I love the fact that your Chicken keeping manual is a Haynes manual. I used to service my early cars with the help of a Haynes!! We've found keeping hens so wonderful.
I am considering of keeping chickens for eggs as well but I don't know what the Law say about that I don't want to buy them and after I'm having to send them away because of complaints from neighbours.
My neighbours were fine but you can always speak to them / in the uk 🇬🇧 we can keep chickens and can have so many but they now need to be registered / all depending where you live check / in the uk it’s the DEFRA website
Hi, great information shared - one question please if you don’t mind: are you getting noise complaints from the neighbours, as this is something putting me off.thanks
No our neighbours have always been fine but we haven’t had a Cockrel only hens and we get on with our neighbours well too anyway / they enjoy the eggs 🥚
I live in the UK, I wanted to start this but Im not sure about the noise they can create that may disturb the neighbor?? I got like a 10ft x 5ft front garden then a neighbor wall or fence.
Hens are much quieter / It’s cockerels that make more noise / my neighbours have never minded and quite liked the sounds and eggs 🥚/ you could always ask them although I never did and it was fine
Really appreciate the advice you're sharing in these videos. Im looking to build a coop and run for chickens to spend the majority of their time in (as well as some garden time). Question I have is about cleaning out your run. Do you need to muck it out regularly at the same time as the coop. Or are you able to continually turn it over like some form of the deep litter method seen as its outside and open to the elements? Im unsure of the best approach to take in terms of maintenance / hen happiness, so thought id see how its working out for you before I start building!
What is needed to get chickens in the garden in Uk?? Any kind of licence? What about neighbours complaining?? Is my biggest fear as my neighbours are horrible 😣
Don't need no licence.. there very easy to care for also as you to provide them with few things water. Food. Somewhere safe away from Mr fox. There very quiet but if you want a rooster witch I would not recommend for first time keeper..
You only need a license if you have more than 50 and as long as you have hens they aren’t that noisy / worth trying to make an effort with neighbours naturally for your own benefit if you can / free eggs occasionally may win them over / if you think that’s impossible then you’ll just have to accept they may moan but what we found was our neighbour actually enjoyed their therapeutic sounds so you may be surprised / just do it you only get one life / biggest thing is make sure they are secure from Mr Fox 🦊 and good luck getting hens 🐓
My neighbours told me chickens arent suitable for a residentail area, even with a good size garden. That they smell terrible, high maintenance and expensive to keep. Plus chickens attract rats. They suggested I buy a fishtank.What do you think?
Fish 🐠 don’t lay eggs 🥚 they aren’t high maintenance. They do smell a bit as does any animal and you do need to be aware of rats 🐀 but all those things are manageable and worth the benefits of organic eggs 🥚 and they are very therapeutic/ it’s all down to choice like most things in life
It depends on the time of year / they wake up when the sun rises and go to bed when it goes down / you do get used to the pattern depending on the time of year
Another great video :) I am in the process of trying to persuade my wife in letting me get some chickens, would you be able to provide a link where you get your feed from please ?
We love having hens and an abundance of eggs. We pick up our feed from two local equestrian shops. Let us know if you are local to us in North Kent and I can send you there numbers but they only deliver local.
I have a 1.8m x 1.8m space in my garden next to a north facing garden fence where it is shady in the winter, but does get some sunlight in the summer. I would like to keep chickens for eggs and possibility meat. How many chickens do you think I could keep in that space?
Interested in having 4-5 chickens too in my garden and have a similar setup as yourself... what's the monthly cost of maintaining them? (food, bedding or any other stuff they need)?
It really doesn’t cost that much a big bag of feed is about £12 here and lasts about 2 months and when it’s wet I buy a big bale of straw which is about £5 every few months. We use shredded paper for the nest boxes which we shred ourselves so it’s free. So I say less than £10 per month. The only other things we find essential is diatomaceous earth to dust the chicken house/nest box and on the shredded paper with when we clean it out to keep bugs away which lasts for ages and flubenvet feed to prevent worms which you substitute as per the instructions on the packet for their normal feed / we find a bag does 2 doses and only generally used it during the wetter months as that’s when they were more likely to need it or if they seem out of condition which is a sign of worms / here’s the links for the last two if you’re interested amzn.to/3osypbA and amzn.to/3go4EZE
Yes they are fine / we have a good community where we live and we don’t have a cockerel/ there are a few people in our area that have them so it’s not that unusual/ hen birds aren’t as noisy anyway / our neighbours think it’s great we lead the good life
When I used to keep chickens I found that neighbours are not a problem if they get a few free eggs now and then. 👍 Laying hens lay a lot of eggs so having extras that you don't need can be a problem even with only a few birds especially in spring and summer when they lay pretty much every day.
brilliant video. recently we have decided to buy an incubator to try hatch our own chicks. just wanted to know about how noisy they may be for neighbors and if they quieted down come night time?. always wanted to keep chicks. i do have some experience from childhood on my uncles farm but not full experience like over nights ect. many thanks, Stefan
We hatched chicks a few years ago in a borrowed incubator. It is a fantastic thing to do and they are so cute when they are small. Just be prepared for what you are going to do with the boys. We ate ours when they were getting big enough but not everyone will do this. As for the noise, we find them ok. Our neighbours know we have them but the supply of cheap eggs keeps them happy. They make no noise after dark as they are on their perches and occasionally squabble for positions in there but no noise otherwise after dark. We only have girls for the eggs and no boys. It would be the boys making the most noise at first light and various times during the day. For this reason we only have girls and will wait until we live in a more rural location before keeping cockerels too. Good luck with yours and let us know how you get on!
