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For many years now, i have been thinking about getting a couple of chickens, my question is, how much room will they need to be free range, my garden is about 50ft by 30ft 'ish and i live within the boundries of a city......

Are they ok to roam the garden or will they dig up the plants?, so would it be better if they had a run?, but then to me thats not free range....I know nothing about keeping chickens and so your advice would be appricated...I was looking at having 2.........

Many thanks in advance, Verminda.....

Hi Verminda

Chooks are great... but my guess is that once you start with two, you will want more pretty quickly :D Once you have tasted a freshly laid egg from your own chooks there is just no comparison to the ones you buy at supermarket (even the organic ones)

Yes, they will peck at your plants.... you could fence them off though, or fence in your chooks.

We have ours as pretty much free range, although they do have a fence around the area to provide some protection to them (in terms of foxyloxy - it's electric fencing, although it's not electrified at the moment - please don't tell the fox )

We had some completely free ranging when we lived in Herefordshire but the fox got them all.... AND a couple of ducks, and even the mother goose - hence we bought the electric fencing.

Have a look at www.omlet.co.uk - lots of good info there, although they recommend the eglu which is VERY expensive. I do like the look of them though.

Chickens dig - so they will dig up your lawn, your plants, your veggies..... as well as eating some of them! So I'd fence them in if I were you. In one year my 3 hens have turned an area nearly as big as your garden into a big brown nearly grassless lumpy bumpy holey mess.

Definitely fence 'em out! they are bloody corrosive to all vegetables is my experience. I live on a 500m2 block and have about 40m2 of veggie garden total. Get your chooks but build a chook tractor first. (permaculture term fo a bottomless pen that is moveable onto your veggie garden during non porductive times).

Nev

I too am at the "thinking" stage of chickens. My plan was to keep them in a run (as large as I have space for) and let them out when under supervision. I'm very surprised at how little space they need, some of the runs sold are very small.

What do your neighbours think? Can they escape from your garden?

My girls go in for the 'bouncing bomb' style of flying achieving 1m of altitiude for a few seconds, the larger the breed the less flighty they are (imagine 'Chicken Run' in garden) and they definatley are not organised.

Kind thoughts
Deb

I love Rhode Island Reds as we had them as kids... would love some more but can't take on anything else! Good luck x

Thanks for the info and the links guys....I went onto the Omlet site and they sent me a brosure......Im defiantly getting some, but first i want to make the bottom of the garden ready for them.....

'Verminda starts checking the back of the sofas for loose change', ...lol, it all helps, right......

Good luck, mate!

Nev

Nice one Verminda...

Do remember that Omlet are not the only suppliers and that there are far cheaper options available - you could even build your own chicken house!! They do look rather funky though don't they