Help me i have a couple chickens there all diffrent kinds but my
proublm is my bluff orphingting.
She waits tell the other chickens have layed there eggs then she sneaks
into the chicken house
and she peckes open the eggs and eats them. She also eats her own eggs
too. The local farm store said to give them this shell stuff so i did
and they wont eat it. There free range chickens they run around on over
5 acres and only go to there cage at night to roost and during the day
when there laying eggs. Why dose she do this? I wouldnt belive it if
haddnt seen it with my own eyes.
How can i get her to stop?

In article <1166558409.877310.53790@48g2000cwx.googlegroups.com>,
"Jen" <Jenniferh72727@wmconnect.com> wrote:

Help me i have a couple chickens there all diffrent kinds but my
proublm is my bluff orphingting.
She waits tell the other chickens have layed there eggs then she sneaks
into the chicken house
and she peckes open the eggs and eats them. She also eats her own eggs
too. The local farm store said to give them this shell stuff so i did
and they wont eat it. There free range chickens they run around on over
5 acres and only go to there cage at night to roost and during the day
when there laying eggs. Why dose she do this? I wouldnt belive it if
haddnt seen it with my own eyes.
How can i get her to stop?

Chicken soup...

Seriously.
--
Peace, Om

Remove _ to validate e-mails.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack
Nicholson

Hi i am planning on keeping a couple of chickens

unused dog kennel.I know the hen house/run are best placed on grass
and better still to have two locations so you can move them to give
the ground a chance to recover.
How important is it to have the house
on grass or for the hens to eat grass?

I am thinking of using a spare concreted area putting down a layer of
chipped bark,

Keith Kent wrote:
Hi i am planning on keeping a couple of chickens

Hi and welcome

.I am converting a
unused dog kennel.I know the hen house/run are best placed on grass
and better still to have two locations so you can move them to give
the ground a chance to recover.
How important is it to have the house
on grass or for the hens to eat grass?

It depends on why you are keeping them
Chickens will tolerate a great deal
Some parts of the world - there is little grass
Some people keep birds confined in a permanent pen or aviary all the time
Some people keep them in cages

In the main - birds cope with all these things as long as their
environment is kept properly clean, the food and water is constant and
clean and they are of a breed/ strain that can tolerate it

I am thinking of using a spare concreted area putting down a layer of
chipped bark,

Its an option
What will you do with the bark as it gets used up ?
Put on the compost heap then spread over borders or would straw be better?

Why can they not have more of the garden?They will be able to range when i
am about,i am looking for the best location.

What do you want to keep chickens for?Free range eggs ,i saw the eglu
website that got me interested,think my two kids will enjoy them.

Are you prepared for quite alot of work to replace the soiled litter
pretty regularly?How regular?Yes i will compost it,but i must admit i was
going to use the chipped bark as a more long term basis so maybe straw is
the best option? Are you prepared to supplement their diet with things of
interest so they don't get so bored they start taking it out on each
other?

If you get the commercial hybrids they have been bred to be very docile -
they do not have the need for space as the free rangers and the pure
breeds do, They tolerate confinement and a sterile environment much better
than most
Your eggs will not be as good as if they were ranging around the garden

If its foxes you are worried about Electric netting is a very good answer-

--

regards
Jill Bowis

Pure bred utility chickens and ducks
Housing; Equipment, Books, Videos, Gifts
Herbaceous; Herb and Alpine nursery
Working Holidays in Scotland
http://www.kintaline.co.uk

Sorry to top post but its easier in this case to answer!
Thanks for the response

Its an option
What will you do with the bark as it gets used up ?
Put on the compost heap then spread over borders or would straw be
better?

Why can they not have more of the garden?They will be able to range
when i am about,i am looking for the best location.

What do you want to keep chickens for?Free range eggs ,i saw the eglu
website that got me interested,think my two kids will enjoy them.

Are you prepared for quite alot of work to replace the soiled litter
pretty regularly?How regular?

i was going to use the chipped bark as a more long term basis so
maybe straw is the best option?

diet with things of interest so they don't get so bored they start
taking it out on each other?

Do you mean give them food scraps ,treats,oats,veggies and others.And
not to just chuck them a few pellets every day?

If you get the commercial hybrids they have been bred to be very
docile - they do not have the need for space as the free rangers and
the pure breeds do, They tolerate confinement and a sterile
environment much better than most
Your eggs will not be as good as if they were ranging around the
garden If its foxes you are worried about Electric netting is a very good
answer-

I know someone who keeps chickens he had his on grass but says the
muddy mess is terrible and difficult to keep clean so he has got his
hen house/run on concrete slabs which is fox proof and all he does is
hose down with water to clean.

Keith Kent wrote:

Hi i am planning on keeping a couple of chickens


Hi and welcome

..I am converting a

unused dog kennel.I know the hen house/run are best placed on grass
and better still to have two locations so you can move them to give
the ground a chance to recover.
How important is it to have the house
on grass or for the hens to eat grass?


