Newbie anxieties

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I am on the verge of taking the plunge and buying a couple of chickens for my back garden but I have a few concerns...

Housing. I only want 2 hens to keep as pets with the ocassional eggy reward so I dont think I need anything huge. I quite fancy an Eglu as they seem to suggest that you can leave the hens out safely during the day (a big plus in our house where everyone works full time!) Has anyone had any experience of eglus? any Eglu vs Wood positives or negatives? Obviously the price is monstrous and probably out of my range! Would an ark be a good alternative or is it too small? I have also read that making a little flower bed type area on which to put the ark/ eglu is better for the chooks, more to scratch etc and it would save my dads lawn. Is this true? How much damage can they do to a lawn?

Dogs. Does anyone have any experience of introducing dogs to chickens? Or labradoodle isnt exactly a prime hunting specimen but he does chase the squirrels and pigeons in our garden. I would like the hens to be able to free range so if it seems that there is no friendship to be forged I would have to rethink.

Anything else I need to know that the guidebooks/ websites dont tell you!?

I'm a massive rookie at this and though I live with my family the responsibility would be all mine so I would appreciate all the words of advice/ encouragement/ persuasion that you have to offer!

thanks so much!

Holly
 
iv never met any one who liked their eglu they are very exspencive and mostly dont do as they say on the box.
there are a company who do a plastic coop but more like the wooden ones in shape. iv known of 2 people who love thoughs but again pricey.
i think the arcs are to small for any hens ok as a temp home for the sick or mum and chicks
chickens will eat every thing in the garden if left loose but how much can just one or 2 eat lol
my dogs would kill my chickens and ducks but my neighbours dog brakes in to my garden just to sit in amoungst them with no probs.
best to get in 3s that way if one goes broody the other not left alone or if one get sick like wise
 
Just from my experience
Got two dogs a border collie and a heinze 57. My rescue dog ignores the hens and my border collie looks after my hens. Both my dogs do chase rabbits and squirells. My sons dog a collie cross would most probably kill my hens. Your quandry is you dont really know until you see how they react to hens.
I would recommend if you are getting hens three is the ideal number as previously mentioned in case one gets ill or broody or dies.
As for damaging the garden you will usually find that booted or feathered feet hens do very little damage whilst clean legged hens will wreck the garden. I have several little pekins and when I have let them out you cant tell where they have been. Let my Dorkings out and its carnage.
Never had a plastic house but my boss has a green frog design one and loves it although they are pricey.
Hope this is of some help.
 
I'd go for a run with a raised coop, much easier to clean out and less likely to get damp. I agree with the above, an ark would be too small as a perminant home (unless you were planning on getting smallish bantams).

Out of all of our hens as above our pekins do the least damage to the garden. I'd say our sussex hens are the ones that dig the grass and flowers up the most!

All of our chickens roam our garden and our Jack Russel - who would chase anything and everything has been trained not to go for the chickens. (she still cant be trusted with the chicks though!). We introduced her to them on a lead and every time she went for the we squirted her with a water sprayer - 3 years later we have no probs with them - even went out one afternoon, shut the hens in their run in case of foxes etc as we were going to be back later, accidently shut the dog in there too and she was curled up in the nesting box with them when we came home! Think it probably all depends on the dog though - maybe we were just lucky there!
 
wow- thanks so much guys!

I never thought of getting anything other than a hybrid simply because they're the cheapest and ive been told theyre best fore eggs. But now I am completely taken with the lavender pekin hens, they are so beautiful. Any tips? Are they friendly chooks- they look super cuddly! And the extra money spent on them will surely be saved when my pa doesnt have to returf the lawn! (That's how I'll sell it to him anyway- like I sold him on hens saving us money on eggs and slug killer in the first place!)

Still a little bamboozled by the runs and coops and houses and everything though- I like that the Eglu is so easy to clean but it is super expensive and they'll be on the ground...so much to think about!

Thanks again guys!
 
