Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: sammie1207 on February 02, 2014, 15:13
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Also wanted to get about 4 of them, but someone said you should buy them in 3's is this true?
and i wanted to get 2 ducks aswell, should i get the chickens first or the ducks and let them settle before i get the other birds?
any advice you could give me would be most welcome :blush:
thanks sam
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A lot of reputable poultry suppliers won't sell any in winter. I know mine doesn't. Four is fine, guess the number 3 comes from the carol, 3 French hens, etc!?
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From what I understood of the "3" - if you got 3, and at some point one dies and you want to replace her, introducing a single hen to the established 2 would be more difficult than if you introduced 2 new hens together.
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I would get a set up (run and houses) first. Ducks eat differently to hens, so I would house them separately. Get some books from the library to see about what type and find a good dealer, where you can look over the set up.
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sammie if you put a location someone could maybe point you in the direction of a supplier
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Thank you for your replies, I think I will hang on till march/April and stick with 4 chickens I was looking at getting light Sussex and the chickens would be housed separate from the 2 ducks that I wanted, I have lots of garden for them to roam and be closed up at night from the sly old foxes and they will be solely pets as me and my family love eggs :) just not sure wether to get a cockerel now too, wouldn't get complaints from neighbours as I live in the country and my closest neighbours already have them, but I do need to think of my 2 dogs and old cat as I wouldn't want the cockerel to attack them, I am based in Essex.
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If you get them now they are likely to be last years - this can be good as they should be ready to lay. If they are very young they will have been hatched during the winter and this is not the best time to hatch strong stock. If you wait till the Spring and get youngsters they may start to lay late summer/autumn and lay through the winter if you are lucky, or may not start laying until after Christmas, usually a mixture of both. :)