Growing Chickens....Layers or table.

[Nagual]

I, like no doubt many of us here have saw many of the recent programs regarding cheap chickens that have filled our supermarket shelves and our bellies for some time. Some of these programs are quite well balanced and very informative, others slightly more biased. What they all do, however, is make us think about our food. This is a good thing, it can make us re-evaluate ourselves, our habits and our needs.

Now personally I'd love to be able to afford all the free range chickens,cows,pigs or whatever but I simply cannot afford it. I've looked at the costs of setting up chicken coops and feeding them etc and it really is quite cheap. From buying pre-made coops that come with chickens to making your own - upto £150ish. Feed works out at roughly 80p - £1 per month per chicken, at least according the several websites I've looked through. So this would be something that I'd like to do too, but would have to save up a bit of cash for.


I'm posting here just to see what the general feel for growing our own chickens, either layers or table birds or both. Maybe you do grow some already or have in the past. How easy was it, what problems you encountered if any. What tips can you offer people who want to start out in this? Did you buy the birds from a good source or did you rescue them from batteries? What are the real costs? Did you enjoy it? If you had table birds, how did you feel killing them yourself? Did you do it, or someone else? I'm sure if you have kept birds you could probably think of more questions that I haven't raised.

If you haven't kept birds, and would like to, whats stopping you? Is it the cost, or the unease of doing something unknown? Or something else?


One of the reasons this has been in my mind recently is that a couple of friends are trying to start up a project that if successful will allow residents of a certain area to reclaim land and essentially start a small hollding or croft type of thing. It's all still in the planning stages so far lottery funding has been knocked back, but there is still hope on the horizion. Anyways that really doesn't matter - what about your eggcellent experiences with chickens?....

 

[OldFingersGreen]

my parents kept chickens when i was very young but after moving we just don't have the space. to humanely keep chickens you need a lot of space, also you need to not care about that space being destroyed. to keep enough chickens to have one for your sunday roast each week is quite a lot of work even with enough space. i was recently entrusted with feeding a family freinds chickens geese and guinnefowl whilst they went on holiday. for them it was worthwhile, huge garden for a big pen and close to a wholesale animal feed outlet.

first of all it depends on physical constraints, space/time/money etc, i presume the whole point is to give the chickens good lives so you don't feel bad about eating them.... lacking any of the above and it just isn't possible.

secondly, if you do have the room many people choose to grow fruit 'n' veg instead. a good investment and most people don't mind chopping the stems off rhubarb.......

all in all its a personal decision, but if you don't have the room, don't do it.

 

[trail2]

I have done both. If you have layers you feed them with no gain until they lay. Then if you have hybrid layers you need to eat a lot of eggs or cull the flock to keep the best producers.An upside is you can eat them (stewing hens) when they stop laying.
With table birds you are putting on weight from the start. Good table hybrids will go at six weeks or there abouts and you can keep a few on.
As to killing and butchering. Don't let people make pets of them You view them as any other resource. You do whats right by them but ultimately they are your food.
I have always killed and dressed my own birds. It may be difficult or less cost efficient to get someone else to do it.
Re reading this I see I come across as a little cold. Don't mean to be. All my birds were well looked after and I guess thats what counts.
Hope this was helpful.
Jon R.

 

[blodyntatws]

We have kept chickens, ducks and geese in the past, but have had to give it up now. The geese we kept for the eggs, the ducks for eggs and eating and the chickens for both. If you want eggs, it may be worth looking into resucing ex battery hens alot of people have great success with them, although by the time you get them they are usually past their prime, but there is a certain amount of satisfaction in knowing that they are getting a good life. We used to rear our own chicks, we built an incubator. The eggs and the meat taste far better than shop bought stuff. I too would like to be able to afford better meat but feeding 8 at a time somewhat limits it. They do need letting out in the mornings and locking up at dusk, so this can somewhat limit your days out if you need to get back to them. Just a thought.
Our runs we all homemade, we built them from external ply as far as I can remember. If you dont clean them out regularly you will end up with a fly problem.
Overall though there is a great deal of satisfaction in knowing that when you sit down with your boiled egg or roast chicken, that you have reared it, that it is well cared for and that you have produced it yourself.
Good luck with your venture.
Loz

