And..../keeping chickens
 

The message
from Adrian contains these words:

Hi Chris

On Wed, 28 Feb 2007 09:12:54 -0000, "Cerumen"
wrote:


"Adrian" wrote in message
.. .
Hi All

On Tue, 27 Feb 2007 19:29:22 +0000, Sacha
wrote:

......who did what today in their garden? Nobody here I can tell
you. We
have had high winds and rain, then everything went a bit sunny and
then it
all started again in a minor key. No gardening but some
satisfactory time
at a potting bench for me and away from the desk!

Windy & rainy here also (S/W Ireland) - but spend a happy couple of
hours with a borrowed rotovator getting some drainage into the soil
inside the new polytunnel.

Rotovators have moved on a bit, it seems - this one is a German 'AGRI'
- 6hp '2-wheeled tractor' - made short work of the somewhat claggy
soil. Have left it all to dry out some more before spreading some
peat-free compost on top and turning that in...

Looking forward to our first growing season here in the Emerald Isle !

I wish you well and hope you grow as much as I was able to when
gardening an
acre here with polytunnel, chooks, ducks and so on. These days I am on a
different acre here which is mostly what I call "natural".

Thanks for the good wishes !

We're n 2 minds about chickens, ducks & so on.
Had hens at the last place (Suffolk, UK) - and while they were
great fun to watch, and produced lovely banty eggs, the were bit
of a problem on holidays (getting neighbours to look after them) and
with general ailments..... - I'd like ducks, but I guess they're
likely to be as much of a 'bind'.

I'm in exactly the same state of doubt. I'd love to keep chickens and
have inherited a rather splendid chicken-house, but just worry about the
problems of not being able to stay away over night etc.
I'm wondering about getting some moveable electric fencing so that I can
vary the area the chickens use, but keep hesitating because of these
doubts. I'd be interested to know from anyone who keeps chickens whether
it's OK to leave them occasionally to put themselves to bed if the
fencing is good enough to keep foxes etc out.

Janet G

And..../keeping chickens
 

On 28/2/07 17:37, in article , "Janet
Galpin" wrote:

snip

I'm in exactly the same state of doubt. I'd love to keep chickens and
have inherited a rather splendid chicken-house, but just worry about the
problems of not being able to stay away over night etc.
I'm wondering about getting some moveable electric fencing so that I can
vary the area the chickens use, but keep hesitating because of these
doubts. I'd be interested to know from anyone who keeps chickens whether
it's OK to leave them occasionally to put themselves to bed if the
fencing is good enough to keep foxes etc out.

My step daughter kept hers in a thing rather like a fruit cage. It was
built up against the fence so the chicken wire simply had to go along the
front of the run and have a door made into it. Could you do that or
something similar?

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/
(remove weeds from address)

And..../keeping chickens
 

HI Janet

On Wed, 28 Feb 2007 17:37:39 GMT, Janet Galpin
wrote:

The message
from Adrian contains these words:

Hi Chris

On Wed, 28 Feb 2007 09:12:54 -0000, "Cerumen"
wrote:


"Adrian" wrote in message
.. .
Hi All

On Tue, 27 Feb 2007 19:29:22 +0000, Sacha
wrote:

......who did what today in their garden? Nobody here I can tell
you. We
have had high winds and rain, then everything went a bit sunny and
then it
all started again in a minor key. No gardening but some
satisfactory time
at a potting bench for me and away from the desk!

Windy & rainy here also (S/W Ireland) - but spend a happy couple of
hours with a borrowed rotovator getting some drainage into the soil
inside the new polytunnel.

Rotovators have moved on a bit, it seems - this one is a German 'AGRI'
- 6hp '2-wheeled tractor' - made short work of the somewhat claggy
soil. Have left it all to dry out some more before spreading some
peat-free compost on top and turning that in...

Looking forward to our first growing season here in the Emerald Isle !

I wish you well and hope you grow as much as I was able to when
gardening an
acre here with polytunnel, chooks, ducks and so on. These days I am on a
different acre here which is mostly what I call "natural".

Thanks for the good wishes !

We're n 2 minds about chickens, ducks & so on.
Had hens at the last place (Suffolk, UK) - and while they were
great fun to watch, and produced lovely banty eggs, the were bit
of a problem on holidays (getting neighbours to look after them) and
with general ailments..... - I'd like ducks, but I guess they're
likely to be as much of a 'bind'.

I'm in exactly the same state of doubt. I'd love to keep chickens and
have inherited a rather splendid chicken-house, but just worry about the
problems of not being able to stay away over night etc.
I'm wondering about getting some moveable electric fencing so that I can
vary the area the chickens use, but keep hesitating because of these
doubts. I'd be interested to know from anyone who keeps chickens whether
it's OK to leave them occasionally to put themselves to bed if the
fencing is good enough to keep foxes etc out.

Janet G

Don't get me wrong - it's great fun keeping chickens
(though I had my doubts as to the economics of the project !)

Chickens are smart enough to put themselves to bed, mostly -
but not smart enough to shut the door behind themselves g
I've heard of folks using electronic timers & motors to clost the
hutch door at predetermined times...

We used to let ours free-range (within a fenced-off part of the
garden) whenever we were in the house or garden. If we were going out
then we'd chase them back inside the hutch / enclosed run.

Never lost one to foxes - but just down the road they had a fox break
into a netted enclosure and caused a right mess -
guess it depends on how hungry / smart the local foxes are...

