Originally Posted by
Alex_UK
Hamish - lovely, but I really think you need to take some stronger fox prevention precautions - presuming they are kept in their house overnight, is the big door bolted at top and bottom as well as the middle? Trust me, foxes are evil bast@rds who kill just for fun, so do everything you think you need to to protect them, and then double it... Trust someone who lives out in the sticks and has webbed feet... I would hate to hear more bad pet news...
Anyway, enough doom and gloom! Nice one. Now to choose the speakers for your end of the agreement...
Hamish, having chickens ourselves, I have to absolutely agree with Alex.
Firstly the house itself is way too small to keep them confined to for anything other than overnight (you should consider 1 square meter per chicken the absolute minimum run area) and your run is in no way secure enough to leave them in unattended.
As it is, while you're not there, you either have to confine them to far too small a space or run the very real risk of coming back to dead/missing chickens and a load of feathers.
Whatever the house makers claim the house (in numbers of chickens) is total crap apart from overnight sleeping space. Yes it's better than batter hen conditions but it's still inadequate. Plus of course it will mean you have to spend far more time cleaning the house out.
I'll post some pics tonight of the setup we have for our three girls, and I should point out that I think we have a far smaller garden than you by the looks of things, so it's not too hard to do.
Actually if you look here you can see a bit of it anyway
Having chickens is great fun though. They're very entertaining and the fresh eggs are awesome.
If you don't want to/can't keep moving the run around the garden (they will reduce the lawn to mud if you don't), then my tip is to pick an area for the run, lay paving slabs over it and then cover the slabs with a thick layer of bark chippings. This gives them something to scratch around in, makes the run easy to clean and stops the area turning to a mud bath when it's wet.
Steve aka 'Twelvebears' (it's a long story)
System: Technics 1210 Mk5, Jelco 750 arm, AT33EV via MF X-LP2 Phono Stage, Oyaide mat and record clamp. SB Touch via Marantz PM-11S1 amp and Wilson Benesch A.C.T. speakers. Mark Grant cables and PS Audio Power Plant Premier mains regenerator.
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