@@ThatsWhatWeCallTheGoodLife thanks very much for the reply. Yes i've been debating myself on what I will do if some boys hatch. I'm too soft hearted so I may try a crowing collar to be able to keep them. If not I may try contact some poultry farms if they want boys for breeding. We are on day 9 of incubation and 5 out of the 6 eggs are looking very good when candling. It is a exciting time which makes the wait feel like a eternity lol. We are also incubating 6 duck eggs.. I know ducks can be very noisy. started watching a few of your vids and you have me hooked. Loving the content. makes me wish i had some more land!! Your vids have gave me a few good ideas as to what i can try in our garden! Thanks again!
Awesome, good luck with the hatchlings! Maybe get someone to prepare the boys for the oven for you? If you eat meat it will be the best looked after and tastiest meat you have ever eaten. We incubated 12 eggs, 11 hatched and 9 were boys. Very unlucky but with my brother in laws help the boys had a good life and fed us all well.
@@ThatsWhatWeCallTheGoodLife Thats a good idea. I can speak to local butchers to see if there is anything they do. There's a nice a farm, shop near by that use only their own animal products in their shop. So that can be another option to see if they can do some for us. Some bad news on the other hand, The duck eggs I bought as "Fertile" never shown any signs on life by day 10 so had to pull all 6! All where yolkers, And one of the chick eggs had died by day 10 as well. But on the upside 4 chicks are looking very good. can see lots of movement inside the eggs already today and today is day 11 I think (losing track a bit lol) So fingers crossed the remaining 4 stay successful and hatch!
Hi Just found your channel. Such a great video. We are about to adopt 3 chickens next week. Do you have any other pets? We have a couple of cats and a dog so wondering how to introduce them as I'd like them to be free range during the day.
Our hens make noise but as long as they are happy it’s never excessive. Our neighbours are fine with it but if we got a cockerel that would change as they are too much for a built up area.
If you have a small garden then you probably have neighbours. I would stick to hens and expect new hens to lay up to 300 eggs a year each. Give them space and they prefer not to be alone so 2 or 3 would be a good start.
I’m keen to get 3/4 chickens. Are there any types you would recommend? Emphasis on lots of eggs and minimal noise. Also, I’m a bit worried about winter. Do you need to do anything for them at low temps? Thanks in advance.
Hens are quieter than cockerels and obviously only hens lay eggs. They are fine in cold weather. I usually go for hybrid chickens as they lay more eggs. I don’t have a specific favourite. I have a chap local to me that sells chickens so I usually trust his judgement. Lohmann Brown is one type I’ve found quite reliable. However the last lot I got he wasn’t able to get them so I got a mixture and they’ve all been great
If you want peace and quiet only get hens, roosters make a hell of a lot of noise. 3 or 4 hens is a good starting point as they need minimal effort to look after after setting them up initially. Biggest problem is covered well in this video, that being predators.
We don’t have a cockerel so no issues with the neighbours. You don’t need a license in the UK for small flocks but you do need to know the regulations especially bird flu is around.
I’m not sure if it’s illegal but it’s certainly advisable not to feed kitchen scraps to poultry or any other farmed animals. This includes vegan or vegetarian kitchens as there is a risk of cross contamination. You will find that your chickens are very happy with weeds or grass clippings. They also do a great job of recycling vegetables or plants that have not gone through the kitchen.
Good question. A bag of feed costs £9 and it lasts about 5 or 6 weeks. The diatomaceous earth powder lasts years if you buy a 5kg bag. They love some corn as a treat and uncooked kitchen scraps too.
@@ThatsWhatWeCallTheGoodLife Great, thank you. So, roughly around £50 per chicken, per year (maybe just over). During which months do they not lay eggs?
We have hybrid egg layers normally and they tend to each lay around 330 eggs each per year. Their egg laying reduces in their 3rd winter and if they are unhappy or stressed.
My husband created it himself to easily fit 6 birds on perches and the wood was from sheets at the bottom of pallets from a local industrial unit that would otherwise have thrown them away / he didn’t have anything to work from / he just created it himself
Sorry but don’t think your run is not big enough if in there the majority of the time. Have seen firsthand foxes and badgers sadly bite through chicken wire - if you can change to 19g weld mesh . The haynes book is excellent.
You need 3g weldmesh. Have seen foxes rip through chicken wire, you will have foxes but not had the visual yet. I agree, run far too small, ideally they should be free ranged for at least 30 mins per day to stretch their legs and eat different nutrients. Your eggs will benefit. Have a look at flyte of fancy for their run bark and food mixes. Hang some leaves of chard up. They love it, stretch their neck up and a good boredom buster. Haynes manual is a great starting point.
Good question, some people do. We have a neighbour who occasionally has a rat problem from his bird feeders being overfilled. We have only had rats when we were over feeding with a mixed seed. The seeds the hens refused to eat were being stored under the hen house by rats. As long as you don’t leave feed around overnight and keep containers secure then rats will have nothing to eat. We do have a bait station hidden and occasionally put fresh bait in it but wouldn’t say we have a problem.
This is so cool ! I want one of my own and I wanna learn all about it. I have a lot of questions, how can I contact you? Maybe email? Please oh please do let me know !
