[debih]

The run is almost finished now (one last bit of fencing to put up this evening).  The house has been put together and I just want to give it a coat of wood treatment which, providing it stays dry will happen on Thursday.    We need to buy a dustbin to put the food in and something to put the water in (we have some trays to put the food in).  Sawdust for their nest box (is that right?) and their food.

Should I give the house a good scrub out before they arrive and if so what with?

What sort of food would you recommend?

Any other advice for a complete novice?

[Lindeggs]

Oh how exciting!   

Is the coop an old one that has had poultry in it before?  If it has, it will need a good scrub.  If not, don't bother scrubbing as your girls will soon make a mess of it!

Hillfooter will be along shortly to advise you to make a diatom slurry to help keep the coop clean and reduce the risk of mites.  You paint it on all the perches and wooden bits and it makes the poo really easy to scrape off at cleaning time.

Are you really confident the coop and run are predator-proof?  I'm lucky to live in a country without foxes but it makes me very sad when I read on here about the damage foxes can do and the grief they can cause.

Now all that's left is for you to find a comfy chair so you can sit out by your run with a cup of tea and watch your new chickens settle into their home!

[Lindeggs]

Oh I just realised I missed some bits:

Sawdust is too dusty for the nest boxes.  Something soft like wood shavings would be better.  Hay is not recommended because the chickens can eat it and cause themselves problems, and straw has hollow stalks that can harbour mites.

For food, that depends on the age of the chickens you're getting.  They need different foods if they are chicks, growing pullets, or at point of lay.

Personally after a lot of research I have chosen to do a combination of a pastured poultry system and feed whole and cracked grains ad-lib.  Other people believe that a pre-formulated pellet food is better.  The pellet food is certainly simpler, likely to be more convenient and less prone to operator error. 

[8doubles]

If you are getting POL hens the 'trays for food' sound a bit shallow and wide, deep and narrow is better so the hens do not get in and kick it all over.
If the rim of the feeder is about 20cm off the ground it helps stop them dragging food over the edge with their beaks.
Keeps the place tidy, attracts less vermin, and keeps the food bill down.




Ps Take a photo of the garden now , it will be something to remember it by.

[muntjac]

i would reconsider using trays for food , the first thing the chucks will do is scrape the food around in them pooping as they go . look for a suitable hanging feeder ,or one with a hopper and slots for the food to fall down and only the birds head will get in to peck. there are many models available even wall mounted, they can also hold a decent amount of food 

[debih]

Thank you.    The house is a new one so perhaps doesn't need washing down at all.

The chickens will be POL so I will ask the person that we end up getting them from what to feed them on and I will get wood shavings for their nest boxes.   I will also get them a proper feeder.

We are hopeful that the run is as fox proof as we can make it.  We have dug down quite a way to bury the netting and have made it much higher at one end where a bank runs up behind it.  Our neighbours have hens and fortunatley they do not seem to have had problems with foxes over the last few years, even though we back onto open moorland.  All I can do is be vigilent about it and keep checking that the fencing is fine I suppose - and keep my fingers crossed. 

Am really looking forward to getting them now, although I think it will be another couple of weeks yet.

[Vecten]

Having made all the mistakes possible, my advice would be to buy a galvanised steel hopper for the feed (which should be layers pellets), one that holds 2.5kg can be bought on ebay for about £8, and screw it to the coop wall. Chickens have a habit of pooing in their food and flicking it onto the ground. A hopper will prevent this and also help keep the feed away from rodents.

If I knew that when I started out I would have saved a fortune in feed.

[Foghorn-Leghorn]

If you are getting POL hens the 'trays for food' sound a bit shallow and wide, deep and narrow is better so the hens do not get in and kick it all over.
If the rim of the feeder is about 20cm off the ground it helps stop them dragging food over the edge with their beaks.
Keeps the place tidy, attracts less vermin, and keeps the food bill down.




Ps Take a photo of the garden now , it will be something to remember it by.

This bit of advice made me laugh - I look at my garden now and it looks like Beiruit or a moonscape, the "flower" beds have been extended by at least a foot and nothing is sacred to a determined digging chicken but I wouldn't have it any other way.    

[debih]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2-5KG-GALVANISED-POULTRY-GRIT-HOPPER-CHICKEN-FEEDER-/300441900389?pt=UK_Pet_Supplies_Poultry&hash=item45f3bb9565#ht_1886wt_905

Is this the sort of thing you mean?    

And I assume that you mean I should (or rather get much more practical husband) to screw it to the outside of the chicken coop for them to feed from.

Sorry if that sounds a bit thick!!!!  

[hillfooter]

As others have said a tray isn't a good idea.  Galvanised feeders are fine but there are also several good plastic gravity feeders available which are easy to use and keep clean such as

http://www.molevalleyfarmers.com/mvf/store/products/6kg-plastic-super-feeder;jsessionid=D471B13CEBB215C13BDF8A5EF5BDE38E#description

This is a 6KG feeder, a hybrid layer will eat 850 ish grams a week so this will give you some idea how long a feeder full will last.  There are smaller 2.5Kg ones available if that's too big.  It's a good idea to allow above 4 days worth so you can go away for a long weekend without needing the sitter / egg collector to refill.  Any longer than 4 days worth and it may become damp.  You don't need a lid just suspend it at back height (above their vents).  They need to be kept in the run undercover not in the house.

