[AmyG]

Hello everybody!
I live in North Wales with my partner on a couple of acres. Most is field for his mum's 2 horses, then there is yard/parking space, garden, veg patch and soon to be a chicken run and house for 6 ex-commercial hens.

I have learned a lot about veg growing this year so that things can improve going forward ? they are a safe zone for me because I helped my mum loads on her allotment. The new venture of chickens is different....I can do animal care, cleaning out etc but it's which products to use, that is getting overwhelming. Lots of reading going forward and I look forward to getting to know this community ?

Amy

[RCTman]

Hello AmyG, welcome to TAS

[Steph Hen]

Welcome to the forum AmyG!

Chickens don’t really need ‘products’. You might choose to worm them once a year, or wait until you see some symptoms of a bird not doing so well. You don’t need to vaccinate or booster jab or microchip or anything. There’s no paperwork or registration to be done unless you get to over fifty birds.

Just about everyone either keeps hens free range (and eventually looses some to the fox or other predators) or in a wire pen where they’re safer from predators but end up eating their grass down, needing more food and probably at more risk of parasites. If you can, some sort of movable chicken run/chicken tractor is a good system for keeping them safe and contained and giving them fresh food.

 There’s loads on this forum and elsewhere on the web. But it’ need not be complicated ;-)

[SallyintNorth]

20 years ago, me and then hubs bought our first smallholding and wanted chickens.  We bought and read books.  Every couple of weeks we would have a chat with the chap at the local smallholding supplies place as we bought our dog food, and I always had chicken questions     Finally he said, "You've done enough prep now.  Put the book away and get some chickens.  You'll be fine."  Bless him   

[Blondie]

Chickens are relatively straight forward, so I am sure you will be fine! I echo other posters in that if they free range, you will likely lose some to a fox (or similar). I took the risk with mine and lost them to a fox, after 6 years of no issues.

I had mine trained to a whistle. Whistle and they would come running as it meant treats (dried mealworms in my case). It was handy as it was easy to get them back into their coop when required.

[Ghdp]

We have found chickens to be a learning curve best done with chickens! We read lots First but really they are best understood by watching them and spotting usual behaviour and any changes. We used to fully free range Until very recently when a trio of foxes in broad daylight launched into our little flock killing three and leaving two carcasses.
Now they are penned up and am looking at creating a moveable day pen. Definitely worth doing something specific each time they have extra treat a ( whistle/ call) before they start to wander and they will come right away and at speed when you need them to get home. It will help us transport them from the mobile pen - sadly I have concluded that I won’t let them wander the fields as before.

[AmyG]

Thank you for the warm welcome and advice everybody! By products I meant disinfectant, bedding and that kind of thing
We have foxes that seem to live very close by as we get alerted to their presence in the field most nights by the dogs! So our chickens are going to be very well protected indeed. A movable chicken run for the daytime may be possible in the future but for now I'll just need to supplement and enrich their environment with greens which I can forage and scatter in the run if it isn't green enough. Really looking forward to having a happy little flock.   

[Steph Hen]

No disinfectant. Straw in nest box, I don’t use bedding as mine aren’t in a hutch anymore, so their muck falls on the soil and gets shovelled away to the compost. Otherwise a horse size bag of wood shavings. 

[macgro7]

I got my first chickens about 10 years ago when I was living in a little terraced house in the middle of very crowded area of Leicester City.
Wouldn't get rid of them for anything!

[Steph Hen]

I’m a big reader and researcher but if you’ve got a safe place for them to live, some straw, wood shavings and bag of feed you won’t go far wrong. Then it’s tweaking and watching to see how they behave, who lays, who looks bullied or shabby or goes broody, improving your feeding and watering systems. 

[AmyG]

You've all been really reassuring, thank you!

I don't have wood shaving, just Dengie fresh bed (have haylage available to me as well) I was going to just have a thicker layer of the fresh bed in the nest boxes. Will that work?

Thanks,
Amy

[Possum]

Have you read the "Livestock" section at the top of the TAS homepage? It has some very good information on keeping poultry and i found it invaluable when I first started.

[AmyG]

Yes, I have read the poultry section, it was useful ??

The girls are now here and seem to be settling in nicely!