Meeting at Banff Castle about the Chickens

There was an meeting on Friday 12th of August at Banff castle about the chickens and how we will look after them. At the meeting there was Jay Wilson the manger of Banff castle, Mark McDermott the manger of Banff day services, Emma Watt, me (Harry Rusling), Zander Sutherland, Linda Gibson, Darius Gibson, Kaitlin Gibson, Susie Bijl, Duncan Bijl and Hamish Bijl who are all involved with the Community Chicken Project at Banff Castle. We talk about how the chickens would be kept by organising and making a bigger run for them. We also finish the chicken rota and we also tell everyone who is on the chicken rota what to do on their days. We also suggested that we can use spray for cleaning out the coop to stop the chickens from getting mites. We also agree on are agenda and aims and objectives which were to have fun, to work together as a responsible community group to learn about chicken keeping and basic animal husbandry, to encourage individuals and recognise the strengths of all involved, to run a project that the members of the group are responsible for as a collective, to ensure that everyone in the group is clear about their responsibilities and to decide on a strategy to make the project sustainable.

Like all living creatures, chickens need to be looked after and and well cared for if they are to thrive. Weekends away are usually no problem if they are in a self contained house and run unit, secure from predators. foxes are the arch enemy and the birds must be protected against them. Dogs,strangecats and evenmink, in some areas, can be a problem.Hawks can also be a problemin some regions. Large drinkers and feeders will usually last for a couple of days without supervision. longer periods will require friends family or neighbours.

Introduction to chicken keeping

We want to give you tips on how to look after the chickens at the Banff castle community chicken project and your own chickens.

These tips are from a book called Starting with Chickens A Beginner's Guide by author Katie Thear.

 Chickens will live happily in a garden, which are ideal habitats as long as there is wind shelter and from predators. They are relatively inexpensive to keep, and if managed sensibly, will not damage plants. Even the smallest garden has room for afew bantams. Provide a clean house and run, with no stale food and droppings left lying around to attract rodents. Avoid having a cockerel if you have close to neighbours who are likely to complain. It is untrue that hens lay better with one. The opposite is the case for they will not be at risk from his spurs or have infections passed to them. Some cockerels can also be dangerous to small children. Game breeds were, after all, valued for their fight to the death qualities before cock fighting was made illegel a century and ahalf ago! Males are only needed for breeding. A clean, regularly replenished feeder and drinker are essential. Chickens need a proprietary feed such as layer's pellets or mash and grain feed such as wheat. Clean fresh water is essential at all times. Inwinter when it is frosty, checks are needed to ensure this. Flower beds do need to be protected against the hens' scratching, of course. Left unrestricted, they will soon trash agarden. Bedding plants are just like weeds to chickens and are scratched up accordingly. They are no respecters of vegetable beds either, and are partial to greens. In fact, it is a good idea to hang up some garden greens such as cabbages, lettuce and home-grown parsley for them to peck at in the run. They provide added minerals in their diet, and also prevent boredom.  

Chicken keeping story link

This is the Guardian story link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/aug/01/keeping-hens?INTCMP=SRCH

And this is the Daily Mail link
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2021238/Thinking-keeping-hens-garden-Heres-chicken-out.html

If you want to learn more about people keeping chickens, click this link and read the story.

Read about the hen revolution- 700000 people have joined! Arise of 80% in three years.

The Chickens Are Here!