Hi cheekymonkey200 and welcome to the forum 0:-) :roll:

Hiya Holly

I only want 2 hens
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I suggest at least 3 .... 3 is a good number :ugeek: :-)05

I quite fancy an Eglu
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... Whatever floats your boat IMHO. But you can do the same for comfort and safety a lot cheeper. Arks are fine if you move them every other day for a trio (providing it's a proper Ark) .. that way the lawn is not scratched/overgrazed

Dogs. Does anyone have any experience of introducing dogs to chickens?
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... Yup. Depends on the breed a bit. Terriers can be a bit smappy around them in my experience but many dogs are fine if they are made aware of the chickens possition in the order of things. (The danger is from strangers/neighbours dogs and poorley behaved owners)



IMHO a Labra doodle may be a bit playfull around them but not hurt them intentionaly. Just make things clear and don't play around the chooks with it.

Geese Mow your lawn and keep off intruders ... ever thought of them ?! (J/K)
 
cheekymonkey200 said:
Dogs. Does anyone have any experience of introducing dogs to chickens? Or labradoodle isnt exactly a prime hunting specimen but he does chase the squirrels and pigeons in our garden
Click to expand...

cheekymonkey200 said:
IMHO a Labra doodle may be a bit playfull around them but not hurt them intentionaly. Just make things clear and don't play around the chooks with it.
Click to expand...

Sadly 2 labradoodles savaged my new girl a few weeks back. They wern't on leads, got into the garden and in the enclosure where my new little belgiums were settling in. They wouldn't drop her and dragged the owner across the floor, after she had secured them on their leads. Horrendous!!!

As for houses, your needs change so much in the first year, you learn about what suits your chickens. We are on our 4th house, after 14 months - we increased our flock & our Pekins spent all summer broody, so had their own small broody coop.....plus one house looked the job, but was sadly lacking in every respect, roof leaked etc. It wasn't cheap either.

Our pekins do very little damage, the sablepoot is a fierce digger, and the belgium literally prance around the garden.

There is so much to consider, but its mostly down to personal choice and situation.

There is a wealth of information on here, lots of pictures etc......good luck.
 
Sadly 2 labradoodles savaged my new girl a few weeks back. They wern't on leads, got into the garden and in the enclosure where my new little belgiums were settling in. They wouldn't drop her and dragged the owner across the floor, after she had secured them on their leads. Horrendous!!!
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OMG ! I'm so sorry to hear that :-)06 The experience I have has let me see the "Playfull and unruley" side of the Labradoodle but not that sort of stuff. However.. Add playfull nutty mut and bad owner, and I could see it happening.

My sypmathy to you and yours. :(
 
Pekins do lay small eggs but they also do get broody but they are the cutest hens ever and so friendly.
A note on the house. A couple of years ago when i started keeping hens I went on a course and they had the chicken dormitory and the lady kept pekins. It looked really good quality and is cheaper than the eglu. I looked at an eglu when I started and was amazed when I looked at the price now.
If I had not already purchased my house for my Bantams I would have probably given this a go.The house part is high up so easy to clean out, which you get to appreciate when you keep hens. I made so many costly mistakes when I started keeping hens so you are absolutley doing the right thing researching throughly before you buy. Good luck finding the hens and house that works for you.
 
thanks guys!

Elmwood- So sorry to hear about your very unfortunate run in with the dogs! So terrible. My dog is scared of the frogs in our garden so I'm hoping he'll steer clear of the chickens!

The little pekins do look lovely but they are very expensive, about £30 each which mounts up now I'm looking at getting three! (how has my brood already increased- I havent even got them yet!?!) Are they worth it? Im thinking of them for their lawn saving potential as well as their cuteness, but I do want eggs as well...

The eglus are crazy expensive, £340 compared to around£110 for a wooden house with a run, which is also higher off the ground. The only thing now swinging in the eglus favour- (on my very conscice and organised list of "pros and cons of hen coops") is the fact that the hens can stay out in it on their own during the day, guarenteed to keep our neighbourhood foxy loxy out-

I think im going to visit a local breeder at the weekend and see which ones I fall in love with- you can do all the research in the world but it all comes down to the chemistry lol

Thanks again for all your help guys!
 
£30 is very expensive for Pekins. I bought my Pekins from 3 different people and they all cost £15 each. They don't do too much damage to the garden but my lot are enjoying eating quite a few plants at the moment probably because they enjoy the fresh green foliage.
The downside is that they do tend to go broody alot (might be a good thing if you want to hatch chicks).
My sister in law has 2 large labs and she wouldn't let them anywhere near her chickens as they would kill them. As others have said it depends on the dog. One lady we got 2 pekins from had 2 labs and they were great with the chickens. They were very well trained though and this probably makes all the difference.
 
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