Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: jennyb on October 11, 2006, 08:14
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just wondering how much you have to pay out in feed per month for you hens? would love to have my own brood. (nee to find somewhere to keep them first!! - am hoping when i get an allotment that i would be able to there)
so before i get my hopes up can some one tell me how much i should expect to pay out for them - i was planning on getting rescue birds as well and nursing them back to health if needed!
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I did put some of my rambles about the costs of producing your own eggs in an article on The Poultry Pages - I think you are very sensible to consider your costs before leaping in.
I think I had my account head on when I wrote it!
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i shall go and look there - thank you.
well, with being unemployed at the moment - every single penny counts!
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hmm, it doesn't want to open for me... keepscoming up with an error message...
do you have a direct link? sorry to be a pain
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Sorry - there is a fault at the UK server centre, I've notified them. Please try it later when I hope they will have had a coffee, scratchd their bums and bothered to look at the support requests.
Having pre-paid an annual fee, I'm beginning to think I made a mistake in my supplier choice. I use two companies to host web sites and the US firm costs a quarter of the UK firm, offers many more tools and facilities, 24 hour service (with 10 minute response in the middle of the night for them)
Sorry - ranting a bit here. Should be back online shortly.
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By the time I finished my rant they're online :)
Direct Link - Cost Producing Eggs (http://www.poultry.allotment-garden.org/Chicken_a/keeping_chickens/chicken_eggs_economics.php)
:)
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ok, long as i haven't broken it!! or it's not just my computer being awkward.
i shall try again later.
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well it looks possible - all i need to do it get an allotment first (or convince mum to move house to somewhere with a bigger garden!! - think i might have to stick with the allotment option!!!
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Having looked at your blog and how creative you are, I reckon you could build your own hen house and get the freshest eggs possible at a low cost.
Plus you could sell surplus eggs and with an allotment you can easily reduce your food bills.
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looking at your garden produce i reckon you could be telling us old hands a trick or 2 jenny .wot say you john hahahha
incidently im in top suffolk so if you want to start with chickens let me know come spring next year and we can sort you out with some poults welsummers and buff orpington bantams cheap .THE best chickens in the world ,IMHO of course :wink:
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i have 10 ex battery hens they eat organic layers pellets which are nearly £10 a sack this lasts about 1 month depending on how much they are let out in the garden! the main cost is housing. look on ebay for houses or if you know someone who can make on use weld mesh not chicken wire as foxes bite through this.
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well i can't take all the credit for the garden alhtough i am planting more and more each year!
but the tomatoes, courgette and beans were originally classed as mum's but it turned into a joint effort in the end.
my step dad is very good with building things (he made a hug floor to ceiling book case/tv shelf/cupboards for my room) so i'm sure between us we could know something up.
Hermon - £10 a month in pellets for 10 hens - i'm sure i could manage that!
the only thing i may not manage is if any get ill and die or get killed by the fox - being a great animal lover i get very attached very easily!!
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Hi, we have 6 chooks, and I give them a mix of layers pellets and corn (2/3 pellets, 1/3 corn), each 25kg sack is £5.50, the 2 sacks will last at least 2 months if not more. We suppliment their food with kitchen scraps, veggies, rice, bread etc... and any insects i find on the plot, at the mo' lots of worms as the chooks are moulting and need the protien. The expense will be the housing, and that can be as expensive as you want, we paid £30, for an old shed that we converted, then probably £140 for the bits to make a really big run around it, a darn sight cheeper than an eglu!!! You can't afford not to have chooks!!!! At least they will pay their way.
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Chooks also like most of the weeds you would normally put on your compst heap, but don't give them any ragwort if you find any. In fact, if you find any ragwort, get rid of it quickly. It is bad for animals and can kill. I think that goes for chooks as well as other animals.
Have you joined your local freecycle group yet? You may get a 2nd hand shed for nothing on there, or look in the local paper too for 2nd hand and cheap. We were lucky, because we already have our lovely goatshed that OH made for me when we first moved here which has a big run.
Hope you get what you want very soon.
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i am a free cycle member - should really find some land first though - hoping the allotment will allow chooks - but need to get the allotment first!!
i tend to think faar to far in advance!
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Looking at new allotment myself jenny b. will look at info myself before parting with cash. Have literally just started home work am I as well waiting for next spring as believe most hens stop laying around this time of year.
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sorry forgot to ask what is afree cycler
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tfor an idea about egg production try this iste it may be american just use bst and the info is basically the same
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/html/pnw/pnw565/
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Hi Fluff, if you haven't already heard of freecycle, this is the link, you can get some good stuff for nothing, and also put your own unwanted stuff on here (but only if you are giving it away!).
It's a good way of re-cycling!
http://www.freecycle.org/display.php?region=United%20Kingdom
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Ive just got four panels of weldmesh wire netting off of a freecycler, even taking into account the fuel cost to collect them (£4) its saved me about £12.
These will form the vents etc of my henhouse. I just need a load of pallets now for the wood. Hopefully i can get those on freecycle as well, or scrounge them somewhere.
I get the 'digest' emails from five freecycle groups. Its a case of watching until something good appears, then emailing them quick, something like a greenhouse will be taken in minutes! (just seen that happen!)
There are some people on it who are just on the take, but they are easy to spot (usually asking for something top of range like a new PC or phone)
Martin
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if you know a steel fabricators in your area zak go therefor the pallets ,they usually let them go cos they cant get rid of them :wink:
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Not one in my immediate area, but theres some building work down the road (renovating an old farmhouse) and i noticed some stacked by their skip.
The place i get my animal feed from has an absolutely massive stack of pallets outside, i am going to ask their see if they will let me have a couple dozen. After all, i get guinea pig and rabbit food, and wild bird foods from them, and would be getting the chicken feeds there as well, so they get some business from me.
Martin