Keeping chickens is reportedly one of the fastest growing leisure activities in the uk today. This little guide has been written to help you to make an informed decision as to whether this is the hobby for you. There are a dozen questions embedded in the guide....if you answer “yes” to each one then buying a little flock of chickens could be a good move.
If you answer “no” to any of them....think again.
Just before we get into the subject proper, lets just answer that question of which came first, the chicken or the egg......chickens are birds and birds evolved from dinosaurs, dinosaurs were reptiles and reptiles lay eggs.... therefore it is clear that the egg came first!
And whilst we are on the subject of eggs lets just have a quick biology lesson; there are two types of egg: the type that can hatch into a sweet and fluffy chick and the type that can’t. Only if you want the former do you need a daddy chicken, a “rooster”, “cockerel” or “cock”. If all you want is eggs to eat you don’t need a rooster, hens will lay eggs without a man about the house.
Strangely lots of people don’t seem aware of this simple fact and presume that keeping chickens must mean “cock a doodle do” at 4 am every day.
“What is your motivation, Darling?”
Why are you considering the idea of getting chickens? There are a number of possibilities and each comes with some consequent points.
How do you like your eggs in the morning?
You may well be thinking of keeping chickens for the eggs..and lets face it, chickens are just about the only pet that gives you a tangible return and your own fresh eggs from your own chickens do taste better than anything from a shop.
If eggs are your aim then you will want to look at a couple of factors before you commit too much:
It is also worth considering whether you just want to eat the eggs or look at them; some chickens lay coloured eggs and these are really pretty and go down well when you give them to the neighbours; Columbines for instance usually lay lovely greeny-blue eggs.
Am-nest-y International
You may be thinking about getting chickens because you are motivated by a desire to give some poor ex-commercially owned birds a decent retirement. If this is the case, then good on you, but expect some behavioural problems...many battery birds are withdrawn and confused by this sudden freedom, they usually grow out of it but, unlike human prisoners, they get no counselling or rehabilitation support and so it takes a bit of time to get used to seeing the sky.
Former barn kept animals often engage in lots of hen pecking and this can be a bit distressing at first, so long as it doesn’t turn to murder and cannibalism then you are ok, and again they usually grow out of it relatively soon. Ex commercial birds do lay eggs...but don’t expect each one to lay each day.
Not Maccy D’s but B for Biology
You may want chickens to help educate your children (given that many kids don’t seem to know that eggs come from chickens and milk comes from cows this seem s like a good idea.... and it is a lot easier than keeping cows !)
Chickens are actually quite good for this because they are social animals, their behaviour (both inter chicken and with humans) is fascinating, and they are a pretty universal farm animal so for education value they score quite highly. They do need cleaning out so for that aspect of the education they are better than a dog or cat but they don’t need walking which may be another plus. In fact it is quite surprising that more primary schools don’t keep chickens!
Here, chicky-chicky!
You may want to keep chickens as pets. The reality is that they are actually fascinating creatures, each with its own personality and character, they are enormous fun to watch, and in many cases become very used to being handled and petted. If they free range in your garden they will always rush to see you as soon as you appear. If it is actually the kids that want the pets (and which kids don’t seem to want a pet, chickens have some distinct advantages over other pets;
A cat goes out at night and gets run over, chickens don’t.
Dogs need walking at least once a day, chickens don’t
Dogs and cats live for over ten years so you are still a pet owner when the kids have flown the nest leaving you to look after their pet, chickens don’t often live that long!
Cats and dogs take over your house, chickens don’t – unless of course you invite them in!
Hear the Status Cymbals clash!
If your neighbours have got chickens and you just want to do a social ton up (and who are we to judge the lack of depth in your psyche?) there are all sorts of chickens that will fulfil your desire to own the most amazing bird of the block...you can get chickens that look like one of King Charles the Second’s dissolute courtiers, bewigged and pantalooned. You can get chickens that look like mad colonial Governors with massive plumes. You can get chickens that look like a Courage brewery badge and chickens that look like an animated tickling stick.
Bizarre though it may seem it is a good idea to be clear what the motivation is before you go any further....so your starter for 10 is “Are you clear and happy with your basic motivation for wanting chickens?”
OK, I’ll assume that you said “yes”; here are your dozen deciding questions -
Factors that might affect your decision to become a chicken keeper...
