Beginner - some advice please

[Albanach]

We’ve recently moved to a rented house about 1.5 miles outside the town and the house has a 0.5 acre site and I’ve wanted to keep chickens for a good while now. We have a neighbour on one side only and the front garden looks on to the road with no gate. To the back and side we have open fields separated by fencing.
My plan is to build a coop with a run attached and place this run inside a fenced area within the garden approx 4m x 4m so the chickens have a good sized area to scratch around in. The run would be used only when we were away for a short period.
What type of border fencing would people suggest for the 4m x 4m area (I was thinking of using just basic chicken wire)? I did quite like the thought of letting them roam around the whole garden but am now worried about them going into the neighbour’s garden and also the potential of fox/dog getting hold of them. I would be planning to do this as cheaply as possible so any frugal hints or tips would be much appreciated!

[chris]

A fox will be able to chew through normal chicken wire. If you're going to build a proper fox proof run, you'll need to sink the mesh/wire that you decide to use into the ground to stop them digging under it, and probably either roof the run, or make it tall enough (and far away enough from things like trees, or anything a fox could climb up and jump in) to stop it getting in from above.

I used weldmesh for my run, and am extending it to a similar idea that you're thinking of - I'll be using weldmesh, and putting in a concrete floor with at least a foot "skirt" of concrete/slabs to stop a potential fox getting in.

If you live in the countryside there may well be foxes.. I'd suggest being more safe than sorry and having to clean up bits of chicken. There's loads of threads on fox proofing - if you search for it in this forum.

Weldmesh isn't as cheap as normal chicken wire mind, so if you did go for normal chicken wire, I'd double it up (at least) and try to overlap the wire so the mesh holes didn't line up - if a fox can get its teeth in the holes it'll be able to chew through it. That said, you may not have a problem with foxes. My neighbour has told me we have foxes around - I've seen one too - and we're in a built up area but at the same time we're near lots of open fields and mountains. I've not had a problem yet, but I went all out ensuring it was as fox proof as possible.

I've read somewhere if a squirrel can get in, then you should believe a fox can do too.

I've recently built a coop out of shuttering ply (as suggested by Bamble-Poultry), that was £25 for a sheet of 8' x 4' ply.. So far that coop has cost me about £30.

[Albanach]

Cheers Chris. The run itself would be made from weldmesh. I don't fancy roofing an area 4m by 4m. Maybe I should think of extending the run attached to the coop rather than letting them out into the garden.

[RichmondHens]

Don't know how many chickens you are planning on getting but even 4 x 4 m is not a great deal of space. For say 3 chickens your best (and simplest) bet is to invest in at least 25 m of electric fencing which you can then move around easily onto a fresh patch of ground as necessary. Never underestimate how quickly chickens will trash an area of grass! This will also solve any fox problem you may encounter. Set it up as a square or rectangle and place the hen house centrally within it. Make the house on legs so the birds have somewhere to shelter if it's wet. Also the advantage of electric fencing, as you are only renting your property, is that it's easy to take down and move to another property - not something you would relish doing with a post and wire fence.

[Albanach]

Only planning on getting two. The problem with the fencing is there is no mains connection outside and no way to run a wire from inside the house without leaving windows open all the time. I know you can get battery powered fencing and will look into that but it looks as though this is quite expensive. Point taken about the removal of the fence though.

[Glutton4...]

You shouldn't get less than three Chooks. They are flock animals, and if one died, you would be left with one, and it would pine!

Plus, Chook-keeping is addictive, so make sure you have room for at least ten!

[chris]

It'd be better if you got 3 in all honesty - if one dies, at least there's two still left (Originally I thought about just 2 as well - advice here as I'm saying now). It's more difficult to introduce 1 new hen to an already existing hen - she may not like it. Most places will typically sell 3 hens minimum (I found this when looking). Unless of course in different circumtances would they sell less than 3 (i.e. introducing 2 hens min to an existing flock - idea being if these two hens are rejected, at least they have company with each other - they're very much a social bird, with social hierarchy).

To give you an idea of costs on keeping them:

a 20KG sack of layers pellets (a complete food, containing all that they need for laying eggs) costs me £6.00

A large (unsure of weight - can be seen on left hand side of this photo by the garage door) bale of compress, dust extracted shavings costs me £7.00 I think - I've worked out that this will last me 6 months, minimum.

