Do you keep Chickens?.....what do i need to get started???

[beckoes]

Not sure this is the right place to post as they wouldnt really be pets....but....we live in a house which would be perfect for keeping chickens in the garden, infact im sure im the only person in the village that doesnt have chickens....

Do you keep chickens? I just want to know what i need to set up for them and what i need to do....a realistic cost of getting a few chooks housed and healthy....we can get the actual chickens locally, its just setting up a home that is suitable....i.e .... snake/cat/wild dog proof. do they just roam free in the day?

Any advice/help would be awsome!!! Thanks.

[~Lashes~]

my dad has chickens, he lets them roam the back yard during the day, he has a basic cage/pen he made up the side of the shed for them, it has nesting boxes for them to lay there eggs, a ramp up to a seccond level and 2 things that have there food and water.
good luclk! its fun watching the kids chase them when we vist to, they love it.

Edit: we had 3 a few years ago (how could i forget!) we made the cage for them, id sugest buying one as we must have missed a bit, the neighbours cat got in and, well no more chooks! (df still thinks they put there cat in as one of the chooks turned out to be a rooster.

[CharlieBrownGirl]

I haven't got any chookens but would love some myself. However, I don't think they would mix well with a Greyhound at this present time.

I have been eyeing off a hutch on dealsdirect I would love to buy in the near future.

Interested in the replies and suggestions you receive.

[Floweryfields]

I do and this is what I recommend to get started:
Secure and sheltered housing - there are lots of types - depends on how many you want, if you want 2 or 3 a chicken tractor is great, any more than that and you need something larger. Chooks like to roost as it makes them feel safe - a nice thick square of timber or an old tree branch - something to curl their toes around and prevent foot issues.
Storage for feed and water - hanging is best as it prevents contamination from poop
Dust bathing area - so a nice sandy spot they are allowed to scratch and dust in - funniest thing you'll ever see, helps them keep clean and pest free.
Protection from the elements - heat is a big killer with chooks, so an area with shade in summer would be ideal and somewhere away from draughts in winter
For the home garden I would recommend bantams (great with kids and don't eat too much) - go for a good laying breed such as bantam sussex (which are actually fairly large and great layers) or you could go for commercial layers such as ISA browns, though I find these end up with a lot of health issues around the 3 to 4 years age as they are bread to lay, lay, lay then die ikywim.
And I would recommend a fenced off area to free range in or else you garden will be history.

Be prepared to worm them every 3 months like other pets and have the odd illness crop up, but in general, chooks are great fun!

Also, I have a great forum about chooks I highly recomend for the beginner as they have loads of info and friendly advice givers - MODS can I please have pemission to post - it is a not for profite site.....

[Glamourcide]

Good luck hun!! Just a not-so-sneaky sub, as DH and I do more renos around here, the more I think our backyard would be a suitable place for some cute little bawk-bawks, so there might be some handy tips in here for me in future, too!

[Teeki]

We have two chook chooks, they're hilarious! We actually got lucky when we moved here, it was already set up for chooks. There's a pretty big aviary down the back, with some good roosting 'planks' for them and a little box they love to get in to lay their eggs. Outside of the aviary it's fenced off, and we have a problem with them pooping under our verandah so if we don't want them in the back yard they've still got an outside area to play around in.

I agree with ausgirl - the dust bath is hilarious! They love it

They're pretty good at keeping the weeds down, but we've had to fence off the vegie patch pretty well. And they won't go near stinging nettles if you have them cos it hurts their eyes, so still need to get rid of them for them.

They can eat a fair bit, but water is the main thing, they can overheat quite easily

[littlemissmountain]

You've been given lots of good advice already We have 9 plump chooks and they are great, low maintenance 'pets'.

When you build/set up their shelter, just bear in mind that they only lay in the boxes... at night they roost and need rungs to do so on. Preferably something like a ladder, but on a slope, as their hierarchy is very important to them! The more dominant chooks roost at the top etc.
Ours have a really big enclosure (we're on acreage) with lots of plants which chooks like to eat. There's no grass left in there, so I let them out to free range during the day when we are at home. You will find that they take themselves off to bed when the sun starts to go down I give them all our food scraps as well as layer pellets/wheat/cracked corn, and I actually grow extra lettuce/silverbeet etc for them as they LOVE it. Their fresh water is always topped up by the water off the roof off the garage. Not 100% sure of initial cost as our chooks came with the place when we bought it and were already set up. But I am guessing that if you have another structure (existing fence) you can start to build off and you use recycled materials to make the nesting boxes etc, you could do it for a couple of hundred bucks. Wire fencing material is probably going to be the most expensive bit.
Hope this is helpful! Enjoy your chookies and your beautiful fresh eggs! (and I DON'T recommend getting a rooster... ours didn't last long because he was a NASTY piece of work!!)
LMM

