Point of Lay chickens - and The Shaneco range of Recycled Plastic Chicken coops in Southampton

£15

Bryan Pass 

Posting for 10+ years

Southampton

£15

Ad ID: 36889490

Ended

Description:

Point of Lay Chickens

We currently have for sale:

75 x Warren Hybrids - hatched 22/04/2021
30 x Speckled Ladies - hatched 17/04/2021
30 x Rhode Rocks (Hybrid) - hatched 17/04/2021
20 x Bluebells (Hybrid) - hatched 17/04/2021
40 x Light Sussex (Hybrid) - hatched 09/04/2021
2 x White Leghorns Hatched 09/03/2021
1 x Light Sussex Cock bird hatched 09/04/2021

Vaccinated against Mareks disease & Coccidiosis and wormed.
Excellent layers, very friendly and quiet.

WE NO LONGER SELL CHICKS THAT REQUIRE HEAT.
Collection is by appointment only so please send an email
Thank you.


Last updated 01/11/2021

We are pleased to be able to supply the Shaneco Range of recycled plastic chicken coops - in stock now

The Farm Shop open daily (10am to 5pm).
Please bring along a strong cardboard box/pet carrier/crate to transport your chickens in.
Keeping Chickens as Pets


If this is your first time keeping chickens please read through these tips.

This information is aimed at a very small percentage of people who wish to keep a few chickens in their garden as pets and to be part of the family, to experience the real difference of eating really fresh eggs compared with those that have been produced in an unnatural environment.

The number of small-scale poultry keepers is expanding drastically. There are literally thousands of books and websites which will give you endless information on how to look after your girls, most of which are extremely informative and useful. The views and comments on the following pages are my personal experiences of looking after poultry. I am not claiming to be an expert or a veterinary surgeon, just a farmer who has kept chickens all his life (which is quite a few years now).

Most of the information available at present is based on traditional breeds of poultry. Personally I have kept the hybrids, which have been bred solely for egg production so their dietary requirements and husbandry needs differ from those of their old-fashioned traditional cousins.

Are chickens really the pet we need?
If you are looking for a pet to come into the house, forget it, you will not house-train a chicken. They will require a purpose-built house (coop) in the garden. Each bird requires a minimum of 25cm sq. per bird as a sleeping area and, in an ideal world, a total of 3m sq. of exercise area for each bird.

Some local authorities do not allow any form of livestock to be kept. It may be worth contacting your local Environmental Health office and, whilst doing this research, check the deeds to your property as well. If you decide to keep more than 50 poultry birds of any species you will be required to go on the Poultry Register.

It will be the neighbours who kick up a stink first if they do not like the idea of having chickens as neighbours. They might find any reason to complain to the local authorities, and some will create stories about how noisy they are or about the smell they produce or how much damage the escaping girls have done to their garden. But, in most cases, they will enjoy having clucking neighbours and will be kept happy with a supply of surplus eggs.

The girls will need to be looked after 7 days a week; they will depend entirely on you for their daily needs. Yes, of course they will scratch about and find a small proportion of their daily dietary needs in their run, but the most important thing is that they are checked on a regular basis: early morning visits to let them out into the run or garden, topping up food and water, a quick health check, cleaning out the house on a regular basis, capturing any escaping chickens and - most rewarding - harvesting the freshly laid eggs. Again, as the sun goes down, you will need to make a quick check that all the girls are in bed and securely locked away.

Of course you may spend hours just sat watching them scratching around during the day, but if you are planning holidays or just a night out you will need to have someone available to take on these duties (payment in eggs is the norm).

There seems to be a growing number of children and adults who suffer from various allergies so it would be an advantage to identify if this is going to be a problem before getting the chickens home. A visit to a local petting farm or to friends who keep poultry would be highly recommended, as discovering a problem after you have your own chickens could mean you have problems rehoming them, as most poultry suppliers are unable to take back poultry due to the high risk of cross contamination.
A single chicken will (not may) destroy a well-manicured garden in minutes - just ask Dawn, my wife! If you love your garden, simply keep the chickens off it. You will not be able to train them to scratch around the edges, they will quickly go to the newest plants and seedlings and hurl them across the lawn and path and, as you shout at them, they will find more to destroy and happily cluck at you as you do a war dance at the side trying to persuade them to leave. If this is not bad enough just imagine what damage they could do to your neighbour's garden. If they manage to find a gap in the fence, in a matter of a few minutes a beautiful, well-tended garden could turn into a resemblance of Twickenham rugby ground after a match on a very wet day. However, if you have a vegetable patch a small group of laying chickens will harrow the ground extremely well in the autumn as they search for any remaining greenery and juicy insects.

It is always best to keep chickens off play areas and grassland where children are likely to play as their droppings can contain viruses, and their poo makes a sticky mess on the carpet!

Assuming that you have not been put off keeping chickens, the next step is to look at what is required before you bring the girls home.



Please look at our website to obtain more information on looking after your girls.