I have searched through previous threads but haven't really concluded my question.

I understand you can't keep chickens in a council house/garden and it may say in your deeds (which I don't have because the property is rented).

Is there any overall rule? Does the chicken run/coop need to be a certain distance from houses? I have a fairly long garden which backs onto a pub car park.

Also what kind of space do they need? (I'm looking at the possibility of one or the other at the moment).

Obviously I will be getting battery/rescue birds if the time comes and do my research properly, and get appropriate housing/care for them. I just wondered if I am actually allowed to. I would need to check with my landlord obviously, but he has been quite open about our menagerie so far.

Oh and Linchiplulu (mum) this is purely hypothetical :hihi: (she doesn't live with me btw just doesn't understand my love for animals).

....Oh and Linchiplulu (mum) this is purely hypothetical :hihi: (she doesn't live with me btw just doesn't understand my love for animals).
I don't think my family understand that either! :hihi:

If you get in touch with environemental health at Sheffield city council they will be able to tell you about regulations for keeping animals. Chickens are classed as livestock not pets and I am not sure if you require a license to keep poultry.

Just a bit of advice, make sure you have fences which are chicken proof as they can get through small holes into neighbours gardens and cause havoc! Also although they cannot fly some are pretty good at escaping especially if there are shrubs / trees near your boundry, they like to roost in low branches and can easily hop up and down branches and they dont care if this takes them next door - or into the pub garden in your case.

Unless you are looking at breeding dont get a cockerel 0 it will drive you and your neighbours insane! Plus just check on getting ex-battery hens. The reason most are 'retired' are that they do not lay anymore and you could spend alot on feed and housing with little return in the way of eggs.

My parents kept chickens as I was growing up and I loved feeding the hens and playing with the chickens, they were pets as much as a source of food, good luck with it.

Thanks for that, very helpful :D

Does anyone have any experiences of keeping chickens or ducks they can share with me? Also, any guidelines for sized enclosures please.

I know nothing about keeping chickens, but on another forum I go on, quite a few of them have an eglu (http://www.omlet.co.uk/homepage/homepage.php) to keep their chickens in and seem to rave about it.

Depending where you live make sure it is fox proof - ie has an enclosed top on the run for when you go out and at night.

I phoned environmental health at SCC and they said it was fine to keep them in a domestic garden. It seemed hard to believe there are no regulations, I cant believe more people don't! They said I could call back if I wanted more info as they can advise you on how to. Give them a call, no will be on the SCC website.

I decided against it as living in the middle of a terraced area I thought it a little unfair for my neighbours....

If youv'e not got a lot of space either I would recommend bantis though - small chucks and nice eggs :0)

e x

If you have a look on www.farmingads.co.uk or somethig live Firday ads or other tradersites you will find pleany of chicks, henc, eggs, runs and houses etc for sale.

I am wanting to get 2 or 3 chickens in my garden (garden is about 220m2)
It is an ex-council house, and in the deeds it says no live stock, but have heard you can get this changed, does anyone know how

We live in clifton, rotherham.

Is anyone else keeping chickens in there garden @ rotherham. Did you have to contact the council.

Any advice is welcome

I am wanting to get 2 or 3 chickens in my garden (garden is about 220m2)
It is an ex-council house, and in the deeds it says no live stock, but have heard you can get this changed, does anyone know how

We live in clifton, rotherham.

Is anyone else keeping chickens in there garden @ rotherham. Did you have to contact the council.

Any advice is welcome

you can wright to the council for permission phone them to find out what department to wright too

goodluck :)

I am wanting to get 2 or 3 chickens in my garden (garden is about 220m2)
It is an ex-council house, and in the deeds it says no live stock, but have heard you can get this changed, does anyone know how

We live in clifton, rotherham.

Is anyone else keeping chickens in there garden @ rotherham. Did you have to contact the council.

Any advice is welcome

Beware of foxes! I kept a couple of chickens in my garden when I lived back in Birmingham, and I thought they were well locked up at night, but a fox got one of them, so I had to re-home the other.

Mod: Threads merged.

