Keeping Chickens on an allotment

[Helsbells]

Hi everyone.

I am thinking of keeping of chickens but cant keep them in my garden because of restrictions on the deeds of my house.
I am thinking of keeping them on my allotment, but it is about 2 miles away.
Is this practical or really not a good idea?
In theory I could visit them everyday to let them out/put them in at night, but I would be concerned about foxes, and the expense of putting up secure fencing/housing for them.

Has anyone had an experience of keeping chickens on an allotment? Can anyone tell me if this is either a good idea, or a really bad idea.

Any advice greatly recieved.

Thanks,
Helen

[red]

i dont ahve any experience of allotment keeping, but dont see why it wont work, we only visit ours twice a day - well more if we feel like it...

obviously depends if you alotment assn allows it, and whether you can afford the space

otherwise cant see how it wont work

[Helsbells]

Thanks Red,

I think my allotment assn alows it because other people have chickens and ducks. I have to get permission though from what I remember.
I have been looking at an eglu, but it would cost about £400 for one egluand two chickens, is this a total waste of money? They look quite good, claim to be fox proof and easy to clean etc. (http://www.omlet.co.uk/shop/shop.php?cat=Eglu) What do you all think?

Thanks,
Helen

[VM]

Haven't been on here for a bit - maybe you have already decided what you're doing. We keep chickens on our allotment and have done for a few months. We go down at least once a day, sometimes twice - if that would be hard you'd need to think about feeding regimes etc. My partner built a large, solid fixed run for about £200 in terms of costs of wood etc - was quite a bit of labour, but it's good. If you are still thinking about it, you can PM me and I can tell you more about our experience, pros and cons etc.

Basically it is quite a commitment - they need a lot more attention than vegetables - but I'm really loving having them.

[grahamhobbs]

Do you really have to check your chickens once or twice a day?
Surely someone has invented a food and water dispenser that would last for 2 or 3 days.
I'd love to have chickens on the allotment but I could never commit to going there every day.

[sam_uk]

"I have been looking at an eglu, but it would cost about £400 for one egluand two chickens, is this a total waste of money?"

I would say so yes, I built a strong waterproof hen house from an old chest freezer. It cost precisely nothing.

It is strong, insulated, well ventilated and easy to clean.

I'm sure you could find an old freezer somewhere.

( I was lucky in that the first one I found had all the gasses removed)

2p

Sam

[Annpan]

Do you really have to check your chickens once or twice a day?
Surely someone has invented a food and water dispenser that would last for 2 or 3 days.
I'd love to have chickens on the allotment but I could never commit to going there every day.

Sorry Graham but that comment makes me really sad.... even if you had a guarenteed vermin proof run and house... why own animals if you are not able to put in the time to look after them. Yes there are waterers and feeders that last 3 days o even more I guess but what if one of the chooks had a problem, you wouldn't know for 3 days and what if one of them died... in the summer months 3 days would be enough for them to start rotting and your other chickens would be climbing all over them it is just cruel.

And besides.... who would be collecting the eggs???

I think the egglu is really overpriced, I too built my own chicken house (out of an old pallet and scrap wood) I wouldn't call it free as it took several hours/ days to finish and it isn't as weather and fox proof as an egglu... but hey, neither is my house...

I would be more inclined to buy a chicken house from ebay or a big rabbit hutch from a pet store... or even a dog run from somewhere than fork out for an eglu (which, by the way, at that price may well be nicked, chickens and all.)

[red]

Do you really have to check your chickens once or twice a day?
Surely someone has invented a food and water dispenser that would last for 2 or 3 days.
I'd love to have chickens on the allotment but I could never commit to going there every day.

perhaps the best thing would be to share them with someone else and take it in turns tocheck them?

[p00rstudent]

ok my comments on keeping chickens on the allotment.

i have had mine on my plot which is only a 10min walk away for about 6 months now so i am in no way an expert but this is what i did and what i have learnt in that time.

