Does anyone here keep chickens?

Chris Wilson said:
Be careful, we started with a few chickens, but it snowballed.... A lot!
As I have got older I have cut down a bit as the work was getting oppressive, but we still have a fair old menagerie. Peafowl and Kookaburras are a definite no no if you are in an urban environment, they are seriously noisy, but a few hens are pretty quiet, interesting and productive. There's still a fair bit of work involved. I do have a friend a few miles away with flamingoes and cranes on the back lawn, we never quite reached those esoteric heights, sadly ;)

Here's a selection of the gang:

Click to expand...
Living the dream, Chris. I'd love to visit and touch/move all your gear <3
 
Chris Wilson said:
Be careful, we started with a few chickens, but it snowballed.... A lot!
As I have got older I have cut down a bit as the work was getting oppressive, but we still have a fair old menagerie. Peafowl and Kookaburras are a definite no no if you are in an urban environment, they are seriously noisy, but a few hens are pretty quiet, interesting and productive. There's still a fair bit of work involved. I do have a friend a few miles away with flamingoes and cranes on the back lawn, we never quite reached those esoteric heights, sadly ;)

Here's a selection of the gang:

Click to expand...
I see a few impressive cocks in those images!

Chris packham thigh rub for Mr DSC08929.JPG I'd be showing that off to all the ladies!
 
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I went to pick up a few boxes of frozen day old chicks for my eagle owl and Kookaburras from my friend Will up the road yesterday, and remembered this thread. So i grabbed a few photos of his side lawn. The big wall at the back came down in a recent gale, killing about 30 birds in the aviaries, so the wall was rebuilt at very considerable cost and new aviaries are going up again.

The flamingoes (he has about eight of them) are about 40 years old and can live beyond 55, and the white cranes are about 30 years old. They live out all year in the garden and look beautiful, along with rare ducks and geese. I'd love a set up like that, but keeping it all fox proof is a major task, not to mention how much flamingoes and cranes cost...


flamingoes1.jpg




flamingoes2.jpg
 
Chris Wilson said:
I went to pick up a few boxes of frozen day old chicks for my eagle owl and Kookaburras from my friend Will up the road yesterday, and remembered this thread. So i grabbed a few photos of his side lawn. The big wall at the back came down in a recent gale, killing about 30 birds in the aviaries, so the wall was rebuilt at very considerable cost and new aviaries are going up again.

The flamingoes (he has about eight of them) are about 40 years old and can live beyond 55, and the white cranes are about 30 years old. They live out all year in the garden and look beautiful, along with rare ducks and geese. I'd love a set up like that, but keeping it all fox proof is a major task, not to mention how much flamingoes and cranes cost...


flamingoes1.jpg




flamingoes2.jpg
Click to expand...
Wow! Pink chickens. That's novel.
 
Chickens are a lot of fun if you have the space and the commitment they're not difficult to keep so long as you give them the basics of feed water and somewhere to roost for the night. You don't need many to keep to you in eggs and they are the best you'll never want to eat a supermarket egg ever again. The biggest headache is keeping Mr Fox at bay they will kill them given the slightest chance and they're a major tie you can't simply leave them and go off on hols or a break they need babysitting by someone who knows what they're doing and not forgetting to shut the door on the roost at night like what happened to my parents the fox got all but one or two and a couple more that were so badly mangled they had to be put down -
 
Chris Wilson said:
I went to pick up a few boxes of frozen day old chicks for my eagle owl and Kookaburras from my friend Will up the road yesterday, and remembered this thread. So i grabbed a few photos of his side lawn. The big wall at the back came down in a recent gale, killing about 30 birds in the aviaries, so the wall was rebuilt at very considerable cost and new aviaries are going up again.

The flamingoes (he has about eight of them) are about 40 years old and can live beyond 55, and the white cranes are about 30 years old. They live out all year in the garden and look beautiful, along with rare ducks and geese. I'd love a set up like that, but keeping it all fox proof is a major task, not to mention how much flamingoes and cranes cost...


flamingoes1.jpg




flamingoes2.jpg
Click to expand...

Do they get kept in for bird flu?
 
Does anyone keep ducks instead of chickens? I am considering getting some, probably Indian runner ducks, next year. We have a space at the top of the garden we can locate them in that at least 30m from any other house, but am still concerned on their impact on the neighbours.
 
FNG said:
Does anyone keep ducks instead of chickens? I am considering getting some, probably Indian runner ducks, next year. We have a space at the top of the garden we can locate them in that at least 30m from any other house, but am still concerned on their impact on the neighbours.
Click to expand...
We had some


And got rid .....


Noisy, messy and started "bothering" the chickens .....
 
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