I keep a few hens in my garden - have done for years.

I keep them in Eglus as the run is fox resisitant and also there is a very much reduced chance of the dreaded red mite taking hold and wiping out your flock. Also they are dead easy to keep clean.

Regarding regulations, so long as you don't keep too many hens, or a rooster in an urban setting, are considerate about noise (I refuse to accept that a few hens clucking and occassionally bok bokking are any noisier than lawn mowers, sirens, burglar and car alarms, children playing etc) you should have no problems, as long as your deeds/landlord don't object.

Be aware that you might notice a few more rats about as naturally they will be attracted to the food. Your neighbours might seize upon this and grumble so be rigorous in baiting and trapping.

Am happy to share my hen keeping experiences.

I also have two hens in an eglu in the garden, they were rescue ladies so only one actually lays any eggs for us. But they are lovley pets, a pleasure to watch and they help keep the slug population to a minimum.
I had to run chicken wire round all the boundrys because the ladies like the look of the lady next doors immaculate lawn and did get out once.
All in all as long as you do not mind clearing up the huge amounts of poop they are great.

I too am getting some chickens and can't wait! I've been doing a bit of reading up and some guidelines I've found state about 1ft square space for each chicken indoors ( in hen house) and 4ft square of outdoor space per chicken.

I have had a look at the eglus and although they look quite funky they are quite expensive and they seem a bit small for the amount of hens they reckon can be kept in them, but must admit have not seen one in person though so maybe bigger in real life.

I have spoken with my local environmental health team who advised there were no restrictions on keeping chickens but that I would need to be aware of smell/noise/damage to other gardens etc and if anyone felt the need to complain then the complaints would have to be investigated but as long as they can see your looking after them and making sure they don't escape and eat your neighbours gardens then you can keep em.

My neighbours are really good so I don't think I will have any issues and a man a few doors away had chickens up until last year too.

Have you registered your interest with any of the hen rescue teams? I know that the North London rescue team is due to do a rescue oct/nov time and they have pick up points in Sheffield/rotherham.

ex battery are fine and will continue to lay for quite a while,the reason why they are rehome o slaughtered is because supermarket does not accept the eggs when they get to 18 months old as the shells are thiner,other than that there are nothing wrong with the eggs at all,the same happens to the free range chickens,they have to go at 18 months old

You'll only need to register the flock with DEFRA if you keep 50 or more hens. However you can register voluntarily. DEFRA also have a free text and email alert service should there be an outbreak of any notifyable diseases in the area.

I'm the local co-ordinator for the North London Hen Rescue so feel free to pm me and come and look at my ex-batts, hen house and ask any questions. Battery hens are sent for slaughter at approx 72 weeks old as they generally enter their first moult then. Egg production drops as they put the protein into feather growth rather than making eggs and they tend to lay less than the 6 eggs per week that makes them commercially viable. However hens can lay for years to come. They do tend to lay less eggs, however they do seem to be bigger eggs. Unfortunately they are not "retired" but are sent to slaughter to go into pet and baby food.

I have a couple of pure bred hens along with the ex-batts. One in particular is quite talkative and both are considerably more flighty. But there are quite a few good breeds out there for beginners which are relatively docile and good layers.

I would definately make certain your housing is fox proof, and remember they are clever, determined creatures that can clear 5' fences and dig underneath them! Eglu's do have a good reputation however are incredably expensive considering the basic needs of a hen and I mady my house out of recycled materials which cost only £20 in total, compared with the £600 for an eglu cube or £200 for a new wooden built ark or shed.

And I too have had to fence them in.... my couple of acres to free range in was nowhere near as exciting as next doors veg patch!

Hi I have had xbattery hens till last week , when a Dog broke in to my pen, and clawes and Clawed and the Chicken Wire to get to them while i was out walking my own Dog, its very inportant to protect from Dogs as well as Foxes, i was devastated, but my xbatterys were laying and they were so Friendley, and un like pure breeds did not claw at the Garden, and they were very quiet, i will get some more once we have moved, they are Easy to keep as long as you clean them out regular, and you can feed all your house hold Scraps, pluss a little infor Go on the websight Down the lane, lots of wonderful INFOMATION FOR keeping chooks.

