Anyone keep hens?

My six are in full daylight mode now producing half a dozen little ovoids of delight every day. :hungrig

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2 of ours don't ever lay, we were given them so know nothing about them BUT I feel bad about cooking them, even 3 eggs aday is more than enough for us so until we start getting shortages they are still freerange - well in the day and nice weather that is :oops:
 
Well this evening I was frequenting a chicken forum (as you do) and I spotted our friend eneville was on there. It reminded me about this thread so I thought I'd resurrect it with an update and some pics.

Of the original four hens I bought back at the beginning of 2010 there are still three left. Two ex-batteries have come and gone and given us lots of eggs. None of the original ones have been laying for a few months now so recently I decided to buy four more. Two pretty white POLs first, which are a mystery breed, and two Light Sussex, also POL. In the last few days we've been getting 3-4 eggs a day. Not big ones yet but very tasty. So that's seven hens in all. The coop would be a little crowded at night except the whiteys like to roost up on the fence. This concerned me to start with and I 'hatched' lots of plans to get them to go in the coop at night. In the end I just had to accept they weren't going to change their habit. Last week a friend of mine said that those sort of hens like roosting up in trees, so at least they're doing what's in their nature.

Anyway, here they are being rather coy and keeping some of their heads out of shot. :icon_rolleyes:

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They look nice and healthy...our last set came to "fairly" natural end about 18 months ago and I haven't renewed because the local rob dogs wanted twenty five quid each for a juvenile brown layer.

PC, you must have seen HFW's coop on a pole, french idea for a fox proof coop for self roosting birds might suit your POL's if you're worried.
 
Yes I like that idea Tony, but to be honest I'm not too worried about a fox attack. I don't close the coop door at night so there's always the possibility of a nasty incident. Might sound mad but I'm not really sentimental about them. Worst case scenario is a mess to clear up. We live in the country and, from what I can tell, most foxes have moved in to the towns and cities.

£25 sounds rather steep. My POLs were all £15 each. The ex-batteries were a fiver each - I think I gave them double that to help the cause, still a bargain really.
 
Would agree with Antdad use a feeder we have two hung up on chains all we do at night is lift them up and put them on the hooks in the roof.

Picking the poo outside is a waste of time IMHO, now poo pick the coop well worth doing do mine every day makes the litter last a lot longer.

As for foxy all you can do is make sure the run is secure and always shut door and pop holes at night.

We have
1 Wynadotte
5 Silkies
2 Sussex
3 Pekins (bantams)

Have fun good luck.
 
Woah PC you've changed your tune, you used to tuck them in at night and read them storys.

What is that twin run of picket fencing with a gate, chicken run?
 
antdad said:
Woah PC you've changed your tune, you used to tuck them in at night and read them storys.

What is that twin run of picket fencing with a gate, chicken run?
Click to expand...

Yup, I'm a badass muthercluckin hen rearer! I think things changed when winter came and I had the long trek up the garden at night to close their door. Also they were very unappreciative of the stories I read. Hatcher in the Rye. Mary Shelley. Er...Egger Alan Poe??

Here's a pic of the run we built in our new garden this summer. It was almost complete and the flower beds either side were unplanted. It looks a lot nicer now.

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Very nice, you are properly countrified too that looks like a rape seed field. I'm sure the farmer wouldn't mind if you picked a few leaves they are delicious.
 
antdad said:
Very nice, you are properly countrified too that looks like a rape seed field. I'm sure the farmer wouldn't mind if you picked a few leaves they are delicious.
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All gone now of course. Maybe next year. Do you eat the leaves raw or cooked?
 
Good question, I cook them but I don't see why you couldn't eat them raw although they are quite strong tasting. They're generally known as mustard greens (USA), saag (Indian) as in saag aloo, rape/rapa (Ita) etc...not really known here in that I've never seen them in English supermarkets but they are eaten the world over and I grow a variety.

Not sure the chooks will like it but if you can ween them onto it slightly mustardy eggs doesn't sound too bad.
 
Our hens are now long gone.

We lost heart after our favourite one died and I couldn't face another winter of trudging down the garden in the pissing down\freezing pitch black to let them out of their house (they had a huge fruit cage as their run). I also got tired of battling red mite and not being able to be out past dusk as we had to be back to put them away.

I enjoyed our chicken owning experience (we had them three years in total) but I'd only do it again if I had a run where I could just leave them and pop in occasionally. Plus there are loads of farmers round here where a dozen free range eggs are very cheap so I've gone down that route instead.
 
Hey all,

Got three warrens from a nursery school hatching project. They've been with us since earlier this year and have only just started to lay. We've had one very large (by our standards) egg and quite a few smaller eggs. We put this down to weather and their youth.

I never thought I'd find chickens so interesting but they're such lovely creatures. Since they live outside, for me they make the ideal pets and they each have their own character, one energetic, one very greedy and the other is timid.

... they are quiet bothersome when trying to get portrait photos though, they just can't keep still ...
 
eneville said:
Hey all,

Got three warrens from a nursery school hatching project. They've been with us since earlier this year and have only just started to lay. We've had one very large (by our standards) egg and quite a few smaller eggs. We put this down to weather and their youth.

I never thought I'd find chickens so interesting but they're such lovely creatures. Since they live outside, for me they make the ideal pets and they each have their own character, one energetic, one very greedy and the other is timid.

... they are quiet bothersome when trying to get portrait photos though, they just can't keep still ...
Click to expand...

We had Warrens and Amber Lees (they were all ex-bats).

The Warrens had the nicer personalities by far. I wouldn't get Amber Lees again.
 
Up until today I've been scattering layers pellets on the ground for the hens. They'd get soggy and there was waste and I had to feed them twice a day. Today I finally bought a feeder that you put the pellets in. I hung it up and made a simple screen above it out of a sheet of plywood that will stop the feeder getting rained on. Feeling rather chuffed with myself for this basic bit of DIY! :blush: I'm taking Mrs PC away for her birthday this weekend so hopefully the hens won't starve while we're away now.

Eneville - I can recommend the Light Sussex crosses we have as docile and productive birds.
 
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