Chickens

[Rootsman]

I kept chooks for a few years an last year i decided to knock it on the head due to being invaded by rats, but since getting rid of them i miss not having the many eggs they layed so ive rebuilt an extended my chicken run an modified the henhouse, so i am about to get more birds. Rhode reds are good layers (well, the ones i had were)an i had some large leghorns from chicks which produced some sizeable an delicious eggs.

I think the rat problem was helped by me chucking scraps of food an scratch feed into the run which was a ready meal for our rodent friends so they built their nests under the henhouse, lots of straw an warmth, thankfully they never started eating the eggs, but they started breeding out of control. So this time i'm gonna keep their food in grain hoppers and any scraps will be put into some kind of container that is accessable to the chooks but not scattered all over the deck an feeding every rat in the viscinity. I'm also gonna not have straw all over the floor of the run and only use it in the henhouse nesting boxes, so hopefully that will keep the population down an if not at least i will have another food source.