Regards
Adrian

And..../keeping chickens
 

Janet Galpin wrote in
:

I'm in exactly the same state of doubt. I'd love to keep chickens and
have inherited a rather splendid chicken-house, but just worry about
the problems of not being able to stay away over night etc.
I'm wondering about getting some moveable electric fencing so that I
can vary the area the chickens use, but keep hesitating because of
these doubts. I'd be interested to know from anyone who keeps chickens
whether it's OK to leave them occasionally to put themselves to bed if
the fencing is good enough to keep foxes etc out.

We have 2/3 chickens in a completely enclosed run
(think fruit cage) and coop.

There's no problem leaving them provided
- they have enough water (and food) and can't
knock over the containers
- predators can't get in
- if it is cold, they are kept inside

A weekend is no problem: we just leave them.
For a week, we get a neighbour to feed/water/open
the pophole in the morning, and drop the pophole
door at night.

The only time the fox got in was when we left them
in the city for a weekend :(

And..../keeping chickens
 

"Janet Galpin" wrote in message
I'd love to keep chickens and
have inherited a rather splendid chicken-house, but just worry about the
problems of not being able to stay away over night etc.
I'm wondering about getting some moveable electric fencing so that I can
vary the area the chickens use, but keep hesitating because of these
doubts. I'd be interested to know from anyone who keeps chickens whether
it's OK to leave them occasionally to put themselves to bed if the
fencing is good enough to keep foxes etc out.

If you already have a chook house, then the ideal thing would be to put a
fence with a gate in it all around the chook house so the chooks have a
permanent yard which they always have acess to but which protects them if
you need to go away or if you don't want to let them roam round the garden
all the time. Chooks will always put temselves to bed at dusk and they can
easily be left if they have access to both food and water.

Chooks in the garden can do major damage at seedling planting time but a
permanent chook yard is a boon for gardeners as all garden waste can be
thrown in to be scratched over and manured before adding to the compost
heap. They will also do this to rough mulching materials too that you might
want to throw under trees. They love tree prunings. If you do decide to
build a fence, then lay the chicken wire flat out on the ground at the base
of the fence for about 2 ft towards the side that foxes would ingress as
foxes usually like to dig under but aren't smart to figure out not to dig
right at the base of the fence. foxes can also climb wire so a fully
enclosed yard is a good idea.

And..../keeping chickens
 

"Janet Galpin" wrote in message
...
I'd be interested to know from anyone who keeps chickens whether
it's OK to leave them occasionally to put themselves to bed if the
fencing is good enough to keep foxes etc out.

Yes they do go safely home themselves especially if the food hopper if you
use one and the water is inside. That said it's best to put the feeder
outside mostly otherwise they will stay near it and not get out as much as
they otherwise would


--
Chris, West Cork, Ireland.

And..../keeping chickens
 

The message
from Sacha contains these words:

On 28/2/07 17:37, in article , "Janet
Galpin" wrote:

snip

I'm in exactly the same state of doubt. I'd love to keep chickens and
have inherited a rather splendid chicken-house, but just worry about the
problems of not being able to stay away over night etc.
I'm wondering about getting some moveable electric fencing so that I can
vary the area the chickens use, but keep hesitating because of these
doubts. I'd be interested to know from anyone who keeps chickens whether
it's OK to leave them occasionally to put themselves to bed if the
fencing is good enough to keep foxes etc out.

My step daughter kept hers in a thing rather like a fruit cage. It was
built up against the fence so the chicken wire simply had to go along the
front of the run and have a door made into it. Could you do that or
something similar?

Yes, something like this. I was originally thinking of moveable fencing
so that I could move them around and keep them on fresh ground, allowing
grass to grow. The area round the chicken-house is over-run with
nettles and I thought I could mow part of it in the hope that that would
get rid of the nettles while keeping the chickens on the other bit -
then swap over. Perhaps permanent fencing would be a better idea and
perhaps I just need to wait patiently until I've controlled the nettles.

Janet G

And..../keeping chickens
 

The message
from "FarmI" ask@itshall be given contains these words:

"Janet Galpin" wrote in message
I'd love to keep chickens and
have inherited a rather splendid chicken-house, but just worry about the
problems of not being able to stay away over night etc.
I'm wondering about getting some moveable electric fencing so that I can
vary the area the chickens use, but keep hesitating because of these
doubts. I'd be interested to know from anyone who keeps chickens whether
it's OK to leave them occasionally to put themselves to bed if the
fencing is good enough to keep foxes etc out.

If you already have a chook house, then the ideal thing would be to put a
fence with a gate in it all around the chook house so the chooks have a
permanent yard which they always have acess to but which protects them if
you need to go away or if you don't want to let them roam round the garden
all the time. Chooks will always put temselves to bed at dusk and they can
easily be left if they have access to both food and water.

Chooks in the garden can do major damage at seedling planting time but a
permanent chook yard is a boon for gardeners as all garden waste can be
thrown in to be scratched over and manured before adding to the compost
heap. They will also do this to rough mulching materials too that you
might
want to throw under trees. They love tree prunings. If you do decide to
build a fence, then lay the chicken wire flat out on the ground at the base
of the fence for about 2 ft towards the side that foxes would ingress as
foxes usually like to dig under but aren't smart to figure out not to dig
right at the base of the fence. foxes can also climb wire so a fully
enclosed yard is a good idea.


Thanks to everyone for the very helpful advice and reassurance that it's
OK to leave chickens at least overnight.

Janet G

Got a good community for you to look at if you want advice about chickens