Home - Hatching and brooding

Housing, feeding and health

Housing

As a rule of thumb for barnevelders, which are classed as a heavy breed, I would allow 2 square feet per bird inside a house, with 10 inches of perch space each. In a run attached to the house, I would allow at least 1 square yard per bird. If you are going to keep them in the run all the time, it would be good if you could allow more than that; and in my opinion, the run would need to be floored with something like concrete slabs and have a pretty thick layer of straw in it that would need to be changed regularly.

If you are going to let the chickens out for much of the time, then it's not necessary to have such a large run - although it is convenient if, for example, you are going to be out at work all day and don't want to let them out to free-range whilst you're not there.

For example, we have a 7' by 5' shed that we have converted to a chicken house. It has two perches, that total 10' in length. The perches give enough roof for 12 fully grown birds, and the floor space is about right for 17 - so if we wanted, we could stick another perch in there and have another half dozen. However, I prefer not to, as I'd rather they had extra space to scratch about inside when it's wet and be able to put their food and water in there permanently. Because we only keep half a dozen fully grown birds in there, it also gives room for young ones to go in there for a couple of months as we grow them on.

From the photo you can see that the perches are over a 'droppings board'. This is because chickens pass two thirds of their facaes at night - you can scrape the droppings board frequently and not need to change their litter so often. We do the droppings boards weekly and the litter every 2 to 4 weeks - it needs changing more often if it's wet.

Outside we have a pen of about 20 square yards that is partially roofed. According to DEFRA, this would technically allow us to keep 20 birds in there and still call the eggs they produce 'free range' - but, in my opinion, this would be very cramped. They only stay in the pen when it's very wet or snowy or we are out all day. Otherwise, they are free to roam around.

In a smaller example, we have a 4' by 3' house with a 4' perch, but with no droppings board. This has six fully grown birds living in it. There is no room for their feed and water inside - but they have those under a covered area just outside and the feed is taken in at night. They have a pen of about 9 square yards.

Chicken houses can be purpose built; converted sheds or even converted wardrobes. They can be made out of ply, pallets or timber. John Seymour talks about making a small house out of wire, offcuts of wood and old plastic feed bags. So long as it is predator-proof (we are talking 'fox', here) and keeps the rain and wind out, then it will do the job.

When you are constructing your pen, remember that CHICKENS CAN FLY. Not far and not fast - but if it's a windy day and they get excited, there's a possibility that they will be over a six foot high wire fence. Also, foxes can climb - I've seen one go up and over a fence that high, too. Consider roofing any kind of pen with either wire, or nylon netting.

You should make sure that they have access to shade in hot weather - chickens suffer far more from the heat than from the cold. Their house should be well ventilated; and if you can manage it and their house isn't that large, try to roof part of the run to keep the rain off. When it's warm, our hens like scratching about in the bushes and trees at the top of the garden and when it's cold or wet, they stay in their house, scratching around on the floor.

The other thing that you should try to provide them with is a dust-bath of some kind. Dust-bathing helps keep them free of mites, gets rid of irritating chicken-itches and is generally something that they love to do. Dry soil or sand is ideal. If you have a particularly favourite plant or bed of vegetables, you can be almost certain that they will uproot it and turn the area in to a dust bath. The very dry, warm soil of a greenhouse is also favourite. They can look very peculiar when dust-bathing - almost as if they are having some kind of seizure. And then they get up, shake themselves off and are perfectly fine.

Feeding

This is great for giving them a balanced diet - but not everyone has a large area of woodland to let their poultry range free in.

It is usual to feed a mixture of 'layers pellets' (or mash) and corn - either a mixture of wheat and maize, or wheat on it's own. They also need grit, to help them digest their food, and shell (usually crushed oyster shell), to help them produce strong-shelled eggs.