Hi I have had xbattery hens till last week , when a Dog broke in to my pen, and clawes and Clawed and the Chicken Wire to get to them while i was out walking my own Dog, its very inportant to protect from Dogs as well as Foxes, i was devastated, but my xbatterys were laying and they were so Friendley, and un like pure breeds did not claw at the Garden, and they were very quiet, i will get some more once we have moved, they are Easy to keep as long as you clean them out regular, and you can feed all your house hold Scraps, pluss a little infor Go on the websight Down the lane, lots of wonderful INFOMATION FOR keeping chooks.

Clawing is nothing to do with the pure breed or hybrid as it varies depending on actual breed of bird. Chicken wire isn't strong enough to protect. For protection you need weld mesh with small holes.

well kick somone when there down why don,t you, i was told this info by chicken breeders and people that get xbats to use chicken wire, and if its no good why do that sale it, it seems you must be very Rich, if you have the perfect wire, Good luck. not

well kick somone when there down why don,t you, i was told this info by chicken breeders and people that get xbats to use chicken wire, and if its no good why do that sale it, it seems you must be very Rich, if you have the perfect wire, Good luck. not

:oWell pardon me for trying to help you and stop it happening again. :roll: They sell chicken wire as it is useful for the purpose it was intended. Weld mesh is only slightly more expensive than chicken wire. I won't bother adding any more information to help you to fox/dog/rat proof your coop and run if you are going to be nasty, purile and rude.

Heeley City Farm
Details of the next Chicken keeping workshop on Sat 17th March starting at 10am. Places are limited so book your places now!!


just seen this, thought it may help

I got a big roll of weldmesh off ebay for about the same price as normal chicken wire from the local DIY store. My girls, all bar 3 are kept in a converted garden shed, with a run that looks a bit like a car port, with all the sides covered in mesh and buried. For good measure, we have flags around the perimeter. We used the garden shed idea because we had tried a regular all in one hen house and a) it crippled me trying to clean it out b) our 3 girls looked rather cramped in the run! The downside was that having gone to a shed, there was loads of room so we simply had to have a few more hens. Which is why we now have 15 in there! Did anyone tell you it is addictive?

I have just bought a chicken hut and 2.5m run with the intention of getting a few layers. Does anyone know the best place (local to Sheffield) to buy chickens that will lay eggs. Must admit although it says for 8 chickens, don't think I would be happy keeping more than 3, its pretty small. Do you usually just leave them in the run or let them roam around , at least while you are at home in the daytime? Any advice accepted. OO and I obviously dont want any breed that may be loud for the neighbours although we are detached.

I have just bought a chicken hut and 2.5m run with the intention of getting a few layers. Does anyone know the best place (local to Sheffield) to buy chickens that will lay eggs. Must admit although it says for 8 chickens, don't think I would be happy keeping more than 3, its pretty small. Do you usually just leave them in the run or let them roam around , at least while you are at home in the daytime? Any advice accepted. OO and I obviously dont want any breed that may be loud for the neighbours although we are detached.

How big is the Coop (bed area) and how big is the pop hole and next boxes? Most coops do give silly figures of how many you can keep in there, even if you only have bantams. If we tell you want we do we need to qualify it by explaining the breeds we keep and how secure our garden is. I will explain what I do. I only keep large fowl as I like mine to free range and we have birds of prey around here as its semi rural. I have an eight foot chain link fence with a spikey hedge growing through it to its fairly secure but a determined fox could get in. I have three bantams in a coop and run full time, they don't come out unless I'm handling them.

Some breeds neet to be kept out of the rain and on dry ground whereas some breeds are very hardy.

well kick somone when there down why don,t you, i was told this info by chicken breeders and people that get xbats to use chicken wire, and if its no good why do that sale it, it seems you must be very Rich, if you have the perfect wire, Good luck. not

Chicken wire is designed to keep chickens in not to keep predators out. You would be better off using weldmesh.