Mrs Daz wants some hens......

[Daz]

Mrs Daz announced, today, that she wants some ex battery hens.
Before I agree, can anyone provide advice / info (or a hen keeping forum :smilewinkgrin on keeping hens, please?

I would also like to ensure that they have great living conditions, so advice on run sizes would be great too.

We do have a couple of foxes that frequent our garden so the run will have to be fully enclosed with fox proof wire but I don't think that is a problem.

Daz

 

[user123]

Doug keeps hens, he'll be able to tell you all about it

 

[DHTiling]

Don't get ex battery hens.. poor layers are got rid of..

get some point to point layers.. moult less and will lay regular..

 

[Scott]

Get yourself an Eglu they are fox proof and brilliant. I have a red one, no chicken but its sat in the garden!

https://www.omlet.co.uk/shop/shop.php?cat=Eglu

 

[Ian]

Get yourself an Eglu they are fox proof and brilliant. I have a red one, no chicken but its sat in the garden!

https://www.omlet.co.uk/shop/shop.php?cat=Eglu

You could get 100 chickens for that money!

 

[user123]

Does your wife want to get the ex-battery hens to give them a nice life from now on - nice thought - or for eggs mainly?

 

[Stewart]

Can you recharge battery hens when they're rundown.......

Just a thought!

 

[Ian]

Can you recharge battery hens when they're rundown.......

Just a thought!

Lame! :lol:

 

[Daz]

PMSL Stewart.

 

[Daz]

Yeah G, I think it's more about giving them a better life rather than an abundance of eggs.

 

[user123]

Yeah G, I think it's more about giving them a better life rather than an abundance of eggs.

Thought so.. lovely... yes Doug knows all about it all, he put some photos up ages ago of their living quarters.

 

[doug boardley]

Daz, they're easy to keep and relatively cheap to run. In hindsight I could have built a better designed hen house than the one we bought (£150). We have six and keep them in a run of about 10' x 10' with a a meshed roof over the top as well as the sides.
only probs I've had is the dreaded red mites!!!, you can buy all sorts of dustings and powders that can cost the earth and be relatively ineffective, but the best cure I found was in the back of my mums garage......a 5 litre bottle of good old fashioned creosote that I doused the inside of their house with...stunk to high heaven for a couple of days but no sign of the red mites since

 

[Daz]

Cheers Doug.
How often do they need cleaning and how much is it likely to cost me a month in feed etc.?

 

[strummerman]

Get yourself an Eglu they are fox proof and brilliant. I have a red one, no chicken but its sat in the garden!

https://www.omlet.co.uk/shop/shop.php?cat=Eglu[/QUO
SHOTGUN BEST THING

 

[doug boardley]

Cheers Doug.
How often do they need cleaning and how much is it likely to cost me a month in feed etc.?

I clean mine about every 3rd day Daz, newspaper and wood shavings on hen house floor and straw in nesting box (although shredded paper is okay too, I take enormous satisfaction from hens pooing on my shredded bank letters, lol!), cost wise for food it costs me about £17 for 2 bags of layers pellets and a bag of mixed corn, this typically will keep 'em fed for 3-4 months