Keeping chickens on a narrow boat

[Tumshie]

This is totally not relevant but it was too cute not to post - it's a narrowboat FOR the chickens 

 

 

Edited March 27, 2019 by Tumshie

[hilary morton]

Just now, Tumshie said:

This is totally not relevant but it was too cute not to post - it's a narrowboat FOR the chickens 

 

 

Yes! I know! I saw it before, so cute...

[Jen-in-Wellies]

Have seen domesticated ducks being kept on a towed duck house behind a boat on the Trent & Mersey. Don't know the details of how they this worked. Do they ever get let out? Do they consider the duck house their home? How do they interact with local wild ducks when they arrive at a new mooring? Do they try and get back to their previous mooring? Protection from mink? No idea.

 

Jen

[Tony Brooks]

4 minutes ago, hilary morton said:

Well, certainly I do have  chickens, free-ranging in the garden,  but as yet I don't have a boat.  I wouldn't consider keeping these hens anyway as they are too big.  Just trying to figure out our options - we're planning to buy a boat next year in the UK, (so's I can be near my elderly mum in Guildford) - preferably a 45ft ish project boat.  To live on.  Certainly wouldn't keep chickens unless I knew they were happy!

That depends upon what you define as "near". Guildford is on the Rive Wey & Godalming navigation that is run by the National Trust who, I understand, do not allow live aboards. Just maybe you could find a marina that would but I suspect the nearest is at Pyrford and the fees will not be cheap. Eventually you might get a livaboard mooring on the Basingstoke Canal but that would be expensive and would probably take years. Thames marinas are well known for being expensive.

 

Before you do anything irrevocable please research  the live aboard mooring situation.

 

[doratheexplorer]

I kept 2 chooks before I moved aboard.  I looked into bringing them with me by creating a coop and run on the roof.  It does not work at all.  The chooks and structures will damage the roof.  You will have issues getting under low bridges.  You won't see where you're going.  Even if you plan to never move, the big issue is that it cannot be good for the welfare of the chickens.  Chickens like to peck and scratch around on the ground.  If you really want them, get a mooring with a garden next to it.

[Paul C]

......and welfare standards for chickens (or pets in general).

[Tumshie]

Just to reiterate what Jen in Wellies has said there are a lot of mink on the canals, they are just hunting machines which would happily take a chook and would keep coming back for them once they knew they were there. There are also snakes in certain parts too, not native but ones that people have released because they no longer want them, not to mention all the usual suspect like foxes. 

[hilary morton]

5 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

That depends upon what you define as "near". Guildford is on the Rive Wey & Godalming navigation that is run by the National Trust who, I understand, do not allow live aboards. Just maybe you could find a marina that would but I suspect the nearest is at Pyrford and the fees will not be cheap. Eventually you might get a livaboard mooring on the Basingstoke Canal but that would be expensive and would probably take years. Thames marinas are well known for being expensive.

 

Before you do anything irrevocable please research  the live aboard mooring situation.

 

Thank you - yes - still researching....

[roland elsdon]

30 minutes ago, hilary morton said:

Aha!  Do you know how they are kept?

Well most ate pretty unkempt and sone are covered in chicken shit

[Jen-in-Wellies]

15 minutes ago, Tumshie said:

This is totally not relevant but it was too cute not to post - it's a narrowboat FOR the chickens 

 

 

Fabricated by Stowe Hill Boats, from the shape of the bow.

 

Jen ?

Edited March 27, 2019 by Jen-in-Wellies

[Athy]

41 minutes ago, zenataomm said:

Would your raft have an electric motor to run off the one that's a battery?

If not put it on a short rope and pullet.

Just write down all of the options to comb through, and then every time you don't like one just scratch it.

Good luck cock

Thanks for your contribution, poultry though it be.

[Bee]

I've seen chickens kept in 3rd floor flats and a few other odd places but I don't think it would work very well on a boat. Small furrys are ok and cats and dogs but I wouldn't even consider a fish, bump the lock gates and goldie and his fishy friends could slop out onto the floor.

[Alan de Enfield]

18 minutes ago, Tumshie said:

There are also snakes in certain parts too, not native but ones that people have released because they no longer want them, not to mention all the usual suspect like foxes. 

Foxes release snakes ?

[Tumshie]

1 minute ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Foxes release snakes ?

It's a bit meta, but I suppose if the fox was worried about the snakes safety, though the lack of thumbs might make it difficult for the foxes to release anything ? you're probably right perhaps the foxes don't release them after all. 

[springy]

https://hnbc.org.uk/shop/cockerels-cut

 

historically it was ok 

 

springy

[Paul C]

.....and historically, we had tie stalls for cows.

[hilary morton]

41 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Have seen domesticated ducks being kept on a towed duck house behind a boat on the Trent & Mersey. Don't know the details of how they this worked. Do they ever get let out? Do they consider the duck house their home? How do they interact with local wild ducks when they arrive at a new mooring? Do they try and get back to their previous mooring? Protection from mink? No idea.

 

Jen

Interesting. Would love to know more about that.

[Athy]

39 minutes ago, Paul C said:

.....and historically, we had tie stalls for cows.

How pleasant for the fashion-conscious cow to be able to choose her neckwear to cut a dash at milking time. I suppose they had stalls selling jerseys too.

[ditchcrawler]

3 hours ago, Paul C said:

 

 

 

How about a well-trained duck?

I saw one of them riding the back of a canoe it had come the whole length of the Canal du Midi, that had had it since it hatched

 

3 hours ago, hilary morton said:

Aha!  Do you know how they are kept?

There are also chickens on one on the Llangollen and I have seen a Narrowboat towing a small fibreglass dingy with a coop on it. So yes you can. I have also seen them on the roof of a boat, the run only needs to be a foot high.

Edited March 27, 2019 by ditchcrawler

[Nut]

I think you're all clucking mad tbh

[MtB]

2 hours ago, rusty69 said:

I get our chickens from the Coop. I stopped buying them at Tesco (too much water). They live in the freezer.

 

 

Long ago I bought a freezer that said I could keep a chicken in it for up to three months. Rather surprised by this I decided to try it, but in the morning the chicken was dead. 

 

 

[tree monkey]

2 hours ago, Paul C said:

.....and historically, we had tie stalls for cows.

I'm not normally good at picking up subtle signals but would I be right in suggesting you don't think it's a good idea?

[Murflynn]

ref the O.P.

no.

no.

no.

[zenataomm]

Although my home is a small 35ft n.b. I have literally thousands of ducks and all manner of birds and animals. 

I keep them scattered all over the canal network, you may have seen some of them.

[Chris Williams]

Some of the old boaters used to keep chickens, they lived in the cratch, and ran free when the boat was tied up.  One old boy started up his engine and started off - the chickens ran to the next bridge 'ole and jumped on, one by one.  Read that in a book somewhere.