[ecoconvert]

Can anyone enlighten us please. First time prospective chicken keepers looking for information on why we should or shouldnt keep chickens as a natural progression from growing our own.

We have turned to growing our own this past year with the usual gaerden grown produce and are now considering keeping some chickens for fresh eggs and in order to save some from slaughter at the sametime.

What we would like to know as we live in Scotland in a council owned property is there any known issues that could prevent us from doing so, as in Scottish laws to stop us.

Pressuming there isn't how many is suggested to keep at one time, what do they cost to buy, feed a week, and what is the best way to house them etc.

Any and all info would be good, urls to more info etc a help to as would info relating to chicken welfare or rehomers in Scotland as close to our home as is possible but will travel also if required so national register or such good to.

For now

Slanj

[poultrygeist]

Hi ecoconvert. Welcome to the board.

That's a lot of big questions !

Firstly, I can't imagine there's any specific laws preventing you from keeping chooks unless your rent agreement says you can't. It used to be common place so it would only be local council rules that would sto it. You'll need to contact them to be sure.

As to how many, you need to decide how many eggs you want per day/week and how much room you have. We have 6 hybrids and get an average of about 40/week. But we have them in a run of about 16 sq metres.

It's not advised to get ex-batts as a beginner because they can take a lot of tlc and may need some specialised care to start with. Also they're maybe nto the best choice if you want a guaranteed egg supply because they are coming to the end of their productive period due to the intensity of their working lives.

As for other information, you can look on the Poultry Information forum and also google for other websites.

Hope you get something sorted.

Rob  

[treacleminer]

Try this website http://www.kintaline.co.uk/ as they are very informative and seem to be quite a large set-up.
They also look like a good place to visit - probably near enough you for a day out?  I keep meaning to go when we go to Oban for Calmac but have never yet got the timings right!

And I can't quite imagine persuading OH that we can fit chickens in with 3 large teenagers, bikes, body boards, wetsuits.....

[henpecked]

I would definitely check your tenancy agreement. I know most local authority housing has restrictions on the pets you can keep, but as you are keeping chickens you'll have to look a bit closer, especially as you'll not technically be keeping them as pets. You can probably find out the info on your local authority's website...they tend to have general tenancy rules & regs on there.