Fox attacks - a list of what happened?

[Banana]

Ok, to give some background, I had chickens about 12 years ago while I lived on a smallholding, but haven't kept them since and never in a back garden. So I'm not a complete newbie, but there's obviously a lot I've forgotten or didn't know to start with. I'm an obsessive researcher though, so I want to make sure everything's planned well ahead. I'm probably overthinking everything. So this is a bit of a waffle, but if anyone has any thoughts please let me know!

I live on the edge of town now, and I've been considering getting some hens. I have 3 noisy children and 2 dogs that bark a fair bit, so I'm hoping that the neighbours won't notice any noise from hens. With regards to predators, the main problems would be our dogs (JRT and GSPX) and sparrowhawks. We don't get foxes or rats here, but we've had 3 wood pigeons killed by sparrowhawks in our garden so far this year, so they're definitely a worry.

I have a covered 8' x 8' x 6' aviary at the end of the garden which is currently housing 3 hand reared wood pigeons which I'm hoping to release in the next 6 weeks, so I would ideally like to use that as a permanent WIR with the house inside, with the house door left open 24/7 so they can take themselves to bed at night and get themselves up in the morning when they feel like it rather than waiting for me (partner is adamant he's having nothing to do with it). There's a possibility to extend the run by another 8' x 14' eventually, but in the meantime I was planning on using some of the Omlet fencing or some chicken wire to fence off that area for when we're at home. They can also have access to the veg patch during the winter which is another 8' x 20'. My partner categorically does not want them on the lawn, because of all the poo (I'm going to assume he doesn't want them on the 9' x 20' patio either, even though it would be ideal!).

I definitely want a hen house that's easy to clean, I hated our previous wooden hen house, so I'm currently eyeing up either a Cube or Classic. I don't want many hens as the aviary can only hold 3 or 4 (I think?), so the Classic would probably be ok, but then I'm thinking that perhaps it would be better to just get a cube so they have extra space, or in case I do decide to expand. It would take up a lot of room in the aviary though, and may be difficult to manoeuvre for cleaning. Unless I could attach it to the outside with the WIR connection kit?

As far as hens go, I would really love to rescue some ex-batts eventually, but for the time being I'd like some that will last a bit longer and likely be in better health. Only my partner and one of my sons eat eggs, so high productivity is not important to us, hardiness and child-friendliness is far more important. They would prefer normal hen sized eggs rather than bantam eggs. We have somewhere local that sells hybrid POLs and Buff Orpington hatching eggs but other than that it seems a bit limited around here. I'm comfortable with raising chicks (must be easier than hand rearing pigeons!), and I have family that will take cockerels, so I'm considering incubating some Buff Orpington eggs to start us off. I've heard that Buff Orpingtons are calm and therefore better for children to be around. I'm assuming that using locally obtained hatching eggs is more likely to end up with a successful hatch than using eBay eggs? On the other hand, I'm concerned my children will get attached to any cockerel chicks that will have to go. And of course there's no guarantee that they'll hatch or that we'll end up with 3-4 hens. So maybe it would be better just to get 3 or 4 different POL hybrids? Or is it worth continuing to look around to see if anyone has hens of other breeds for sale?

My children are 6, 9 and 11 so I'd really like them to have a good first experience with chicken keeping. Any thoughts?

[mullethunter]

Hello and welcome

 

My first thought on reading your post was about 'we don't get foxes...'

 

I don't know where you are, but if you're in the UK and not on a Scottish island, then you almost certainly do have foxes, you just haven't seen them. In which case you need to make sure your run is fox proof, especially if you plan to leave the house open at night. If you really are in a fox free area - please ignore that

 

If you want just a few eggs and friendly, cuddly chooks, Orpingtons do sound like a good choice for you from what I've heard about them. Hybrids wouldn't be a bad idea though - you'd have too many eggs but they're never hard to give away, and you may get chooks who are friendly, they would be unlikely to live as long as pure breeds though.

 

I can understand your children may get attached to cockerels, but if you explain to them from the start how it will be - and then stick to your guns - I'm sure they'll be OK, so I guess he only real risk would be that you'd end up with only 1 or no hens - and if you had a decent number of eggs that'd be unlikely.

 

If I were in your position, I would fortify my run, buy a Cube (if you can afford it - you're right a Classic will fit 3 but it'll be a squeeze with Orps and give you no room for expansion!) to put on the outside of the WIR if possible and get some Omlet netting to allow flexible access to other areas when you want.

[Banana]

Thank you!

There are foxes a field away on the nature reserve, but they've never been seen this side of the field. Definitely a possibility that they might turn up, but our neighbours have been here since the 60s and have never seen or heard any. I think there's so many birds and rabbits over there, plus farm buildings with rats or mice, they don't really bother coming this far up, either that or the dog walkers going past every 5 minutes puts them off. The countryside management service have confirmed that there are no badgers in the area either. The aviary is on the ground, but there are railway sleepers on 3 sides (the garden is on a slope so the end of the garden is on a higher level surrounded by sleepers if that makes sense?, I can put weldmesh or paving slabs on the other side to hopefully improve fox resistance just in case. I should probably do that anyway tbh to keep the jack russell out as it wouldn't take her long to tunnel under unsupervised!

