[mark h]

Thought I better come in and say hello after lurking for a while.
After some pestering from the kids I finally caved in and agreed to get some chickens.Previously my experince of keeping birds was a pet budgie when I was about 8  :shock:
First job was to build a pen/coop/shed thingy.This was the easy bit as I'm often found festering in the garage making bits and bobs or fixing cars so I quite enjoyed it.After a couple of trips to the local DIY place for wood and stuff we had a chicken house complete with run.I had spotted a sign outside a house advertising chickens for sale locally so we went and exchanged the poultry sum  :roll:  of £8 for a couple of 12 wk old Marans to try out this keeping chickens lark.These have since been joined by 2 Light Sussex and 2 White Sussex 4wk old chicks.
The antics of these 6 birds keep us amused all day long,were spending more time in the garden, rain or shine(usually digging up worms to entice the chooks into "performing") and everyones got attached to them really quickly.I can see myself keeping chickens for a long time now which has surprised me as its not something you would expect of a 6'5" 16 stone petrolhead :mrgreen:
Right, the questions then:
1. Ive got the sussex chicks in a seperate temporary coop on the advice of the breeder I got them off.How old should they be before they can go into the big coop with the marans which are now 17 wk old?

2.The Marans are quite fond of anything which resembles food especially worms creepy crawlies etc,but I also try to give them some green stuff,they are quite partial to dandelion leaves and dock leaves.Are there any other 'foragable' leaves they can have to give them a bit of a change?

[Kate and her Ducks]

Welcome to the mad house and congratulation on catching the chicken bug . Sure someone with chooks will pop along soon with some advice. I just shove new ducks in together and they are fine

[Jellyhead]

I take it they have Growers n stuff for usual diet I hang a cabbage in the run sometimes, they love a good peck at that. They also get left over rice or pasta (dont spose theres much of that in your house tho if youre built like a brick thingy   I also giv emine mixed corn and they love that, bread should be soaked oh and they love lettuce too  :roll:
Can we have piccies pleeeeeeese

[mark h]

I take it they have Growers n stuff for usual diet I hang a cabbage in the run sometimes, they love a good peck at that. They also get left over rice or pasta (dont spose theres much of that in your house tho if youre built like a brick thingy   I also giv emine mixed corn and they love that, bread should be soaked oh and they love lettuce too  :roll:

Yep they get pellets and corn and I've tried them with cabbage but they werent too keen.Don't know where I got it from but I thought they couldnt have lettuce??? I'll try them with that.One of the farmers near us grows sweet corn as a cover crop for the pheasant and partridges and the whole field gets left at the end of the year would some of that be OK?

Can we have piccies pleeeeeeese

Its a bit dark now   but I'll see what I can do tommorrow

[Jellyhead]

They adore sweetcorn  and spose tomorra will do :roll:  

[Planner]

Welcome to the forum Mark

Try them with a white cabbage. Mine wont touch savoys etc, but hang a white up and within 24 hours there's only the stalk left.

John

[poultrygeist]

Hi Mark and welcome.

Try not to overfeed the corn and other treats. They can get overweight fairly quickly and it can give them health problems.  

A good regime is the pellets available all the time, then give them some treats in the late afternoon/evening so that you know they've had all the nutrients they need from the pellets.
Also, make sure they have some grit and oyster shell avaiable all the time.

I can't advise on the mixing, but would guess you could try it and see what happens  :roll:  ...might be a bit of scrapping though.

Rob

[Vember]

Welcome to the mad house  

I agree with Rob when you've got time to observe pop them togeather and see what happens, at 4 weeks the sussex might be a bit small :?

But one thing I do know is chickens Never do what you expect  


Oh ye an don't forget you did promise photo's  


Sarah

[mark h]

Next is one of the marans



Last off the 'ickle' ones



Thanks for all the replies(probably not the last question   )

Mark