I have recently got 3 chickens. I have a feeling there are a few people on here with chickens too. I am just wondering if there is a chicken equivalent of champdogs? (Champchickens?? :) )as being a new poultry keeper I have a few questions. Thanks

There are several useful pages on Facebook.  I have 11 chickens, had them just over a year and they seem very happy...

I am getting some in the new year so getting all the necessities as crimbo pressies.  I am really looking forward to it and thinking of getting 4 to start with.

What kind do you both have?  It is almost as exciting as getting a pup!

I have 3 Lavender Orpingtons. Someone I know has them and hatched me some eggs! It is great fun. Unfortunately one has turned out to be male though so he will be going back to her. I am hoping She will soon have some more eggs to hatch to replace him.

I've always wanted Orp's, never found anyone up here who does them.
There are a few good chook forums, I used to go on them when I first started, loads of great information and well worth a look.

I have 2 Ambers, 2 Goldlines, 2 Black Rocks, 3 Blacktails and 2 White Rangers - they are amazing pets, loads of character and so friendly.  The eggs, well you'll never taste any better

Can I just add in case you don't know (and I apologise if you do), when you replace the boy, try to get 2 newbies as the established girls will pick on a single new comer and can cause serious injuries or even death. Also, if you ever decide to expand, you will need to quarantine any new birds for at least 2 weeks.

Chickens are drawn to red and will peck and peck so flip flops and red nail polish are not a good mix and should they peck each other and bleed...use venetian violet spray to cover the wound. Corn flour is good for emergencies.

Celli, there is someone in forfar in angus who breeds/sells buff orpingtons but not the other colours if that is any use.

There is a brilliant forum/info site, can't for the life of me think of the name though!  Will see if I can find it.  I need to anyway, now Remy has left us I am planning to finally get some chooks myself next year (Remy made a hobby of frightening my quails to death so I couldn't get any while he was still here!).

ETA gotta love Google!  There are two that I believe are really good:

http://www.practicalpoultry.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl

http://www.backyardchickens.com/f/

OMG Nikita - What have you done girl. 

I have just checked out the links that you posted.  Now I am seriously considering being a chook keeper.  :-)

It's a long time since I lived with chickens.  My father always had them.  Looking at some of the posts on those sites (which are now saved to favourites!) has really made me broody.  It's not as if I haven't got the room here, and everyone who has them and posted made me remember those days.

Mum & I have been planning on having a couple of chickens for the last 3 years.  She grew up with them and we had a flock while I was growing up,. too - and ducks.

It needs some radical reorganisation of our rather limited courtyard garden (including a designated dog-free zone). But unexpectedly, we seem to have acquired some rabbits in the meantime... it doesn't rule out the chickies, but will require even more planning of our space. One thing I am very concerned about is that there have been several rat infestations here in the past, as we are semi-rural - and that won't be good news for the rabbits or the dogs - unfortunately chickens do seem to attract vermin.

> She grew up with them and we had a flock while I was growing up,. too - and ducks.

Dad eventually progressed to ducks when he bought a bungalow with a lot of land.  It was very "country" and there was a narrow lane up to his property.  The council wouldn't get a waste disposal lorry up there, and my parents had to take their rubbish down to the main road.  It was several hundred yards to the road and they had a trolley to take the bins down.

To this day I don't know what people thought when they saw my mother take the trolley down.  She used to say "I'm taking the ducks for a walk."  And she really meant it.  They used to follow her and wait while she unloaded the trolley, then follow her back home.  Eccentric?  Probably.  But I know where I got it from now.

> Dad eventually progressed to ducks when he bought a bungalow with a lot of land.

We had a dozen Muscovy Ducks, who had the most amazing characters and of course, being all differently marked it was easy to spot who was who. They don't quack, but the girls peep, and the boys have various hissing tones. They can and do fly and even though we clipped the primaries on their wings (we were told trimming them back on one wing was enough), they still managed to do a one-winged circuit every morning - our townie neighbours complained. They also complained out our cockerels crowing.... *sigh* At that time we lived in a village and had three quarters of an acre. So I can see how any why people will/do complain about people keeping poultry in smaller more crowded housing situations. And nobody will tolerate wild rats.

> And nobody will tolerate wild rats

I am in an area where a couple of people have birds of prey.  They do demonstrations at agricultural shows and the like.  They had rats after their grain.  One winter I saw an adult rat stealing bread for the birds in my garden.  Of all the dogs I had only one was interested in the rat.  My Toy Poodle.  She went in for the kill and I didn't know that rats could scream until then.  So much for Miss Prim and Proper. 

>I am in an area where a couple of people have birds of prey.  They do demonstrations at agricultural shows and the like.  They had rats after their grain.

Birds of prey don't eat grain. ;-) Did they keep chickens as well, to need grain?

> OMG Nikita - What have you done girl. 

Mwahahaha!

Yes, sorry.  They had chickens.  Bit daft of me!

Thanks Ali, but I have my full quota of chooks for now :).

yes nikita ! would love some but I have a tiny garden three dogs and whole host of foxes who spend a lot of their time here waving two paws at the dogs

Lol!  There are foxes at the back of me (I'm on the edge of a golf course) but I've recently repaired the way they were getting into my garden, and my coop-to-be is a dog kennel and run with really strong welded steel mesh on it.  So when I get some chooks they should be safe :-)

I didn't know that about being attracted to red.  Getting chased round the garden by hens has got to be good exercise though lol