[niknik]

Hi, I am sure this has been posted somwhere but I am new to this so please excuse me if it has.  I really would like to get two chickens but only have a small garden with about 6 foot square room for a coup and run.  Is this too small?  The chickens would be free in the garden when I am here but not all the time.  I also have a dog and cat.  Can anyone advise me as to whether there is enough room and if so what size of 'house' should they have.  Thanks in advance.

[too many girls]

how big is your garden altogether? and how long would the birds remain shut in for at any one time?

[chookiepaula]

Hello and welcome to the wonderful world of chickens! I personallu believe this will be fine but try to have them out as much as you can. for 2-3 hens they would need a house about 2"x3" at leaset, plus 1/2 nest boxes. Always ensure the dogs/cat cant get to them obviously but you may find they live in harmony, by cat sits and watches the hens but if they go near her she runs away! however, my dog would love to chase! Hope this helps, you may want to go on a training course if youre new to all this, however you'll also get lots of help on here.

Paula

[too many girls]

ooh sorry, welcome.

[compostqueen]

they love to be free and go stir crazy if confined. Mine stampede to get out in the morning  

[niknik]

Thanks all, the whole garden is about 12 foot by 18 foot and the chickens would be 'allowed' out in a run when i am not here but allowed all over garden (though might want to view the damage i hear they can do) the run and house would be on the original size stated.  At the moment we grow a few veg there which the slug adore however, we have just got an allotment after a 3 year wait and are growing veg reasonably successfully there (apart from the runner beans) so I thought this bit of ground would be great for chickens.  
Would I need to get permission from the council?

[poultrygeist]

Hi niknik,

If you're a council tenant, I would imagine you will certainly need permission, but otherwise, you should refer to your deeds that may forbid keeping poultry or any other byelaws forbidding it.
In most cases there is no problem, providing you can satisfy the council that you won't attract vermin by leaving food around, etc.

Depending on your budget, you may want to look at the coops that sit on top of a run giving more run space in the same area. Or better still, make your own for about half price or less.  

Rob

[Lemon]

Yes, we are looking to keep hens too....  have been chicken crazy for 4 wks now.  Went to a Garden Nursery & Poultry Ctre to look around at the rare breed selection and get an idea of what we'd like.

Saw article on eglu's in Times On-line & have attended a chicken keeping course.  Browsed through the ebay chicken coops too.

OH has decided he will build it.

Y'day, he added up all his receipts and all the materials for the chicken project was £250!  I won't say what was spent on new drills, routers, jigsaws, planes, screws, nuts bolts....you name it - he's got it now!  I try to console myself that he has enough wood to build two chicken houses, but I'm rather frustrated at him as his plans are all in his head and change constantly!

I spent all weekend in the heat & humidity to help him finish - only to discover his measurements are all wrong and the pitched onduline roof is too small for the dimensions of the hen house!  He then spent an hour taking it all to pieces as he'd just woodfilled the joins and cracks together.

So....all I can do is just read up more about chickens & dream of what chickens to get........

[mickwood]

Hi Niknik and welcome to chucksville!!  

My garden is of a similar size to yours (slightly bigger but not much) and I have a coop approx 1mX1m with an attached run of 2mX1m - approx sizes! I've had a hell of a lot of advice from all the peeps on this forum and as such the chucks are VERY happy!! I allow them to free range around the garden while I'm at home and just keep them in the run when I go out. I can only have hens as my house is a terraced so a cock-a-doodle do at 5am would not be too neighbourly!  

Good luck with the chucks choosing - they're awesome pets!!

[niknik]

Hi thanks for all the replies, I would now like some advice on where i might be able to get some ex bat chickens I am in North Devon but am prepared to travel a little way.  Still looking at where to get a choop and run which is reasonably priced.

[Aunt Sally]

If you raise the coop off the ground so that the hens could go underneath it they will have more space to scratch about.

I assume the space you are giving them is 6 ft by 6 ft which, as hens should have about a squ metre each (just a little more than a squ yard), will be fine for two hens

[niknik]

Thanks Aunt Sally, Unfortunately I am old enough to know what a square metre is in square yards!! But as I climb out of my depression that I do know imperial measurement, yes the bit of garden that will be just for the chickens is that size but they will have the run of the rest of the garden when I am at home.  Think I might have to go and have a drink to get over that one. (Only joking)

[Fifitrix]

they love to be free and go stir crazy if confined. Mine stampede to get out in the morning  

Yes they do like to be free but be warned Niknik, they trash your garden.  :evil:

[niknik]

Yes I am begining to understand that.  Still thinking about that one Fifitrix.

[blulagoo]

my 5 have been out in the garden since April and i can honestly say that they haven't trashed the garden. We move the eglu every week to fresh grass and they free range during the day, they do like to scratch about under the bamboo and when in the run they scratch the grass - however OH sees this as saving him a job as they remove all the moss and clover and the grass recovers in the following 3 weeks before they are back on it again. However I realise this may change when the weather becomes wet in the autumn.