[kelebek]

We have 4 and we (well OH) upturned a couple of old dog boxes onto thier sides and a old cage that we were using for the ducklings and a peice of marine ply over the top for shade. We have 3 different pots for water. We have an automatic feed that OH made from some old piping and fire chimney top thingy. (I can take some photos if you like) OH does put some straw in for them to lay the eggs in.

The best part is that the eat almost all of our food scraps (I personally don't give them onion scraps etc...) but it's amazing how much it saves your bin space and the eggs are yummy and DS is old enough and enthusiastic enough to want to collect them

[christy]

We have 3 Isla Browns as well in a very small suburban garden. They have a coop which is A frame with a roosting plank and a nesting box for the eggs. Our girls come out and free range in the garden 3 hours or so a day or more if we are home. They have two large water buckets one outside and one inside their coop as well as all our scraps in the evening when they go to bed and heaps of pellets and shell in the morning.

We've had ours for a short while, but we got them from another BB girl (I'm looking at you Onyx) and she got them as rescue chooks.

They are extremely personable and very happy to come inside and sit on a lounge if I'd let them. My neighbours love them as does my MIL who brings them treats.

[Shanti]

Chooks are great pets and DD adores them! Chases them and picks them up hehe holds them and rocks them. Awww.

We have 7 chooks (3 types) and a duck and a drake pair of ducks!!! They all live together.

Every day they get free roam of our yard and eat all our weeds! Yep they love the dirt and roll around in it.

DH built a great chook house and pen for them with a builder friend and it's just great.

The girls have given great advice.

I have two fresh organic eggs on toast every morning and when I eat one from the shops it doesn't compare!!!

[Cassius2]

sorry i am just asking a quick question as we are also thinking of getting chooks...will our grass be destroyed when they are roaming?

sorry for the hijack

[Teeki]

sorry i am just asking a quick question as we are also thinking of getting chooks...will our grass be destroyed when they are roaming?

sorry for the hijack

Nope. Ours don't really pay much attention to the grass, they prefer the garden beds where there's some dirt so dig up to find bugs and have dirt baths. So if you have nice gardens with mulch and stuff you may want to stop them getting in there

[PumpkinZulu]

sorry i am just asking a quick question as we are also thinking of getting chooks...will our grass be destroyed when they are roaming?

sorry for the hijack

MIL has 3 chooks (she lives in brighton though, so not exactly the country or anything lol) and yep, they destroyed her lawn. BUT it's not the same for everyone.

Really, I can't wait to get chooks. As someone who is mortally afraid of birds (yep, birds), I just can't resist chooks, they're cute, entertaining, and the eggs! NOM!

[Shanti]

sorry i am just asking a quick question as we are also thinking of getting chooks...will our grass be destroyed when they are roaming?

sorry for the hijack

Depends. Parts of our yard they prefer to scratch and dig at more than others....like along the backyard against our house (where noone really sees anyway) they love having dirt baths in that spot so yeah they've ripped up the grass a bit there, BUT they are WONDERFUL at getting rid of ALL our weeds!!!! We never have to weed our yard!!!
They're so worth it. And our DD is so brave around animals now as she has heaps of her own....it really does teach kids alot too about where eggs come from, how to care for their animals etc.....DD loves collecting the eggs each day with us and loves eating her eggs every morning too because she knows where they come from!!!

[Cassius2]

sweet! i guess if the grass starts to get hammered we could improvise some fenced off area...thanks guys!

[beckoes]

hijack always welcome. Im worried as we have a big property, (its rented) and im worried they will get lost or something, or eaten by something! but fencing a section in kinda blows the budget out, i looked at chicken wire and its pretty exy!
Im not much of a builder so would probably just make or buy an A frame house for them roost in with a small area to put them in when im not at home. i was thinking id just get two or three.
we have ALOT of weeds in our lawn so i hope they eat all of those casue i hate pulling them out ever two weeks!!!

[Teeki]

We've just had our chooks out for a while, and DH mowed the lawns yesterday. He spreads the clippings like mulch, and they've been in there all night! They love that stuff