I started by builing a run that is 10m x 10m, this consits of 8ft posts burried 1 and 1/2ft deep and cemented inplace, a tench was dug to the same depth, then 1" square 18gauge weldmesh was put round so that it came out into the trench two feet and then up the posts, (in an L shape) right to the top where it the folds back out on some bracets and i cut the squares to make it sharp and jaggedy. The roof is then covered in netting to keep out birds and squrrels etc.

The the run fox proof (so far) was built. Next i put in the coop which is a wooden one, and supposedly big enough for 12 chickens but i only have 7 in mine and they do better for the space i think.

However i thought that by given them a 10m x 10m run there would be enough grass for them, there wasnt, they have scratched up every last bit. So i will when the new coop (explained later) arrives spilt the run in two and move them between the two halfs.

I have a big feeder and drinker, ( the feeder if filled to the top i have estimated would last about 3 weeks for them to eat through) but i dont fill it completely just slightly more than they need the drinker will last about 3 days if completely full but again that gets changed every day. The reason i use the big feeder and drinker is not so i dont have go down and change the food water as often but because it gives the chickens more space to eat and drink thus reduce fighiting.

Now after all this time i have to my horror ended up with red mite and despite reapeated trements with poultry shield and red mite powder there is still and infestation, so as i can not keep spending 6 hrs every weekend taking the coop apart treating it and putting it back together again for the indefinte future, i have treated myself to a new eglu cube, which being plastic i hope will solve the red mite problem.

As for checking on them, i go down once in the morning before work and again just after. Though i have also given a key to a friend of mine on the neihbouring plot incase i am unable to get down there for any reason (like if im ill) so she can step in if need be.

so ultimately yes you can keep chickens on an allotment, and probably benefit from the extra space, but you do still have to check on them as often as you would if they were in the garden.

[Millymollymandy]

However i thought that by given them a 10m x 10m run there would be enough grass for them, there wasnt, they have scratched up every last bit. So i will when the new coop (explained later) arrives spilt the run in two and move them between the two halfs.

That's exactly what I did and would recommend it to anyone - having seen all the dusty chicken runs around here with absolutely no vegetation whatsoever, not even a weed, even in runs much bigger than mine (and mine is quite big), within a week of keeping chickens and seeing what they do to the ground we split the run in two and they have jungle gardens with all sorts of wild flowers, sapling trees, wild raspberries and long paddocky grass in which to play. I give them about 2 weeks in each run or as soon as one looks a mess and the other recovered I swap them around.

[ninjascarecrows]

hi - I am the neighbour to "poorstudent" mentioned earlier in this thread and I took a very different approach to keeping chickens on my allotment which has been equally sucessfull.

I built a traditional chicken ark or "tractor" as they are called in america with a run underneath and the "house" on top - google images has hundreds of pictures. I have 5 hens in a run which is only 1.5 meters by 1.2 meters But I move the run pretty much every other day onto a new patch of grass or a part of the plot which has got weedy or is out of use. this way the hens get fresh grass and ground to scratch at and there is no time for mites or bugs to build up before i move them onto a fresh bit of land. the advantage for me is that i dont have to dedicate a patch of land to them as they move all the time, they keep the grass down and clear and fertilize patches which have been overrun with weeds. When a crop has finished i often put them on the area to clear and fertilize it before i dig it over and plant something new. when i am working on the plot i let them out to have a run around. they dont generally seem to wander far -they normally are too interested in what i am doing or dive into my most recently dug and often planted bed for a good dust bath. they even come back to the run now when called (admittedly i usually have a handfull of grain for them).

I live 10 mins from my allotment and go to see them everyday or ask someone else too on the rare occasion that i cant make it - it really is a pleasure to see them so i dont generally see it as a hardship at all -epecially when i can come home to fresh scrambled egg after!! during the winter i moved the ark on a trailer to my (very small) garden so i didn't have to trudge down the allotment in the cold and wet which worked well - it also ment I could move them to my parents garden for a month when I went to morocco earlier in the year.


just thought this might be an idea for people with small plots :)

jo