blogs > Family Eco Living > Keeping / rescuing chickens
Created Tuesday, August 18, 2009 by kazaddress
Last updated 902 days ago, by kazaddress
It costs around 50p a week to feed 3 chickens, Each chicken lay around 5 eggs a week. That’s over a dozen eggs a week for 50p!
Feed
Chickens eat corn, layers mash or layers Pellets. a large sack of normal layers pellets cost around £5, and a bag of organic layers pellets cost around £10. I feed mine a mixture of organic layers pellets and corn. They also eat up kitchen scraps (apart from meat)., and the “output” from the chickens is great for your compost bin.
Firm favourites with my hens have been fresh/tinned corn, marmite on toat, yoghurt and in the winter they like warm porridge with a pinch of cinnamon and some mixed seeds.
Battery hens
You can rescue ex battery hens for around 50p each (although most people leave a few £s as a donation to the charity). When you first get the hens they may not be able to walk properly, and will have few feathers, but it only takes 3-4 weeks for them to recover, and they become very tame.
Hen-housing
I decided to get a eglu from www.omlet.co.uk The main reason for this is that it I very easy to keep clean, and is fox proof.