I'm very tempted by the Orpington hatching eggs, and as the children are on school summer holidays it could be fun for them too provided everything goes ok. I keep reptiles and bred them in the past, so I'm comfortable with temperature and humidity regulation, but I'd probably get an incubator with auto-turning like the Brinsea Mini II Advance for ease of use.

I won't be able to get the house (I'll probably go with the Cube, it makes sense) until September now, but could definitely cobble something together with pallets and pond liner in the meantime. Although if I start eggs off next weekend then they probably won't be ready to go outside overnight until then anyway will they?

I'm kind of tempted to go and get 3 hybrids, then set some eggs and make a separate coop and run for the chicks until they're big enough to go with the others. Arghh, I have morehens and I don't even have any yet!

[Millie-Annie]

If you have foxes in the area, they will be there once you have chickens. I think the avian flu quarantine regulations encouraged our fox, because the girls were in a much more confined area. Hence I do not have any chickens now, so please make it fox proof and then make it fox proof again. We thought we were fox proof, he proved us wrong.

 

If I can throw something into the mix it would be a Brahma. If I ever have chickens again, I would rather have two giant girls, a Brahma and an Orpington and nothing else. But I have to say if you want friendliness nothing was ever as friendly as my ex-batts except my hybrid which I think was a Mrs Pepperpot She was black with a green and purple sheen

[Cat tails]

An old colleague would be yelling right now: Remember your P's!!!

Proper preparation prevents poor performance.

 

Although I know how it is when you finally decided to get chickens and then have to wait, I would first get the run/coop in order, before getting any chickens (even eggs).

 

Either get eggs or hybrids, but I would not get them both right now. It's a lot of chickens when just starting out. Even though you have experience from the past. In your case I would first get some point of lay chickens (hybrid or pure breed) and plan to get eggs next spring. Then you can properly plan for extra housing, getting rid of any cockerels and introductions once they are big enough.

 

And I would take to heart what Millie-Annie and Mullethunter have said regarding foxes. One field between you and foxes isn't a lot.

[LAB]

I'm new to chickens and have my first ones right now. We have seven 2 month old chicks that we got at 1 day old and sexed. They still appear to all be girls! I didn't want to get the equipment to do eggs, but raising tiny chicks has been fun! Do you have any local hatcheries or mail order chicks in your area?

 

Buff Orpington hens are supposed to be big girls. I'd think only 2 would fit in an eglu full sized. I got a cube and they all huddle together in the back corner to sleep together. It will be interesting to see how they sleep when they get bigger. I wanted a buff Orpington, but my DH thought they were too "plain" and didn't make the cut. We got Barred Rocks in our mixmash of chicks and they are so great with the kids! One thinks that she is a lap chicken and loves to cuddle! If I'm kneeling down she hops on my shoulder. My kids think its hilarious! She did it to my 8 yr old son today and it scared him at first. Both buff Orpington and barred rocks were on an online list of good breeds for kids to raise.

 

I got my chicks and raised them inside in a 4' puppy pen with a zippered mesh top. It wasn't warm enough and we had to build the run and cube, so we had them in our living room for 5 weeks. I think you could rig up a brooder in your aviary pretty easily if you had chicks and could work on expanding as they grow. It sounds like you have plenty of room for a handful of chicks!

 

Have fun! My kids have loved our chicken adventure and the cube is super easy to clean!

[Banana]

Thanks for everyone's advice! I've spent a lot of time taking it on board and thinking and researching today and decided to go for hatching eggs to start with. That will give me plenty of time to make sure that the aviary is as fox/terrier proof as possible before they go in, and the wood pigeons will have been released by then too (the woodies would be fine to share the aviary, but they're only used to me and will get completely freaked out by the children going in to see the chickens). Then in the spring I can see how things are going and decide whether to get some more. If we decided to get hybrids or ex-batts it would in theory be easier then, as the chicks would be full grown already. I would love Brahmas, but can't find any chicks or eggs nearby, and don't want to rely on eBay eggs for a first hatch. I've ordered an incubator, and once that's been delivered I'll get it set up and stable, then pick up some Buff Orpington hatching eggs. Fingers crossed!

[The Dogmother]

All good advice above, the only thing I'd add is to make sure that your dogs don't race at or bark at the chooks in the run - they are easily scared and can die of fright. I have 2 working dogs, and they aren't allowed out if the chooks are free ranging, and they know not to bark at the run. Likewise small visiting children are encouraged to be calm around the birds.

 

Enjoy your chooks

[Banana]

Oh crikey, my dogs are very barky, especially if birds are flapping about or flying, but they're ok with the wood pigeons at the moment. I'll have to do some extra training with them and I can put some screening or tarp around the aviary to keep them mostly out of eyesight. Hopefully they'll be used to the dogs barking from when they're in the egg and the noise won't bother them too much. Fingers crossed! The incubator arrived today, so I just need to set it up and get the eggs now. I haven't told the children yet, but they're going to be very excited!

[The Dogmother]

Hatching is always fun. Make sure the brooder is set up and ready.... they are ready for it sooner than you think