Silly question about chickens and eggs?

Question

hiya,does anyone out there have any experiance of owning a live chicken,and keepin it to lay eggs??,weve got a big garden,and i was wonderin what the out lay was,forgive the pun,,,what food do they eat etc,,do they make a lot of mess?,thanks,,, from the uk,,

Answer 1

Think the other Permaculturists have cracked it on this answer *LOL*.

1.  In the chicken tractor system the poultry scratch up the fresh soil eating the natural foods (insects, worms, seeds and grit)  found in that new patch of dirt. As the tractor is moved daily, sometimes twice daily the poultry always has a varied diet and a fresh area to clear.

2. Poultry manure is provided in tractors at a level that is good for the soil. In a pen the excess ammonia and manure (nitrogen) damages the soil. It takes much longer to recover and for plants to recover too.

3. Poultry can be let out daily when you are in the garden and become very tame very quickly.

4. In a tractor system the poultry are safer (see Bella and Heln's answers) and your poultry will be much cleaner. Pens get muddy particularly if it is very rainy. Tractors can be moved under shelter in the worst of weather and suppliementary foods given.

5. Poultry in a tractor system suffer much fewer diseases and problems such as beak and feet problems. Because you tend to have only a few birds in a tractor you also get less problems from squabbles over food.

6. Poultry in a tractor system use much less food than in a penned system because basically they are ranging over your entire site on fresh pasture each time. So this reduces the need for bought in food and additional costs.

7. The Poultry are clearing your garden of weeds, pests and scratching up the earth. You can put the tractors directly onto your vegatable beds, into your orchard, whereever you need them to do the work and fertilize for you.

Answer 2

I have chickens for pets.. not all chickens sit on their eggs to hatch them.. some are bred ONLY to lay LOTS of eggs and will  not hatch them.. so the chicks do not develop inside the eggs..

also of course.. without a rooster you get no chicks

this link is on pet chickens.. its EXCELLENT INFO

http://www.gomestic.com/Pets/Unusual-Pet...

http://www.gomestic.com/Pets/Pet-Chicken...

the other link is on what BREEDS are best for Pets.. NOT all chickens are friendly pet types..

I do not find they make much mess.. the links answer your other questions..

Answer 3

Lot of good answers here to help you get started, but go to the library and get some books -- there will be a good selection of books to choose from and will answer your questions in depth.

The number one problem with raising healty vibrant happy chickens is over crowding. Chickens raise "easy" if you prepare well -- and since they do, some folks who realistically have only the room for say 6-10 hens want to raise 20 or more. This is when chickens become sick. If you want to raise a large flock be sure you have the space requirements. Chickens need space to be healthy!

I am well into my third flock of 15 (the chcks have just turned 4 weeks). They are raised in a very secure coop and free range over a large area. Chickens are smart and can be taught where not to go, but teaching chickens takes patience and persistence.

Chickens are very social, and for good reason, there is safety in numbers, hens almost always will be seen foraging with a "partner" -- call it the chicken buddy system, and in case of a predator, each chickens chances of survival is doubled since the predator will only be able to go after one or the other . . . Point being, don't raise just one, three is a good number, but two is just fine.

Chickens will eat almost everything they can get to that has food value. They will eat mice if they can find them. And almost all bugs -- they do not like snails or slugs, but will go for lizards and snakes. They eat grass, not as well as geese, but they do like their greens. So all kind of foods go in, but what comes out is pure gold to the farmer, chicken manure is an increidbly rich fertilizer! If the hens diet is spot on, it is usually a fairly solid mass (mess) -- but birds mix their urine with their f***s so sometimes the droppings can be rather unpleasant to step in barefoot. The best place to gather the droppings is to incorporate a droppings board into the roosting area that is easily scrapped clean. Droppings go into the compost pile along with lots of green matter (straw).

Eggs are a completely balanced food. They contain all essential amino acids in the proper amounts -- a most excellent food, and eating your own eggs will greatly enrich your own health and sense of well being. It is the main reason to keep chickens.

Chickens breeds break down into 3 types for the general back yarder, layers, meat birds, and multi-purpose. Excellent layers will give you 5-6 eggs a week, meat birds are grown for the table, and the multi-purpose breeds will give you good egg produciton (3-4 a week) and still put on enough meat to make a decent family dinner.

Have fun with it, but be responsible. If you have neighbors you might want to avoid roosters . . .

Answer 4

Bohemian Garnet asked me to answer this question. Her answer is excellent. Just adding a few points for first time poultry keepers in the UK.

