how much will chickens cost me
what ones are best for eggs
where would you go to buy these
best / cheapest food / will they get buy on just food scraps .
thanks
There are charities that rehome ex battery chickens that will still lay one or two eggs a day, They do need to be fed properly and cared for but they will scavenge anything laying around in the garden.
Theres also loads of posts on keeping chooks on the forum just use the search engine.
I don't know what are best.
I have Warrens £12.50 each. After a spurt of 2 a day for a few weeks they settled down to one a day.
I bought food, £8 for a big bag, and i've still not finished it about 60% through. I let them run around the garden where the seem to peck at everything.
I've bought some bug stuff and besides the coop, food and water containers they have not cost me anything yet. Coop cost £240 and containers £6 each. before i bought the coop the chickens lived happily in the rabbit hutch.
We have 6 rhode island reds crosses, picked up a new 8 bird chicken coop for £84 on flea bay, also picked up 2 x 25 metre rolls of chicken wire for £5.25 also on flea bay. Like SK said 20 K bag will last ages, we are getting about 8 eggs a day from our chickens they free range in the garden. But be prepared for the garden to be ripped to pieces in a short time.
We sell surplus eggs to next door which off sets the cost of buying the chickens, feed and coop. Working it out roughly we have just broke even and may be a head at the moment in the money stakes.
Its a lot of fun go for it.
Things seem well covered here but I must insert a couple of thoughts.
Heavy layers will need a bit of calcium supplement. My hens get thin shells if I do not keep a bit of oyster shell out for them. It is not expensive, and may not be needed on the diet you provide. One can recycle the eggshells as they are used in the house and get by.
Usually when one finds a hen eating her own eggs it is due to calcium deficiency, not a bad chicken. I have known people that disposed of the chicken when all it needed was a bit of shell in its diet.
If you let your chickens free range you will eliminate any bug problem you ever anticipated. I have seen mine catch flies and mosquitoes in the air and ground bugs do not have a chance.
When mine are allowed to free range they completely ignore any feed I set out for them. They would much rather have scraps and bugs than store bought feed.
Only problem I have with free ranging mine is that my birds are explorers of the highest caliber and I have found them as far as a mile down the road from the house. They are also exposed to every predator in the area.
Free rangers also tend to lay their eggs all over their territory. I usually keep mine penned until in the afternoon and let them out after work. The lay in the nest boxes that way.
We recycle all of our eggshells back into the feed.
I have warrens , good layers, they drop off a bit after 3 years, mine are penned in , 20 mtrs by 3 mtrs , we have loads of foxes about here, they would not last a day without the fence, I feed them Layers mash and mixed corn ..all the veg peelings grass cuttings and any other scraps from the kitchen. I am down to 4 birds and I intend to move the New hens and cock into a luxury condo within the next 6 weeks .....closer to the house... some ducks been promised by a farmer friend , also on the agenda are pigs and goats for the acre I do not use ( that should clear the ground double quick ) but I will have to fence off a fair bit around the boundry....need more funds for that , as well as more time...... both are in short supply ...the good news is I have most of the straining posts.
Great info here. I live in a suburban area and i hope to get s few chickens at some point
thanks for your replys ,nr name of charities please .
thanks again
Battery chickens are rotated out after one year laying.
Keep in mind that they are genetically engineered for max laying, have been housed in a cage the size of a shoe box for 1 1/2 years, and fed a medicated and hormone enhanced diet for their entire lives.
http://www.farmsanctuary.org/photos/fact...ming/eggs/
Chickens can go crazy as loons just like any other creature. Do not expect to get "normal" birds from those conditions.
Almost all the instinctive behavior has been engineered out of them.