General Chat

Sounds lovely Gail. Would have liked a bigger garden and more animals but didn't happen, a bit too late now methinks.
Lizx

Gail
I am in West Gippsland
in a very small town.

Hi

I had chickens as a child & we decided to get some for our garden a couple of weeks ago.
We bought the coop off of ebay from Albanypets they have a large range of different houses / coops.
We have 4 chickens which we got off of a website henhousechickens. which is close to us.
We got a mendlesham blue, fenning black, bluebell, & a cou cou
They are very friendly but won't lay until the end of march as they are still to young.
There are alot of websites that explain abpout keeping chickens the poultryclub is a good one to look at.

sandra

Ooh I would love to have chickens in my garden and a duck pond I am very envious.

But reading these replies wonder if perhaps it is possible. We also have foxes and badgers coming into our garden - which we love by the way . Whats the minimum amount of space you could allow for a couple of chickens - say 6?
(The side of our garden is about 20 feet wide and 20 feet long).
Tina x

Hi

You need 1 & a half square foot per chicken, take a look on the websites on my previous message it will show you coops & explain it in full, If you have foxes etc wire the underside of the run as well so they can't dig in to the run.

sandra

Thank you so much Sandra. Cheers. ...now I wonder ....perhaps OH would like a few for our Wedding Anniversary ....LOL.

Will hastily go and have a look.
Many thanks.
Tina

Hi,

A coop which is off the ground by 20 or so inches will add space to the run area as well as keep the chooks better protected from Mr fox and Mr Badger.

Chooks take up much less space that one imagines. a run 6 foot long and 3 foot wide wil be fine for 6 chooks.

for coops and arks try albanypets on ebay, new chook homes at great prices

for info and a good laugh try rickschicks, honest advice with humour

Lord Martyn

Thank you kind Sir!
I will look at all these sites.
Tina

Hi everyone, thank you all so much for your replies, I have had a lovely time this morning reading through your replies.
Gail and Mick I have a cousin and other rellies in Oz that I have been hunting down for years but only found them just over a year ago, they live in Glen Waverley, we keep in contact and have swapped photos, it was good to learn about her part of the world.

Chickens, I have had a look at a few web sites, so far I have found this one the best,

http://www.southmead.dsl.pipex.com/index.htm
And
http://www.perfectpoultry.co.uk/

Both are not too far from me so Andy can drive me to get my babies, I am going to name every single one of them lol
I am definately going to get Hybrid chickens because of there immune system being a lot better than pure breeds and of course they seem to lay more eggs, colour of eggs was another thing, I wanted to have some chicken that laid dark eggs, I know it won't change the flavor but they look healthier eggs being brown, well they do to me lol.
I have picked a few I like the look of

Blue Belle/Haze
Bovan Nera
Speckledy
Maran Cuirvree
Black Rock
Maran
Sussex Buff
Golden Laced Wyandotte

I don't want white chickens.
I have someone who is giving me one of his bantams, I don't know what sort it is apart from hubby has told me it has a fluffy top knot and it's female lol.
I was going to have 6 and now I've chosen 8.
Our run for them will be covered in over the top as I cannot possibly risk letting a fox get to them, I'm not sure about the electric fence Mick as I have a cat who is getting on a bit, I was very cross when I noticed the other week that a neighbour a couple of houses away has added razor wire to the top of his panel fencing, it's not as if Buster my cat goes to his garden, Buster never ventures near gardens with dogs, so he has ours and next door the opposite way to the doggy neighbour. Right next door to me is a girl who does dog grooming for her job so she always has dogs in her place, he never goes there lol.

When I finally get these chickens and it will be in the next couple of weeks, I shall name them and take photos to show you all.

Gillie XX

my dad had chicken when i was little

the cockerel was massive

and used to chase everybody

down the path

we never needed a guard dog

with Horace about