It depends on why you are keeping them
Chickens will tolerate a great deal
Some parts of the world - there is little grass
Some people keep birds confined in a permanent pen or aviary all the time
Some people keep them in cages

In the main - birds cope with all these things as long as their environment
is kept properly clean, the food and water is constant and clean and they
are of a breed/ strain that can tolerate it


I am thinking of using a spare concreted area putting down a layer of
chipped bark,

For one thing I'd strongly advise you to do what I did and put a roof over
the yard. Wire netting walls, but a clear plastic/Novalite (whatever you
call it in your country) roof. Otherwise the run WILL become soggy and
stinky. My parents kept chooks in (1st) outdoor fixed (2nd) outdoor
movable and (3rd) Fully enclosed deep litter hen-houses. Despite being in
a very dry part of the country (New Zealand) the dirt floor of the
un-roofed types got hard-packed during dry weather and muddy with
occasional rain. The chooks though definitely not being overcrowded
quickly ate the grass and scratched/trod/destroyed what they didn't eat
with option 2

. In the deep litter house they got regular greens

and well as cooked table scraps. potato peeling etc mixed with mash, which
I don't think many people would bother doing now-a-days.

I started out with a netting-roofed run attached to the wooden hen-house
but again, found it turned into nasty glup. Now with proper corrugated
plastic roof, and straw in both house and run, plus the remains of the
weeds and greens and lawn clippings that get scratched up, plus the earth
that is attached to hand-pulled weeds and clumps of grass, the chooks
produce beautiful dry non-stinky pre-compost. Sometimes I get sawdust -
real sawdust from untreated timber, not from particle board etc - and add
that to make even more nice deep dry stuff for them to scratch in and make
deep pits for their dust-baths.

It's nice to have various things for them to sit and stand on to enrich
their experience. Chooks may never become brain surgeons but they are
still capable of being quite bright and enjoying difference experiences
and it's mean to keep them in a boring environment. Currently they have
an old tyre into which I throw food scraps and some grain. They stand on
it and reach down, later when the excitement has died down one or another
gets right in and has a scratch through in search of hidden treasures. At
one stage I had an old wooden chair that the seat had broken out of, in
the run, and they liked perching on that and looking out from a different
vantage point

My chooks get out to do garden foraging in the off-season but because of
their ravenous appetite for currants and other fruit they are locked
inside for about half the year.

However because I am a compulsive gardener they are well supplied with
weeds, cabbage leaves etc. The eggs are delicious and the yolks are so
richly coloured that plain (non-chocolate) cakes look as if I have gone
mad with the yellow food colouring!

and well as cooked table scraps. potato peeling etc mixed with mash,
which I don't think many people would bother doing now-a-days.

That's now illegal in UK.

Jill wrote:
Keith Kent wrote:

Hi i am planning on keeping a couple of chickens


Hi and welcome

..I am converting a

unused dog kennel.I know the hen house/run are best placed on grass
and better still to have two locations so you can move them to give
the ground a chance to recover.
How important is it to have the house
on grass or for the hens to eat grass?


It depends on why you are keeping them
Chickens will tolerate a great deal
Some parts of the world - there is little grass
Some people keep birds confined in a permanent pen or aviary all the time
Some people keep them in cages

In the main - birds cope with all these things as long as their
environment is kept properly clean, the food and water is constant and
clean and they are of a breed/ strain that can tolerate it


I am thinking of using a spare concreted area putting down a layer of
chipped bark,


Sounds OK to me, depending....

For one thing I'd strongly advise you to do what I did and put a roof over
the yard. Wire netting walls, but a clear plastic/Novalite (whatever you
call it in your country) roof. Otherwise the run WILL become soggy and
stinky. My parents kept chooks in (1st) outdoor fixed (2nd) outdoor
movable and (3rd) Fully enclosed deep litter hen-houses. Despite being in
a very dry part of the country (New Zealand) the dirt floor of the
un-roofed types got hard-packed during dry weather and muddy with
occasional rain. The chooks though definitely not being overcrowded
quickly ate the grass and scratched/trod/destroyed what they didn't eat
with option 2. In the deep litter house they got regular greens and well
as cooked table scraps. potato peeling etc mixed with mash, which I don't
think many people would bother doing now-a-days.

I started out with a netting-roofed run attached to the wooden hen-house
but again, found it turned into nasty glup. Now with proper corrugated
plastic roof, and straw in both house and run, plus the remains of the
weeds and greens and lawn clippings that get scratched up, plus the earth
that is attached to hand-pulled weeds and clumps of grass, the chooks
produce beautiful dry non-stinky pre-compost. Sometimes I get sawdust -
real sawdust from untreated timber, not from particle board etc - and add
that to make even more nice deep dry stuff for them to scratch in and make
deep pits for their dust-baths.

It's nice to have various things for them to sit and stand on to enrich
their experience. Chooks may never become brain surgeons but they are
still capable of being quite bright and enjoying difference experiences
and it's mean to keep them in a boring environment. Currently they have
an old tyre into which I throw food scraps and some grain. They stand on
it and reach down, later when the excitement has died down one or another
gets right in and has a scratch through in search of hidden treasures. At
one stage I had an old wooden chair that the seat had broken out of, in
the run, and they liked perching on that and looking out from a different
vantage point

My chooks get out to do garden foraging in the off-season but because of
their ravenous appetite for currants and other fruit they are locked
inside for about half the year. However because I am a compulsive
gardener they are well supplied with weeds, cabbage leaves etc. The eggs
are delicious and the yolks are so richly coloured that plain
(non-chocolate) cakes look as if I have gone mad with the yellow food
colouring!

Mary Fisher wrote:
and well as cooked table scraps. potato peeling etc mixed with mash,
which I don't think many people would bother doing now-a-days.

That's now illegal in UK.

I think its only using meat that is illegal
You can boil up veggies and stuff without a problem