A bag of compress, dust extracted straw for nestboxes lasts me 2 months, and costs me £2.60 (I'm sure it can be found cheaper, or if you buy in bulk and have somewhere dry to store it).

Water - 'free', I'm not metered

I bought a 6KG feeder with raincap, which cost £6, and a 6L drinker with cost £6 too.

I built a small run at the time from timber I had, the only real cost was hinges, and weldmesh. I converted a falling down bike shed into a chicken coop (ignore the wood int he picture, it wasn't used). Only cost was some creocote and onduline roofing killing two birds with one stone (ventilation and a waterproof roof - note there'd weldmesh underneath the roof as here to stop any rodents or what not getting in under the roof.

Average figures suggest each hen will eat 125g of feed a day.

So roughly speaking:
125g x 3 hens = 375g of feed a day.
375g x 7 days = 2.6Kg of feed a week
2.6Kg x 4 = 10Kg of feed a month.... meaning the 20Kg sack will last me two months.

So, if you exclude the cost of the coop:

£0.75p/week to feed them
£0.29p/week of shavings for the bottom of their coop
£0.04p/week of straw for nestbox.

£1.08 / week to "keep" my hens basic costs (excluding any treats). Checking tesco, I'd usually buy 6 free range eggs, which cost ~£1.60 - they'd last me a week.. as I didn't use any eggs really. They work out at £0.26p an egg.

I get 3 eggs a day now, 21 eggs a week. so each egg costs me roughly 5pence. Not to mention that they taste out of this world - Since October last year, I've not bought any eggs, despite them not laying straight away. I have 3 hybrids (picture here!), and they're great.. Fun to watch, and such characters, if they dont all lay each day it's no bother. Last night I gave 8 eggs to my neighbour who was over the moon to recieve them, as the taste of 3 eggs laid that day before went down a treat.

You could sell them too, I guess - I've sold a couple half dozen for a pound - those two days covered their costs for that week, basically..

RH's suggestion of electric fence is a great idea. Hope this helps a bit more.

I've not included worming in the above - as I've not yet done mine. You can either by one you mix in with feed, or pre-medicated feed - theres information in various threads here about them. If you keep the hens in the same place/permenant run I think the general advice is to worm each quater.

[chris]

Oh yes, you may find people asking for their poo too. My wife has people in work after their poo. I've a separate compost bin soley for shavings/straw/poo. Taking a while to rot down, but it's getting there - good stuff !

[Bramble-Poultry]

i have about half a tonne of pig poo (neat with a bit of straw) if you want it!

[RichmondHens]

Lovely stuff, pig poo! Great for the veggies. We inherited two sties worth when we moved here, spent several weekends digging it out with the kids helping. Our son's teacher thought all he did on a weekend was clean out pig sties as that's all he wrote about in his news book!

[Albanach]

Cheers for the advice.

Looks like I'll be going with the electric fence. I can get a starter pack from a supplier here in Ireland with 50 x 1.1 m high metre electric netting, an earth stake, 4 corner posts & fencing unit for €258.00.

Converted an unused dog kennel into a coop at the weekend along with a 2.5m long by 1.2m run which attaches on.

Just got to decide what type of chickens to go with...any recommendations? Bro in law has light sussex which he says are a good mixture between layers and eaters.

[Scarlet]

I keep light sussex and would recommend them but they don't lay as many eggs as a hybrid chicken and can often go broody.Why don't you have a couple of each? Good Liuck!

[Albanach]

How much floor space within the house do you need per hen? I have a small outdoor kennel which I have converted into a chicken house. It is approx 2' squared. As stated above they will have a large area to roam around in during the day.

Might go for a hybrid chicken then!

[chris]

1' squared per hen I *think*.. and again, I think, it's more so perch space (do they have somewhere to lay eggs, that's not under a perch? - so they don't poo into the nestbox).. which goes from 9" -> 12" per bird..

How many hens are you looking for?

I'd recommend hybrids - they're bred to lay, and most are quite hardy. I have a black rock, a magpie, and a light sussex - each lay an egg a day. The black rock is my fav. The "usual" 'battery' chicken is along the Warren breed lines - I'd say have a look at local breeders by you and see what they stock. Then have a read up about them - feathersite and hendersons chicken chart will give you more info on the breed, and egg laying traits.

[Albanach]

I was looking for 2 originally but was told above that 2 is a no no. They would have somewhere to lay that is not under the perch.

Cheers for the advice on breeds I will look up feathersite and hendersons.