[van connick]

if you are going to keep chooks in your garden, make sure they are as far away from the house as possible. ....the reason....rats !!!

no matter how careful you are, ie food in bins etc, they will always come round a hen house....there are rats everywhere ( i have heard it said you are never more than 20 feet away from a rat ) so be careful not to encourage them near your home.

good advice about a cockerel tho, it is a sad fact of life that people will complain about country sounds and smells. people will not accept country living. they want to change it........
they seem to have this idealistic view that it is romantic, fields of cows in the distance, little lambs in the spring gamboling around, chickens in the yard, but when it comes down to reality, those cows make one hell of a noise, especially when bulling, they smell, the lambs contantly cry for the ewes, and the cockerals do what comes naturally....they crow.....fofl....and when it is time for muck spreading...OMG....

good luck on moving your hens, but why do you want to move them, when they are on an allotment already?

[DD.]

As an aside - another welcome to Johnny.

Please pop along to the 'Welcome To The Forums' forum & introduce yourself to the mad crew.

[Fenland Girl]

Just caught up with this thread again - just wanted to apologize for being a bit flippant about the lack of restrictions in my earlier post  :!:  :oops: I live out in the sticks and never even thought about the fact that there may be local laws affecting chicken keeping. I really meant that there are no general restrictions in the way that there are for larger livestock .

[Foxy]

Thats not a flippant answer Fenland Girl, quite sensible -after all people keep rabbits and guinea pigs in their gardens - why not a couple of hens? At least they DO something!!!Obviously a few cows may be stretching it a bit!!!  

[richyrich7]

Well it would be safe to think a few hens would be OK,  I know many people keep them as pets but they are regarded as farm animals ask the PDSA about treating one  :roll: Anyway I'm not allowed to keep pigs, goats or cattle    I'm sure I could fit a pig ana goat ana  couple of cows in my 70' back garden