Is anyone keeping chickens in a suburban garden?

[highseas]

Also consider something smaller if it’s eggs you want? Quail are very easy to keep and will lay 300+ eggs a year and their very good for you too

 

[Migmac]

Keep them in a raised house and run, run needs to have slated floor to allow the crap to fall through into trays.

 

[Robotstar5]

I read that old covenants (is that the word? Rules written on the deeds) are not upholdable as too much time has passed, situation has changed, and maybe as the original parties are no longer around.

The house my parents bought in the 60's had a covenant that you could not make tallow candles on the property, I guess it was due to the smell of rendering fat down, so my dad made one just to see what would happen - nothing

 

[GraemeVW]

I kept 5 in an area about 12'x16".
They also had free run of the garden most days. It wasn't bad, 12x16 seemed to be enough for the ground not to get too bad, but the grass eventually went.

Main reasons I stopped keeping them were having to kill ones that needed it (I shot them, couldn't bring myself to break their necks), and the constant battle with red mite, no one has mentioned that yet!

Fresh eggs all the time is great though.

As for rats, never saw a single one in 5 years.

 

[MattF]

Chicken work best when they're either free to roam a few dozen acres, or moved to a fresh patch of ground 20m square every day.

They work best when they're cooked & on a plate.

 

[MattF]

Just listen to the folk who say don't, & don't.

I disliked looking after my old next door neighbours chickens, when they went on holiday, when I was at the other place. Honestly can't think of any positive point for keeping them.

 

[Erie Fred]

 

[cheb]

The only sensible reason for keeping chickens: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alectryomancy

 

[JEZGUZ]

A friend of mine had a few chickens and a duck, the back garden ended up as a patch of mud, the expense of buying and keeping them far outweighed the expense of popping to the shops for some eggs. She gave up after a couple of years.

 

[ATGNI]

You will get rats. chicken like to eat the most expensive or new plants and live in the kitchen when the door is open for more than 0.5s. They will also produce the most costly eggs you have ever eaten. But I have been freeloading chicken for 20 years Now! Maybe someday I will come to my senses and just eat the buggers

 

[Barking Mat]

Well I'm not in the suburbs, I'm in the country, nope no rats, and they're maybe 3 months old, incubated from eggs, so no eggs yet, kids love them, wife deals with them, I explained I couldn't be arsed with them.

I will undoubtedly strangle the cockerel when it starts waking me up, bastard things.

 

[bricol]

I'm reliably informed by a colleague who had to feed/muck out a farm load of the things as a kid, you can roll the poo up into "snowballs" and chuck it at each other for a bit of light entertainment.

I do know that the stuff on concrete reduces the coefficient of friction down to similar levels as well lubricated PTFE wheels on sheet ice covered in oil . . .

 

[Barking Mat]

I'm reliably informed by a colleague who had to feed/muck out a farm load of the things as a kid, you can roll the poo up into "snowballs" and chuck it at each other for a bit of light entertainment.

I do know that the stuff on con.crete reduces the coefficient of friction down to similar levels as well lubricated PTFE wheels on sheet ice covered in oil . . .

That's some chicken sh1t info.

 

[brightspark]

The house my parents bought in the 60's had a covenant that you could not make tallow candles on the property, I guess it was due to the smell of rendering fat down, so my dad made one just to see what would happen - nothing

my neighbour cant keep dog kennels and pigeons put outbuildings up or run a business from home without asking me i originally sold the plot and its in the covernant

 

[addjunkie]

We used to have 20 or so chooks, free ranging, once bird flue came keeping them caged up wasnt fair or healthy, so we had a swinging party, and recycled the meat through the dogs! Dont bother now. As for going on holiday we have a farm sitter comes, its cheaper to pay her than put the dogs in kennels for a week!

 

[Barking Mat]

'so we had a swinging party'.

Rock on, tell me more.

Feel free to post links to videos.

 

[6ply]

Just no. Unless you can keep moving them around, the ground will become like the Somme, like Bricol has said. In a small space they become smelly as they produce a lot of s**t. Then there will be the rats after the feed, it is like the battle scene from "Zulu" (cue music) and then there is Mr Fox to contend with, and he will appear, and he always wins.
I guess you COULD keep them in an enclosure with a wooden floor if you must, many do, and I suppose its still better than being a battery hen, but rats will soon be living underneath it.

If its eggs you are after, its a lot cheaper just to buy them.

I visited a chicken and fish farm in Thailand, around the time of a bird flu pandemic, maybe 20 years ago.

Chicken pens sited above fish ponds.

What the chickens missed, the fish ate. What the chickens pooped, the fish ate.

We ate the fish, and the chickens.

No rat problem.

 

[Gritineye]

I visited a chicken and fish farm in Thailand, around the time of a bird flu pandemic, maybe 20 years ago.

Chicken pens sited above fish ponds.

What the chickens missed, the fish ate. What the chickens pooped, the fish ate.

We ate the fish, and the chickens.

No rat problem.

I saw a program somewhere in Asia where they had pigs living on what fell through the holes in the floor of the communal toilet above.

 

[Erie Fred]

That's some chicken sh1t info.

You do know they auction the stuff off ?

 

[Erie Fred]

I visited a chicken and fish farm in Thailand, around the time of a bird flu pandemic, maybe 20 years ago.

Chicken pens sited above fish ponds.

What the chickens missed, the fish ate. What the chickens pooped, the fish ate.

We ate the fish, and the chickens.

No rat problem.

And that's where the bird flu pandemic started.....