Chick chick chick chick chickens !!

I envy anyone with hens, my garden is not big enough for them, so good luck to anyone who has a bash at keeping them, also I would love some ducks but got rid of pond when DGD was born. (from etheltbags-new name).

Check out Omlet's website. their chicken coops are fox proof , easy to clean, no smell and look great. I've got 2 Eglus and a Cube. i started with 3 chickens and keep getting more as they are addictive.

they are addictive., I got four as a birthday present for my GS. Now have dozens, all shapes and sizes and although they make a mess of my garden I wouldn't be without them. Hatching eggs are so exciting. Children love them and I always have something to give my friends when I go for supper, much better present than bottle of wine or chocolates!

Yes, (unless it's a vegan kitchen) but everybody does it and it can't be policed and so long as you are sensible and don't include animal products or too much junk like leftover bread, there's no risk to public health or the chickens.

We have a mixed flock of 12 hens and I can give you lots of sensible, helpful and time saving advice, so will pm you. And no they do not smell when cared for properly.

In the meantime I feel I need to say in the public arena that is is absolutely and 100% illegal to feed hens scraps from a domestic kitchen. This is a consequence from the terrible foot and mouth outbreak that devastated the farming industry a few years ago.

No offence taken! Considering that I achieved a G.C.E in English 50 years ago my grammar and spelling frequently desert me these days!!

I am an expat living in Ghana. I started keeping chickens about 3 months ago. Five of the first batch of seven 'village' ones turned out to be boys! We added eight from a battery farm, and all eight are laying, though the village girls aren't yet. We get 5-7 eggs a day. No unpleasant smells at all! They are a delight!

missdeke but I shouldn't.

Lovely picture Anya, have just seen a similar one of DGS tenderly holding their newly hatched chicks.

If you are planning to have them for the pot, don't give them names as annifrance has said.

Lucky you, i would give anything to be able to have hens again - no space here and neighbours would whinge!
Make sure you get hens, cockerels are a pain and the crowing in the early hours is enough to put you off for ever!
We had a single hen for ages and wondered why she would stand for hours in front of the french doors clucking at her reflection. She was lonely! Chickens need company and can become very tame and as Greymary said, have little personalities all of their own.
Oh to win the lottery...!

'When the dogs are eating the hens"

"Let's eat Grandma"
"Let's eat, Grandma"

Can't stop giggling, especially after the one-legged hen. Sorry nonnassuie hope you don't take offence.

We kept 3 hens in the back garden, now we're only left with one, a little bantam.

When young they each laid an egg each day, dwindling in numbers as the hens aged. The eggs were delicious, much tastier than those bought in supermarkets.

Their coop needs cleaning regularly, and there is a tendency for mice as they're after the food. If you're in a residential area, being chicks they can cluck a bit, so hopefully the neighbours are alright.

Hen keeping can be tying as you need someone to feed them when you go away. Also, with all the rain which we have had this year, our garden has become almost a sea of mud, not helped by our bantam pecking around.

I'm not sure whether we will get new hens in Spring. The eggs are good, but they do take some work.

And a one-legged chicken at that LOL !!

I had to laugh at that* Missdeke*. Not the whole foot thing ...but imagine being in your garden when a high wind drops a chicken on you . No-one would ever believe you would they

We keep hens too! We haven't had any problems with foxes yet (only 2 legged variety who have stolen our girls several times). We get rats & mice but we are in the countryside. My DH sets traps for all the vermin (yes including the human sort) and now we have an alarm plus 2 dogs down at the ground where we keep them!!
No problem with the hens and the dogs, in fact when the dogs are eating the hens are queuing at the fence for any left overs!! We keep the hens for eggs but twice a year buy some males to raise for meat but they have no names, apart from one that we kept to keep the girls in order. If we get a broody hen we are hoping to breed our own chicks.

My aunt in Australia had hens, onr poor girly called Britte was attacked by the others and lost her foot. My uncle made a leather boot type false foot for her and she then had the run of the garden so the others couldn't attack her again. She lived a happy life until unfortunately she was blown away in a hurricane never to be seen again.

Won't reiterate all that is said above. Just want to say we have had chickens for the 11 years we have lived in France and found it all very easy. They have an area of grass which is exclusively for them, plus a hut with perches and nesting boxes. We feed them laying hen grain and get wonderful eggs with yellow yolks. They also have all the uncooked vegetable peelings and tea bags.

About twice a year one of them goes broody so she gets moved to a separate small run and hutch and is there until the chicks are about 6 months old, then they go in with the rest. Last year we had two male chicks which were for the pot but in the end neither of us could do anything about it! So we now have two magnificent fellas who are up for sale. Tip: don't name anything you intend to eat. This worked for us with the lambs.

All our chickens have been OK with dogs and our current border collie guards and herds them. However a friend's dog massacred quite a few of ours when she got in by mistake. During winter when their grass gets low we let them around the gardens, not so good in summer because of the poo.

