If you are thinking you would like to keep chickens as a pet you will need to confirm with your local council of their rules and regulations on the number of chickens you are allowed.

The next step is to measure the area you are going to use for your chicken house or chicken coop.

You will need to consider how many chickens will be living in the chicken house as they will require adequate floor space for each chicken.

Chicken houses should have good ventilation and at the same time should be able to keep your chickens dry in bad weather. The chicken house should have a temperature control and protection from predators.

In bad weather you want your chickens to stay warm and comfortable in the chicken house and able to shelter in the chicken house in hot, sunny weather

A large chicken run should be attached to the chicken house allowing plenty of room for your chickens to run around in.

At Ideas-4-Pets we have a choice of different chicken house designs and supporting chicken runs for you to choose from.

The chicken houses and our chicken run products are made form Scandinavian wood and are maintenance free. Scandinavian wood has a reputation for being a wood which will not rot.

Our staffs at Ideas-4-Pets are here to help if you require information on any of our chicken runs and products.

Surviving modern predation

Chickens on farms are always under threat of predation from wild animals and predators. Believe it or not, so are your city chicks. Your birds can fall prey to cats, dogs, predatory birds, urban foxes and more. It may seem like a novel and free spirited idea to allow your chickens to roam free on your lawn. However, they are very vulnerable there. Your chickens cannot protect themselves against predators; so you must ensure their safety.

Attaching a chicken run to you chicken coop or chicken house is the best way to keep your poultry safe. You can have a beautiful mesh chicken run to allow your chickens the freedom to roam around on your lawn safely.

We are proud to offer you a fantastic variety. You can choose from a chicken run that is just large enough for one or two chickens to peck around in. Or you can choose a chicken run that ranges in size up to being large enough for many birds to roam in. The size and shape of your chicken run will depend on the space you have available.

Chick magnet

The right chicken house can be the greatest chick magnet around. Here at Ideas-4-Pets we offer you a wide selection of chicken houses to choose from. You can choose from simple and stand alone chicken houses or a chicken house that comes complete with a run. For those keeping only one or two chickens it may be worth while looking into the chicken house and run combinations.

These offer you the best of both worlds. However, those opting to keep more feathered friends, you may want to look into large houses with separate runs. We offer you small chicken houses to suit one or two small bantam chickens to houses big enough to house up to 100 birds. It will be easy to find and pick the perfect chicken house for your needs.

Although the smaller houses are cheaper, it is not a good idea to purchase a house that is not big enough for your chickens. Choosing the right size chicken house is important for the comfort and health of the chickens.

It is therefore essential to make sure you buy a coop that is going to be large enough to house all your chickens comfortably.  There are no hard and fast rules governing the amount of room each chicken needs and here at ideas-4-pets we offer guidelines from the supplieri of the chicken coop and also the recommendations of the Poultry Club of Gret Britain.  Both these guidelines are on each chicken house product page and then it is up to the individual chicken keep to make an educated decision on which coop will best fit their needs.

Investing in a quality, well built chicken coop is a must as this will ensure a draught-free environment for your chickens.  If you consider purchasing a larger coop, you will know that your chickens will be warm and comfortable and will also appreciate the extra space and ventilation. Buying a larger chicken coop also means that cleaning it out will be less of a hassle and you can always add to you flock at a later date.

The height of the chicken coop is also something worth considering, particularly if you are intending to purchase larger chickens who will need plenty of head room to be comfortable. Another tip to consider if purchasing larger chickens is larger nestboxes because if the nesting boxes are too small, your chickens may start laying their eggs on the floor of the chicken coop.

Chicken coops with a raised roosting area are always a good idea as being raised from the ground will help to prevent vermin and predators from entering the chicken house and will also allow your chickens to have a place that is always dry.  Many hens also enjoy roosting higher up, so this is another advantage.

When purchasing any chicken coop, it is wise to make sure that it is waterproof, has good ventilation, suitable perches and nesting area and is easily kep clean. It is also a good idea to make sure that the coop is built in a way that is practical for egg collection so look for those that have an panel that drops down or opens, or a door that you can easily open to collect the eggs.

As chickens need space to run and scratch around in, if you don’t want your garden ruining and haven’t an allotment or spare ground, then purchase a chicken run.  You will know that your hens are reasonably safe from predators and won’t get lost.

ideas-4-pets have a huge selection of chicken coops to suit all types of chicken keepers, from the novice to the professional and they will house from 2 to 100 chickens comfortably.

