[font=Verdana][font=Verdana]Wanted chickens for ages, eventually saved for an eglu. We have foxes in the garden daily, so really needed a fox-proof house, and yes, they do look damn Funky! Being delivered on the 26th, then will buy the chucks the following sat…. any other chiken mama's / papa's out there? Any advice? I grew up with chickens, but wasn't interested, more embarassed by my "wierd" parents.[/font][/font]
:D How exciting…..lucky you! You inspired me to go and look up those Eglu's and now i want one and two hens….unfortunately my husband says no! not enough space as we have quite a small garden. We had chickens when i was growing up too although they were pets really rather than for egg production as we kept a cockerel too, he was called Graham and his hens were Sharon and Eileen!
How lovely! I'd love some feathered friends but cat, tiny garden and house deeds don't permit…....However, I did learn from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall a tip re: foxs and a friend of mine tried it and it seemed to work (actually theres another one I've just remembered). Anyway, pop along to your local hairdressers and ask for some hair leftovers (nice!) and stuff into old tights/socks and hang around you boundary. Fox the foxes with the scent of nearby humans!! Also, you hubby might find it earthy and fun to widdle at the boundarys and hence marking his teritory!!! Nice too….....! Have fun and don't get arrested and blame me!! :D
Those of you who already have chickens, how does that work with small children? I'm specifically worried about my son, he's 2 and he eats everything he finds at the moment. It's a big pain. Soil stones, leaves, daisies, everything! So I'm worried about the hygiene aspect of having chikcekn poo easily accessible to him and his mouth. How do others handle this? Or is it just my son who eats everyting?
About to "Shear" the husband so will hang his hair around the garden! I have my good garden (eg lawn, flowers) seperate to where I will be keeping the chucks. Through an arch (easy to partion off) I have a shady woody space. We have the shed, large compost heaps, kids swings etc. The ground is made up of dead leafs, woodchips etc.
Today passing a very busy juction i admired the many rabits on the verge. The husband said… "on no, youre not going to want rabbits too??" I replied "No, I'm not really arabbit person" to which 5 year old Iola said… "no, we're chicken people arn't we!" Awwww
I have too cats, but from experiance, the cats come off worse!
Oohhh! My family and I (husband, 3 boys aged 8 years, 9 years and 8 months, 2 dogs, 3 cats and 15 giant african land snails) have just moved from a town to a village with a view to a greener lifestyle - chickens are a must, as well as veggies and hedgerow hunting. Can't wait for the decorating and sorting of previous owner's rubbish :( to be done so we can get stuck in.
Ooh, congratulations! We've kept chickens for 5 years, need to get some new ones since we had a hungry fox last autumn. We had a trad wooden houe but our neighbours have just bought an eglu and it is a great design - easy to clean and good for keeping chucks free from didease and mites.
My kids love chickens, they're great with kids and neither can really harm each other. Just keep telling your 2 year old to leave the poo alone, he'll get the message eventually. He'll probably be past that stage soon anyway. Give him a basket and let him carefully collect the eggs, he'll love it. My boys are 6 and nearly 3 and I so want them to have chickens again.
annie
thought I'd add to this old thread as DH is in the garden right now starting to build our chicken coup!!!!- never thought it was going to happen but he's been salvaging wood, bricks etc from work and has finally decided to get started- I have mentioned that I'm getting 4 chickens for my birthday in April and was not sure where they were going to live so that may have been the kick he needed ;D
now it's actually happening, can anyone suggest a really useful book/ web site with all the information I'll need for looking after them- I've found lots of stuff but I would like it all written in one place rather than trying to remember where I saw it iykwim.
Gill
Would add that the Practical Poultry and Country Smallholding Forums are good as is ACL - A Country Life Forum, such helpful peeps on there.
Just to add, I've had foxes take even full size geese in broad daylight 100 yards from me - if they are hungry enough no amount of widdle, lion poo, hair trimmings etc will bother them in the least. Semi-town foxes are used to human smells and dustbins, they need more to put them off than that! So the Eglus sounds good and make any run good and tight ;D
[quote author=Tippy link=topic=145.msg9870#msg9870 date=1199702540]
Just to add, I've had foxes take even full size geese in broad daylight 100 yards from me - if they are hungry enough no amount of widdle, lion poo, hair trimmings etc will bother them in the least. Semi-town foxes are used to human smells and dustbins, they need more to put them off than that! So the Eglus sounds good and make any run good and tight ;D
that's my one concern- there are just fields out the back of our house and definatly foxes about (never seen one in the day though)- DH is a civil engineer so is building a low brick wall round the run with foundations- then very sturdy mesh on that, the house will be wooden with a locked door- I'm planning on only letting them free-range in the garden in the afternoons- hope that's enough
Gill
Chickens are fabulous, I had loads of rescue ones my DH used to dread me coming back from the battery place as the land rover would be ful of them lol.
We have foxes living next to our field though and they have finally killed them all :( We've been thinking of getting 3 just to have up in the garden around the house but just waiting on some pallets appearing (as they do lol) so we can build a house for them as we burnt all our old ones (red mite!)
