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Anyone can keep chicken
Anyone can keep chicken, as long as they have the space. Although chicken can be kept in cages, it is not recommended as this is a cruel practice in that it frustrates the animal's natural urge to forage in the fresh air and sunshine. The best situation is a fenced 'run' in the garden, or, if you're feeling generous and are not a gardener, the full run of the garden is appreciated. In fact, apart from small shoots, especially salad crops, which are best protected within an area with fencing, chicken can be very good for a garde as they seek out and eat all insects as well as slgs and snails. As long as your plants are well established and rugged, they can get along with chicken if your garden is big enough for them to roam at will without over-using one small plot. Chicken are forest dwellers originally so all they need is somewhere to roost, a tree is ideal and they will fly up to thelower branches as the sun goes down. What, you thought the chicken was a flightless bird? Not at all; with a lot of effort they can get up to twenty or so feet, and can glide for a way, although not capable of sustained flight like most birds. People who put chicken in a run with three foot high fences are constantly surprised when they fly out! Roosting [sleeping for the night] in a tree protects them from predators like the fox which can't climb. The only time chicken are vulnerable to foxes at night is when they are confined, at ground level, either in a run or a house into which the fox can break. Then, rather than just killing one to take away for dinner, a fox can end up killing lots of birds as they are all panicked, flapping madly and unable to escape; the fox finds it impossible to resist it's instincts. It isn't that it gets pleasure out of killing like a lot of humans appear to do, it is just responding to the instinct of a predator to pounce on something flapping about. If you lack trees, you can still provide safe roosts for your chicken by fixing a pole between two uprights like fence posts. It needs to be thicker than a broomhandle so the birds can clutch hold of it tightly enough, and better if rough than smooth. If outside, it needs to be at least three feet off the ground, better five. If in a hen house, it can be lower as long as the hen house is secured at night and can't be broken into. If the garden is large enough, it could support half a dozen or so chicken without a problem, but you could end up with feral chicken who stay away from humans, lay their eggs in hiding and are no use as a result. If you feed them at least once a day, best in the evening if you want them to shelter inside, they will continue to associate you with food and will come when called. They will lay their eggs in the nests you provide in the hen house, whilst foraging during the day and keeping the pests down in your garden. A hen house is basically just a small shed; inside you have perches for night-time, and on one side boxes the size for a hen to sit comfortably in with six inch high sides; about the size of an orange box. A layer of straw in the bottom makes them irresistible to broody hens [the finishing straw?]. A secure, lockable door is also a must. You can buy wheat or other grains from animal feed stores, and this can be scattered on the ground, or fed in dishes. Another food they love is potato peelings, boiled up until soft and then mashed with some ground grain. This is sold as layers mash and can be bought either with or without added hormones to stimulate laying. I personally think anything artificial is going backwards when you are trying to provide a natural environment for your birds. You'll get more eggs out of them, but they will most likely stop laying earlier as they almost certainly have a fixed number of eggs they were born [hatched] with. Another good source of food is your leftovers, which means less waste and less in the bin to throw away each week. In return for some grain, you get wonderful fresh, organic, free-range eggs. Unless you also keep a cock [you must be able to put up with the crowing, as do your neighbours], you will have to purchase more hens when yours eventually stop laying as they get older. Whether you keep them on in retirement or send them to the pot is up to you. You can get the chicks from a country market if you live in the countryside, or from others who keep chicken [listen for a cock crowing and investigate], from a hatchery as day old chicks, or from specially purchased eggs. Once established, the hens will hatch their own, and raise the chicks - teaching them what's good to eat and where danger lies, they make good mothers. |
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