There are hen houses with runs attached which are ideal if you are short of space and these also follow the avian flu guidelines as they have a roof on to stop wild birds from dropping inside the run area.  We also have hen runs that butt up against the coop to provide lots of extra space for your birds and these can also be used independantly.

And lastly, don’t forget the feeders and drinkers !!

Keeping chickens is also profitable because believe it or not, each chicken you keep (after feeding) can save you about £65.00 each year, so if you were thinking of keeping four chickens, you would save about £268.00 a year.

For this amount of money you could buy 300 free range eggs in the supermarket where the average price of a free range egg is about 27p per egg.  Some supermarkets are charging as much as 35p (and more) for an egg of the organic variety !!

Keeping chickens is fun, relaxing, and low maintenance, and they make productive pets and are a magnet for children.  Hens, like children, are bossy, demanding, endlessly curious and easily gratified.  They are funny to watch, make great friends with you and lay eggs too !!  But be warned, chickens also like to have dust baths, peck at your tomatoes and can make a chaotic mess of the garden.   The upside to this is that when the growing season is over they will eat pests, aerate the soil and leave fertilizer around as well as having a good time scratching in the dirt !! 

They are not as silly as a lot of people think either – they can be trained to answer to their name and will run towards you when you call them.

The major purchase is of course the chicken coop and these are available in different shapes and sizes to suit your garden, allotment, amount of birds you intend to keep etc. 

You will also have to provide your chickens will room to roam and scratch and run around and this could be in a covered chicken run or in the open air if you have the room.  It is however adviseable not to let chickens run loose in a neat garden that is precious to you and your family as chickens love to scratch around and will ruin a cultured garden very quickly !!

The more space you can allow your chickens, the happier they’ll be.  The term “pecking order” originated with hens and they will peck at each other for all sorts of reasons.  However, it is mostly to keep other chickens away from their little treasures, whether that be a glistening drop of rain or a juicy bug to eat !!  If they are given enough space, these little spats are harmless but when chickens get too crowded in their chicken house or their chicken run, they can become ruthless and have even been known to peck each other to death.   How much space your hens need depends on their sizes and breeds and the farmer or the breeder should be able to advise you wisely on this.

Feed and feeders are probably the next thing on the list and then the straw or hay for the nesting area of the poultry house.

All in all,the cost of setting up your hens will soon be raked back by the pleasure, interest and savings that will be gleaned from keepin them.

Many people have watched Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall on the TV advocating the plight of chickens and subsequently mamy people have started to keep their own hens.

Some have decided to rescue battery hens and to give them a better life after they are passed their “sell date” and have discontinued laying.  Some of these hens then start laying again once their quality of life has improved.  Other people have opted to keep chickens in their back garden or their allotment because they want to have fresh eggs and prefer these to come from free-range hens.

 Whatever the reasons, chicken keeping is fast becoming a very popular pastime and commitment for UK citizens. There are of course several things to take into consideration before embarking on this hobby.

There must always be a clean source of water available for your chickens and if you introduce new chickens you must provide them with familiar drinkers to drink from as chickens are wary of new ones that they aren’t used to.  Ideas-4-pets have a range of suitable drinkers for both young chicks – ones that prevent them from climbing in and drowning – and as the birds get bigger and require more water, we have a different range of drinkers.

Chickens tend to spend much of their day scratching and foraging for small seeds and roots in the ground but they will need additional food like grain to provide an adequate balance of protein, carbohydrates and minerals.  As the female birds mature they will begin to lay eggs and at this stage a calcium supplement should be included in the diet. If they are kept on a grassed area, the grass shouldn’t be allowed to become too long because they may eat it and the long stalks can become impacted in their crop, making it difficult for the birds to digest food.  Chickens should always have access to insoluble grit as well as this aids digestion.

Laying chickens should be encouraged to lay their eggs in a designated nest box area within their chicken coop, especially if you intend to eat the eggs.   Make sure that the chicken house is quality made and draught-free and line the nesting boxes with clean, dry and comfortable material such as straw or wood shavings.  It’s worth checking the size of the pop hole to make sure that it is large enough for the chickens of your choice to get through and having a sliding door so that you can lock the chickens safely in at night is a good feature.

