Re: Keeping chickens in back garden

In article <-LSdnfIKTYrLa9_anZ2dnUVZ8uudnZ2d@xxxxxx>,
<nospam@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hello, I'd like to know if its legal to keep chickens in a back garden
(perhaps 2 or 3 chickens, that is)? Do you need a special permit or to
undergo any legal formalities?

I keep 5 chickens in my back garden (and IANAL).

No permits normally required, but if it's a council house (or other
rented property) you ought to check with the owners.

The more space you can give them the less sh*t you'll tread in, but they
must have at least the space of an A4 sheet of paper ber bird. (I kid
you not, these are the rules for caged/battery hens!!!) In practice
you'll have much more than that!

They will eat your lawn, so kiss goodbye to any grass you might have.
They'll also dig everything up and eat most things green. So kiss goodbye
to your garden unless you keep them behind a fence!

You'll need to keep them predator proof, so an arc/coop/shed at night
will be essential. You can buy organic feed for round about £9 for 20Kg
but you can't call them free range unless they have something like 4
square metres per bird. (I have slightly less than that, but it's more
than adequate, so I can say "free ranging" because they are.

I sell a surplus of eggs through the summer to friends and family -
which you're allowed to do - what you can't do is sell to a reseller
without going down the commercial route, and all that entails. They
genrally pay for their keep through the summer. They'll stop laying in
the winter when they moult (as mine are doing now - stupid birds,
mounting when it gets cold!!!)

They don't "attract" vermin as such, but if you leave food lying around
and there are rats, etc. in the area, it's not going to help matters. In
3 years, I've yet to see a rat, or evidence of one. Keeping the run
clean as well as the coop makes all the difference. Keep their food
separate from the run in a dry place.

You do not need a cockerel! Hens will lay eggs quite hapilly on their
own without one.

They can be a bit smelly, but the taste of their eggs more than makes
up for it!

The Aardman animated film; Chicken Run is a documentary. They will try
to escape and are good at digging holes in the ground. You can teach
them to jump up to get nice little bits of things they like - eg.
rasisns, grapes, raspberrys, etc. and hand-feed them some mixed grains
from time to time.

Check these links:

http://www.omlet.co.uk/
http://www.dtbcentre.co.uk/index.htm
http://www.forshamcottagearks.com/

We have a:

http://www.forshamcottagearks.com/poultry-housing/lenham-503-poultry-house.htm

Cheers,


Gordon
.

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