Idiot's Guide to Chickens Needed Please

[Lumpy]

I have just read through alot of the threads and could all you nice people give me a idiots guide to - what to use, when to use it, how often should it be used etc.

For instance, I read about the antibiotics for chest infections from a vet - can you only get it when you have a poorly hen or will a decent vet let you have it if you explain that you keep hens?

[Guest]

Are you getting chickens or thinking about it? A lot of it is learn as you go.

Coup - warm, dry area to nest and possibly be shut in at night. Preferably with a roosting perch.
Enclosed run - as large as possible for when you are not about but want somewhere reasonably safe
Drinker - fresh water every day (you can put additives in but not essential i.e. cider vinegar etc)
Food - layers mash or pellets. Mixed corn can be fed as a treat or to rest them from laying i.e. winter.
Flubenvet - for worming
Purple antiseptic spray or spray savlon - is handy incase of cuts, scrapes etc.
Diatemous earth - for using in coup to help against mite although painting with creocote still seems the best against mite.
Woodshavings - for making the coup cosy. I don't use straw as I find it promotes ticks.

In regards to vets most would want to see the chicken first.

Hope this helps

[Lumpy]

Thanks NG that helps alot as our free hen house is now in the garden waiting for a clean and reconstruction. It was a lovely gift off a freebie site that is only 12 months old and in perfect nick.

It has an integral run but we are going to fence off some more garden so they can have a run in a run as it were.

[Guest]

You can give chickens marmite on toast when they first arrive aswell as it is meant to help reduce stress. However it seems the same as humans - marmite is a love/hate thing

[Scarlet]

The only stuff I "keep in" is flubenvet. Come Spring it's always out of stock!If you are going to keep chickens I wouldn't worry about all the little bits as NG has said you learn as you go and every keeper will do things a little different.
Focus on getting a decent coop with a run that is easy to clean out. don't overcrowd them as that's when health problems start.
Mine are on a basic program.
Feed - layers everyday. Taken up at night to deter foxes.
Corn - just a handful thrown out late afternoon for them to peck and scratch.
Scraps - they never get any bread, left over dinners etc. I will give them weeds or chard plants to peck at. No chopped grass etc, birds get crop problems from feeding the wrong stuff. Fat birds are usually unhealthy.
Water is available at all times. I slosh in some cider vinegar, every 3/4 weeks for a weekend.
Worm. I've been keeping chickens along time so I worm every 3 or 4 months.
Coop. Mine is creosoted every 2 years (do it before you get your hens) mine is cleaned out weekly and DE spread about freely.
Wood shavings on the floor and in the nest boxes work for me.
Eggs - collect promptly every day or you can encourage egg eating, they are clumsy and will smash them. Once they get the taste it's difficult to get them to stop. I also find it encourages broodies.
Try to handle them often or you may come a cropper when one of them gets ill and you can catch it. Causes more stress.
Don't worry about antibiotics etc, it's not that often that I've taken a bird to the vet. Just ensure you have a vet that knows poultry.
Be choosy when selecting birds. Don't go for the first ones that are available or because they are cheap.

[Nicos]

Here- have a look at these threads...

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ice_38276.html

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...oks_62408.html

there are other threads worth reading too- just so you feel more confident with the basics

[Lumpy]

I already knew this but........


You Lot Are

[fishpond]

Be prepared to let them out at first light and send off to bed when it gets dark---you could be doing this for many years.(you can purchase automatic door openers for wooden coops--see below about wooden coops)
Consider using your wooden hen house for an isolating ward( if it has roofing felt on it consider getting rid of it, except for very occasional use) in emergencies and purchase a plastic one for day to day use=reduced chance of getting red mite--I have never bothered with vinegar or DE.
Make the run rain proof (roof)--there is nothing worse than standing in wet cluckie poo at 5 in the morning (any time of the day) and being rained on.

[Nicos]

5 in the morning?????

urm- mine go out later than that!

[fishpond]

I wake up at 1st light, be it 0430-0900 and have done for years, they let me know if I am late(rarely).
I do go back to bed though, and they get to play in the outer run(out of foxys reach) until I let them out into part of the garden

[Scarlet]

My OH gets up with the light too thankfully he lets them out.

[Nicos]

well- you DID say idiot's guide.....

[Lumpy]

Ta Nicos - I'm glad I know all the technical terms for the bits now, it may help if I ever have to speak to the vet on the phone!

[muddled]

I think that the more supplements you give chickens, the iller they get!

Like gardening, every keeper has a different answer. For what it's worth here are mine;

I will never use a wooden coop again, I like plastic ones that I can easily wash. My girls are in an 'eglu'.

I use Aubiose horse bedding instead of wood shavings. I find it composts better, soaks up water and poo better and absorbs smells better too.

My girls have layers pellets available all day but in the afternoons they get their 'salad' which is all of my veggie peelings, weeds some spinach/cabbage leaves. If there's not much going I bulk this out with tomatoes, bought fruit (they love grapes) and seeds thrown very unceremoniously into the run. This provides a deep litter for them to scratch about in which they happily fertilise and remove weed seeds from before it goes in my compost.

In winter I make a little extra porridge for my daughters breakfast and pop it out for the chooks while still warm...purely because I love that happy noise they make when they get it.

I, too, worm with flubenvet.

I also put diatomaceous earth in the holes the dig for dustbathing (helps against lice and redmite)

Clean water always (you knew that though) but I think you'll be surprised just how much they can drink on a warm day.

I think you are going to make a fantastic chicken keeper!

[Lumpy]

I have been inter webbie mooching for all things chicken essential and now have yet more questions -

What size feeder and drinker would I need to get for 3-4 hens?

Looking at Flubenvet there are lots of adverts for feed with flubenvet added in - is this worth it or any good?