Newbie ( herefordshire) - hoping to get some hens!

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Fuzzyfelt123

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Hi all, :-)99
I have been debating for about a year with my husband if we should get some chickens...... i live in a rural village backing onto farmland and have met lots of people who keep chickens in their gardens, land or farms. One lady has said she will give me some chicks if i would like them (silkies) in the future! I have 3 children aged 4,6 and 8 who would love being involved.
I would really appreciate some advice on setting up for hens, i would obviously like egg layers ( don't mind boys but do not think the neighbour would like a noisy rooster), hens that are friendly, disease prevention etc. How many should i get? Is it safe to let them free range in the day? and how do you get them back in the cage at night?...........see i told you i was a newbie! :-)07
got lots of questions but trying to read lots of the posts to answer them.....
 
Hi Fuzzyfelt, and a big welcome to the Forum, and the wonderful world of chicken keeping!
Many of your very sensible questions may be answered if you go to the main Poultrykeeper website, http://poultrykeeper.com/ (see link at the bottom of the page for next time you want to find it.) also there are many threads on here about housing, feeding and general care. If you want trouble- free, friendly hens who lay lots of eggs and wont go broody, a good way to start in my opinion is by getting hybrid egg layers. These are usually commercially produced in large numbers for chicken farmers, but some lucky girls get bought in by local dealers and sold to private homes. There are lots of different breeds in some by attractive colours, and if you get a mixture they are easy to tell apart and also their eggs will all look different colours so you can tell who has done her homework that day! In their first laying year most hybrids will produce between 250-300 eggs, though this will be a bit less in Year 2 and may slow right down or cease after year 3-4 onwards. So, if you start with a whole coopful of hybrids, you have a glut of eggs in year 1 and a bunch of retired hens by year 3-4! So you could consider getting just 3 to start with, then another pair the next year, when you have a bit more experience and know more what you want next, and thus spacing out the ages a bit as well. Always plan to introduce at least two birds at a time as its difficult to integrate just one, she will get bullied without a friend to hold her wing. So decide how many you want at first and stick to it, also get them all at the same time and the same place, so the run is new to everybody - fewer problems that way.

Hybrids are usually about half the price of Purebred birds, which are usually produced by breeders on a smaller scale, and are generally hatched in the Spring so reach POL (point of lay) from August onwards, at around 5-6 months. They generally won't lay so often as the hybrids, but may well go on longer because they don't use up their egg cells so fast. Theyre much more likely to go broody than hybrids, whcih have had that tendency bred out of them for commercial purposes, as going broody stops egg production, sometimes for several weeks at a time. Silkies are particularly prone to broodiness, and historically were much used by farmers before incubators were invented. You need to enquire very carefully whether they come from a good egglaying strain, ie have been selected for good egglaying potential rather than/as well as looks. Many private breeders of purebreds are interested in showing and will therefore breed their lines of birds with appearance in mind, rather than performance.
There's lots of info about different breeds on the Internet, of course, and in practice your choice may be guided by what is available locally and how confident you feel about the conditions the birds are kept in when you go to view them. Good luck in your interesting research, let us know ow you get on.
Btw, I'm moving this post to the General Chickens forum, hope that's OK.
 
thank you for the info! lots to consider - another question? should i buy them vaccinated as i have looked at some of the threads and i'm confused now!
 
If you buy egglaying hybrids they will come vaccinated against all the main chicken diseases, since they will have been raised in a large batch, in numbers which make it economical to do so, and in order to help prevent disease outbreaks in the commercial flocks most of them will end up in. Vaccines are usually only available in large numbers of doses for many chicks, and can't be kept for long once opened, so most breeders of purebreds don't vaccinate as its too expensive. If conditions are good at the breeders, and in your run of course, this is usually fine.
There is sometimes an issue about mixing vaccinated and unvaccinated birds, as in some cases the vaccinated birds have been known to act as carriers and to pass on diseases that they are themselves immune to. This is something you should be aware of when deciding if you want a mixed flock, but it's not very likely to be a problem. I've always had a mixed flock of a couple of hybrids for eggs and a few purebreds for interest, with no problems so far. The important thing is to find well- bred stock from a good breeder. So many things can go wrong when keeping any kind of animal, you'd never take the plunge if you worried about all of them!
However, here we come up against the problem of getting all your birds at once from the same source, if possible. This is easy to do with hybrids, as the are many reputable sellers who buy in POL hybrids and retail them to people who just want a few pet hens. If you tell us which area you live in, I expect somebody can recommend a good dealer. Hybrids are usually available all year round,as they're raised indoors if hatched in winter, whereas purebreds may be more difficult to find because they a nearly all hatched in Spring so are only available on a more seasonal basis, usually in July-September at POL. But breeders of pure-breds are less likely to have the variety you might feel you needed, as they breed in small numbers, often only one or two breeds that they are interested in, and not always with eggs in mind so unless you enquire carefully about whether they come form a good egglaying strain, you're likely to end up with very pretty birds that don't actually lay very well. Also, if you did decide to get a couple from a different place than the others, you will need to keep them separate for two or three weeks, as a quarantine measure, and will then have the task of integrating them with the others in the flock. It can be done, but for a straightforward start, it might be better to just get some birds you fancy from wherever you find them, and add to the flock next year, maybe, with another 2-3 .
 
Hi,
welcome to the group. I let my chickens free range as where I live we have no foxes(local gamekeepers see to that) so you will need to assess the risk as to whether or not your chickens are safe to free range. Some folks have terrible problems with foxes scaling fences or digging their way in.
They will take themselves off to bed as soon as dusk starts-at the moment mine are starting to go in about 6 but come December it will be as early as 2.30!
 
Hi Fuzzyfelt & welcome :-)99

Have you decided what hens you are going to get?
 
Hi Fuzzyfelt.
Welcome, you'll find lots of info on here, wish it had been going when I started!

You asked about getting them back into their run, well, yes they will go back at dusk but I can't let mine out unless I'm there (foxes) so from being young I've rattled a plastic tub with corn in it, & give them a (very) small handfull of corn when they came. Now all I have to do is rattle the tub & they come running from wherever they are! Sometimes they'll come just when I call they're so used to it. :D
Chooks love corn but it makes them fat to give them too much.

Silkies - my SIL looks after her kids school chickens & they were advised to get Silkies as they are very gentle breed so for the kids that's what they got. They lay smaller eggs. Don't know about the broodieness though! They've got some that are about 8/9 years old now, they don't lay but are living out their old age.
 
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