You can not have just one hen, they are social animals that are best in a flock. A stressed hen (living on it's own) will not lay eggs. However, you can have just three chickens if you use the Permaculture Tractor system see below.

Hens do not recognize human boundaries and fences, even if you have a big garden and good fences your neighbours will soon get over how cute your hens are when they have scratched up and eaten their plants for the second time that week. The solution is not to free range them in a garden but use a Permaculture chicken tractor.

Foxes are another problem in the UK, particularly in the Suburbs where they are quite happy to raid your chickens during the day as well as at night. Solution is ..... Yup Permaculture Chicken Tractor.

Cost depends on so many factors. Chickens can cost anything depending on what you want, my advice is to look for people who sell free range eggs locally, go buy some eggs from them and ask them where they got their hens. They may have some hens for sale, or know someone locally who has.

Watch the Youtube links below on (you guessed it) chicken tractors. If you are good at DIY you can quickly knock these up from scrap wood and chicken wire. Just remember if you are not having a chicken hut and your chickens are going to overwinter outside in their chicken tractor  to make an inner nesting box and a covered roof. It makes it heavier to lift and move the tractor each day but a lot easier than any other method.

If you have a big garden plant chicken food plants. If you grow crops they will have a lot of bugs to eat when they clear your new patches for planting. Supplement their diet with kitchen scraps and sacks of wheat you can buy locally.

As for mess, no, in a chicken tractor system the chickens eat all the bugs, scratch up the weeds, fertilize so prepare the  ground where you want to grow crops so you don't have to.

We have used Chicken Tractors in the past, very successfully,

I am Vegan again and don't eat eggs but my family do. If we have to have chickens again then I prefer to totally free range, but that is not really possible unless you have a smallholding and few neighbours.

Just one last point. If you are going to keep chickens, make sure you learn how to skillfully kill them so they suffer as least as possible. Even if you have no intentions of ever killing a chicken, you need to know how to do this. Things happen, for example foxes, where the only option is to kill the chicken as quickly as possible. If you keep chickens they are your responsibility. Learn how to kill them skillfully from the person you buy them from.

Good luck.

Edited to Add: Chicken tractors are designed to be moved every day, so the chickens have as much space as land you have.

Lots of us were able to keep chickens in the UK without too many problems with foxes even ten years ago. However as more and more land is built on and more and more people waste and throw away more food foxes have moved into towns and cities. They have become a lot more daring and even forage during the day and take chickens.

I know a lot of chicken keepers in the UK both in the countryside and in the city, this information is based on our experiences - fact, not just my own opinion. If you keep chickens in the suburbs and try to free range them the foxes will have them, sooner or later.

Answer 5

What was that salami person saying about not being able to fit in a tractor.

Gee I thought my bum was big.

Answer 6

Yes, we had a hen that we raised from a chick that just happen to come into our fenced yard.  It was like a pet.  It ate chick mash until it was able to eat table scraps like rice and bread crumbs.  It ate all the bugs in the yard for sure.  Our kids had fun with it growing up until it started to lay eggs.  It got along with our dog so the cats did not bother it.  We later got a pair of table top chickens and that was a great experience.  Best if you lock the chicken up every night so the night hawks don't snatch it.  We lost a few ducks that way.

Have fun and yes they are the best natural two legged fertilizing machine.

Answer 7

umm dont do it unless your like someone that has $ to own them and support the smell

Answer 8

just a warning, chickens smell really bad and can get really messy.i would suggest maybe going to visit a free range farm so you can get an idea what its like and then you can talk to the owners and see what its like and see if its a thing for you,

Answer 9

their poo is good for flowers

Answer 10

We used to keep chickens when I was a child, they were fantastic.

We made them a coop from an old cupboard. So it actually cost very little, aside from the wire to create their enclosure.

When we get a garden I'm definitely having some more.

Bohemian_Garnet_Permac...has given you some good information.

One thing, have you thought about re-homing an ex battery hen? They do require a little more work to start with but they really do deserve a good life. And will still supply you with eggs. For more information look here:

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

They have a huge amount of information regarding the needs and requirements of chickens in general not just ex-batts, and can also tell you who to contact, locally to you, about re-homing an ex battery hen.

Edit: looking at the links given above, I personally feel that all the 'tractors' are too small. They just look like rabbit runs, which I think are too small for rabbits let alone several chickens.

