Chicken run

[skier-hughes]

Personally I think it's cruel to keep them penned like this and after spending £500 on our giant run, and a few weeks constructing it, and then installing the birds, it broke my heart. They live to find insects and they don't find any, really, if they live in a permanent run. They carry on scratching and pecking, but it's fruitless, and I can't watch it.

Next year I plan to develop a growers' enclosure and do sale of chicks, no one breeds lemon millefleur sablepoots in Lincolnshire, and they're fabulous little things who happily live in a small town garden.

This to me is a little contradictory, or is it that you can only not bare to watch them cooped up yourself, but once they have been sold to someone with a small town garden you aren't bothered that they'll then be cooped up in a very small pen?

 

[Penners]

I am so glad I found that

Well done! That put me in my place! :wink:

 

[JoceAndChris]

Skier Hughes - not really contradictory at all. In an ideal world, each Large Fowl bird needs 10 sq metres as a minimum. A little bantam bird is about a third of the size - so maybe 3 square metres. So 2 hens = 6 sq m. Very different to the needs of my 11 LF ( and I plan to swell that number to 30 so will extend the enclosure into the field we just bought)

I'd much much sooner they were free ranging in a small garden than penned up, but in a country where most people think nothing of consuming large quantities of battery chicken I don't realistically expect people will see much that's unpleasant in keeping chickens in an enclosed run.

People keep dogs cooped up all day, cats indoors - I don't really like those things either and couldn't do it myself but I'm forced to accept that there's a lot of compromising going on where animal keeping is concerned.

 

[skier-hughes]

I couldn't see why you wanted to breed birds to send them out for what you appear to think is a life of misery.

 

[JoceAndChris]

"a life of misery" is a strong way to put it - I wouldn't say penned animals are necessarily miserable, just curtailed from doing what they would naturally do. Personally, it grates - I couldn't enjoy a caged canary though I don't honestly think it's thinking all the time "let me out!" It's very interesting that animals raised in captivity show little tendency to want to escape. I'm amazed that my cream legbars, who are good flyers, don't just fly over that electric fence into the interesting wood behind - but they never have. It's partly because they are raised in captivity and partly because they've flocked with the Orpingtons, and see safety there.

But going back to " a miserable life in a town garden", when I think of my friends' gardens in Bristol and Sheffield I think a couple of the bantam poots would be very happy there, especially if they erected the poultry netting around the edge to keep predators out.

Bantams are a great solution for people who'd like to keep chickens but don't have a half acre or so.

 

[skier-hughes]

I'm obviously thinking of a much smaller town garden than yourself.

 

[JoceAndChris]

My brother's garden in Bristol is around 20 sq metres, but it has a weeny lawn and the edges densely planted. I'm sure 2 bantam hens would love to live in it. ( and the lemon millefleur sabelpoots, with their delicate feathery feet, make no impact on planting schemes so are a really garden friendly bird )

 

[Penners]

People keep dogs cooped up all day....I don't really like those things either and couldn't do it myself

Given free access to the garden (which our dogs have invariably had), it's my experience that a dog will still choose to spend most of its life indoors. Dogs naturally spend a fair proportion of their day asleep, and given the choice they like to do this in a nice warm, dry indoors bed.

If you think that the domestic dog is essentially an outdoor creature, you should see me trying to persuade ours outside when it's raining!

 

[vicky whitworth]

Thank you for all the advice on chucks! I have found another villager who uses electric netting, so I am tempted down that route. But I think I fessed up at the beginning by saying it's my husband who's more keen on chickens than I am, and I'm thinking it all sounds too much trouble when you are working and not that keen anyway.

On a more cheerly note, we eventually got to Cats' Protection yesterday and have chosen a new kitty, who will arrive on Friday. He's eight months and a whopper - oh and ginger and white. Now the only issue to sort is his new name. Any suggestions? I want to call him Ruffy Ridley, after a chartist who stirred up a riot in the 19th century down our way, but I'm not getting much enthusiasm on that one from the other half.

 

[Feltwell]

If you think that the domestic dog is essentially an outdoor creature, you should see me trying to persuade ours outside when it's raining!

My old dog, in his later years, used to just flatly refuse to go outside if it was raining. He'd walk up to the open door, look up at you as if to say "yeah right, no chance" and then walk straight back to his bed.

 

[JoceAndChris]

What I know about dogs could be written on the back of a postcard really but I'd guess levels of exercise required must depend on breed and age?

Vicky - if you aren't very keen on chicken keeping I wouldn't spend too much on the set up, a lot can be purchased cheaply and second hand - it is an awful lot of work, especially in winter, and you have to really want to I think - a bit like growing a fine crop of veg. But, you might just find you love their crazy little personalities and the divine taste of those eggs - plus I think they make a garden come to life, and get you out in it.

So pleased you now have a new puss and I love the name!

 

[FamilyWiggs]

a bit like growing a fine crop of veg. But, you might just find you love their crazy little personalities

Veg have personalities now at Needham Towers? :lol: They have Cath Kidson horticultural fleece next!

 

[JoceAndChris]

Where is the tongue poking out smiley?

Though yes please to C K horticultural fleece!

 

[Moo]

levels of exercise required must depend on breed and age?

Our lurchers (typical of the breed) needed ten minutes a day wolfing down their food, and twenty minutes running at about sixty mph. The rest of their time was devoted to intensive sleeping practice. They maintained this routine for about twelve years.

 

[skier-hughes]

Our two Border Collies are so different, Lucy will lie outide watching the geese, ducks, horses, squirrels all day and night long, come rain or shine. She'll come in for a meal, but much prefers to be outisde. Bonnie would rather be where we are, so that's inside most of the time in the colder weather, but will go out in the rain to play if we pick up a toy

 

[Flyfisher]

One of our previous near-neighbours had a fox hound. We would smile as we saw it taking them for a walk, straining and pulling at the lead with its owner leaning back at about 45 degrees, arm outstretched, trying to hold it back. Two or three hours later we'd laugh as it returned home, straining and pulling at the lead with its owner leaning back at about 45 degrees, arm outstretched, trying to hold it back, and think smugly to ourselves that it would teach them to get a dog that was bred to run around for the whole day. :lol: