Recent content by Earl Grey Sian

Can I keep a single chicken happily. Do they get lonely or are they happy in their own company?

Shredded paper? Free, environmentally friendly, absorbant and biodegradable

I use shredded paper. It's free, environmentally friendly, absorbent and breaks down quickly in the composter. What more could you want from a bedding??

I have a plastic hanging feeder and the hens are forever spilling their pellets all over the place. They also seem to manage to spin the whole thing so that the washer and nut (that screw onto the shaft that goes down through the length of the feeder) come undone. Result...pellets everywhere...

Bread soaked in water, cabbage, sunflower seeds, chick peas, sweetcorn, vanilla yoghurt...so far they've only rejected carrots (raw and cooked) and banana !

I use shredded paper. I only have a small hen house (3 hens) so I put newspaper on the floor and put shavings on top of that. Once a week I roll up the whole lot and replace them. Job done! It can be a little stinky but I just replace it regularly, weekly at the longest. I also put the...

Quote: I have 3 hens who share a 6sq foot house. As with Barg's birds, they only go in there twice a day, once to lay and once to sleep. They have 10 inches of roosting space each, but all tend to huddle up one end. As it's getting light so early in the morning and the weather is warm...

Quote: I really like this idea as my 3 ladies spill their food everywhere. One question though... does the feed distribute itself along the length of the horizontal pipe, or do you need to help it along? Thanks

Alternaive free bedding option......shredded paper. Works a treat. Absorbant and compostable! Friends often give be bags full of shreddings and I'm currently shredding all my university notes having just got my BSc(Hons)

Thank you one and all. I now feel more confident about getting sand. I'll probably put a layer of gravel in first to help the drainage. I was planning on doing it this weekend, but I've developed a ear infection which is excruciating if I don't keep my head upright. The right side of my face...

Hi. Firstly I'm very envious of the amount of space you all seem to have. I live in avillage in Worcestershire, UK in a tiny thatched cottage with an equally tiny backyard. The majority of the yard is concrete which my 3 hens have acces to for an hour or two per day (which they mostly spent...

We don't seem to have crumbles this side of the pond. I'll try hanging the feeder a bit higher off the ground, at the moments it's only a few inches up. Thanks for all the advice so far. I'll be grateful of any more handy hints.

So far I have been feeding my three hens layers pellets. Despite the feeder being hung up they still seem to waste a lot by throwing it around! Would layers mash be better? Does it have to be soaked or is it fed dry? I noticed elsewhere that some of you mention something in between pellets and...

Originally Wales, but now England. That may not seem much of a difference, but believe me, if you're Welsh, it's significant!

Shredded paper, my ladies seem happy with that. Good way to dispose of confidential documents too, after all, no one is going to try and decipher shreddings after they've been in a hen house for a day or two!