# i am getting a chic !!



## Emsylove (Mar 16, 2009)

yay finally persuaded my dad to let me get some chickens and a few babys !!


they will live in my bedroom for a little bit then move outside when fethered...
i cant wait!!

i dont know when i will get them yet but hopefully soon, but i do still have a few questoins 
like....
.how many should i have?
.how long should they be inside with the heat lamp?
.how many chickens can i have in a 7 foot by 2 foot coop?

thanx emma
yay


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## Shell195 (May 31, 2007)

What will you do if the chicks grow up to be cockerels?


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## selina20 (May 28, 2008)

Also can you cope with the smell?


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## Simons (Jul 10, 2010)

Shell195 said:


> What will you do if the chicks grow up to be cockerels?


Good point here, unless you're getting chicks from an autosexing bird you don't know what sex you've got really untill they grow up... and some of your neighbours may not like the idea of being awaken by a noisy cock! There is a good care sheet on raising baby chicks here - http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKRaisingChicks.html


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## SilverSky (Oct 2, 2010)

i wouldnt put 1 chicken in a 7 x 2 coop!


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## rach666 (Dec 12, 2006)

Shell195 said:


> What will you do if the chicks grow up to be cockerels?


not get much sleep:lol2:


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## selina20 (May 28, 2008)

rach666 said:


> not get much sleep:lol2:


Or eggs lol


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## SteFANNY162 (Oct 28, 2010)

SilverSky said:


> i wouldnt put 1 chicken in a 7 x 2 coop!


She didn't say anything about ONE, she said HOW MANY can she fit in a 7 x 2


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

SteFANNY162 said:


> She didn't say anything about ONE, she said HOW MANY can she fit in a 7 x 2


I think the poster knew that, what he's obviously trying to say is that he doesn't consider a 7 x 2 coop suitable for even 1 chicken.


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## SteFANNY162 (Oct 28, 2010)

I see i see...!  sorry if that came across stress btw :S... Often forget people can't hear the tome of voice through a keyboard so a few smilies Re needed
SORRY!


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

No need to apologise, sadly the written word is difficult to 'understand' sometimes as to whether someone is joking or serious. :lol:


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## Pimperella (Sep 26, 2006)

I have to back up what Shell has said. What are your plans for Cockerels?

Do you own your own home or is it rented?

If council/Housing then most have clauses that state you can not keep poultry.
And if it's owned then you need to check your deeds as to whether your Lease allows you to keep poultry or not. Even some Freehold leases have this clause in.

I run a poultry rescue and 1 of the main reasons I get birds brought to me is that they didn't realise they smelled.
Neighbour complaints are second. Followed by Lease issues.

Cockerels we are constantly phoned about. Mainly from people who bought chicks and well, told they were hens and they weren't. With these I explain fully that not every Cockerel can be found a home. It's a fact. And unless you make plans for what you will do if all turn out to be cocks, then you really should not be either hatching or getting chicks.

I breed many chickens each year, but least we have a very good cockerel plan in place and always have.

Too many petshops are jumping on the rise in chicken keeping, but sadly with very little knowledge on their welfare.


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## Pimperella (Sep 26, 2006)

Emsylove said:


> yay finally persuaded my dad to let me get some chickens and a few babys !!
> 
> 
> they *will live in my bedroom *for a little bit then move outside when fethered...
> ...


And the dust they produce can cause major breathing/chest problems. So it is very very unwise to rear chicks in your room, special since as they would need to be under heat for quite some time yet as the weather is still too cold for 8 to 10 week old birds.


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## miss_ferret (Feb 4, 2010)

Pimperella said:


> And the dust they produce can cause major breathing/chest problems. So it is very very unwise to rear chicks in your room, special since as they would need to be under heat for quite some time yet as the weather is still too cold for 8 to 10 week old birds.


il back this up, last time i looked after some they arrived too late to start messing about putting them outside so they had to stay in my room for the night. when they decided to attempt to have a dust bath i ended up coughing for england, had to sleep on the couch in the end.

and just to add to what others have said: they stink. especially if there still on heat (the joys of when heat meets fresh chicken poo :whistling2


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## Pimperella (Sep 26, 2006)

miss_ferret said:


> il back this up, last time i looked after some they arrived too late to start messing about putting them outside so they had to stay in my room for the night. when they decided to attempt to have a dust bath i ended up coughing for england, had to sleep on the couch in the end.
> 
> and just to add to what others have said: they stink. especially if there still on heat (the joys of when heat meets fresh chicken poo :whistling2


It's certainly a smell you have to be hardened to. Or if your a poultry farmer like myself, have been used to it all my life.

But the dust they produce is no joke at all and can lead to very serious lung complaints. Farmers Lung is a very common one. So your bedroom is the LAST place you should have them. 
I have heated sheds. When chicks first hatch they are in the baby brooders for 2 weeks, then into the growers brooder, then finishing brooder.


