very quickly our last question, we have a paved area of garden (slate) that home to lots of ants, would it harm the chickens to peck at ants on the slate? We wouldn't want our chickens to hurt themselves for an insect treat.

[beverley]

HI, i can't answer your questions about mixing birds or henhouse making, (i have an eglu and two omlet chickens,)

but as for dustbath conditions, they will almost certainly make their own, not always where you want it.. and will scratch your mud into the condition they want it..mine manage to kick big stones across the lawn, if they are in their way. i tried making specific dustbaths for them which they studiously ignored. your grassy area can stay grassy, mine has. but the edges were lost quite early on. mine often eat ants, they prefer their eggs though, but often disregard both, if there is something more interesting on offer. it has never seemed to do any harm, but obviously as long as you haven't used any ant poison or suchlike. i have observed that generally they ignore the stuff that isn't good for them, ie daffodils etc.

[beverley]

hi i intended to say that i have a slate patio too, they have not cracked a beak yet, tend to wipe their beaks on it.

olive

[Egluntyne]

Growers a re youngsters aged between 6 weeks and 16 weeks of age.

 

They may or may not be sexed, although they usually are, and with some breeds, mistakes can be made, even by experienced breeders.

 

Opinions are divided about mixing large and small breeds. I have three pekin bantams, and I keep them separate as one of them beats the bigger girls up, but I fear for her safety, should there be an uprising.

 

You hens will love whiling away the time pecking insects iff the slabs. Sometimes they avoid ants as they give off a bit of a sting. They will leave them alone if they don't like them.

[holz]

I made a dustbath for my girls out of a deep tray and some childrens play sand. They totally ignored it and favoured the dry mud....I think I'll get it back out again when the weather gets wet as I can't imagine them having a dustbath in wet sticky mud!

 

My walk in run is paved apart from about half a foot all the way round so they can search for grubs.... we put straw over the slabs, and so far haven't had any problems, they just like to wipe their beaks on the slabs - which is quite comical to watch!

 

Good luck, I hope you both enjoy your chickens!

[Chucky1]

 

We our building our own little hen house too, it will be about the size of an Eglu Cube so should house the four hens fine. We'll also be making a nice sized run for them for when we are not around to observe their free ranging (foxes in the area!)

Do you guys have any tips on a home made coop? (thickness of walls/floor, does it need insulating? how?) We live out in West London for you weather buffs!

 

Hi Lortloaf - I'll try and answer the housing bit. I have built a couple of houses - albeit for ducks and converted a concrete shed to a chicken house.

 

# Walls - IMO 12mm WBP (exterior ply) will be fine. Insulation is not necessary as the chooks wear their own little duvets but you will need to stop any drafts, but ensure decent ventillation.

 

# Roof - Galavanised corrugated iron does it for me . If at all possible avoid roofing felt as red mite love it.

 

# Floor - This is a biggy. You need to ensure some other animal can't tunnel in and eat the chooks at the same time that is where all the droppings will be, so you need to be able to clean it easily.

 

# Perches - we made ours form 2"x1.5" treated timber with the tip corner slightly rounded off - if you can get it cls timber is the thing.

 

# Nestbox - somewhere private and secure for the gals to do their stuff.

 

I hope this is of some use to you. Do you have some sort of design in mind?

 

Good luck

[lortloaf]

Thank you for all your replies!

 

Does anyone else have any experience of keeping two such different sized breeds together? (Orpington and Pekin)

 

The safety and happiness of the hens is, of course, our primary concern! So if anyone has any horror stories, or more hopefully - very good stories with happily ever afters, we would love to heard about them.

[frizz]

Hi, I am new on here, but had a similar problem. I had two ISA Warrens and they were lovely and friendly, but I really wanted pekins. I got a 2nd year Pekin Lola, and she is a lovely little thing and a very young cuckoo pekin with a polish frizzle. I kept the two very young ones in a rabbit hutch at first but didnt have an additional home for Lola. I did keep them separate in the garden and at night Lola slept in the pet carrier. We did this for about a week and then started to introduce Lola to the warrens, sadly, they were never to be friends. The warrens are about twice the size of pekins and they used to peck at her crown, grab her by the neck and jump on her, it was awful to see.

We tried everything, strong perfume, slow introductions, placing her in the house late at night, etc etc, in the end I had to re home the warrens as they would surely have killed my little pekin.

Sorry not have a good luck story, I think it was the size difference because the warrens settle in to their new home without any problems, their companions were ex battery hens, so the same size and breed.

I since got another pekin and other than a bit of chest bumping and the occasional peck, they settle within a couple of days.

 

I really hope your problem gets sorted soon, good luck.

[lortloaf]

So while looking for some of this weld mesh everyone loves, it appears there are many many different kinds available.

 

If anyone can tell me what gauge and what kind of spacing (of the holes that is, eg. 1"x1") is needed to be more fox-proof than my current silly chicken wire it would be greatly appreciated and put my mind at ease.

 

I found quite a lot of rolls of the stuff on eBay for about 20% of the price of some builders merchant websites I checked, same gauge and same lengths (same bloody rolls from the looks of the labels!). Are these clever rip off's?

[chick wiggle]

Hi there and welcome.

Good for you building your own house and run. We built our own run and used 1" wire from Hills of Devon, they are online and one of the best and cheapest places to get your wire from.

I have 1 tiny little pekin who lives with 4 other bantams and 16 various large fowl. She may be small but more than makes up for that with her attitude and takes no nonsense from the big girls. She will even jump up to have a go at my Brahmas! I have 2 Orpingtons who will run a mile from her, though they are a lot younger.

I think the secret is in the introductions, take it slow and see how they get on.

Good luck