Although you may think that the decision to keep or not to keep chickens is entirely up to you, as with most things in life a little consideration can save a lot of heart-ache later, so think about the other people who may be affected by you keeping chickens.
Before you commit to buying chickens you need to check that there are no restrictive covenants on your home (if you own) or similar clauses in your lease (if you are a tenant) as either of these may present you with a problem.
Restrictive covenants of this type are in force on many residential properties in the UK, especially flats, where there may be communal gardens, or even if you live in the ‘garden flat’ of a block, conversion or purpose-built. Many modern housing estates also have such covenants even for detached properties with private gardens.
Quite a few older properties have restrictive covenants that date from the year dot, so whatever type of property you live in check your deeds or your tenancy agreement.
The reality is that these types of covenants are expensive for someone to enforce but you still don’t want to get into a legal argument. Private residents may fight shy of starting a legal battle for fear of the costs but residents associations, service companies and local authorities are not always slow on at least threatening legal action for breaches. (And it is worth noting that this sort of action is the type of neighbour dispute that you have to declare, by law, when you are trying to sell, so it is worth avoiding!
Some people keep chickens at their allotment....potentially a good plan IF you are allowed and IF you are able to get there daily to look after them and IF they can be secured from theft.
Have you checked that there are no legal barriers to your keeping chickens where you want to keep them?
Regardless of the legal situation it is also worth checking how your own family and your immediate neighbours feel about the possibility of having a flock of chickens in the garden...although you probably don’t need a rooster it is important to know that chickens do make a noise and clucking and squawking at six in the morning is not always welcome either with family members or the neighbours. Smell, frankly, isn’t a problem unless you are going to neglect your chickens!
Have you checked that there are no social barriers to your keeping chickens?
Unless you plan on keeping your chickens in the living room or you are personally planning on sleeping the hen house with them , you are very unlikely to contract bird flu from a small domestic flock, so this is not likely to be a serious factor in the decision making.
Are you satisfied that you are sufficiently unlikely to catch bird flu from chickens?
Chickens, sadly, are not great respecters of horticultural beauty and therefore, if it grows and they can reach it they will eat just about anything they can, this includes your grass, seedling veggies, flowers or plants! If you are a keen gardener or the type of person who likes the garden to look “just so” then either you don’t want chickens in there trashing the joint or you have to have two distinctly separate spaces...one for the gardening and one for the chickens.
Or three spaces; flowers, veggies, chickens
Or four spaces; flowers, veggies, chickens, people
Can you fit a flock in with your garden requirements?
“Big fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite them” goes the line and chickens are prone to pests and parasites like all other animals. A small domestic flock however, can be kept in good nick simply and cheaply by following a few simple rules as below;
This takes about 20 minutes each week....it is my regime and we have never had a mite or worm problem in two and a half years!
Diatomaceous earth is a very fine powder that clogs up tiny parasites and kills them. A kilo lasts for a couple of years and costs about a tenner
Are you prepared to make the small amount of investment and effort to keep them clean and healthy?
After you clean them out each week you will be left with a small amount of chicken litter: bedding (usually straw) contaminated with chicken poo, personally I tend to take this to the end of the garden and burn it off, but there are two things to be aware of here
This can create a lot of smoke which could become either a neighbour complaint issue or could be against a restrictive covenant
I have had one occasion when a well meaning idiot called the fire brigade over what was in reality a single bucket of straw! The upside of this was that I didn’t have to water the garden for a few days.
Chicken litter does compost quite well so you might be able to deal with it this way but you may well generate more than you need!
Can you find a way to dispose of the less pleasant waste products of a flock?
If you want to pop a dog or cat into kennels whilst you go on holiday or away on business you just run it to the appropriate place in the car. Chickens are a slightly bigger issue. You either need a friend who happens to have an empty chicken house available, in which case you need enough travel boxes for all of your flock, or you need to have someone who can come to you to check, feed, water and clean out the chickens. The good news is that they can keep all the eggs! This is seldom a show stopper but again the neighbours feature highly on the list of people you want to consider. It is well worth actually seriously checking (rather than casually checking or just presuming) that anyone who may be looking after your birds understands the responsibility....if they forget to secure the birds at night and a fox/cat/mink gets in then these visitors don’t tend to play gently with chickens....there will be blood, gore and guts everywhere.
