Frequently Asked Questions about keeping chickens in the backyard or garden. From feeding to housing, here’s everything you need to know.
A range of parasitic worms are frequently found in backyard chickens and over the years, I have always been a strong advocate of having a regular worming regime to ensure they don’t take a hold. The damage caused by some species of worm can be significant, so to write an …
There is always confusion over the term ‘Point of Lay’ (POL) used by breeders and others selling pullets (a pullet being a female chicken under the age of a year). Point of lay is often a bit vague. It’s a term that’s used to describe a pullet that is approaching …
In order to keep healthy and productive in the laying department, chickens need to receive the correct nutrients, vitamins and minerals in their diet. It is important to know which feed to be using, according to the age of the hen but also what else can and cannot be fed to chickens. …
How long is a piece of string? Although chickens will appreciate all the room you can give them, it’s still possible to keep contented hens in even a small garden. Managing chickens successfully in a limited area will require some extra forward planning. It will also be more labour intensive …
In order to digest their food correctly, chickens require fine (insoluble or ‘flint’) grit. Of course, chickens don’t have teeth so they use this grit to grind down their food. A diagram of the digestive system of a chicken shows the path food takes. Inside the proventriculus, food is mixed …
A hen house (or chicken Coop) is probably the biggest investment you will make. Assuming your hens will be able to come out of the chicken house into a run or free range in part of the garden, then their house will only normally be used for laying eggs during the day …
The chicken run is your biggest investment after the chicken house. The answer to this question is of course the biggest run possible, however, practically most of us have space limitations. There are two popular options to consider – the first is to give them a movable run that is large enough …
Anne asks the question we should have all asked before buying our chickens: What do you do with chickens when you go on holiday? It’s not the chickens that need a holiday, but their hard-pressed owners. The only problem is – who will look after the chickens? Of course this …
I often get asked whether there are laws on keeping chickens in the back garden. There are in fact a number of things to be aware of before you embark on your chicken keeping journey! This information covers regulation in the United Kingdom, other countries have their own rules and …
No-one expects the unexpected, there are potential dangers lurking in the most unexpected of places for the chicken keeper, says Jeremy Hobson
Poultry saddles prevent feather loss on a hens back when a cock treads her. After a short time into the breeding season (and it really doesn’t take long if you have only a few hens to a cock), you may notice some of your hens start to lose feathers on their …
Poor nutrition, badly designed nest boxes, a weak egg-shell or just a clumsy hen treading on eggs can lead to chickens eating eggs. Eggs are of course very nutritious and the whole flock will soon pick up the bad habit.
Cats are usually scared of chickens and will not bother them. Chickens are usually too big for a cat to tackle, however, there are certainly cases where cats have attacked and killed chicks, small bantams and very occasionally smaller hens (hybrid size) and even fully grown chickens. Some cats are more …
Many chickens will live over 5 years, some 8 to 10 years. Occasionally I have heard of chickens living for 15 to 20 years of age but it will depend on how chickens are kept, as well as the genetic make-up of the bird. One of my older hens still …
Jeremy Hobson knows they have no different nutritional value, but that they are, nevertheless, still preferred by most people in the U.K when choosing an egg for their breakfast!
There can be several reasons why chickens have stopped laying but with a little bit of detective work, you can normally work out why your birds aren’t laying. Generally speaking, all chickens will stop laying when they go through a moult as the protein that was being used to produce …
Let half a dozen adult hens have the run of the garden and they will take over completely, scratching up your best plants and making dust baths in the dahlias. Spotting exactly where you dig and plant, they are always first in the queue for juicy morsels turned up by …
All flocks of chickens have a well-defined order known as the pecking order. A chicken at the top of the pecking order gets to do the things she wants by ‘pushing the others around’ a little, giving them a short, sharp peck if they don’t submit to her, allowing her …
The Black Rock Hybrid is bred from selected strains of Rhode Island Red and Barred Plymouth Rock chickens from a single hatchery in Scotland owned by Eddie Lovett and his family. Other crosses of Rhode Island Red and Barred Plymouth Rock are of course possible but should be called ‘Black Sex-Link’ or another name since ‘Black …
A hen may go broody and decide she wants to hatch some eggs out herself. This usually happens during the spring and summer months although hens can suddenly decide to go broody at other times of the year too. Not all hens will go broody. Most types of hen that are …