 

[Cobweb]

I've got chickens now.
I spent £20 on the run (DIY - Plywood and chicken wire) and the birds were rescued from a bad home. You can get them from the battery hen welfare trust for a quid a bird I think, hit google for the site.
I keep them as layers mostly and as I'm not much of a gardener they have the whole of the garden to run about in, even nippin off over the back fence to forage in the scrub there.
If you are planning on free range, you'll only need to feed them a cupful of mixed corn (between 4 birds) per day, you can get 25kg sacks for under a tenner at a farmers warehouse. In winter you will probably need to give them two cups per day. For my four birds a sack lasts a good four months in summer and two months in winter.

The only thing to watch out for really is if they start eating their own eggs, it normally means that they need salt which can be provided by a packet of crisps.

They also take care of any scraps, boiled/roasted veggies, bits of meat (They do eat meat, not a lot but it just supplements what they would get from eating insects and worms).
Large battery hens normally lay two to three eggs a day, afterwards they calm down a bit to one to two. Large bantams are one per day and small bantams lay once every other day.

I love my chickens, you can pretty much leave them to themselves and just collect the eggs!

If you want babies, you will need a cockerel (I know you know that but... well... sorry) he will cockadoodle in the morning, about lunchtime and just before sunset. Note, if you have a nice garden and are keeping then in a run, try to place it where it will get the sun. if you don't the cockerel with start in the morning about 3am and continue all day. I don't know why this is but my friends chickens are kept in a run, in a shaded part of the garden and she's given me all of her cockerels to get them away from her neighbours. After a couple of days here they stick to the morning noon and night routine.

 

[DoctorSpoon]

I've kept chickens, ducks or both for many years. I don't intensively feed, just mixed corn, but have always been in the position where they can free range widely so they have a varied natural diet. They go off lay in the winter but it's quite nice to treat eggs as a seasonal product and just have them when they are laying. They are very low hassle, but you have to be around to let them out in the morning and put them away at night. In the winter that's before I get home from work and it'd be difficult if it wasn't for Robin working from home.

The hens I had were an old fashioned breed (Croad Langshan) which were pretty good layers and had plenty of weight to eat the surplus cockerels. The boys get pretty noisy when you're fattening them for the table and you need to make sure your neighbours won't complain. I changed over to indian runner ducks about two years ago and having had two really wet summers am glad. They are so gleeful when you open the shed door on a wet morning! There's not much meat on the surplus drakes, but they are much quieter and have huge comedy value.

Either if confined to a small patch of land will soon wear it out. Hens will scratch it bare and ducks will make it into a mud bath!
Nicola

 

[ZDP-189]

I would not recommend keeping fowl unless you are in the business. It's not as simple as you'd think.

 

[Nagual]

I would not recommend keeping fowl unless you are in the business. It's not as simple as you'd think.

I would be greatful if you could explain that in more detail. From what I've read both on various sites and from the comments here, it is as simple as it appears. I'm not saying it is easy or with out problems, however the basics would seem to be

• Have a decent sized coop
• Have a good sized run
• Feed correctly
• Clean coop and area regularly
• Inspect birds for injury and disease
• Keep safe from potential predators

Perhaps I am missing something, perhaps not. I'm more than happy to listen to any experiences you may have had regarding chickens. The more knowledge that is shared that better!

 

[MagiKelly]

I've had hens ins the garden for the last 7 years and would not be without them. We only keep 4-5 and they are for eggs. I would eat them but the wife and kids would not go for it.

Last birds cost me £4 each for pullets (just started laying) and a 25kg bag of feed costs me about £8. You get about an egg a day for the first year then in the second they will give less during the winter and by the third they attend to stop laying for a couple of the darker winter months.

I have kept dogs, cats, birds and fish and hens are the best value and easiest to look after. No one can resist the charm of fresh layed eggs and neighbours will be fighting each other for the chance to watch over them while you are on holiday.

On a sunny day seeing them sunbathing is worth the price of admission as well

As a note I think it is illegal to feed meat to chickens now although they would eat it if given a chance. Certainly worms and slugs get eaten when found.

