Chickens for back garden

Actually N now that you mentioned it, I think we prob got about 3-4 eggs a day with 6 of them. You do get an egg a day per hen roughly, but the silky goes broody for longer, hence the lower count, so 3-4 eggs a day woul dbe about right, if you have 1 or 2 hens brooding out of the 6. We did give away half a dozen eggs o neighrs etc regularly.
Wexfordman
 
i keep chickens
there not smelly providing you keep moving the pen around. they provide great nitrogen for the rasberry bushes.
i feed them scraps and supliment this with chicken feed. my chickens lay blue eggs and they taste great.
i have cat, dog (alsation) and a couple of ducks, they all get on with each other.
I find them to be less noisey than the boy racers next door although they probarbly smell the same!!!!
 
Any body know where to get day old chicks in Ireland ( even better if they were in Cork )
 
Why do you want day old chicks if you dont minde me asking ?

Very difficult to tell the sex, so you might get stuck with a load of cock birds

Wexfordman
 
Bad idea this, can't see your neighbors being happy with the noise from the Hen nights.
 
Why not, we used to get them years ago & rear them for eggs, ( Whittegers Hatcheries I think ) now that I have my own place out in the country I would like to do the same again
( Nearest neighbour is about 1/4 mile away I don't think they will be upsetting anybody)
 
Good morning BERTIE. Just make sure there isn't a corn trail or they may yet come home to roost.
 
My Dad keeps hens in suburban Dublin, he started with bantam hens, small black jobs. He did have a rooster who did keep crowing so he (not my Dad) went in the pressure cooker. But they did end up with a quieter one and he's just fine. They now have a mix of 'regular brown hens' and bantams. They're not smelly, we get fabulous eggs from them. I think they've about 6 in total and they do have quite a large enough enclosure for them, half of the garden in fact. They also have a garden shed which they've converted for them for night time. They have a special watering device, like an inverted bucket, and something similar for food. They feed scraps, but no dairy and no meat. They compost everything, and they love their hens. Then again they're mad! My kids love to go visit and feed the hens. He did not need PP and he registered them with the department of Agriculture, especially during the bird flu time..
Neighbours don't seem to mind, but then again before the birds he had bees!!!
 
under the terms of my lease i cannot keep pigs fowl etc without permission of my lessor.
 
My daughter was given 2 browny/orange hens for her birthday and they provided us with 2 eggs a day for most of the year. 14 eggs a week for a family of five meant we had more than enough for ourselves and to give away as well. The last one has just died and they lived to be about 4 years old. They do like to scratch up any veg/flower beds so keep them well away from them. They weren't noisy and their henhouse didn't stink too much and we ended up clearing it out a few times a year, although you do need straw for the floor and for their nests. It's just lovely putting your hand into a nest of straw and finding warm eggs - worth any money!
 
Kept a small flock of Old Dutch Bantams when I lived in a country village. they are delightful birds and were a pleasure to watch. The rooster crowed alright but it was a pathetic little screech and nothing much to worry about.

They moved around the garden in a seemingly well ordered nature, taking a lunchbreak and dustbaths and they were very interactive with people. the eggs were small and tasty - fed them on bulk-bought bird feed and they pecked away at insects, slugs etc.

There were other animals in the garden but the only one they got on with properly was the goose. The cats tended to stalk them (they were that small) tho none actually had a go at a chase. The (stupid) dog wanted to eat them... and anything else that moved. Pulled the rooster from the dog's mouth more than once.

I'd suggest that you don't keep other animals - particularly a dog - if you have chickens because the chickens are too susceptible to attack especially without a rooster, and it might all be too strong a temptation for the dog.

Similarly, city foxes will make a hell of a mess if they get your flock. Try as much as you can to make sure your boundary is secure.

Chickens are livestock, so the law treats them as such. Make sure there are no restrictions attached to the deeds of your house on the keeping of livestock. I believe that its also your entitlement to shoot a dog that is threatening to or has killed your chickens....
 
Any update on how the hen house is going? I'm currently thinking of getting some for my new house, but the cost of a purpose-built hen house seems very high. (That, and I can't find any Irish suppliers of them, and the delivery costs from the UK are punitive.)
 
Was Also thinking of getting an eglu and some hens

Anyone know where you can get those Eglu in Ireland. Preferably in the Greater Dublin region
 
we got the eglu but had to order it in from england as we couldn't source it anywhere here. Well worth the money - very simple to clean and move around.
 
homerjay said:
Was Also thinking of getting an eglu and some hens

Anyone know where you can get those Eglu in Ireland. Preferably in the Greater Dublin region
Click to expand...
As it's a UK company who make and supply them, I think you can only order from them. However, if you give them a call, they might be able to tell you about an Irish stockist.
 
Seen this advertised in work, nothing to do with myself.

8ft * 4ft chicken runs
with laying box and roost
delivered to you with two hens and a supply of feed. Its the complete package.
Ideal for city gardens.
Delivered to your door and assembled for you. All for €195
See picture on notice board in staff canteen
Contact Robert 057 9121868
or Mary 087 9878358
 
That seems fairly cheap, at least compared to the hen house I got. We got ours made by a guy in Monaghan, and had to go up to collect it. €280, though it is very solidly built and a bit bigger than the one mentioned above (to the extent of needing a few people to lift it).

In terms of the hens themselves, we have two Rhode Island Reds, one buff Orpington and one Welsummer. The Welsummer lays dark brown eggs, and the others lay pale eggs. We usually get three eggs a days, sometimes four, sometimes two. Thay haven't ruined the lawn as predicted, but they have munched their way through our young rhubarb. We don't have a rooster, for two reasons. Firstly, noise. We have nighbours all around, so we didn't want to annoy them too much by having a cock crowing each morn. Secondly, we don't want to rear baby chicks, as they would require more effort, and we don't have enough space for an ever increasing flock. We did have to register them with the Dept of Ag and Food, but it just involves filling in a form and sending it in.

As we're in a suburban house too, with urban foxes spotted nightly in the park just down the road, we got a hutch with a raised sleeping area, so that foxes couldn't burrow in. As it's 2-3 feet off the ground, it also provides some space for the hens to shelter when it rains. The next door neighbours' dogs haven't managed to make it into our garden to chase them, but the cats stalk them. We usually chase them away before they have a chance to pounce, so I still don't know exactly how the hens would fare against them. We don't let them wander arond the garden unless one of us is here to keep an eye on them. They're out there pecking around at the moment, probably just thinking of retiring.

They definitely have their own personalities - the Orpington is afraid of nothing, while the Welsummer runs if we even scatter some food near her. The Rhode Islands are slightly older, six or seven months, rather then four or five for the others, and so they're at the top of the pecking order.

Mr Bear was adamant that he wouldn't have anything to do with them, that I was solely responsible for their care. Once they arrived, however, he became very fond of them, and spends much time watching them pecking around the garden. My niece and nephew really enjoy coming over to visit to feed them and see how many eggs they can find in the nesting boxes.
 
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