Beginners Chicken Keeping

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British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
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We started in this week on getting set up for chicken keeping - eggs initially and moving on to table birds eventually. Is there any interest in a thread on setting up coops, electric fences, feeders etc?
 
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Mesquite

It is what it is.
Mar 5, 2008
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~Hemel Hempstead~
Why ask silly questions like that Hugh? :rolleyes:

There's always interest in what you get up to on your small holding :)

As for the typo in the title you can edit it yourself in advanced edit settings
 

Clouston98

Woodsman & Beekeeper
Aug 19, 2013
4,364
2
25
Cumbria
Would be great! We should have some chickens when we've finished moving so it would be really helpful :).
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
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So I can - thanks Steve :)

I did think chicken keeping might be "old hat" to many tbh. I've never properly kept them though, so it'll be our experiences of learning how to do it. Nothing grand (heck we aren't grand people), but I must admit I've learned a few interesting things already that I didn't know before.
 

vizsla

Native
Jun 6, 2010
1,517
0
Derbyshire
Sounds good, I can highly recommend lavender colour hybrids, great layers look lovely and nice and tame so don't mind being checked over
 

vizsla

Native
Jun 6, 2010
1,517
0
Derbyshire
Iv always known them as lavender but having just done a search some people are calling them bluebell hybrids, so I may be wrong but here's a pic
uhame6ez.jpg
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
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Nice looking birds, the local breeder we went to see has offered us some "Blue" (IIRC) hybrids that certainly look similar. We are toying with Sussex as dual purpose that forage well but may add some of these too :)
 

vizsla

Native
Jun 6, 2010
1,517
0
Derbyshire
You won't go far wrong with Sussex mate very hardy birds,if you after a working bird I'd steer clear of any birds with feathered legs like orpingtons as they just get matted up.
also a mate had some but the name slips my mind, they were thin and tall almost looked abit Jurassic park, and they did nothing but pecked each other to death, not nice to see he had to take one viscous bird out and built a little run attached to the other run just separated by mesh, the bird kept trying to peck through the mesh and accidentally got the mesh between it's beak and pulled and pulled until lit pretty much ripped its own beak off! Horrible stuff that you don't won't to be dealing with, can't go wrong with tried and tested birds
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
1,947
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Nice to hear you agree on the Sussex - a good friend of mine heartily recommended them so, if we can get some at the right time, I think we will have some of them (maybe with some others for variety) - please continue with the advice if you find the time - the voice of experience counts for a lot and "I know nothing (John Snow)" :)
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
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Okay a first few setup considerations

First one - I know nowt about the job! So what to do? Well apparently, so my mechanic friend tells me, the first thing to do with any new undertaking is to get the Haynes manual.

So we did.

Haynes Chicken Manual by British Red, on Flickr

I have, under my lady wifes stern gaze, resisted his idea of the perfect chicken coop however!

landy coop2 by British Red, on Flickr

On a more serious note, the Haynes manual is pretty good. Doubtless I will need more in depth information as things progress, but this seems to have a pretty well rounded introduction to the subject which is what we needed.
 

vizsla

Native
Jun 6, 2010
1,517
0
Derbyshire
If I had the room iv always fancied keeping a few goose as I think there great to watch and love the way they waddle!
i made quite a few silly mistakes when we first had chickens mainly with regards to feed and inevitably a rat problem, I swear rats can hear a drop of grain from a mile away!
I used plastic feeders that you fill at the top and the food filters down to the trough at the bottom but the not so stupid chickens would eat wot they could through the top and then tip the feeder over getting feed everywhere, the key is keeping all feed in the coop, I kept my chickens in a 8x6 shed which also made cleaning out a lot easier and I cut a hatch with a drop down door for them to come in and out, I did this about a foot about ground and rather than a board for them to walk up I made a ladder type out of timber again to avoid rats getting in, and eventually I had no rat problem which was a shame as I had many a pleasant evening in the deck chair with my riffle!
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
1,947
Mercia
Next step was to select an area for the chickens. We wanted to offer them an area that was sheltered from the wind, where they could have some shade or full sun as they needed. We also didn't want to pack them in. However, we are tight for space so we didn't want to use areas where we might sight fruit cages, veg beds etc.

There is an area on the North side of the cottage where we keep the main Calor bulk tank that is too shady for veg gardening. It runs on to our sunny South facing garden

Chicken run position by British Red, on Flickr

We figure that the cottage and hedge will shelter the Western (Calor tank) end of the run from hot sun, wind etc. but the birds will have the open orchard (Eastern) end for sunbathing.

We marked out an area (you can see the string in the picture below) that will be encircled by a 50 metre electric fence. We wanted to keep the fence well clear of the cottage, gates, hedges etc so that we could mow around it, cut hedges etc. We are initially only looking at half a dozen laying hens so this should be a nice large area for them to move around in but it gives us some scope to expand as we gain in confidence.

Run Layout by British Red, on Flickr
 

JonathanD

Ophiological Genius
Sep 3, 2004
12,809
1,479
Stourton,UK
When we moved back to the UK in my catapulting beginners years, my dad had an area of the grounds he set up for chickens. He kept all kinds of weird and wonderful breeds, and I can still taste those rich eggs today. Sadly, it's all memories as most eggs we get now have very little taste. I don't miss the cockerels waking me up, but I do miss those eggs and fresh roasted chooks. Emms has always wanted to keep chickens, so maybe this will go some way in knocking me off the fence. More meat on them than the current free range livestock we have....

 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
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Right so the next stage. I need to find a place to put the electric fence Energiser.

"What is an Energiser?" I hear you cry. Well, think of it as a sort of transformer for an electric fence.

An electric fence works by passing a current through the fence, through anything touching the fence, into the ground, through the ground and back up into a big metal spike (earth bond) driven into the ground.

