Keeping Backyard Chickens!?
Image by sierravalleygirl
the chickens hang out on the front often in the morning to warm themselves up. They also like to look into the house at us.
Question by Tesco – very little help: Keeping Backyard Chickens!?
I’d love a couple of chickens! I think they’re quite the character and would be good for us as a family. I’m quite used to keeping animals and am responsible etc.
My husband has pointed out that chickens scratch and scrape up the ground a fair bit. I wouldn’t want the front garden trashed. We have a small front garden and a small back garden, but not too small, if you get what I mean.
How much room do chickens need and what kind of behaviour do they exhibit when it comes to scratching ‘n’ stuff? Would they be too much of a problem or do you think it’d be okay. I would get them an eggloo or a run in which to stay at night, but obviously they’d need to be out during the daytime hours.
Would I return home to find no lawn and poo everywhere?
I need to contact my local council to find out if we’d even be allowed to keep them in our area too.
Can you help? Leave your own answer in the comments!
5 Responses to Keeping Backyard Chickens!?
Leave a Reply
chicken are really lovely too have , but i agree that chicken make alot of mess and if you have kids its a bad idea to have them around the house because there alot of bugs that live on chicken feather and its not healthy ,and also the chickens have alot of bad smells,and your going to waste your time cleaning after it everyday.yeah chickens don’t need alot space ,you can put 5 chicken in a 1 meter by 1 meter space and still survive . chicken poo is good for the lawn ,trust me just get there self a love bird or something that doesn’t make a mess ,good luck
worthless w
November 3, 2012 at 5:02 am
We used to keep chickens, and, yes, you don’t technically need much room although it is much kinder to give them plenty of running space, and they are less likely to develop diseases and problems with their feet if they have more freedom. They do make a certain amount of mess but chicken poo isn’t that bad really. One way to control this is to have a run for them and move it around so the lawn has a chance to recover.
One thing about them though – they have a pecking order. This means that one of them usually gets pretty shredded by the others. this can be disturbing for children to see, but it’s not quite so bad if you don’t have cockerels.
Gothmog
November 3, 2012 at 5:52 am
Keeping chickens is quite rewarding as they produce eggs. They do make alot of mess scraping the ground, be prepared to have a very thread bare lawn. If you let them out the best thing to do is have their wings clipped so they don’t dissapear off anywhere. You will find that there is a dominant chicken and obviously you can get food for them at certain pet shops now and you can also give them worms whic they go mad for its quite funny.
If you are friendly with your neighbours just have a word with them and you should have no problems, just reasure them that you won’t be having a cockrell so no real noise. so you shouldn’t have too much problems.
I know some people make a specific scratching box that they put safe sand in and then add bugs to it to encourage them to scratch in ther rather than the garden, it works to certain degree but not entirely so you will always a have a messy garden.
uk_earth_worm
November 3, 2012 at 6:31 am
you wuold find poo everywhere and they do scratch up the ground but not too bad. though there poo is good for gradens and such if you do not confine them to a limied are they will poo EVERYWHERE and it does smell
if you let them out in the day alone
then they will most likely be the victims of predators
Sara
November 3, 2012 at 6:47 am
Chickens are wonderful pets. Chickens do love to scratch at the ground, but they generally don’t waste their time scratching in an area where they won’t find a snack. They really can’t do any real damage to your lawn either. Your garden on the other hand, they might find the loose soil too tempting to pass up. My hens loved to ‘jump’ the fence and run over to my neighbor’s garden. The upside is that they don’t have any pests now!
Chickens really don’t need much room, but it is healthier for them. They keep in shape running from one end of the yard to the other and it also gives them more variety as to where to scratch for bugs.
Chickens poop really wasn’t an issue to me. I only kept a small number of birds at a time because they were just pets to me. The good thing is that their poop is very small!
I NEVER found any pests or bugs ON my chickens. If it is a problem for you though, there are dusting products that will remove anything that may be harmful to your fowls.
Chickens are wonderful pets to have, beautiful lawn ornaments, safe pest control, and you may even find yourself with a new shadow in the yard! My hens follow me around everywhere. It is very rewarding.
reillyj1989
November 3, 2012 at 7:38 am