Have you got the wherewithal to get caring cover when you are away?
Chickens don’t actually take up lots of space...notwithstanding what has been said above about chickens v pretty or productive gardens. My little flock of seven hens live half the year in an aviary which is 8 foot by 10 foot and six feet high with the coop (about 4 foot by 4 foot) attached on the outside. This is more than enough space for them.
(In fact when I first told my 88 year old mum that I’d bought chickens she told me that I was following in her father’s footsteps....I was agog (I never met him he died long before I was born), he and the family of eight lived in a small terraced house in Battersea in London. It transpired that though the back yard was only about 20 feet by 15 feet he kept chickens and rabbits and ducks there....eggs, fur and meat all in Thessaly Road, Battersea.)
A chicken may not be the Brain of Britain but their life is pretty boring if you don’t give them some challenges in life. If you have the space it is good to let the chickens free-range to scratch in fresh areas, it is also good to provide them with a few roosting perches off the floor; a couple of posts and a crossbar is all that is needed.
A sand bath or dust bath allows them to get a good cleaning scratch session going, just a big bowl of play sand or even wood ash suffices, in fact a large flower tub full of dry compost has also been found to make their little lives heaven (if you don’t provide them with a sand bath they’ll dig their own wherever the mood takes them!)
Some shelter from sun or rain is also a good idea, whether it is a tree, a sun umbrella or similar..or even underneath their house.
Have you got enough space to give your chickens a decent life chickens?
Traditional wooden chicken coops are potentially pretty, can be designed and built at home or purchased from pet suppliers or specialist makers, carpenters, garden centres or just about anywhere these days. You can stain them virtually any colour.
There are also some excellent plastic chicken coops, which are more space age in design, come in a range of colours and are available by “post”.
Here are some pros and cons of the two materials.
Timber
Pros.
Timber houses can be comparatively cheap
They are easy to fix things to, such as mesh or chicken wire
They can be designed to fit your garden; in terms of size and with regard to the position of doors and accesses.
You can get them from a wide range of sources and therefore choice, price range and availability are in the customer’s favour
You can pick them up cheap, second hand from your local rag or free from your recycling centre (what we used to call the rubbish dump)
Cons.
Timber houses generally depreciate like a production run car. If you shell out for one and then decide against you are going to lose a significant percentage of your outlay.
Timber houses rot. As they get older they start to rot and to discolour/fade
Timber houses weigh a lot. This may not be a problem if you are going to put it in one place and then leave it there but if you want to be able to move it around your garden then it becomes an issue
Foxes, rats and mink can eat their way through timber doors and corners.
When you clean out a timber house they tend to stay wet for longer which makes the overall job more of a pain
Timber houses tend to have 90 degree corners and edges which are difficult to clean out and therefore a good hiding place for mites and bugs and poo!
Timber houses tend to get hot in the summer and cold in the winter
Plastic
Pros.
Plastic houses have curved inside edges which are easy to clean, you can dry them off with a chamois leather so you can clean them out with a hose pipe or even a pressure washer.
They don’t fade or rot
They (presently) keep a pretty good resale value
They are relatively light in weight
They disassemble easily and quickly and can be field-stripped for cleaning and manoeuvre
They have curved outside edges which make it difficult for foxes, rats and mink to get their teeth into to chew through. This is reinforced by (generally) double skin walls which.....
Insulate against extremes of temperature.
Cons.
Plastic houses can be pricey!
You can’t easily make adjustments to the design; the doors are where they are and that is that
They only come in a limited range of colours and sizes
You can’t get them cheap second-hand
Of course if you have a huge garden then a garden shed or even an old caravan can be used for chickens but I’m presuming here that you aren’t a smallholder and that you don’t want your property to end up looking like Steptoe and Son’s scrap yard!
Are you prepared to invest/shell out for proper facilities for your chickens to live in?
Foxes aren’t sweet, cute, fluffy, bingo-playing creatures. They are wild animals which indiscriminately kill other animals which are smaller and less defensible. A fox in your chicken run will generally kill them all, even if it then only takes one or two with it. Foxes will also scatter bits of dead pray around for your children to find in the sand pit or under the hedge. Foxes are an urban problem as well as a country problem and even if there are plenty of full bins, overflowing with burgers and fried chicken waste a fox will still devastate your chicken run. Unless you have a completely blasé attitude to seeing your chickens killed you need to take precautions to keep the little blighters out.
