- Sep 5, 2014
- 35
- 1
- 41
So I saw this a little after i posted asking for my chick breeds so I thought whoops! Better say hi. 
SO I'll let you guys know a little about myself and hopefully you won't mind me and my chickens.
First off, me and my partner have aspergers, and we are into sustainable living in a big way with my partner alan (i'm steph). We own two allotments together one main crop and one permaculture and I am building a large scale aquaponics polytunnel system on the permaculture one at the moment. We post regularly on our blog about foraging, growing food, upcycling materials, bushcraft, mycology, chickens and preserving food etc. We are also avid homebrewers and make something close to 144 bottles of wine every 4-8 weeks and sometimes have a bit of cider or chequer ale in there too. We are quite addicted and try to have "completely free" meals where ever possible.
My partner alan works by day on a further two allotments teaching the local community how to grow and cook healthy cheap food and helping vulnerable adults get outside and be active and learn new work skills.
I stay at home being all housewifey and working as a freelance graphic designer while I wait for uni to start.
Because we are so nuts on sustainability we keep expanding our family to encompass more food sources and little helpers. So we have a mini "test system" aquaponics on our fish tank which grows cress, microgreens and gem lettuces. The tank contains zebra fish and snails but the aquaponics system on the allotment will contain edible fish instead.
We have a cat as a pet but we find him remarkably useful keeping the rats away especially as our home backs onto a sloped forest bit.
We then decided to get 2-4 chickens. We had it in the back of our minds on the eternal "to do list", but it was only when we stumbled upon a free rabbit hutch being given away by a nearby neighbour that we seriously invested in the idea. (we can't afford to buy a real chicken hutch and run so this was a stroke of luck!) WE worked hard converting the hutch into a chicken suitable home and repaired it a little. Then we built a run using pallet wood and chicken wire. Then our friend who keeps chickens himself was so pleased with the idea he ran out that day with us to buy us some chickens. We picked up two and noted they seemed a little large, but didn't know anything about chicken breeds yet, we got a big sack of pellets and a bale of straw and got them home. Indeed, they were large fowl and to our discouragement they were definitely going to have to have a bigger run! (they are cuckoo marans and light sussex)
Not long afterwards however, our cuckoo marans became broody and something had to be done. Naturally in true chicken style she picked the nest box that was very high up in the hutch so we had to get her moved anyway.
Then as luck would have it we found an entire shed relatively intact in a skip and we carried it home (with a lot of sweating and cursing), we sectioned off a whole half of our garden with the shed panels as fences and topped it off with chicken wire as our light sussex is a bit flighty. We moved the hutch inside and made another small next box for the broody out of a discarded bedside cabinet and surrounded it with the old run to protect the future chicks from the light sussex.
We had 6 eggs but only two hatched
Of these two, one chick managed to escape and got pecked to death by the light sussex after only a day or two after hatching. After this we put another barricade across the run as a third barrier just in case.
Not happy with just one chick from our broody, we ran out with the intention of buying 4 more chicks... we ended up with 7 x 2 week old chicks we got for cheap because we bought them all together. I converted an old computer desk into a second hutch/brooder to keep them inside and warm and now they have been integrated into the main flock outside and the second hutch is outside too.
So after all that we ended up with 10 chickens
the sections and old run have now been removed and they all just wander about where they please. Sometimes the light sussex gets to have a mooch about the rest of the garden on her own or on the allotment. we are trying to arrange to get some more hutches to replace the converted PC desk when we can get a car for it but in the meantime they are quite happy there.
Hmmm I think that's the story of us all sorted now if you can sit through that wall of text. Feel free to ask questions
SO I'll let you guys know a little about myself and hopefully you won't mind me and my chickens.
First off, me and my partner have aspergers, and we are into sustainable living in a big way with my partner alan (i'm steph). We own two allotments together one main crop and one permaculture and I am building a large scale aquaponics polytunnel system on the permaculture one at the moment. We post regularly on our blog about foraging, growing food, upcycling materials, bushcraft, mycology, chickens and preserving food etc. We are also avid homebrewers and make something close to 144 bottles of wine every 4-8 weeks and sometimes have a bit of cider or chequer ale in there too. We are quite addicted and try to have "completely free" meals where ever possible.
My partner alan works by day on a further two allotments teaching the local community how to grow and cook healthy cheap food and helping vulnerable adults get outside and be active and learn new work skills.
I stay at home being all housewifey and working as a freelance graphic designer while I wait for uni to start.
Because we are so nuts on sustainability we keep expanding our family to encompass more food sources and little helpers. So we have a mini "test system" aquaponics on our fish tank which grows cress, microgreens and gem lettuces. The tank contains zebra fish and snails but the aquaponics system on the allotment will contain edible fish instead.
We have a cat as a pet but we find him remarkably useful keeping the rats away especially as our home backs onto a sloped forest bit.
We then decided to get 2-4 chickens. We had it in the back of our minds on the eternal "to do list", but it was only when we stumbled upon a free rabbit hutch being given away by a nearby neighbour that we seriously invested in the idea. (we can't afford to buy a real chicken hutch and run so this was a stroke of luck!) WE worked hard converting the hutch into a chicken suitable home and repaired it a little. Then we built a run using pallet wood and chicken wire. Then our friend who keeps chickens himself was so pleased with the idea he ran out that day with us to buy us some chickens. We picked up two and noted they seemed a little large, but didn't know anything about chicken breeds yet, we got a big sack of pellets and a bale of straw and got them home. Indeed, they were large fowl and to our discouragement they were definitely going to have to have a bigger run! (they are cuckoo marans and light sussex)
Not long afterwards however, our cuckoo marans became broody and something had to be done. Naturally in true chicken style she picked the nest box that was very high up in the hutch so we had to get her moved anyway.
Then as luck would have it we found an entire shed relatively intact in a skip and we carried it home (with a lot of sweating and cursing), we sectioned off a whole half of our garden with the shed panels as fences and topped it off with chicken wire as our light sussex is a bit flighty. We moved the hutch inside and made another small next box for the broody out of a discarded bedside cabinet and surrounded it with the old run to protect the future chicks from the light sussex.
We had 6 eggs but only two hatched
Of these two, one chick managed to escape and got pecked to death by the light sussex after only a day or two after hatching. After this we put another barricade across the run as a third barrier just in case.Not happy with just one chick from our broody, we ran out with the intention of buying 4 more chicks... we ended up with 7 x 2 week old chicks we got for cheap because we bought them all together. I converted an old computer desk into a second hutch/brooder to keep them inside and warm and now they have been integrated into the main flock outside and the second hutch is outside too.
So after all that we ended up with 10 chickens
the sections and old run have now been removed and they all just wander about where they please. Sometimes the light sussex gets to have a mooch about the rest of the garden on her own or on the allotment. we are trying to arrange to get some more hutches to replace the converted PC desk when we can get a car for it but in the meantime they are quite happy there.Hmmm I think that's the story of us all sorted now if you can sit through that wall of text. Feel free to ask questions
)