In order to generate a zap that deters, but does not harm, you need a high voltage but a low current. The old adage goes "Its volts that jots but mills (milliamps) that kills".

You can power your Energiser in one of two ways - from the mains or a battery. If you imagine a car battery, its only 12V. An energiser steps this up to thousands of volts (but a tiny current). If you use a mains power source for the Energiser, it likewise turns the 230V AC of a domestic socket into several thousand volts with low current.

So crudely, I connect an Energiser up to a car battery. I then connect one of the outputs of Energiser to the fence and one to a one metre lump of metal driven into the ground. Anything touching both fence and ground completes a circuit and gets a zap. So far, so good.

Now, under the window you can see in the picture of the cottage above is an existing domestic earth bond.

Earth Bond by British Red, on Flickr

"Excellent" I thought - I can use that rather than fit a new one. It also has the added advantage of being near the wall where I will run power out if I use a mains powered Energiser (If you use a mains powered Energiser you have to plug it in indoors and run only the output leads outdoors, if you use a battery, you can site the battery, and the Energiser, outdoors).

So, before I fixed my decision on this I did some reading and rang my sparky mate to consult. Turns out to share an Earth bond with the house would be really stupid :eek:. The house earth bond serves to dump current into the ground in the event of a problem with household electricity. If the fence was connected to the earth bond it could run a huge current through the fence (or as my buddy put it "you wouldn't need to cook them after they touched it").

Further research indicates that the earth bond for an electric fence must be no less than 10m from any other Earth bond to prevent any risk of current flowing between them.

So a bit of a head scratch and we decided to site the earth bond the other side of the orchard - where my jacket is in this picture

Post Position by British Red, on Flickr

This is about 18 metres from the cottage so will fine from that point of view.
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
1,947
Mercia
So having established where to put the Earth bond (which all types of Energisers need), should we go for a battery type, or a mains type?

For me mains has the advantage of not having to worry about the battery going flat.

Battery has the advantage of working in a power cut (which we do get).

Looking around there are even solar recharged battery powered Energisers. I like that thought but they are a frightening price - and I can build better for cheaper. So my first thought is "I want to be able to fit solar later".

We have found that some Energisers offer the choice of using mains power or battery power. So we will go with one of those.

This means that, when we want to run on mains power, we will need to run wires from the cottage to the Earth bond site. We will plug the Energiser into an indoor socket and run "lead out" wires (2.5mm heavily insulated underground cables) to the connection site. If running on battery, I will build a water proof housing for the battery and connectors at the same point. This means that whatever power source I am using, I will connect to the fence at the same place. I also intend to get my electrician buddy to run me an external socket to this point since I am going to have to trench from the cottage to that point anyway for the "lead out" cables.

I need to put a post in to mount the socket to, run the wires up etc. I have decided to put a tall one in and then, later, I can mount a photovoltaic panel to the post to charge the battery.

Having a hunt around I found an 8' length of pressure treated 3x3 which will do the job nicely

8 foot post by British Red, on Flickr

I put a point on it

Sawing Point by British Red, on Flickr

..and marked a 2' line from the point.

Mark 2' Line by British Red, on Flickr

When setting fence posts I work on 1/3 of the post being underground, but this post is not going to take any strain, so 2' rammed into earth and then set in concrete, leaving 6' above ground should be fine.

I use a drain spade for digging post holes (must get a proper fencing spade one day). A regular spade makes too wide a hole meaning the concrete ends up wide and shallow rather than narrow and deep.

Drain Spade by British Red, on Flickr

Post hole diggers are a real boon when removing soil from a 2' deep hole

Post Hole Diggers by British Red, on Flickr

..and I like to put the spoil into a barrow or on a tarp - no point in ruining the grass

Barrow of spoil by British Red, on Flickr

Then, when nearing the right depth, I use a post rammer to drive the spike into the soil

Post Rammer by British Red, on Flickr

A few checks with the spirit level gets it good and square. I find its important that a post goes into the soil below the hole where the concrete will go - this provides a drain hole rather than the post sitting in a concrete sump after rain.

Once the post is set, I fill the hole 1/3 deep with water

Postcrete by British Red, on Flickr

Water Hole by British Red, on Flickr

and then add a bag of postcrete

Pour Postcrete by British Red, on Flickr

After 15 minutes it has gone off

Concrete "gone off" by British Red, on Flickr

and a little soil and turf neaten the job

Set Post by British Red, on Flickr

So thats my post in the right place to host my electrical supplies.


More as it happens....
 

JonathanD

Ophiological Genius
Sep 3, 2004
12,809
1,479
Stourton,UK
Blimey, who'da thought keeping chickens would be so complicated post MM. All we had was several hundred metres of chicken wire and a shotgun. It's no wonder the rats had their own well worn trails and highways and foxes were seen en masse. On the plus side, I never had to experience electric fences as a 7 year old.

The post hole diggers look useful though.

Cheers Red.
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
1,947
Mercia
You can make a very fine fence with wire Jon - but it needs to be a good 6' high and go both down into the ground by 12-18" (some also suggest flaring it out from the fence horizontally by a further foot). At least so the book says. As in all things, I suspect you have to balance risk and expenditure. The advantage the electric fence buys us is that I can move the whole thing easily if this location proves unsuitable.

Chap down the road from me has a fine chicken enclosure - 4x4 posts, chain link, and covering a large area. We refer to it as "the chicken compound" :D

I am probably overthinking this to be honest - I usually do!
 

Mesquite

It is what it is.
Mar 5, 2008
27,807
2,893
62
~Hemel Hempstead~
Enjoying this already Hugh. :cool:

I may never end up keeping chickens or do a lot of the other things you've posted about but just reading about all your trials and tribulations is interesting and enjoyable. :)
 

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