[richinbish]

Hi,I'm a newbie and I can't believe how many people are on here involved with chickens   Anyhow my question is,I'm thinking about getting some chickens and I was thinking about getting an allotment to keep them on (aswell as starting to grow vegetables) Now I live about 3 mins drive from 6 to 10 sets of allotments but I do have a very large garden that wraps around my house but it is mainly set out to lawn but at the back of my house the border is about six foot wide but slopes away severly down to my garden fence .So this border is wasted space and I have thought of putting a nice little chicken run in (six foot by say 15 foot long)but would it be ok for chickens to scrat around in or would I need a flat surface ?Also , I have two small children who would be playing in the garden(if we get any summer lol) so would that scare the chickens ? Any advice greatly appreciated    PS this makes a great change to talking about football  

[Molly Hen]

Welcome Richinbish.
Sorry, before you entered this site, it should have had a warning on it.  

This site and chicken keeping is highly addictive and will seriously affect your life.

If you get addicted, then things will never be the same again.  Its great though.  If you are serious about extending your family (i.e. getting some girlies) they will give you endless hours of amusement, amazement and worry.  Saying that, I wouldn't be without mine  :cheers:

[karlooben]

hiya there rich , firstly yeh its very very addictive to addictive .

am i right in reading your post that u dont have a allotment yet  if u dont then please check with the council that runs the site that your allowed poulty as most sites dotn allow them to be kept .  theres plenty of ppl on here that will always be ready to give advice when u need it and also we dont always talk chickens ethier      as u may very well find out .

[mumsy]

Hi & welcome
No you don't need a flat surface & the chickens will love your children   Need I say anymore.................except that you will prob wait years for a lotty now....................

[pushrod]

even if you can get an allotment that allows chickens it's much easier to have them in your back garden to keep an eye on them , especially on the dark icy mornings when you need to give them some non solid water  

[poultrygeist]

Hi Richinbish. Welcome in.  

As said, a sloping site won't bother them. Gives them s abit of exercise climbign back up to the top and should keep it drained well

In a run of that size, you'd get 3 or 4 hens I should think. Would they have access to the lawn at any time or just the fixed run ?

And I don't think a few humans would scare them. Foxes, badgers and rhinos. But not humans  

Rob

[richinbish]

Hi,thanks for everyones kind words

Hi Richinbish. Welcome in.  

As said, a sloping site won't bother them. Gives them s abit of exercise climbign back up to the top and should keep it drained well

In a run of that size, you'd get 3 or 4 hens I should think. Would they have access to the lawn at any time or just the fixed run ?

And I don't think a few humans would scare them. Foxes, badgers and rhinos. But not humans  

Rob

I was only thinking about geting 4 or 5 hens but I thought the allowed space was about a metre a chicken and this is going to be about 10 square metres so I thought that was more than enough space .Yes i could let them out as I have a big fence at the back and front but i would have to work at the one up the left side to make it more secure (and its about 50 metres long )I would also need to block my metal gates up .
[CODE]

[poultrygeist]

You're right about the 1 sq metre but that's a DEFRA minimum which is not really enough for a hen to be happy in a permanent run.
Ours have about 3 sqmetres each or so and still look cramped at times.

Also note the foxproofing measures HERE

Easier to design in than to add later.

ROb