There's similar a 4litre drinker also available I like to have two in case one gets knocked over.  Chx drink around 200ml of water a day depending on the temperature of course. (A little more in summer and less in winter).

Avoid the cheap red plastic ones as thes have no UV filler in the plastic and quickly go brittle and crack.  There are good quality thicker plastic red ones about too and I believe Joyful uses a good quality plastic one which costs a little more.  I'm sure she'll tell you about where to buy them.

A gritbox is usefull too for oystershell and insoluable grit.

It's always best to get purpose designed feeders & drinkers etc as it's hard to beat the experience of design which these have.  Dishes and pans etc always have drawbacks.

I'll leave the DE slurry to another post.

Happy keeping
HF

PS Lindeggs if you are going to feed whole grains you will need to supplement calcium preferably in the form of 75 % limestone flour and 25% crushed oystershell. If you add to their feed work on a Ca requirement of 3.85gm/hen/day for laying hens during the first laying cycle.

Poultry Spice might be good too from time to time.  I say this as an all corn/ grain diet for layers maybe lacking in essential minerals.

[Lindeggs]

Oh HF you disappointed me by not telling debih about the DE slurry!  Just like a chicken, I like my routines and get thrown off if you don't conform! 

At the risk of going off-topic, I just wanted to reassure you that what I'm actually feeding is a pre-mixed seed and grain diet, produced by a local feed company.  In addition to the seeds and grains it contains limestone, MgO, a vitamin and mineral pre-mix, and things to stop the grains going mouldy (zeolite and yea sacc).  It also contains crushed oyster shell, and there is also loads of aged and crushed shell in their run, which used to be an old compost heap.

The chickens are currently free-ranging on a large, out-of-control lawn that's full of lots of different grasses and broad-leafed weeds, and they are helping me to clear my vege patch for autumn planting. At this time of year (autumn) there are lots of things going to seed and also lots of fat bugs around.  The girls are doing a great job of reducing the local cricket population.

All in all I believe they have a varied and interesting diet, and a lifestyle that allows them to choose what to eat and when.  But with all that delicious stuff available their favourite food still seems to be... grass! 

[hillfooter]

At the risk of going off-topic, I just wanted to reassure you that what I'm actually feeding is a pre-mixed seed and grain diet, produced by a local feed company.  In addition to the seeds and grains it contains limestone, MgO, a vitamin and mineral pre-mix, and things to stop the grains going mouldy (zeolite and yea sacc).  It also contains crushed oyster shell, and there is also loads of aged and crushed shell in their run, which used to be an old compost heap.

The chickens are currently free-ranging on a large, out-of-control lawn that's full of lots of different grasses and broad-leafed weeds, and they are helping me to clear my vege patch for autumn planting. At this time of year (autumn) there are lots of things going to seed and also lots of fat bugs around.  The girls are doing a great job of reducing the local cricket population.

All in all I believe they have a varied and interesting diet, and a lifestyle that allows them to choose what to eat and when.  But with all that delicious stuff available their favourite food still seems to be... grass! 

Well that's OK then I'll let you off this time.  Sorry to disappoint with the DE but hey you can't have everything at once now!

[uba]

Try to find a horse supplies company in your area, they will sell dust extracted wood shavings much cheaper than a pet shop. There is also a product called Hemcore made from the stems of hemp plants which does the same job and is very good. Around my area I pay eight pounds for 25 kg bale of wood shavings and eleven for a 20 kg of hemcore.

[Casey76]

When you pick your hens up ask the seller what feed s/he uses.  You could ask for a sample to switch your hens over gradually, as they can be fickle, and turn their beaks up at a new food if it is just swapped over in one go.

You definitely want shavings not sawdust for the nest boxes/bedding (or you can also use (almost) anything else which is suitable for horse bedding - aubiose, easybed etc).  you can use straw in the nest boxes (avoid hay), but I use plain aubiose

A couple of good chicken books is always handy.  I recommend the Haynes chicken manual as a very good starting point.

Good luck!

[Vecten]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2-5KG-GALVANISED-POULTRY-GRIT-HOPPER-CHICKEN-FEEDER-/300441900389?pt=UK_Pet_Supplies_Poultry&hash=item45f3bb9565#ht_1886wt_905

Is this the sort of thing you mean?    

And I assume that you mean I should (or rather get much more practical husband) to screw it to the outside of the chicken coop for them to feed from.

Sorry if that sounds a bit thick!!!!  

Yes, thats the hopper I use. I have several of those dotted around and have virtually no wastage. As hillfooter said, it needs to be under cover. I was a bit out with the price though, £14 with postage. The advantage of that particular hopper (and I have tried several) is that it only allows a few pellets down at a time.