[lucylou]

Hi! since my fox visit i have had to review how i keep some of my girls. I want to move my 6 ex bat girls onto my allotment. Noone else keeps hens on the plot yet but we have permission to do so. Please can someone who keeps their gilrs on an allotment give me some idea of their set ups - the space theyve got and how much (if at all) they are moved around. I have a forsham ark and joining run which is just over 4 foot wide and 16 foot long - would this be ok and would i need to move this around as it would be quite difficult to do so in summer - easy in winter though. I could let the girls out occassionaly - when i am on the plot but they woiuld have to be kept in mostly - what does anyone think? many thanks Lucyloux           PS. my plot is 1 minute walk from my house so i can visit very often

[honeybee]

i am not sure of how much help i will be but I can share with you what i do.

i have chickens on my allotment and so do others where i am, I have a shop bought coup and we have built a run thats attached to extend it.  We have it at the back of our allotment plot out of the way and the whole area is surrounded by paving slabs so that foxes cant dig near them and get to them, we also find that it deters the rats to so keeping them alot safer.

we fill the run area with straw in the winter and rainy times to stop it getting so muddy and have covered the run with some plastic sheeting to protect it from the worst of the rain.

Ours seem to be very happy there, we dont take them out the coup area thou in case they run off or eat other peoples seedlings and plants.

Others on the allotment have made high fenced areas around there chicken coups and dug the fence into the ground alittle.

Hope this is of some help but feel free to ask me anything

Fiona

[Chookster]

Personally, I think once you have yours up there, at least one or two others will want to keep chickens themselves or in their back gardens or whatever.  Before I managed to rent farmland I used to have an allotment and the plots were quite a nice size.  For 6 chickens, half of the size of these plots would have been really quite a life.  And look, you are on an allotment - cage them in from the fox and don't forget rats too - protect them from that and they will have a life of Riley - litter the run with fallen leaves, straw or when it's dry let them just dust bath.  If you can cover the run even better if there's a bird flu outbreak again and it will help reduce lice from over flying wild birds.  They'll soon get to learn that they will have the freshest titbits and scraps of left over plants (maybe make sure they're from people who don't spray chemicals on their veg etc). What better than to snap off a fresh cucumber (an ice cream to a chicken on a hot summers day) or to have fresh greens on tap let alone your allotment mates collecting fresh slugs/snails for them to peck at.  Fresh air, veg and eggs - I wish you all the very best, you enjoy!XXX

just one thing - if you can deep litter a shed rather than a coop it will be less work overall and keep the run dry if poss will also reduce the smell - the whole lot can be put on the compost as 'brown stuff' after - share it around - chicken manure rotted or watered down is good stuff, so is the brown compost (of course i'm not just talking poo here i mean bulky matter) - share it around if there's loads of green stuff like grass.  Best of luck to you.xxxxxx

[Aunt Sally]

I think your run size is a bit small for 6 hens to live in all the time,  It gives them only just over 1 squ yard each.  Twice that would be much better.

[Chookster]

can you have a whole allotment space for your chickens?? mine was quite large but they do vary - allotments are really relatively cheap compared to renting space elsewhere 

[lucylou]

thankyou for your encouraging comments How many hens do u have honeybee & what space have they got? i think my space may get muddy quickly so thanks for the tip about covering it and the slabs around it too. I feel that i cannot leave them on the plot with out them being totally enclosed so must rely on being inside the run in order to be safe.  Chookster - i hope you are right and it encourages others to get hens! unfortunately i cannot use my whole lottie for the girls as it is also my veggies and fruit etc ,the plot isnt massive and i cant get another one as there is a long waiting list so people only allowed one plot each.  i'm sure people will enjoy seeing them up there and soon, as you say they may give them cast off slugs etc!
Aunt Sally - in my heart of hearts i agree that the run is too small but i have got an 8 foot  run extension so i will see if that is feasible tomoro. My mum has said she may take 3 of the girls off me in a month or so which i would feel happier about.

I have pretty much made my mind up about moving them now as i can keep a closer eye on them and spend time with them which at the moment i cant as i am restricted to 7am and evening visits only as they are on a rented field with access through the owners garden - it was ok when they were free ranging as i could enjoy looking at the them from the window as they scratched around in the field but now they are in runs over there(cos of fox attack) i can hardly see them    i will let you know what i do, thankyou all once again, lucyloux