Chickens.

Hi Beckie 76

Phoned th straight away when I realised. Need to take photos and email, then they need to interview driver about it.

Rusty

 

Just you keep on at them @rustyroots, they can't get away with smashing up your property

 

Hi All,

Thought I would update this thread. I have now got the coop finished, minus nest boxes and roost bar.



Messed up with the doors, I built them separately, but the T&G doesn't match so I need to take the right hand side apart and realign.

Also I have got the roof completed.




Not sure whether to put wood chips on the floor or leave it bare. Any thoughts?


Rusty

 

The floor in our covered hens run is paved with old precast concrete coal bunker sides, scavenged concrete fencing panels, etc. and we cover it with straw which is cheaper than bark chips and composts better. Bare soil is supposed to harbour a build up of parasites.

 

Hi @Loofah, if you have a local tree surgeon he will be happy to either sell you some chippings or give you some....well worth a try. The trouble with soil is the hens will pack it down (they will scratch it too) but once its compact & they poop you will end up with a very stinky run, that will be hard to clean....& will cause your birds health problems & of course in the warmer months you will get a fly problem.

 

Hi @Loofah, if you have a local tree surgeon he will be happy to either sell you some chippings or give you some....well worth a try. The trouble with soil is the hens will pack it down (they will scratch it too) but once its compact & they poop you will end up with a very stinky run, that will be hard to clean....& will cause your birds health problems & of course in the warmer months you will get a fly problem.

 

I thought it was a big hint that you ought to get some hens!

Compaction from hens is nothing compared to what ducks do.

 

Sorry @Loofah.....I was having a senior moment

 

Got some of the wire on the run this weekend. Hoping to get all finished next weekend. And maybe get chickens the following weekend.

I have looked at the place that I got my last chickens from, but it is 10 mile further away as they moved and the chickens are £18.50. There is a place closer, but again are £18.50. Is this the standard price now? And does anyone have any recommendations for anywhere I can purchase them? I am in Solihull, West Midlands.

Rusty

 

Don't think them ones run around and lay eggs though FC

What breed of chickens are you getting Rusty? I paid £25 each for 2 Polish, I did pay £5 for 2 ex batts with Fresh Start For Hens just before lockdown but haven't heard anything about pick up as of yet

 

£2.99 in the frozen poultry freezer.

 

Well, I think you have answered your own question - it is the standard price where *you* are.
If you wanted to take a different route, you could always try hatching your own in an incubator. But, that would need two things: 1) an incubator; 2) fertilised eggs (which sell for pennies! Relatively speaking).
I went the incubator route when I lived in my previous house (first with hens; later with ducks). Finding fertilised hen eggs wasn't too, too difficult because a good number of "proper" farm shops sell them. At worst, you could buy fertilised eggs from the people who are selling those hens at £18.50 Obviously that would incur the cost of an incubator + fertilised eggs. The other issue is ... there is NO WAY of knowing what sex those eggs are going to grow into - so, you would need to have a plan in place if some (or even all) of your hatchlings were cockerels.
I loved the experience of hatching my own eggs: with the hen eggs I had a 30/70 cockerel to hen rate; with the duck eggs (which I didn't buy but used the eggs from my first trio) it was more 20/80. However, those figures could be skewed by the simple fact I didn't hatch in any large quantity!
So: for you to ponder would be ... buy a trio of hens @ £18.50 each (£55.50) knowing you are getting hens and most likely at point of lay.
Or, invest in a small incubator (I think I paid around £50 - £60 for mine - that would be around 4- 5 years ago - with the capacity to hatch 3 eggs at a time) plus the cost of fertilised eggs (around 50p each). The eggs take around 3 weeks to hatch (or, it may be four - can't remember the difference twix duck and hen now ) plus the time for them to reach POL. So, feed for that amount of time would also need to be a consideration.
Just my thoughts/experience on the matter.