A Family Guide To Keeping Chickens (3 page)

Hens will lay eggs without a cockerel being present

Take a moment to reflect on your circumstances. Chickens are less trouble than many animals but they still require care and will take up your time.

As a bare minimum, you will need to ensure the chickens always have water and food. They must be safely shut away at night and let out in the morning. Their housing will need cleaning regularly and their health should be frequently monitored.

That is the minimum but there will be other jobs too. There will also be times when you have to drop everything and deal with something chicken-related.

Once you establish a routine, caring for chickens is not difficult or laborious. They are fascinating creatures, and you may actually find it quite difficult to tear yourself away from them.

Still, you will probably want to take an occasional break, so before buying your chickens consider who will look after them when you go on holiday.

As with any animals, chickens must be treated responsibly. Apart from the moral issue, there may be complaints to welfare organizations if they are neglected.

Will chicken keeping pay off? Will you be able to recycle household scraps, turn them into eggs and become an egg-entrepreneur?

It’s not easy to make chickens pay for themselves. Your reward is more likely to be pride in your hens, the enjoyment of their company and the benefit of delicious eggs.

Chickens fed an unbalanced diet of scraps won’t produce many eggs, and in any case feeding kitchen waste to chickens has been illegal in Britain since the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak of 2001. You will need to buy feed for your hens and, taking the initial expenses into account, your eggs are unlikely to be particularly cheap.

Even so, chickens aren’t as costly as many animals to keep and the eggs are definitely a bonus.

If cost-effective chickens are your aim, you will need to manage them carefully, choosing only productive breeds and being prepared to take a firm line with any hens that aren’t pulling their weight in the egg-laying department.

Finding Out about Chickens

This book will set you on your way, but practical research is indispensable.

Try to make friends with a neighbouring poultry keeper – most chicken enthusiasts love chatting about their hobby. Perhaps you could offer to look after the chickens while the owner is away. This will provide useful experience and could even be the start of a ‘hen-sitting circle’.

It’s worth taking plenty of time to look at different types of chicken housing, comparing prices with quality and design (see
Chapter 3
). Country shows usually have poultry trade-stands as well as exhibitions of chickens,
offering an excellent opportunity to browse and quiz the experts. Many animal feed stores also sell poultry equipment and staff are often able to provide advice. Chicken breeders, poultry shows and auctions are also well worth a visit.

Apparently people sometimes buy chickens on impulse, without having anywhere to keep them. I wouldn’t recommend this – it’s very stressful.

Due to a series of perfectly avoidable delays, our chicken house was erected only a couple of hours before the chickens were due – darkness was falling as the last screws were tightened. There was no time to waste, as we had bought the flock from a neighbour who was moving the next day. Twelve chickens were transferred into their new home in pitch blackness as the heavens opened. (Incidentally, I had originally planned to take only four, which shows how dangerously addictive chickens can be – even before they arrive.)

Helping with your neighbour’s chickens will provide useful experience

Country shows often have poultry stands and exhibitions

Chickens as Pets

Chickens can make good pets, becoming very tame and affectionate towards their owners while retaining a measure of independence. That is, they require care and enjoy human company but won’t pine if you leave them for a few hours. They’ll rush to meet you when you arrive home exhausted, and provide a soothing break from the day’s stresses and strains.

Watching chickens is very therapeutic – and they lay eggs too, which is more than can be said for most therapists.

Children are usually fascinated by chickens and they are ideal children’s pets, giving an object lesson in where food comes from, as well as being companionable and fun.

Very young children enjoy watching chickens and helping to collect the eggs. Small fingers thrusting through the wire might receive an inquisitive peck, but nothing like the nip inflicted by the sharp teeth of a rabbit or guinea pig. Older children can easily learn to look after chickens, gaining a sense of achievement in supplying the family with eggs or selling the surplus to increase their pocket money.

Most children love chickens . . .