Lay My Hat

We are getting chickens next week, very excited! Any one have some, any tips?

When we've bought new chickens from the man in the local market, we've discovered that they're frightened by fresh air, wind and sun! We always keep our new girls in the hen house for a few days, door shut, light on, plenty of food and water, then open the door and let the more adventurous venture out and explore the world. With any luck they'll discover your nest boxes in this time and lay you an egg or two.

We've a light on a timer inside the hen house, which means they put themselves to bed and all you need do is shut the door after them. Try as we might, though, we can't get the last one in to shut the door

Bonne poule!

Jan

La Chouette wrote:
We've a light on a timer inside the hen house, which means they put themselves to bed and all you need do is shut the door after them. Try as we might, though, we can't get the last one in to shut the door

Mine dont need a light, and they go to bed on their own too. I agree with Jan about letting them stay inside, don't be tempted to shoo them outside - they need time to get used to their new surroundings.

Beware of red mites. They live in the cracks of wooden houses and once you've got them, they are nigh on impossible to eradicate. They feed on the chickens at night time and can cause them to stop laying through fatigue and will eventually die if unchecked. Preferably buy a plastic house.

And when you buy hens, check if they have been vacinated against Mareks disease. Again, once it is in the flock you will lose most of the them to an slow painful death.

Looking on the bright side, let them run free once established. They are great at eating slugs etc and will fertilise the garden. However, they will dig up small plants.

Enjoy. They are great fun!

Oh and ours don't just put themselves to bed, we have trained them to come to call, so that we can lock them up if need be. They are very trainable.

dorie wrote:We are getting chickens next week, very excited! Any one have some, any tips?

I am surprised you've never had chickens before - my best tip is to try them cooked differently, you can have them fried, roasted & grilled. Add a few herbs. You can even BBQ them, it's amazing food. They sell them at supermarkets.

Essar wrote:

dorie wrote:We are getting chickens next week, very excited! Any one have some, any tips?

I am surprised you've never had chickens before - my best tip is to try them cooked differently, you can have them fried, roasted & grilled. Add a few herbs. You can even BBQ them, it's amazing food. They sell them at supermarkets.

Not a veggie then Essar??

dorie wrote:We are getting chickens next week, very excited! Any one have some, any tips?

Are they ex-battery hens? Have heard they are very appreciative of their rescue and will recompense with lots of eggs in due course.

pambon wrote:

dorie wrote:We are getting chickens next week, very excited! Any one have some, any tips?

Are they ex-battery hens? Have heard they are very appreciative of their rescue and will recompense with lots of eggs in due course.

How does a chicken know if it's an ex-battery hen or not, I don't think they carry paperwork?

Essar wrote:

pambon wrote:

dorie wrote:We are getting chickens next week, very excited! Any one have some, any tips?

Are they ex-battery hens? Have heard they are very appreciative of their rescue and will recompense with lots of eggs in due course.

How does a chicken know if it's an ex-battery hen or not, I don't think they carry paperwork?

Are you egging me on BAC Essar

If it's ex-battery, surely the mains cable gets in the way?

I'm off to the dog house now!

PW in Polemi wrote:If it's ex-battery, surely the mains cable gets in the way?

I'm off to the dog house now!

Well it's early-ish Sunday morning on my one week break so it took me three reads.....but I got there in the end!

How are your hens settling in Dorie? We have 16 currently.. A mixture of rescue hens and a few posh ones. They are so tame and lay a variable number of eggs depending on the amount of daylight mainly. The children love them and my guests love having eggs that (to quote my current guest) "taste like real eggs!"

As Bunny has already said red mite is a total mare. I'm yet to work out how to avoid getting them but ours have hand them and we've battled hard to get rid.

Hi Orsonthecat!

Haven't had time to be on here for a while but have had the chooks for nearly 2 months and they are nearly 5 months. No eggs, apparently too young...

They are lovely to have around but had a little problem - they were given to us and we asked for hens but we definitely have 2 coqs! And possibly a third. Trying to decide whether to keep them or if they will annoy the guests

I am using DE in their coop to avoid red mites.Is it easy to see if they have them?

Sadly they probably will annoy the guests. Our cockerel had no idea of the time of night when he felt the urge to herald a new day.

Also, the cockerels may fight when they become adults.

When we were given chickens, one was a little baby chick who turned out to be a boy. Once he was full grown he was subject to horrible physical abuse by the older cockerel (who was probably his dad!).

So far the crowing is quite controlled, but I worry that when we have lighter mornings they will be up at 4am! We just can't bring ourselves to kill them so bit of a dilemma!

We are keeping an eye on the fighting situation. The person that gave them to us has a number of coqs and no issues, we have a lot of space and that is meant to help but they are in the same coop at night!