When we had our chickens they were given a large section of garden which was fenced off with a coop inside for them to get out of the weather and roost at night. We never had any problems with foxes and every time they tore up their patch they were rotated around the garden to a fresh area. I don't see a problem with this method and it certainly gave them more natural freedom than the cages mentioned above.

Just my opinion though.

Edit ooh there's a suprise - don't agree with some one so get a thumbs down! Ha ha you guys crack me up.

Edit: HELEN  i was never suggesting hens shouldn't be penned, just that the arks given as examples are, in my opinion too small. And  that WE never had any problems with foxs getting our hens, prehaps we were just lucky.

Answer 11

I've kept chickens many times over the years.  I'm in the U.S.A. by the way.

I'm not sure what you mean by a "garden."  A place where you grow vetables, or where you have flower beds?

Chickens are very hard on gardens.  They will dig up all of your flowers with their scratching, and taking of dust baths.  They will also take a bite of each and every thing in your garden, even if they don't like it....just to make SURE they don't like it!  ~lol~

I keep my hens in the orchard.  Chickens and an orchard mix very, very well together.  The chickens will eat the fallen fruit, and any bugs that are attracted to it.

Here in the States, laying mash (what people normally feed chickens) has drugs in it I do not approve of.  So I feed cracked corn, oyster grit (needed for the shells of the eggs) and at times black oil sunflower seeds.  My chickens can get a shocking amount of their food needs just from free ranging in the orchard.  About 95% of their food needs, all on their own.

Chickens of course p**p.  Their p**p is filled with nitrogen...quiet good for orchards.  Needs to compost if you are putting into a garden.

A very few hens will keep you in eggs quiet nicely.  I like to keep a small flock of about 6 hens.  MORE than enough eggs for 3 adults.  I always have plenty of eggs to feed to the dogs.

I do not keep so many hens that they can scratch the grass to bare dirt in the orchard.  Chickens are a lot of fun.  They are terrific entertainment to watch.  I sugest going to your local library, and looking at a book on chickens and keeping them in the U.K.  I'm also going to ask another permaculture farmer who lives in the U.K. to anwer this question (I cannot mention her name, or this answer could be deleted for chatting).

If you have a large area to keep them in, and have only a very few hens, you will not have a smell problem.  They will rip out any flower plantings, or vegtable plantings however, as they are very vigorous scratchers with their legs.  On the plus side, they will really keep the bugs down for you.

~Garnet

Permaculture homesteading/farming over 20 years

Answer 12

Yes they are messy. To find out what kind of food they eat you can go to a feed store or a CO OP.

Answer 13

You have already been given some really great answers by Permaculture Bela, Bohemia Garnet Permaculturist and Emarldo. I am a UK poultry keeper and have been for many years.

I totally disagree with Madam salami's comments about keeping chickens in pens, particularly in towns and cities. Even if you walk the boundaries of your pen twice a day, foxes soon learn to dig underneath them. Penned chickens are not like free range chickens. They do not have the opportunity of getting away, nor do they have the skills. They are held within the pen with the fox. The fox will literally snap off every chicken's head even if he only takes one dead chicken away. Foxes always come back the next night, the night after and Permaculture Bella is correct, they also hunt during the day particularly if the chickens are nicely collected together in a pen.

If you totally free range chickens you lose some at the start when they are learning and adapting to your environment. The ones actually born in your garden grow up to be the best at avoiding being eaten. Chickens do not stick up for each other. They warn each other but then as long as they personally are not getting chased or eaten they will stand around and watch as the other ones are.  

They don't flee unless they are taught (hatched on site) to flee by the other chickens that have already learned to survive by being best at free ranging.

Ex battery hens are just stupid, they are not bred to survive, they are bred to lay a lot of eggs. They have all sorts of behavioural problems and many have health problems particularly pecking and foot problems. I strongly advise you not to take them on unless you want a pet.

As to Chicken Arks/tractors, these I think are the best solution in a town garden. As you move the pen each day (make sure the ground is level at each new site) you do not get the problems with foxes digging under as much, nor do you get the awful chicken foot and leg problems associated with wet muddy pens.

If you are outside working in the garden, chicken ark hens get used to you, you can let them out and they will follow you around pecking all the pests out of the ground as you dig your vegetable patch. They are happy to go back in the Ark with a little food. Mine now put themselves to bed when I start to gather my tools up to go inside. My penned chickens were never as friendly as my Ark ones have been.

Chickens in Arks don't get smelly, you can not avoid chicken pens getting smelly and churned up. Moving the pen is then a big deal. Five minutes a day to move and feed your hens in an arc is much easier and better for your neighbour's noses too!