I’ve kept chickens for coming up to three years and (touch wood) haven’t lost one to a fox yet (and yes, we do get them around; I’ve found scratch marks on the walls of the run, found pilot holes where they have tried to dig their way is and found footprints in the mud and the snow around the chicken house and run. This is what I do to keep the foxes out;
We have a plastic hen house; an Eglu Cube
We either have them in an aviary which is secured or
When they are free-ranging we put them into the sealed Eglu run before dusk and let them out again after sunrise
That’s it!
I have added to the security of the aviary with a buried “skirt” of chicken wire that forms an underground barrier to digging; NB the skirt projects outside the aviary, not inside, it is to protect the birds, not stop them from escaping a la film “Chicken Run”!
Contrary to some people’s opinions chickens can fly. They may not soar with the mighty eagle or range like the albatross but that are perfectly capable of leaping over a five foot fence. This means that you really need to put a roof on your run. It also means that you will need to be prepared to “clip their wings”. This is in fact just a matter of trimming feathers not flesh but it is something that you have to learn to do and be prepared to do.
Are you prepared to make the effort to protect your chickens’ lives?
Small amounts of money are called ‘chicken feed’ because chickens are quite cheap to feed; I have seven large hens, I buy one sack of ‘layers pellets’ (a complete food that ensures healthy chickens and strong eggs) and one sack of corn (which makes the yolks all yellow and yummy!). The two cost about £12 together. This lasts two months. I just scatter it all on the ground so that they have the challenge of pecking for it rather than all fighting to get their beaks into a special feeder
They love mealworms; both fresh and dried (if you want to train them to come to you at putting-away time) and if you have an angler in the house they love leftover maggots.
Mine kill for grapes.
They also love cooked potato peelings and apple peelings and cores, they will also eat the tops and tails of beans. Some people find that theirs will eat any other vegetable matter. Ours only like other veg if it is growing neatly and well tended in the garden, then they love it and they also love stale bread, cake and biscuits so they can offer a useful cleaning up service.
Water is (to all intents and purposes) free!
Are you prepared to shell out the 2.8 pence per day per bird food costs?
There is no such thing as a free lunch and generally speaking the same goes for chickens. You may find someone giving away their chickens if they have decided that, for them, it didn’t work out, or you may find some ex-battery hens that are free-to-a-good-home but generally expect to pay around £3 to £4 for an ex battery bird (the British Hen Welfare Trust don’t charge but they “welcome a donation” and that is only fair. See www.bhwt.org.uk)
Interestingly chickens depreciate dramatically when they are dead; a dead chicken, even oven ready will set you back between £3 and £8 in the supermarket...but alive, a young chicken is a lot more expensive; you can expect to pay between £12 and £25 for a point-of-lay hybrid chicken from a reputable farm or dealer. That should buy you a vaccinated and guaranteed bird (virtually all hybrids come vaccinated already) Personally I recommend getting your birds from somewhere where you can see them running around in a field and you can check that the ones you are getting are therefore healthy and active. There are various local and national interest groups who have lists of recommended suppliers, take a look at Omlet’s website as a ‘for instance’.
Pure bred “fanciers” chickens (including the tickling sticks and so on) can change hands for ludicrous prices but these are aimed at experts who want to win shows....which shouldn’t be YOU at this stage!
You can buy fertilised eggs, delivered to your door, for about £10 a half dozen. These you incubate yourself and are perhaps the purest form of grow-your-own-chicken.....but a word of caution; you don’t know if these little bundles of joy are going to grow into cocks or hens and by the time you can tell you may have more on the way......now what are you going to do with those noisy, neighbour-aggravating cockerels? Sadly, very few people will take them off your hands.
Which brings us onto the final question.
When the time comes that your chicken is injured, sick or not laying (or an unwanted male: the 2010 Equality Act doesn’t extend to chickens)
Can you afford to pay the vet to put your chicken down and dispose of its little corpse....or are you going to be capable of visiting the ol’ tree stump with a chook in one hand and a chopper in the other?
There you go: 12 questions that should help you to make that all important decision about getting a flock of chickens and joining fast growing numbers of people who are opting for chickens as pets.
If you can answer yes to all of these questions then chickens will make a happy addition to your household menagerie
Good Cluck!