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Gardeners World blog

Wildlife

Free range chickens

Posted by: James Alexander-Sinclair, 22 January 2008, 11.29AM

Free range chicken If you have been struck by the sad plight of the battery hen recently and wish to do something about it then remember one important fact: chickens are rubbish gardeners.

Forget the fanciful notion you had of having fluffy feathered folk strutting around your garden grazing on aphids and slugs. If you let full-sized hens into your borders then they will kick soil all over the shop and peck large holes in the emerging shoots of your most precious plants. Bantams are less destructive, but if the main purpose of keeping hens is to eat their eggs then, to be perfectly frank, a bantam's egg is far too small to bother with.

Instead you need a run or at least an area where you can enclose the birds. If you only want to keep a couple then they can easily be kept in a chicken ark (provided that you move it around) but a piece of enclosed ground would be better.

We have had many hens over the years. We have raised most of them from eggs, rather than bought them in fully grown. This is a very charming (though occasionally nerve wracking) process which involves a fair bit of anxious waiting. Firstly, waiting to see if the broody hen remains in place long enough, then waiting to see whether the number of chicks equals the number of eggs and finally waiting to see how many of the little beggars are cockerels (it is notoriously difficult to sex a newborn chick). Cockerels do not lay eggs, tend to fight amongst themselves and must, therefore, be used for other purposes - if you get my drift.

Currently we have 11 hens; eight very friendly brown hybrid chickens that are always pleased to see people and tend to cluster around pecking at your legs and sitting on your boots, one white Legbar and two extremely large pedigree hens. One is a huge Light Sussex and the other a Buff Orpington. I believe the Queen Mother was very fond of these hens (perhaps because of their uncanny resemblance to an Ascot hat) and I have always wanted one even though they are not brilliant layers and tend to become broody at inopportune moments. She is unbelievably beautiful, extremely feathery, the colour of hot fudge and extraordinarily stupid.

If you have space in your garden, keep chickens - there are few things in life that are better than the deep golden yolk of a newly laid egg or more entertaining than the antics of a coop full of hens. Find out more about keeping chickens.

Comments

  • Angie

    22 January 2008, 02.38PM

    Hey, why not adopt some battery hens to give them a good life after all their toil? They'll still provide you with plenty of eggs.

  • auburnjane

    22 January 2008, 03.09PM

    11 chickens is the problem! I keep just 3, in a large walled garden. That way I get enough eggs to keep me away from those dreadful pale supermarket offerings, but the impact on mt garden is truly minimal. oK I admit all my sunflower seedlings got eaten last year - but I shall just sow in pots and plant out later!! The joy of happy active hens (and the eggs) is worth it.

  • Little

    23 January 2008, 01.24PM

    I would LOVE to keep a couple of hens, but I'm worried about the foxes. Where I live we have very long gardens, I could easily fence of say 30 foot of it, but my neighbours have done the same, but they use the end as a rubbish dump. I am sure a family of very confident and cheeky foxes live there.

  • Christine

    24 January 2008, 01.45PM

    We have kept chickens at the top of our garden for over ten years, varying amounts between 20 and two. We have been through all the stages, including buying rare breed eggs and letting our broodies hatch them - I agree with James, it is fraught but great fun and children absolutely love it!

    We have had one visit from Mr Fox in all this time; I think having a dog helps, as they bark when the fox is about; it is important to have the chicken wire high, and loose and floppy at top 12", apparently, foxes don't like the wire moving around. It is also important to bury the wire at least 12" under the ground.

    You don't get eggs all year round though, unless you introduce some false lighting, ours are just starting to lay again now.

  • James A-S

    24 January 2008, 01.45PM

    Foxes are definitely not the chicken's friend, so I would suggest, Little, that you refrain from chicken keeping for a while.

  • Lynn Clark - South Africa

    24 January 2008, 05.43PM

    I have had chickens since my son brought home day old chicks when he was six with the money he got from the tooth fairy. ( he is now 35 years old ) They used to roam the garden and roost in the bushes but then the local wildlife i.e. genets and mongoose discovered them and it is such a senseless death. They just take the head so I have them all caged up now.

    As you say the yolks are lovely and yellow. I have people beating a path to my door for my eggs. And I can make a small profit so I can buy grain. And BOY! do they love lettuce and tomotoes.

  • Marge

    24 January 2008, 07.39PM

    Can anyone tell me how much room do you need to keep 2 chickens? And do they have to be on grass or can they be on gravel? We have a garden with lots of levels going upwards - would we be able to have chickens that just roam around these levels?

  • alisonj

    25 January 2008, 06.04AM

    I quite agree that hens can be destructive in the garden but they do eat slugs and other such pests. I have 3 hens which I adopted from the local battery farm. This is where I get all my hens. The last 2 I got were literally less than 1 hour from slaughter. One had no feathers at all but she has feathered up nicely. I only take hens from battery when the weather is warm enough because otherwise it is too much of a shock to their system.

    The other thing I would mention is that I cannot leave my back door open when the hens are about otherwise I have been known to find them in the living room. One was particularly fond of a brown carpet which I had. They are difficult to house-train!

  • Amoret

    25 January 2008, 01.51PM

    Marg, we have a corner of the garden with 6ft trellis panels, three to a side and my two girls are more than happy with this. It looks quite good with the climbers all over it now!

    They do have the whole of the garden during late Autumn and Winter though and we have a fantastic gamekeeper around here so no, as yet, foxes. I too think it also helps having the dogs. I also take my male dog around the boundary, including the front where he doesn't normally have access, letting him do his thing so the foxes know he is about.

    Downside, no one has mentioned that they can attract rats. So hen compound not too near the house is good!!!

  • angela

    26 January 2008, 11.03PM

    we took on 4 rescue battery hens from Battery Hen Welfare Trust a year last October, and we love them! They do have to be kept off veg beds you don't want scratched up, but in the perennial borders, they are a Godsend, they eat woodlice, ants and scratch up all the weed seedlings, cleaning and manuring the ground beautifully. Eggs are fab, and they are friendly pets.

  • ruthinfife

    27 January 2008, 01.56PM

    we have had 2 hens for nearly a year and they are fab. We keep them in an eglu which is totaly fox safe. The girls wander the garden freely when we are in otherwise they are safe in their run.We have used a trellis for fencing to keep them off the bits of garden that we want to keep safe. The eggs they give us are absolutely gorgeous and far outway the worry over the state the grass is in now.

  • chris @ yapton

    26 April 2008, 09.44AM

    I have a converted garden shed 6x4' and a fox proof run, plastic coated wire which cost £100 covering sides & roof 10x30'. I sow birdseed for grass on protected areas which they enjoy I have 3 welsummer hens. The fox got my cockerell when I left the gate open. The neighbours are pleased he has gone

  • Blodwyn

    25 August 2008, 05.52PM

    Are there any plants or weeds that chickens should not eat? We are about to get our first hens, but we do have a lot of weeds in part our garden.

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