yorkiebarkid

Hi all,

I plan on doing the whole "good life" thing well not full on small holding but more chickens and veg patch.

When I lived in France it seemed to be the norm but I don't have a green finger at all.

Any books or website recommendations or your own advise?

Snap Shot

Why did you leave France ?

yorkiebarkid

Well it's a long story but lack of work and a job offer to good to pass up back in the uk among other things.

BEVS

It is the norm here also. Most all houses have a vegetable patch or garden and a couple of hens .

For the main part I played it by ear and observed what my neighbours were doing and when.

You may find this - garden grow nz - site interesting for a while.

snaps

Bee ownership is quite common too as well as the hens.

j19fmm

How do you find out if you can keep hens or not in your garden? Is it a District Council thing? Or dependent on land size?

BEVS

It will be your council . With our TDC , we are allowed to keep 6 but are not rural . We are semi rural.

I think this is yours

You will not be allowed to have a cockerel ( why would anyone want to) unless you are zoned rural.

Gill and Rob

I suggest you read this before embarking on chickens

http://britishexpats.com/forum/new-z...ickens-305718/

Gill and Rob

Pom_Chch

Thanks for that thread, it's brilliant! Gave me a good chuckle this morning

j19fmm

Not new to keeping chickens, had close to 100 in the UK of various breeds. Really miss them!

j19fmm

Yay, we can have up to 10 so long as the hen house is 10m from house (or neighbours house!!). I only want a couple - hmmm said that before. OH has never kept them and really wants to. Time to get him constructing a coop me thinks xxx

Bo-Jangles

For chooks 'n goats and coos, gardening, jam and all other things 'lifestyley':

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Hazelnut

Thanks for the link, I've joined the forum. We have chickens here in the UK and the biggest problems we face are foxes, badgers, loose dogs, pine martens, stoat, buzzards and hawks.

They do sometimes die at random from things you need to learn about like crop sour but they aren't too hard to keep, most of ours live to be between 5-7yrs old. They lay less eggs as they get older but even our old girls sporadically lay one or two a week for a few weeks. They are great fun to have, provide endless laughs and entertainment along with the eggs. You also do NOT need a cockerel, no matter how much someone tries to persuade you that you do.

I buy new hens as point of lay so I can tell gender. The only younger chicks I've bought have been sex linked ones so you can tell what gender they are by their chick fluff colour.

RobClubley

We're in the process of converting our back garden:

Couple of years ago:


Now



Also these hatched two days ago!

Snap Shot

Beat ya to it Bev !

I bet your daughter just loves the chicks. Will you keep all of them to lay more eggs when they are adults ? Are the cockerels destined for the oven ?

My sentiment lasted didn't it ?