3.6m Omlet Chicken Run for sale, Brand New in Boxes, Milton Keynes (MK19)

[missusmac]

Satisfied my morehens (for now ) by finally taking delivery of two new hens at my school today - now I have hens 24/7 - at home & at work!

 

I've used the services of a lovely lady called Claire Peach who runs a business called Hens for Hire. I'd been putting off getting the hens at school because of what to do with them in the holidays (we are a special school & the children don't live locally so can't easily help out then). Using Claire's services solved all my problems. I read about them before Christmas in Your Chickens magazine.

 

Claire helped set everything up, gave a chicken keeping lesson to the staff & left all the food we need plus some equipment. She will also sort things out if either of them was to get poorly.

 

I'd recommend her if anyone else works in a school and has thought about getting chickens. Anyone else already using Hens for Hire?

[lizinsa]

Wow, they sound great and definitely something we could introduce at our school. We currently on hatch chicks. Do you mind me asking, how long do you hire them for and how much does it cost?

[missusmac]

You can hire them from anything between a half term and the whole year - it's up to you. The costings vary as it depends on where you are in the country I think and exactly what you want. We were kindly donated an eglu go so have only hired the hens but Claire normally does the whole package including an eglu classic.

 

This is her website http://www.hensforhire.co.uk. If you are interested, best bet is to to have a look at this and then email/call her.

 

Hope that helps.

[Cheeky Chooky]

Satisfied my morehens (for now ) by finally taking delivery of two new hens at my school today - now I have hens 24/7 - at home & at work!

Perfect!

 

What a fab idea...please let us know what the children think of them

 

P.S. Don't believe you about the Morehens

[missusmac]

Well, so far so fab!! Kids loving them. Huge competition to look for eggs, feed, water, even empty the poop tray!! Literacy this week all linked to chickens (they love the link with the dinosaurs !) and a long list of name suggestions produced for school council perusal.

I've only had my own hens since Oct 2012 but got very quickly absorbed into the hobby - am seeing this fascination with a lot of the kids at school. Very therapeutic for them, particularly with their special needs.

[Cheeky Chooky]

Ahhhh...fantastic

[Egluntyne]

No mention of cost on the website as far as I can see.

[lizinsa]

No mention of cost on the website as far as I can see.

 

I know, it really frustrates me when there's no indication of price! You have to give all your details before they will give you a quote. I got one for work and the quote isn't broken down but I think that price does vary depending on distance from them. My school was quote £375 for half a term and £550 for a term and that includes everything you will need including food etc.

 

We're now deciding whether we can budget for it, to be honest a 2nd eglu wouldn't be that much more and you'd have it for years although it is brilliant that they look after the hens in the holidays.

[Egluntyne]

Good lord! How many schools would have that kind of money knocking about spare in their budgets!

[Purplemaniacs]

 

I have suggested this for the school I work at but at that price there is no way they will even consider it.

 

I took some chicks in that I hatched last summer and they stayed in the class for a week and the children loved it. After Easter we are doing humans and other animals, some hatching and having chickens would have been ideal.

 

I don't think the PFA would consider spending that much of their fundraising money either.

 

Chrissie

[Egluntyne]

I must be mad! I'm missing a trick here. I have loaned one of my Eglus and provided 4 hens to the school where I have a jobette, and oversee their chicken project FOR NOWT!

And (I know - you shouldn't start a sentence with 'and') I take care of them during the hols. FOR NOWT! The school pay for food and bedding - when I remember to submit receipts.

 

* flounces off to get psychological counselling*

[Olly]

You'll get your reward in heaven, Egluntyne!

[Egluntyne]

Not sure that's where I'm heading Olly!

[missusmac]

I guess it depends on your starting point. I am paying £350 for 3 months hire, including vets bills, food and anything else you can think of (including worming, checking for mites and holiday care). For my kids, who are all kids with special educational needs, it is worth every penny. They all travel by taxi a minimum of 20 - 30 mins by taxi, some as much as over an hour each way, to get to us. None of them live in the locality of the school so can't easily help with holiday care and many come from families/carers who also have other issues to contend with.

The benefits I have seen for the children in my school in just a week with the chickens have already made this worth every penny - I see it as a teaching resource and goodness knows some of those are more expensive than this! If you divide that cost by the number of children and the number of term time weeks, it works out at £1.24 per pupil which is really not a significant cost. We are a very small school due to high level of pupil need but this is money well spent in my book.

Don't get me wrong - if there was someone local who was good enough to do this for nothing, of course that would be better but this is a brilliant option if you have no-one around to offer to do it for you! I think kids who are growing up in very urban environments should experience something like this - it's not in the National Curriculum but teaches them a lot!