Many chickens prefer to find a quiet, isolated place to lay their eggs away from their pen mates so make sure that the chicken coop you choose is large enough to provide this private area.  Some chickens naturally seek a raised position to roost at dusk as this offers them protection against predators.  Some of the chicken houses on ideas-4-pets site offer a raised nesting area with a ramp that leads into the covered chicken run.  Your chickens should be offered a nesting a rea that has raised perches approximately 3-5cm in width with rounded edges, to enable the birds to grip.  Make sure there is enough perching space to allow all the chickens to roost at the same time, with at least one square meter of floor space for nine birds.

Chickens love to dust bathe and this behaviour help them to maintain good feather condition and they also like to have room to preen their feathers.  The chicken coop should be bedded with clean straw, cleaned out frequently, and checked to ensure that there are no harmful parasites which could damage your birds’ health.  Adequate ventilation is also very important for your birds because although it’s important to keep them  warm, there should be good air circulation inside the coop.  When hens roost, they enjoy being near each other as this gives them a greater sense of safety but make sure there’s enough space at either side of the perch for the hens get up and down from these without injuring themselves.

As mentioned before, many chicken coops have an integral chicken run or one that is attached to the coop.  Some chicken owners like to move the coop around their garden or allotment as this allows the chickens to have new pastures to scratch at. 

However, if you intend to let your hens wander around outside the coop without a chicken run, then this area will require careful management and should be given periods of rest to allow the ground and grass to recover after the hens have scratched it up.  Make sure that the area is sufficiently large enough to be divided – unless there are alternative grass areas nearby to use – in order to allow the chickens to roam on good pasture every day.  Unless the outside area has the coop on it, make sure you have an overhead shelter available to protect your hens against direct sunlight, strong wind and driving rain. 

I advised him that keeping chickens would probably take up more time that he seemed to expect, especially as he had never kept them before, because although chickens are less demanding than a lot of other types of domestic pet, they still attention,  access to fresh water, fresh food, a suitable quality chicken coop and have access to soil so that they can dig up the odd worm and insect.

Chickens can’t be left for days on end with just a big bucket of food for company. They need daily, regular attention. In fact, if you have any idea what it’s like to own a dog, then treat the caring of your chickens in the same way.  The main difference being that you don’t need to take your chickens for a walk or a run in the fields. 

Keeping chickens isn’t an expensive hobby, but you do need to purchase a quality hen house and chicken run and you will also have to look at the price of feed, supplements and vitamins. There are several types of chicken coops or chicken houses on the market but it is wise to consider how many chickens you’re planning to keep and make your decision from there.

The amount of eggs you can glean from your chickens easily pays this outlay back providing you have layers!  Chickens tend to live up to about 15 years old and can lay for a large part of their life but it’s worth remembering that a healthy, happy chicken will lay for a lot longer than one that is poorly kept and ignored.

If you’re a newcomer to chicken keeping, then it’s adviseable to keep only standard breeds such as the Rhode Island Red, the Marran or the Silver Sussex.  Don’t buy a chicken purely on it’s looks, as cross-breeds and exotics can be unpredictable in nature and behaviour.  We’ve been informed by some of our customers that some types of birds are known for being extremely noisy and will crow all day long. Your neighbours will certainly not take kindly to this trait if you live in a residential area and intend to keep them in your back garden !!

Certain other breeds are poor at resisting disease and require much more attention and a greater level of pampering from their owners.  Some types of chicken are not good layers and others may be susceptible to being attacked by other chickens.  This is known as being “lower down the pecking order” as they are lower down in the hierarchy of chickens.

You really do need to choose chickens that lay well, are easily tamed,  are physically strong and not known for being too noisy.  The birds that always seem to meet these requirements are the good old faithful Rhode Island Reds.

If you haven’t kept chickens before then 3 birds is a good number to start with.  Don’t ever keep one chicken because they are social creatures and need contact with birds of their own kind.   A lone chicken will suffer from being lonely and will not lay well.  Any more than three and you will very soon see the mess they create in terms of chicken poo and the amount of scratching about they do is unbelieveable !!

