anyone keep chickens?? help needed

[leethefish]

Chickens love spaghetti and its great fun feeding them it - if you dangle it a little bit above them they'll jump up for it - could be fun to do with the kids.

Ours jump up onto our windowsill and tap the glass asking for food - they can be pretty amusing, like everyone said, actually pretty cool pets!

As already mentioned above, the eggs are amazing, really really yellow yolks, nothing like shop bought ones at all.

I live in the countryside so its fine if they jump over the wall into the neighbouring field, they always come back too, atleast ours do, guess its like cats, as long as they know where their main source of food is they'll come back for more! Although we have had a little bantam go missing for a few weeks, until we finally found her sitting on a massive pile of eggs under a bush!

Hope they don't wreck your garden too much - only downside, they poo everywhere!

already found out about the poo everywhere lol
looking forward to the eggs for brekkie tomorrow i hope!

[mouth]

Forgot to mention they can wander but have an amazing instinct for knowing where home is and always come back, and yes, they will put themselves to bed every night as soon as it gets dusk.

The pecking on the windows is funny. When I had the last pub the chickens wandered round the car park all day quite happliy and used to jump into the raised flower bed round the conservatory windows and knock on the glass to the diners inside. Found this actually encouraged people to order chicken as they then thought it was fresh

Oddest thing was, the car park had a raggy hedge on one side and no gate so the chickens could get out anytime they liked yet they rarely ventured across our boundary line. There was also a family of feral cats living there (it was a big car park!) and although they regularly killed wood pigeons  - and grey squirrels - they never went near the chickens.

If you have lined the shelf with straw then you may find you need to add a little lip/edge to stop eggs rolling off after being laid too close to the edge.

[Biddy 62]

You need to clip their wings stop em flying off, sorry not wings just one of em, sounds a bit daunting but its easy. Any fox's?

[leethefish]

Forgot to mention they can wander but have an amazing instinct for knowing where home is and always come back, and yes, they will put themselves to bed every night as soon as it gets dusk.

The pecking on the windows is funny. When I had the last pub the chickens wandered round the car park all day quite happliy and used to jump into the raised flower bed round the conservatory windows and knock on the glass to the diners inside. Found this actually encouraged people to order chicken as they then thought it was fresh

Oddest thing was, the car park had a raggy hedge on one side and no gate so the chickens could get out anytime they liked yet they rarely ventured across our boundary line. There was also a family of feral cats living there (it was a big car park!) and although they regularly killed wood pigeons  - and grey squirrels - they never went near the chickens.

If you have lined the shelf with straw then you may find you need to add a little lip/edge to stop eggs rolling off after being laid too close to the edge.

thanks loads for this really helpfull advice

sounds like you have had a lot of fun n fresh eggs
silly question ....do they lay eggs at night ..no eggs yet!

[leethefish]

You need to clip their wings stop em flying off, sorry not wings just one of em, sounds a bit daunting but its easy. Any fox's?

clip wings .....to stop them flying away omg

we have foxes regularly in our garden so the play house is very secure ..just worried in the day

[Graham C]

They can lay at any time but may take some time to get into it.  At the moment ours seem to be laying at night (or early morning) but in the summer they often pop into their house during the day to lay an egg for us.

[mouth]

Lee im assuming they already had their wings clipped if they 10 months old as mine were done as soon as they were fully feathered, but if not, your vet will do it, ask if you can borrow a cat carrier or two to transport them. Sounds cruel but catch them by their legs and pop them upside down to carry them in and out of box/vet/anywhere. My daughter used to pick them up like pets and cuddle them but i wouldnt recommend it as they have pretty sharp claws! They really dont mind being carried upside down - well none of them have ever argued with me yet...

mine laid early morning. How come yours were ten months old? Im wondering if you have been fobbed off with duff layers lol! What are you feeding them? Mine never laid an egg ion layers pellets but once they were eating food scraps as well they started to lay, but they were probably about 6 months before they laid their first egg.

[leethefish]

thanks for all this mouth
i am feeding them the chicken feed that he gave me and any scraps we have at the min.

will have to take a trip to the vets cos yesterday i get home from work and Ali (Mrs fish) is laughing saying we have naughty chickens.....
one went over next doors she got it back then knock at the door and a gentleman said ...is this yours  with a chicken in a crisp box.

one sat on the fence so Ali try to get it down it was playing a game with her jump up and down when she came anywhere close

BUT WE HAVE ONE EGG TODAY
looks like its beef after all this sunday!!  (just joking)

[Biddy 62]

Easy peasy clipping their wings. Needs 2 of you, one to old the chicken the other fans out the wing. With a good pair of scissors cut the ends off 2 maybe 3". Look on youtube, enyoy your egg, nowt like em.  Few years back i used to share an allotment. Me and mate got some chickens and like you used to go to the nest box full of anticipation. No eggs for 4 weeks. I boiled an egg and went down to the allotment and popped it in the nest box. Phone call from excited mate weve got one, Knock on door he had come down to give me the egg. No i tell him you found it you have it. Poor fucker went home to do himself chips and egg. Phone call rfom him, heyup they are laying em hard boiled, he had a chip sarnie.

