hen advice

[muddled]

I don't know what the foxes are like round your way GG, here in London they are plentiful and mighty quick!

A fox can be over a 6ft fence and snag a hen in about 3 seconds flat.
I had a hen taken from my garden before my very eyes....I was washing up in the kitchen, a flash of red through the window....by the time I got out the (open) back door one chook was dead and another gone forever.

I love foxes....but never underestimate them.

If I were you, I'd have that run roofed and skirted.

having said all that, keeping hens is fantastic....the look on your kids face when they collect their first egg will make all of this worthwhile! Pure magic!

[ancee]

I'm forever giving eggs away. Usually they are used in baking cakes, but as I've been working a lot lately I haven't had the time. Every time my kids go to their mates they take half a dozen eggs with them for their friends mums! The mums are happy about it though! My three chickens are head cases, one has taken to sitting on a perch watching the wild birds come and go, she's very interested in them! One of them was so loud the other day I had to go and tell her to shut up. I thought something had got in with them! She was just standing there yelling her head off! Mad thing!

[Scarlet]

Freeze the eggs Ancee, use during the moult or in Winter when they don't lay so many.

[Scarlet]

Yes, foxes can cause mayhem. My kids turned off our electric fence once. Nearly 30 chickens gone in an afternoon. When we got back a few stragglers returned, some we had to finish off, it was awful picking up bodies and the kids favourite chicken had disappeared along with a few others, just piles of feathers left behind.

[gardengeordie]

I really cant wait and neither can the oldest just hope we get offered a suitable plot soon :-)

[Scarlet]

Which type are you going to go for? hybrids, traditional?

[veggiechicken]

I really cant wait and neither can the oldest just hope we get offered a suitable plot soon :-)

I thought you'd been offered a plot? Have you turned it down?

[gardengeordie]

I've tried a few times to get in touch with them but cannot, think its quite a bit of work with it being the way it is

[Scarlet]

I've tried a few times to get in touch with them but cannot, think its quite a bit of work with it being the way it is

You should take a look at other peeps plots - before and after photos. The plots on offer usually haven't been touched for a few seasons and are. Always full of junk.
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ter_34360.html

[veggiechicken]

Chickens make excellent cultivators of overgrown ground - but you need to remove any hazardous rubbish yourself.
Ready to go plots are rare. They all need hard work.

[muddled]

and ready to go plots are over rated,

A plot's not your own if you just bung stuff in exactly where the last person had it.

[gardengeordie]

this is bad has settees dumped on it, no fencing, beers cans and tyres, someone had even disposed of one of there dead hens there

[ancee]

Freeze the eggs Ancee, use during the moult or in Winter when they don't lay so many.

I tried that last year Scarlet. I broke three at a time into freezer bags ( so I had them ready for cakes) then put them in the freezer, but when they defrosted the yolks were a bit thick and boingy! What did I do wrong?

[Scarlet]

I tried that last year Scarlet. I broke three at a time into freezer bags ( so I had them ready for cakes) then put them in the freezer, but when they defrosted the yolks were a bit thick and boingy! What did I do wrong?

Did you whisk them up before freezing? They are a little thicker once defrosted but a splash milk will thin them down. I use them for all my baking during the winter - cakes are still good.