Like the official facebook page!
with unrestricted access to the committees' best
(and only) celebrities!
www.facebook.com/mtschickens
cost benefit analysis
From the local farmer, we bought two chickens for around £26, and except during the winter and when they get older they will each lay one egg a day, so a medium egg at Tesco for example costs 21.7p/Egg and say they both lay an egg every day for 330 days of the year. Each chicken lays eggs for around 3 ½ years of their lives, they lay together 2310 eggs in their collected lifetimes, this equates to a saving of around £250 pounds per chicken.
day-to-day
Each day the chickens need to be let out of their coop but if you have built an enclosure and have small or growing plants in the garden don’t let them out of the enclosure as this is ample space. They need to be given feed and water in the mornings and when necessary throughout the day. When it gets dark and after they have gotten used to their surroundings they will go to bed of their own accord. Each night it is recommended that you pick up their droppings. Each week we take out the wood shavings from their nest box, all good coops will have one, this can often get filled with droppings and become mouldy, a good clean nest box will encourage them to lay eggs there.
what they eat
Food pellets that contain lots of different nutrients are perfectly adequate for them but they also like to forage in the earth for grubs. This foraging behaviour if they are not in a permanent enclosure can lead to very fine fertile soil due to their persistent digging and their habit of leaving their droppings wherever they go, this as I have already stated can also lead to small plants being dug up. As a treat or as an encouragement to go back into their coop or to perform for guests, you would not believe how much other people like them, is to give them bird corn. Mine are also quite partial to worms and spiders in fact they go absolutely mad over them.
"ONCE YOU GAIN THEIR TRUST THEY CAN BE VERY FRIENDLY"
EGGS
With our hens they generally lay in the morning but this was not always the case in the beginning so do not worry if they don’t always lay at the same time, similarly they do every now and again miss a day especially as it gets colder. Normally they lay medium sized eggs; however sometimes they lay up to extra-large sized eggs which often have two yolks!
The eggs when they are first laid are porous and often have soft shells (this can be remedied by feeding them small amounts of grit) it is suggested that you wait at least 8 hours before you was them and then another 1 to 2 days before use they should be stored in a fridge during this period.
-by jack sudds