New to poultry keeping and a few questions

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arwen

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New to poultry keeping and a few questions
« on: March 22, 2011, 10:08 »
Hi everyone,
I am going to be taking ownership of my new ladies this summer and am in the process of preparing their home ;-)
I wanted to ask a few questions though to ensure they have all the mod cons (and it's cost effective too).

They will have a 15ft run at their disposal, however will free range some of the time. My mother is scared witless of birds, so I need them to be used to having some time in the run and I also want "some" garden left.

My questions are though, I read that mint and garlic are good for the birds, a friend of mine sprinkles granules of garlic onto their run space. I was thinking, however about planting some mint in the run? Would that be an option, along with maybe some salad so they actually have fresh stuff to peck at. I'm thinking the logistics may be that they eat them before they have a chance to grow, but mint is pretty prolific and if I got them going before the girls arrived?

is this a stupid idea - it's okay, you can say yes :tongue2:

Thanks

Arwen x

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min200

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Re: New to poultry keeping and a few questions
« Reply #1 on: March 22, 2011, 10:15 »
Im sure your chooks would love it!  BUT they will destroy it in hours and then the odds of anything growing back are about zilch.  The only way to do it would be to rotate cover inside the run so one bed would be meshed off whilst it grew and the other demolished in hours! :lol: :lol: :lol:

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andreadon

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Re: New to poultry keeping and a few questions
« Reply #2 on: March 22, 2011, 15:37 »
one idea I had  that worked, was putting a narrow ring of chicken wire around the plant.
the ring was about 15 inches high, and about 1ft across.
It was staked into the ground.

mine had raspberries in it, but they would jump up to the higher leaves while leaving the base of the plant protected and able to grow as it should.

mint will also grow sideways through the holes, so I think that would be your best solution!

 :D

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izzy

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Re: New to poultry keeping and a few questions
« Reply #3 on: March 22, 2011, 16:21 »
they can clear a garden in a couple of days.Had the idea tolet mine freerange nothing left .Built them a good sized run so everything can recover .Let them out again in the autumn they can do the cleaing for me. :lol:

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ManicMum

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Re: New to poultry keeping and a few questions
« Reply #4 on: March 22, 2011, 22:52 »
We've found that putting a pallet on the ground allows the weeds (nettles in particular) to get a toe-hold, so the girls get the shoots, but the roots live to shoot again - so far this has kept them supplied with a bit of greenery with no human effort!
ManicMum

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Newbie

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Re: New to poultry keeping and a few questions
« Reply #5 on: March 22, 2011, 23:07 »
Yes they will eat anything, especially what you don't want them to!  If you can protect the bottom part of the plant.bush while it gets established then they go to town on the bottom and leave the top shoots that are out of reach.  Our lucky ladies have a white currant bush in their run and they love it but I still manage to get some too as they can't get to the top or the middle.  Either that or just have gooseberrys, they don't appear to be too keen.....

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arwen

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Re: New to poultry keeping and a few questions
« Reply #6 on: March 23, 2011, 13:12 »
Thanks for all the replies. I'll try the pallet in the run with stuff under it and whilst I was rooting around on here found someone else's idea of trays with grass or greens in them, so thought I might give that a go too, that way once they've demolished, it can be replaced with a new one and the old one can be replanted. probably lots of work, but hey ho!

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ManicMum

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Re: New to poultry keeping and a few questions
« Reply #7 on: March 24, 2011, 19:05 »
Variety seems to be the key - try everything but not all at the same time to keep the run interesting.



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