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## Shell195 (May 31, 2007)

They can also attract rats:bash:


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## SilverSky (Oct 2, 2010)

feorag said:


> I think the poster knew that, what he's obviously trying to say is that he doesn't consider a 7 x 2 coop suitable for even 1 chicken.


lol yeah, thats what i meant sorry it didnt come across clear enough through typing.

if thats the whole space they'regoing to get them no, i dont think its enough, not after keeping them free range and seeing how much they use space.

if thats just the house and they are going to be free range then fair enough.

BUT

chickens are messy, noisy (even girls), and theres the obvious problems with buying chicks and ending up with cockerels.

if you really do want them and understand the work, space, noise etc then you'd be better off buying some established hens, to put straight outside.

you also need to consider ongoing things, such as worming, lice treatment etc


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## Emsylove (Mar 16, 2009)

SilverSky said:


> i wouldnt put 1 chicken in a 7 x 2 coop!


 sorry didnt mean that my dad is getting 2 adult chickens then i am getting 2 babys and the babys are going to live inside till big enough, we have found a place that sexes them but if it is wrong then my mate that lives on a farm will take them :blush:


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## Emsylove (Mar 16, 2009)

SilverSky said:


> lol yeah, thats what i meant sorry it didnt come across clear enough through typing.
> 
> if thats the whole space they'regoing to get them no, i dont think its enough, not after keeping them free range and seeing how much they use space.
> 
> ...


they are going to run around my garden duren the day and locked up duren the night


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## stephenie191 (May 29, 2007)

Depends on the coop, if they'll have free roam all day i'd put up to 5 in a coop that size. IMO!

I agree with the gender thing, deffintly have to think about that. What if you end up with 4 or 5 cockerals?:lol2:


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## Emsylove (Mar 16, 2009)

stephenie191 said:


> Depends on the coop, if they'll have free roam all day i'd put up to 5 in a coop that size. IMO!
> 
> I agree with the gender thing, deffintly have to think about that. What if you end up with 4 or 5 cockerals?:lol2:


 i think i will probably only get 2 or 3 then if i do have that many i will hopefully be able to give them away or if not we may be able to return them to the shop


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## Amalthea (Oct 2, 2007)

Unlikely!! They are so hard to find homes for........


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## LiamRatSnake (Jul 3, 2007)

If you are rearing chicks you need to be prepared to cull cockerels as most will not be re-homed even for free.
Even if it's not worth eating - a scrawny cockerel makes a good meal for a dog.


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## Gemificus (Jan 26, 2007)

to the OP have you really thought this thru???

i have never had chickens myself but i know my neighbor when i lived with mum got 6 hens on a whim, she kept them in her back garden (which wasn't very big and landscaped) they were house in what i can only call a large rabbit hutch...

it was a coop but one of those tiny ones the attempt to sell at [email protected],

they ripped thru every spec of green in her garden made so much noise no one could sleep and soiled over everything,

then the mice moved in and all the neighboring gardens were infested, fortunately the neighborhood cats kept them in tow as they tried to move into homes

she bought them at 19 days old and lost pretty much all of them in the space of a couple of months their eggs were pale and gritty and they hid and refused to eat by the end of a couple of weeks we removed the fence between our overgrown garden and hers in hope they would roam into it and eat and have more space but it was too late,

chickens need alot of space and good care


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## Amalthea (Oct 2, 2007)

LiamRatSnake said:


> If you are rearing chicks you need to be prepared to cull cockerels as most will not be re-homed even for free.
> Even if it's not worth eating - a scrawny cockerel makes a good meal for a dog.



That's what I was getting to.....


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## adamntitch (Jun 17, 2007)

the bit that worryed me is when they said will return them to the SHOP


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## Gemificus (Jan 26, 2007)

adamntitch said:


> the bit that worryed me is when they said will return them to the SHOP


yeah that's the worrying part .... but how many chickens have your ever kept????


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## adamntitch (Jun 17, 2007)

Gemificus said:


> yeah that's the worrying part .... but how many chickens have your ever kept????


how many have i ever kept that what your asking me ?


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## miss_ferret (Feb 4, 2010)

il stick my neck out and say i *think* the OP means a farm shop, or a chicken farm that sells chics. would help if we ad an idea what breed they where.


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## annsimpson1 (Mar 23, 2008)

my mum has two 'pet' hens that have the run of the garden and a house they are shut into at night, their garden looks like the Somme in the winter and Beirot throught the summer:mf_dribble:Luckily they have nice neibours as the hens frequently fly over the fence or go under it, but they have eaten everything that edible, chase of the neibouring cats, poop everywhere but are well loved. Not the best pet if you have anything resembling a garden, mums hens come into the house and often poop on the floor, they are well loved and do lay an egg each day but if you like your garden make an enclosure and if they are like mums even clipping a wing can still fly high enough to clear a fence so clipping soon stopped. If you want the hens for eggs then you'd be better buying point of lay or ex battery rather than chicks most unwanted cocks will end up being killed as no one wants them.


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## dreamer (May 19, 2009)

Personally have had ex-battery hens in the past and my uncle has them now, they are really cheap to buy and they need a lot of tlc, they end up laying again and you're sure of sex. If you're very sure you want some this may be a better route, but think carefully, they need a lot of care.


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