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keeping chickens afloat

yallapilko

By yallapilko
in Living Afloat

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Lady Muck Veteran

Lady Muck

Posted
Posted
Lady Muck,where did you hear I can keep "domestic animals" on my BW mooring? We`d love a couple of goats which are well domestic guys. Great news !

 

Its in the standard long term mooring agreement - and no I dont think they mean goats

 

I quote

''General Conditions

15. You must not keep animals other than domestic pets at the mooring''

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Jonsue Explorer

Jonsue

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Its in the standard long term mooring agreement - and no I dont think they mean goats

 

I quote

''General Conditions

15. You must not keep animals other than domestic pets at the mooring''

 

I think you might find that as councils consider less than 5 chickens domestic pets, also there is some old laws/bylaws about fowl and numbers, so give the birds names that can be seen on their housing, keep the number of them reasonable, also do not do anything that causes distress or anoyance to others, wheres the problem! Bewarned Cock birds could cause problems with an early morning wake up call!

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  • 3 weeks later...
bastonjock Contributor

bastonjock

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id urge caution against keeping goats on a boat,they are a bit of a handfull,they eat just about anything including your friends flowers,the nanny goats are ok but billy goats stink,they have a musk which apparently even taints their meat.

 

as for Ostriches,these are an even bigger nono,i have a small holding and i looked into keeping a variety of animals and the Ostrich is positively dangerous,you require a dangerous animals licence to keep them.

 

as for chickens and ducks, the fox will go for the ducks first,then take the chickens,i lost about 100 chickens and ducks to foxes despite fencing and protected chicken coops.There are also strong laws about keeping cockerels,you can end up with an asbo if your cockerel is too noisey

 

My favourite animal of all is the pig,natures tractor and boy do they taste good

 

If i could keep the chickens beside the river,i would go for a chicken tractor,the heavier the better and have double strenght wire mesh to protect your birds,dont forget to dust them regularly with mite powder,put a tarpaulin down for a few days,let the underside become covered in snails and slugs,flip it over and watch the chickens go mad,chickens are also excellent for helping with organic farming,allow then to wander through your veggy patch.

 

Foxes will be a problem,they attack mainly at night but during spring to early summer they will hit during the daylight just as someone else said,there is no easy solution to foxes and there are lots of them on the nene,if you can get a dead rabbit and leave it hanging up about 2ft off the ground,if it goes missing then there is a fox about,electric fencing can help but its not totally fox proof, it can slso be moved to offer double protection for your chickens

 

Fresh eggs from your own chickens taste absolutely fantastic

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  • 3 years later...
Chop! Rising Star

Chop!

Posted
Posted (edited)

Glenda and I have bought Narrowboat Freyjs and butty Christina, mentioned here, and I'm glad to say that Christina still has her chicken coup in the bow and that we intend to keep it that way, the chickens travel in the bow, while under way.

The coup has sloping sides with a wire net run on the bottom and a house on top, when the chickens go up the ramp, there is a string that pulls the ramp up to close the chickens in. Then they can be lifted out onto the bank and then the run can be carried separately and re-assembled.

 

We're told that the chickens always came home when they heard the engine start!

 

There is a picture on our blog :- Narrowboats Freyja and Christina

Edited by Chop!
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Circe Community Regular

Circe

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We have a small Eglu and 4 chickens in our back garden. Never been tempted to take them on the boat, but I don't blame people for wanting them around - they've got lovely personalities.

 

The Eglu has been fab - it's cool in the summer and the girls seem to be very cosy in there in the winter too. Cleaning is a real doddle with it. However, we found that the run that came with the Eglu was way too small, so we built a much larger walk-in one - with a fox-proof floor. I suspect they'd have been fine with the Eglu run, but I'm not keen on them free ranging without someone around as we do get foxes.

 

Loving the sound of Christina and her chickens :D

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Mooresey Engager

Mooresey

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We have 3 chickens and it would be impossible and impractable to have them when you live on a boat. As has been said before chickens need to scratch and will need daly attention so leaving then to go sailing around would be impractable and not fair on them. They need protection from foxes and such like and to make sure they have enough food and water. If you leave them for a few days they will sit on the eggs and get broody and you won't get any more eggs for a while.

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bizzard Veteran II

bizzard

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If you want to keep chickens afloat i suggest kitting them out with mini goggles, flippers, mini-lifejackets, water wings or lifebhoys made from wheel barrow innertubes, and then get some friendly Moor-hens to give them swimming lessons, but not while there's swans about, they have nasty tempers. :closedeyes:

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RLWP Veteran II

RLWP

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Posted

If you want to keep chickens afloat i suggest kitting them out with mini goggles, flippers, mini-lifejackets, water wings or lifebhoys made from wheel barrow innertubes, and then get some friendly Moor-hens to give them swimming lessons, but not while there's swans about, they have nasty tempers. :closedeyes:

 

I would suggest ducks instead. Nice eggs and more of them per year too!

 

Richard

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bizzard Veteran II

bizzard

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I would suggest ducks instead. Nice eggs and more of them per year too!

 

Richard

Yes but ducks are crazy and i doubt if they'd have the patience to give swimming lessons. Moor hens not having webbed feet would understand the chickens feet problem better and can be quite aggressive towards swans, Swans seem to find that little red beak and their ear piercing squark threatening.

 

Oh no, now the old charging debate starts again.

No throw away dry ones. (The battery hen called (Ever-Ready) and her sister (Vidor). :mellow:

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Caprifool Rising Star

Caprifool

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Having a lot of experience in raising and keeping poultry I would recommend reading up on quail. Both the eggs and birds are delicious! They kept us in eggs longer than our chucks. When cooking with quail eggs you just have to crack them in a measurer and count a half a dl as one chicken egg. They make a very nice sponge cake.

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Athy Veteran II

AthyDonate to Canal World

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This summer on the Oxford we met a lady who lived on a middle Northwich (or was it Woolwich?) ex-working boat called, from memory, Uranus. The boat's hold was under cloths but I did see a hen coop and at least 2 hens in there as I walked past on the towpath.

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Barry Veteran

Barry

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Having a lot of experience in raising and keeping poultry I would recommend reading up on quail. Both the eggs and birds are delicious! They kept us in eggs longer than our chucks. When cooking with quail eggs you just have to crack them in a measurer and count a half a dl as one chicken egg. They make a very nice sponge cake.

 

Thats a very interesting recommendation.

 

Having had access to fresh laid eggs from someone who keeps their own chickens I had toyed with the idea of getting some myself.

 

Quails look like a viable alternative for a bloke living on an estate

 

They look like they could be easier to keep on a boat too

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Alan de Enfield Veteran II

Alan de Enfield

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Posted

 

 

Having had access to fresh laid eggs from someone who keeps their own chickens

 

Surely the hens eggs would have been better ?

 

A chicken is a young 'domesticated fowl' once it gets to egg-laying age it becomes a hen (or fowl), it then once again becomes 'chicken' (as a description for the meat)when it is eaten

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