As a rough rule of thumb, every day you should feed each heavy-breed bird:

• Layers' pellets or growers' pellets (or mash) - 150g (5oz)
• Corn (mixed, or just wheat) - 50g (2oz)

It is usual to feed pellets in the morning and feed the corn in the evening. This has two advantages - one, that the corn is a more 'lasting' feed and will keep them going overnight. And secondly, in my experience, they tend to prefer the corn over the pellets - so if you have let them out of their pen during the day, you can throw the corn down on the ground inside and they will all rush in and you can shut them up!

If you have space inside their house, you might consider leaving the pellets in a feeder available all day. I find that they don't overeat on it - whereas they perhaps will if you leave them corn available all the time. However, if you do this, be careful that you are not attracting rats, or feeding the wild bird population. You will find that they eat more when it's cold and less when it's very warm.

You should also try to ensure that they have some greens hung up in the pen to peck at - not only will this keep them occupied if they don't get let out to scratch around; but it's also an extra source of vitamins and nutrients. Brassicas, lettuce, fruit and veg - they will have a go at pretty much anything.

Fresh drinking water should be available at all times.

Maintaining Health

However, there are a few additional things that you can do on a regular basis to promote good health:

• Worming. Worm regularly - even if you don't think your birds have worms. You can buy various proprietary worming pellets that are added to the food for a run of a few days every so often. If you don't have a worm problem, you don't need to worm them every month - but every so often is a good preventative.
• Red mite. Red mite are tiny blood-sucking parasites that live in chicken houses. If your chickens are reluctant to go to bed at night and seem to be a bit off colour, it might be that you have them. They can live for a long time without chickens to feed off, so a second hand house might have them; or you might buy in birds with a small mite population that gets worse. You can check the birds' feathers to see if they have a mite or louse problem and you may see them around the bottom of their trousers, just at the top of their legs.

  You can get various generic 'mite and louse' powders and if you have an outbreak of mites you will need to dust each chicken with the powder and disinfect all the nooks and crannies of the house where they hide. I tend to include a couple of table-spoonfuls of mite and louse powder with their clean bedding every month or so, as a preventative - this works well for me, as the birds like to dust-bath in their house.

• Tonics to add to their food and water. You can add various things to your chickens' food and water to promote health and wellbeing - cider vinegar, poultry spice and similar. I have no experience of these - I think that if you are feeding a balanced diet then there should be no need for them. However, many people do swear by them.

Egg binding is when an egg forms inside the hen and she can't pass it. Symptoms are being generally 'off colour', being hunched up and miserable and, of course, no eggs. If you examine her, you should be able to feel whether the oviduct is soft and empty or hard and full of egg. You may be able to massage the egg free, or you might have to break it inside her to get it out. If the latter, you must make sure that you get all the bits of egg out, otherwise she may get an infection. If in any doubt, seek advice from your vet.

Scaly Leg is caused by a parasitic mite that burrows under the leg-scales and makes the leg look crusty. It is infectious and needs dealing with as if untreated it can result in permanent lameness. There are various methods of treating - one successful way is to immerse the legs in surgical spirit once a week for a few weeks and scrub gently with an old toothbrush. The mites will be killed and when the bird moults brand new, clean leg-scales should grow in again. If one bird is showing symptoms, you will need to treat all of them and disinfect your housing. Again, if in any doubt, seek advice from your vet. It probably goes without saying that Scaly Leg doesn't happen spontaneously - it needs to be imported in somehow and is something to keep an eye out for when you are buying birds.

I am not a vet or an expert in poultry ailments and this is really just a starting point. There are many books out there that specialise in the health and diseases of poultry and I would recommend reading one of them - and also, finding a poultry-friendly vet before you actually need one, 'just in case'.

I would also recommend having a long, hard look at whether, if it came down to it, you could dispatch a poorly chicken. If you keep stock, you have a responsibility to them; and that includes being prepared to end their lives if there is nothing more that can be done for them. If you know that you wouldn't be able to do it yourself, then find someone who could, who is willing to help you. You will more than likely never need to - but it's not the kind of thing you want to be having to have first-thoughts about if you have a sick bird that you know is suffering and needs dealing with.