"Starting with Chickens: A Beginner’s Handbook"

for what you need to know to keep chickens in your garden. Practical advice from experienced chicken keepers.

Chicken keeping can be a wonderful, enjoyable hobby and there are many hints and tips we are happy to share that can make it that way for you too.

It can also be fraught with worry when things go wrong, as with caring for any living creature, but by putting some practical ideas in place and recognizing problems when they occur, these can be overcome.

Armed with the knowledge that chickens are outdoor birds, ancestrally jungle fowl living in trees, and surviving in all weather very well, we believe a simple common-sense approach is needed.

We have kept many breeds over our 30+ years of poultry keeping, including ex-battery hens, and they all have different traits but we have found that a realistic attitude is absolutely essential.

Every experienced chicken keeper will have their own way of doing things and dispense their advice accordingly - just as we are doing here ...

We must stress this is really only a basic guide to keeping poultry and there are many, many books on the market with far more comprehensive guidance than we can give here. You will find The Haynes Chicken Manual an excellent start-up book.

We do ask though, that you do your research into the hobby of chicken keeping before embarking on it. These are birds that need care and attention and, as with any other animals, this is a 'hobby' that should not be embarked upon just on a whim.

FSF Tip: Please check the deeds/covenants of your property to make sure you are allowed to keep poultry, in most cases you are. We also advise just asking the neighbors if they mind as some do have strong objections to being next door to chickens.

Your hens have three basic needs:

1. Secure, clean housing

2. Space

3. Food and water

With that, they will continue to produce eggs almost every day and provide hours of endless entertainment (and occasional frustration if you value your flower beds).

Good housing is absolutely essential to keeping your hens secure and healthy.

The hen house you choose should be substantial enough to withstand all weathers and, particularly, should protect them against predators.

Preferably choose one where the base/floor does not sit directly on the ground as this can lead to damp, cold conditions inside the house. This will be not only unhealthy for the hens but also a wonderful place for rats and mice to make their homes and live undisturbed.

How to choose the right size ... The hen house should be considered as an investment that will protect your birds and make your life easy. Convention says you should allow 1 sq ft of house floor area per bird in a house and it should have a large access door for you to be able to reach inside to clean it.

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Nest Boxes & Perches in Chicken Houses ... The Nest Boxes should be low down and in the darkest place of the hen house so that the hens can lay in privacy and undisturbed.

Perches should be higher than the nestbox to prevent the birds from sleeping in it, and they should be removable for cleaning. The ideal perch is approx. 2 inches square and you should allow at least 7 - 8in of perch space per bird.

Good ventilation is also important to prevent respiratory diseases. Please take a look at our Maggie's Henhouses for example.

How to protect your chickens from foxes ...  To keep the hens safe from foxes, badgers, mink, or any other predator, a secure run area should be considered. For more information see our Guide to Poultry Predators blog.

Security can be either a wired run attached to the house, a dedicated fenced run area with the house inside, or an electric poultry net that will keep them secure and give them plenty of space. As a guide, convention says, to allow 8 sq ft of run space per bird (average hybrid) or 12 - 15 sq ft for large fowl (e.g. Brahmas)

We can certainly recommend Electric Poultry Netting - see our Electric Fencing for Chickens - as a solution to security as we have used it successfully for many years.

A large non-electrified fence needs to be dug in at the base and at least 6ft tall, Electric Poultry Netting is about 3ft 6in tall and is brilliant - we swear by it - no digging it in (a fox cannot dig under it without getting a shock) and it doesn't look like a prison camp, it can be moved when necessary and you can make the pen any shape you want.

How to cite your chicken house ...  You should consider, when choosing a site for the home, how to offer some natural protection for the hens from the sun, wind, and rain.

A good idea is to plant small trees in the pen to provide some shade (not bushes as they may be encouraged to lay under them) or place the house so they can shelter in the lee. For the very worst of the cold wintery weather, it may be an idea to make a sheltered place for them to keep out of the wind.

Cleaning the chicken house ...  Keeping the house clean need not be a chore with the right house. We recommend using newspaper, old feed sacks, or tarpaulin on the base of the house and then a light layer of Hemp Bedding to absorb moisture. This will then be easy to scoop out and replace regularly.

Weekly cleaning is preferable depending on the number of hens and the weather, and once a month clean with disinfectant and scrape the floors and perches clean.

Poultry Bedding ...  Nice thick layers of HempBed-E Bedding (or wood shavings) are good for the nest boxes and should be kept clean for clean eggs (we do not recommend hay as it will encourage mold spores and lead to disease, or straw which can become smelly and is a harbor for mites).

We always sprinkle Louse Powder and/or Diatomaceous Earth Powder into the nest box bedding to make sure the birds get a regular covering to prevent lice.

Care of your chicken house ...  We would (naturally) always recommend timber housing and there are very good reasons for this. Timber will move and breathe with the seasons and therefore provide a healthy atmosphere for the birds with the correct ventilation.

It will not be damp with condensation every time the temperature changes and will not suffocate them in summer or freeze them in winter.

To keep your timber house in good repair we recommend at least annual treatment with Protek Eco-Shield Waterproofing for Timber.

How to prevent Red Mite problems ...  With good hygiene practices, there is no reason why timber houses should be more susceptible to mites and disease than any other type.

There are plenty of purpose-made products on the market for cleaning to make sure your house won't breed diseases e.g. Battles Poultry Disinfectant, and Stalosan F Disinfectant. Make sure you wash your hands thoroughly or wear gloves when cleaning the house and handling the birds to treat them.