If you have 6 chickens or more don’t forget the difference it will make to the noise levels because more chickens means more birds competing to be top hen.  It’s also worth remembering that the amount of space they will need around them also changes dramatically.  That means larger chicken coops and larger chicken runs.  A good guide is to allow approx. 1 square foot for a small breed bird, 1 1/2 square feet for a medium sized bird and 2 square feet for a large breed chicken.

On average, one hen will lay one egg a day during the summer months, so this will maybe give you some idea of how many hens to purchase.

There are lots of chicken coops to choose from and generally they are made from wood.  Provided you either purchase a tanalised chicken coop or treat it with non-toxic wood preserve annually, these are good because they provide your chickens with a warm, dry environment.  Make sure they are well ventilated and  have an external egg box for easy egg collecting.

Some versions of chicken coops need a chicken run to go with them, but some of the newer versions can come with an integrated outer cage to act as the chicken run. These are ideal for bantams and smaller breeds or if you intend to keep 3 or 4 medium sized birds (dependant upon the size of the coop) Chickens love to roam around and scratch about so the more space you can provide them with the better. One curious bird can scratch every bit of interesting earth from a space 10 feet square within a couple of days, so that information gives you some idea of the space they require.

After all that, chicken keeping seems to be the hobby of the day and is becoming increasingly popular with people of all ages – whether retired or young families.

Our customer bought a chicken coop with an integrated run area and invested in 3 chickens and we are told that his venture has been very successful and his young son is enjoying the experience tremendously.

ideas-4-pets recommend that the minimum floor area of the chicken coop should be a minimum of approx. 1 square foot per bird (large fowl) or 8″ square for bantams. Obviously, if you can give your chickens more space then so much the better as they will be spending a certain amount of time in the hen house sheltering from the rain and wind, expecially in the colder winter months. Perches should allow a minimum of approx. 9″ for larger breeds of hen and approx. 6″ for bantams and 2″ square with the top edges rounded is ideal. Make sure that they are at the correct height for the breed of hens you have, so they can get on them easily and have room to stand up on them.  If you have more than one perch, make sure there is about 12″ between them.

The hens house should have the correct amount of ventilation as this is vital to prevent the build-up of bacteria and condensation. The ventilation is better if it is near the roof as this ensures that there are no draughts in the chicken coop and is usually fox-proof. Remember, that it is more difficult to keep a hen house cool rather than warm.

It’s a good idea to have a square mesh window that has a sliding cover to allow for adjusting the ventilation.  If you have this located near the roof, it will avoid letting draughts into the coop. One window is usually enough, as this allows you to place the hen house with its back to the wind.

It’s worth knowing that the amount of light in the coop, increases egg laying.  It’s recommended that 14 hours is the optimum and you can add artificial light to come on with a timer in the early morning, which allows the birds natural twilight to choose their roost.

Choosing a hen house of quality timber is essential and if fund allow, then go for pressure treated or Tanalised as it will last you for up to 20 years without rotting and without having to treat it annually . A slightly sloping roof is a good idea as this allows the rain to run off easily.

Most hen houses have a felt roof which are fine, but just bear in mind that red mites can breed in felt so you need to check for this and take appropriate action where necessary.  Plywood can be used if it is treated with non-toxic pet-friendly preservative or purchase a chicken coop with a corrugated clear plastic roof which will let in light and will also deter red mites who seem to thrive in dark places..

Ensure that your hen house has a nesting box as hens tend to like to lay their eggs in secret places.  12″ square is fine for larger breeds of bird or 8″ square for bantams with one nest box per four hens. Communal nest boxes with no partitions are also useful as sometimes all your hens will choose just one nestbox and either queue up or all pile in together.  Unfortunately this means that your eggs can get broken. Use shavings or straw in here, but not hay as this soon gets mouldy and unhygienic and can cause breathing problems.

Make sure you have outside access into your hen house as you will need to collect the eggs, but remember to provide adequate protection from  foxes, rats and mice.  As mentioned abovoe, 1″ square mesh over the ventilation areas will help keep out all but the smallest of vermin.

Movable hen houses with hen runs are good as your hens will get fresh ground regularly. Some have wheels on them which makes moving them easy, and some have stretcher handles which allow you to move them with a four man lift.
When choosing your hen house, ideas-4-pets would recommend that you go for the basic principles mentioned above but remember how important ease of access is – both for collecting the eggs and for cleaning.  Don’t make the job hard for yourself – get the housing right and the rest will be easy !!