Of everything in this domain, a few hens give the best food return for the space and effort. They produce protein daily rather than seasonally, they need a few square metres, they convert garden surplus and forage into food, and they produce manure for the compost heap.
They also come with a set of UK legal requirements that most people keeping them are unaware of, and one of them contradicts the traditional picture entirely.
Why hens are the best return
- Roughly 250 eggs a year from a good hybrid hen, which is a genuine daily protein supply from four birds.
- They lay through the hungry gap, which almost nothing in the garden does. See grow for calories, not for salad.
- Very little space. A coop and a small run fits in an ordinary back garden.
- They eat garden pests, slugs in particular, and turn over ground.
- Manure for the compost heap, which is high in nitrogen and needs composting before it goes near plants.
- They are enjoyable, which matters over a long difficult period, and children take to them.
The legal position
Check the rules where you are. Requirements differ between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and they change. Do not rely on this page or on anything written more than a year ago.
Also check before you start: your deeds or tenancy for restrictions on livestock, and whether cockerels are practical where you live. You do not need a cockerel for eggs, only for fertile eggs, and a cockerel is the fastest way to fall out with neighbours.
Feeding them lawfully
Housing and space
Ventilation without draughts. Ammonia from droppings causes respiratory problems, so the coop needs air moving above the birds' heads, not across them at perch level. A stuffy coop is worse than a cold one; chickens tolerate cold well and damp badly.
Dry. Deep litter of wood shavings or chopped straw, removed and composted regularly. Damp bedding is where most health problems start.
A dust bath. Dry earth, sand and wood ash in a box or a sheltered corner. It is how they control mites, and they will make one anyway, so it is better to choose where.
Moveable is good. A small ark moved every few days spreads the manure, gives fresh forage, and stops one patch being destroyed. A permanent run becomes bare mud within weeks and needs deep litter to manage.
Foxes and rats
Foxes will take every bird in the run, not one, and they will come in daylight. This is the single largest cause of losses.
- Shut them in every night, without exception. This is the whole of fox protection and everything else is secondary. An automatic pop hole door is worth the money for the nights you are late.
- Buried or skirted wire. Foxes dig. Either bury the wire 30 centimetres down, or lay a horizontal skirt of wire out from the base and peg it, which works as well and is easier.
- Weld mesh, not chicken wire, on anything that matters. A fox goes through chicken wire.
- Cover the run, against foxes climbing and against birds of prey.
- Check for gaps regularly, especially after wind.
Rats follow poultry feed, reliably, and they are the second problem.
- Store feed in metal bins with tight lids. Rats chew through plastic.
- Do not leave feed out overnight. A treadle feeder that only opens under a bird's weight solves this properly.
- Clear spilled feed.
- Rats carry disease and they will take eggs and chicks, so this is not only a nuisance.
How many and which
Four hens is right for most households. Enough eggs for a family, small enough to house easily, and chickens are flock birds so never keep one alone.
Start with point-of-lay hybrids, around 16 to 18 weeks old. They are vaccinated, they lay prolifically and reliably, and they are the easy start.
Hybrids versus pure breeds:
- Hybrids lay far more, around 250 to 300 eggs in the first year, and tail off after two or three years. They rarely go broody, so they will not hatch chicks for you.
- Pure and traditional breeds lay less, live longer, and go broody, which means they can raise the next generation. In the scenario this app describes, that matters: a flock that cannot reproduce itself is a flock with a few years in it.
- A sensible mix is hybrids for eggs now and a couple of a broody-prone traditional breed for continuity.
A cockerel is needed only for fertile eggs. They are noisy, sometimes aggressive, and frequently the reason a neighbourhood turns against poultry keeping. Consider whether the ability to hatch chicks is worth it where you live, and take it seriously if you are planning for the long term.
Eggs through the year
Production falls in winter, and this catches new keepers out.
Hens need roughly 14 hours of daylight to lay consistently. In a British winter they do not get it, so laying slows or stops from about November to February.
- Accept it and preserve the surplus: eggs keep for months in water glass. See water-glassing eggs, which is the page that turns a summer surplus into winter protein.
- Or add light on a timer to extend the day to 14 hours, which works and is thought to shorten a hen's productive life.
- They also stop during the annual moult, in late summer or autumn, for several weeks. This is normal and they look terrible.
- Laying declines with age. A hybrid's second year is noticeably down on her first.
Collect eggs daily, and more often in hot or freezing weather. Store them somewhere cool, unwashed, pointed end down. Washing removes the natural bloom that keeps them fresh, so only wash them immediately before use.
Health and hygiene
Routine health:
- Red mite is the commonest problem. It lives in the coop rather than on the bird, hides in crevices by day, and feeds at night. Check under perches with a torch after dark. Treat the coop rather than the birds, thoroughly and repeatedly.
- Worms, treated with a licensed wormer on a routine.
- Scaly leg mite, treated by smothering with petroleum jelly or a proprietary treatment.
- Watch for: a bird apart from the flock, hunched, not eating, a pale comb, laboured breathing, or a dirty vent. A hen hiding illness until it is severe is normal, so a bird that looks off needs attention promptly.
- Sudden deaths in several birds, or wild birds found dead nearby, should be reported. That is the avian influenza route and it matters to everybody.
The honest costs
- Setup: a coop and run is the main cost, and a well-built one lasts many years. Second-hand and home-built both work.
- Feed is the ongoing cost and it is not trivial. Hens do not feed themselves on forage in a British garden, particularly in winter, and the lawful feeding rules mean you are buying feed.
- Time: ten minutes a day, plus a proper clean regularly. Every day, including Christmas, and including when you are ill.
- Holidays. Somebody has to do it, which is another reason to know your neighbours.
- Death. Birds die, foxes get in, and hens stop laying long before they stop living. Decide in advance what happens to a hen that has stopped laying, because it is a real question and it arrives sooner than people expect.