 

[Humpback]

Go on keep them if you have room and are prepared to kill for the pot very occasionally. Of course you should like eating eggs regularly or be able to swap them!
However when you first start growing chickens don't plant them too deep.
Alan

 

[launditch1]

Ive kept chickens for over 5 years now and from all those points that you listed i cant think of anything more to add.Keeping chickens is actually easy(if i can do it anyone can)Its hardly on a commecial level is it?My wife and i were lucky to be given a coop by a neighbour complete with 3 sussex hens,1 rhode island red and a marran.Food i buy by the sack full which is called supermix.It is grain,maize,peas with grit added..Important for good shells on the eggs and digestion.If you are raising them for the pot try not to get attached to them because trust me it will make it alot harder to kill them!I think they are very rewarding and worth every penny,watching them having a dust bath..chasing each other around when they get a worm..Priceless!Mine are free to roamm where thety like and i think they benefit from being on grass.Track down the book:Keeping poultry and rabbits on scraps.Its a reprint from WW2 and has just been republished by Penguin.Still very relevent.Good luck!

 

[locum76]

i may have a few black rock layers available soon, to go to a good home. they still lay eggs just not enough to make the farm money... and i can't eat them all. (PMs welcome)

 

[blodyntatws]

One other quick thing, chickens do need worming alot of wormers require that you do not eat the eggs or meat for at least 7 days although there is a wormer that is available that doesnt require this. Can't remember the name off hand. There is a good magazine called practical poultry that would be worth a read, or country smallholding which is also useful for chickens and other livestock.

 

[Nagual]

i may have a few black rock layers available soon, to go to a good home. they still lay eggs just not enough to make the farm money... and i can't eat them all. (PMs welcome)

In case no one wants your chicks, you could also advertise at River Cottage . You may have to sign up, and the forum you're looking for is the River Cottage Farmers Market ( scroll down quite a ways) Here you can give sell swap your live stock etc subject to any rules etc. The whole forum is quite good, with many threads on wild food and foraging too.

 

[Gwhtbushcraft]

Ive kept ducks for the last year and they have been a joy to have any really pleasant to have around. I have them for eggs and pets and i certainly wouldn't put mine on the table (once they have names and differnt personalities thatis just too hard).
I made a pen out of exterior plywood salvaged from last years outdoorshow and a run out of a roll of chicken wire salvaged off a scrap pile (Swyn :You_Rock_ ). My birds were hatched in a cheap incubator from a local ad (alghough i really need a better one this year) and the eggs came from ebay. They are fed on mixed corn, let out early morning and put away afer dark. I expect my ducks to begin laying in around march (alghough i need to get a few more females this year). a good website for you to look at or post a question would be http://www.pekinbantams.com/community/index.php
Best of luck
George

 

[trail2]

I would do it again in a heart beat. But unfortunately when we moved into town found out "no domestic fowl allowed".
On a small scale its fun and worthwhile if you keep expectations reasonable. And the satisfaction of knowing your eggs came from your own flock make it more so.
Jon R.

 

[Oblio13]

We keep a dozen or so hens. Don't expect to save any money on eggs, but there are "fringe benefits". They'll eat your kitchen scraps, the eggs are so much fresher and tastier, the birds are fun to watch, and they'll weed, de-bug, fertilize and till your garden for you.

There's not much to keeping them, and plenty of information on the net. I think the most important thing to remember is to not crowd them. If they have plenty of "elbow room" they get along well with each other and don't seem to have pest or odor problems.

 

[gunslinger]

As a note I think it is illegal to feed meat to chickens now although they would eat it if given a chance. Certainly worms and slugs get eaten when found.

I had a dozen hens when I lived in France and as you say they will eat any thing.

Their favourite was a leftover roast chicken carcass :yikes:

Problem was my ex and daughter would not eat them from our garden but if my neighbour killed one of hers ,they would eat that.

GS

 

[locum76]

In case no one wants your chicks, you could also advertise at River Cottage . You may have to sign up, and the forum you're looking for is the River Cottage Farmers Market ( scroll down quite a ways) Here you can give sell swap your live stock etc subject to any rules etc. The whole forum is quite good, with many threads on wild food and foraging too.

cheers dude.

 

[jddubber]

http://www.bhwt.org.uk/index.php

lookin into it ourselves hope this helps