We have had geese - good guard dogs but horrid. Got rid of them. Guinea fowl were decorative by very noisy so quite relieved when the fox got them. Ducks really sweet but only decorative as again couldn't eat them.

It is essential to shut them up at night as foxes are always in for the main chance and it's not a pleasant sight next morning. It's only happened to us twice, but the other day a buzzard attacked and killed a chicken during the day. They put themselves to bed at sundown but it does rather ruin your social life at various times of the year - ie waiting for them to go to bed before you got out or getting back early in high summer. DH often pops home to shut them up if we are near to home. You can get doors that shut automatically when it gets dark.

Re roosters, I am told that if the cock cannot raise his head he cannot crow, and as they always go on perches to roost then make sure the perches are high enough so he can't raise his head.

have fun with them and enjoy the eggs. Another reason to spend time slaving over a hot stove to fill the freezer with all the too many eggs!

we killed two of our cockerels when we first had them,when chicks you cant sex them until they are a bit older,I made the mistake of naming them,and then cried and couldnt eat them ..it was like eating my babies.
we back on to fields so rats are going to appear,but we have placed 5 rat cages around,and as others say keep food locked away at night..
They have different personalities and pecking orders,and can be handled.
we had to clip flight wings so that they didnt fly out of enclosure.

One thing to look out for if you are thinking about owning hens is foxes. We live in a suburban setting but nevertheless a large, moth eaten looking fox regularly slips through our garden on the look out for tasty livestock and our neighbours have lost several hens. The trick I think is to make sure they are shut in for the night in a fox proof place as soon as it starts to get dark, which means if they are roaming free you need to be around everyday at dusk to bed them down for the night.

Protect them from any fox in the area

Also, NanaandGrampy, if you're going to name them as you say, they will all be boys and they will fight! No eggs either.
3 girls would be ok on their own, but one cockerel would make life more interesting.
If you're planning to have them "for the pot" cockerels have more meat on them.

Thank you all so much for all your advice , some of which hadn't even crossed my mind.

I think all of it is very doable but I will have to think about the rat issue. We live on a railway line ( well not on it but above and have had rats a few years ago when the girls had rabbits.

The rats were very bold and we had to get the council exterminator in which solved the problem .

I'll have to do my research I think before committing so this might turn out to be not such an imminent project. I'm so glad I posted , having many voices will certainly save me from leaping in.

And if you do hatch your own, they are a great chance for little ones to learn how to handle animals carefully.

Yes, might repeat what others have said, but that will just add emphasis to their posts.

Firstly check with your local council. Some authorities have strict rules about keeping chickens.

If that's ok have a word with your nieghbour and assure them that you won't get a cockerel, they won't be allowed to escape into their gardens and if there's a loud clucking now and then, it's only because they've just laid and egg and are shouting about it! We had one which always liked to cluck loudly for about 10 minutes afterwards.

Smell. Only if you don't clean them regularly and can be worse in hot weather. We change bedding every couple of days and give the run a good wash at least once a week, more in summer. Make a compost heap and put the soiled bedding and chicken poo on it along with your kitchen organic waste and it rots quickly and make great compost.

Don't leave uneaten chicken food or uncovered feed bins around, you don't want rats. Make sure your chicken house and chicken run is fox proof and they are shut securely in at nightfall. They should take themselves in at night.

They will wreck your garden so keep an area set aside just for them.

Now a warning about rescue chickens. They might be almost featherless when you get them. Chickens moult once a year and battery hens are usually got rid off at their first moult. They may not be able to roost (sit on a pole at night) at first, they may not adjust very well or lay many eggs at first. But the rescue agency will explain all this.

We've always had chickens so I'd say 'go for it' but have realistic expectations and, if you do get some, come back and tell us about them.

I loved having hens, we had three as I'd been advised that's a good number for a smallish garden. You'll have to build or buy shelter and ensure the chicken wire and poles are dug deep enough to stop the foxes digging their way in. Keep the house clean and it won't smell.

Our two dogs ran at the hens the first time they saw them roaming around the garden and were firmly told to 'leave it'. They never bothered them again, three hens and two dogs happy in the garden together. When our new puppy arrived, he had two or three runs at the hens but the biggest hen would turn and flap her wings at him and he'd run back into the house so he soon learned to leave them alone.

They will wreck any borders if allowed to free range all the time.

As for rats, you must keep all hen food in locked containers and lock any feeders away when you put the hens to bed. You can buy so called rat proof containers but the issue is the hens won't eat tidily and bits of food can be left around. In 4 years, I had to call the council rat man out once and the problem was sorted very quickly. Enjoy it, it's great fun and the eggs taste better than anything you can buy

I'm afraid the only answer to rats attracted by chicken feed is to poison them.