[RED-DOG]

Easy peasy clipping their wings. Needs 2 of you, one to old the chicken the other fans out the wing. With a good pair of scissors cut the ends off 2 maybe 3". Look on youtube, enyoy your egg, nowt like em.  Few years back i used to share an allotment. Me and mate got some chickens and like you used to go to the nest box full of anticipation. No eggs for 4 weeks. I boiled an egg and went down to the allotment and popped it in the nest box. Phone call from excited mate weve got one, Knock on door he had come down to give me the egg. No i tell him you found it you have it. Poor fucker went home to do himself chips and egg. Phone call rfom him, heyup they are laying em hard boiled, he had a chip sarnie.

Wing clipping. Clip one side only. (Otherwise they will still fly even if they're clipped almost bald).

The trick is to unbalance them

[mouth]

Easy peasy clipping their wings. Needs 2 of you, one to old the chicken the other fans out the wing. With a good pair of scissors cut the ends off 2 maybe 3". Look on youtube, enyoy your egg, nowt like em.  Few years back i used to share an allotment. Me and mate got some chickens and like you used to go to the nest box full of anticipation. No eggs for 4 weeks. I boiled an egg and went down to the allotment and popped it in the nest box. Phone call from excited mate weve got one, Knock on door he had come down to give me the egg. No i tell him you found it you have it. Poor fucker went home to do himself chips and egg. Phone call rfom him, heyup they are laying em hard boiled, he had a chip sarnie.

Wing clipping. Clip one side only. (Otherwise they will still fly even if they're clipped almost bald).

The trick is to unbalance them

Tom. One of my feet is slightly bigger than the other. This finally explains my unbalanced state to me. Thank you

[RED-DOG]

Easy peasy clipping their wings. Needs 2 of you, one to old the chicken the other fans out the wing. With a good pair of scissors cut the ends off 2 maybe 3". Look on youtube, enyoy your egg, nowt like em.  Few years back i used to share an allotment. Me and mate got some chickens and like you used to go to the nest box full of anticipation. No eggs for 4 weeks. I boiled an egg and went down to the allotment and popped it in the nest box. Phone call from excited mate weve got one, Knock on door he had come down to give me the egg. No i tell him you found it you have it. Poor fucker went home to do himself chips and egg. Phone call rfom him, heyup they are laying em hard boiled, he had a chip sarnie.

Wing clipping. Clip one side only. (Otherwise they will still fly even if they're clipped almost bald).

The trick is to unbalance them

Tom. One of my feet is slightly bigger than the other. This finally explains my unbalanced state to me. Thank you

I've been patiently waiting for a "Foot in mouth" joke opportunity. This was almost it.

[leethefish]

Easy peasy clipping their wings. Needs 2 of you, one to old the chicken the other fans out the wing. With a good pair of scissors cut the ends off 2 maybe 3". Look on youtube, enyoy your egg, nowt like em.  Few years back i used to share an allotment. Me and mate got some chickens and like you used to go to the nest box full of anticipation. No eggs for 4 weeks. I boiled an egg and went down to the allotment and popped it in the nest box. Phone call from excited mate weve got one, Knock on door he had come down to give me the egg. No i tell him you found it you have it. Poor fucker went home to do himself chips and egg. Phone call rfom him, heyup they are laying em hard boiled, he had a chip sarnie.

lol think ill take em vets and pay thanks loads tho

[smashedagain]

Easy peasy clipping their wings. Needs 2 of you, one to old the chicken the other fans out the wing. With a good pair of scissors cut the ends off 2 maybe 3". Look on youtube, enyoy your egg, nowt like em.  Few years back i used to share an allotment. Me and mate got some chickens and like you used to go to the nest box full of anticipation. No eggs for 4 weeks. I boiled an egg and went down to the allotment and popped it in the nest box. Phone call from excited mate weve got one, Knock on door he had come down to give me the egg. No i tell him you found it you have it. Poor fucker went home to do himself chips and egg. Phone call rfom him, heyup they are laying em hard boiled, he had a chip sarnie.

Wing clipping. Clip one side only. (Otherwise they will still fly even if they're clipped almost bald).

The trick is to unbalance them

Tom. One of my feet is slightly bigger than the other. This finally explains my unbalanced state to me. Thank you

I've been patiently waiting for a "Foot in mouth" joke opportunity. This was almost it.

i know some guys who claim to have had

[RED-DOG]

Easy peasy clipping their wings. Needs 2 of you, one to old the chicken the other fans out the wing. With a good pair of scissors cut the ends off 2 maybe 3". Look on youtube, enyoy your egg, nowt like em.  Few years back i used to share an allotment. Me and mate got some chickens and like you used to go to the nest box full of anticipation. No eggs for 4 weeks. I boiled an egg and went down to the allotment and popped it in the nest box. Phone call from excited mate weve got one, Knock on door he had come down to give me the egg. No i tell him you found it you have it. Poor fucker went home to do himself chips and egg. Phone call rfom him, heyup they are laying em hard boiled, he had a chip sarnie.

Wing clipping. Clip one side only. (Otherwise they will still fly even if they're clipped almost bald).

The trick is to unbalance them

Tom. One of my feet is slightly bigger than the other. This finally explains my unbalanced state to me. Thank you

I've been patiently waiting for a "Foot in mouth" joke opportunity. This was almost it.

i know some guys who claim to have had

I'm aiming for subtle...