I Should Be So Clucky,Clucky,Clucky Clucky! (Chickens)

Member Name: queenofsheba

Product:	Chickens
Date:	18/04/02 (620 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: wonderful eggs, they will eat slugs and snails

Disadvantages: will eat all your plants if you turn your back for a second!

Six months ago, I was washing up after a bout of cake making when a large truck appeared outside the kitchen window. It was loaded with crates but I couldn't quite see what was inside them without having a really gawp and to be honest I hate to look like a nosey parker (even though I secretly am one!).

Anyway the driver stopped at our house to ask for directions and Hamish went outside to show him the house he was looking for. Of course inside the crates as you can probably guess were lots of point-of-lay pullets just 18 weeks old (apparently they don't become hens or chickens until they are a year old). The next thing I knew the driver was reaching inside one of the crates and handed four of the little darlings to Hamish who duly paid him and then set off to the bottom of the garden with them hanging upside down by their feet, two in each hand. That second a million horrifying thoughts when through my head as I still didn't really know that they were to be laying hens. I thought he had maybe bought them for eating and was going to wring their poor little necks, pluck them and stuff them in my freezer!

I hurried outside after them and as I got to the shed they were safely inside with Hamish who was chatting away to them like they were long cherished pets. He then told me that he had actually bought them to lay fresh free-range eggs for us and that they would be pets. I can't tell you how relieved I was. Yes, I do eat chicken and I know it's hypocritical of me and all that, but no way could I kill and eat them myself, I would starve first!


So now we had hens, we already had the house complete with run and a huge garden for them to roam around in, all we needed was to sort them out some food, water and nest boxes and bedding. I gave them some breadcrumbs and a bowl of water to keep them going while we went to get what they needed. It was getting late on a Friday afternoon and we had to hurry over to the next village
six miles away where there is a farm and garden store. So we bought some feed called chick crumbs which just looks like dust really but it is a complete feed with everything that they need in it including grit to keep their eggshells nice and hard and aid their digestion. Its also just about all they can manage at that age really as hens don't have teeth, although now they are older and are on layers pellets(the same as the crumbs in pellet form) which is a lot less messy. We give them greens like cabbage and cauliflower leaves,some kitchen scraps and poultry grit to help them digest their food.


Next on the list was some straw to line the nest boxes and wood shavings for the floor, and for the bottom of the run. The shavings really help to keep the run dry and smelling fresh, I clean out the solid lumps every day to help to keep it clean and make it last longer. Later we on we bought some silver sand and put in an old washing up bowl so that they can have a dust bath which helps keep their feathers in tip top condition, we keep this outside the run and cover it with a board at night to keep the pesky neighbourhood cats out and to keep it dry too. The hens themselves though seem to prefer the good old garden dirt for this pastime though as long as it's a dry enough day.


To start with, we made them a nest box each and when they started laying, which was about three weeks after we first got them, they used all of them, but now they just stick to one and usually take it in turns to use it,although there has been an odd occasion when there have been two hens in it at the same time!Most mornings when I go down to the coop there are four lovely brown eggs sitting there and the hens rush to the door to get outside and have a good scratch around the garden if it's a good day or into their run if its not. It really is a pleasure to see and share the day with them.


Last year year we lined the run outside the coop with heav
y-duty polythene and have been using half of it as a polytunnel to raise seedlings. It's a huge run split into two sections so it works well as a sheltered run for them on rainy day days too. We try to get them outside as much as possible though, our garden here is massive and already they are making themselves useful by demolishing weeds in the borders and the gravel driveway. They also keep the grass down on the sloping side of the garden, which is handy. Another thing we've done is to make a kind of playpen for them using just a square wooden frame and some chicken wire. This means enables us to move them onto different areas of the garden to graze each day, keeps them safe from predators when we're not around and keeps our precious plants safe from them! They will devour almost everything in their path if you let them as they constantly crave fresh greens to eat.


Another bonus for having our own hens (apart from the gorgeous fresh eggs) is that they produce really great manure for the garden and they love to eat slugs, snails and worms too they certainly earn their keep!If there are ever any surplus eggs we exchange them with neighbours for things like home made jam and marmamlade although it was always my intention to just give the eggs away,but people over this way like to pay for everything they get in some way or another so there is a good little barter system operating.You see now that the long Summer days are here, the hens are laying every day without fail and even though it works out at only one egg a day each for us that is still too many really, I use them in cakes and baking etc but we still manage to have some left over every week and it's a shame to waste them.


I love to watch them scratching around in the garden. Give them a pile of leaves to root in and they'll be happy all day scratching,fighting and chasing each other over grubs that they find, cuddling up to each other when they roost on their per
ch in the afternoon or evening. They all have different personalities, are comical to watch and I do find myself spending quite a lot of time with them. Sheba our Doberman Pinscher gets on well with them too, although at first she tried chasing them about, but the four plucky girls (pardon the pun) turned and stood their ground and after a couple of sharp pecks on the nose she soon found out where she was in the pecking order! Now she just lies on the grass and lets them scratch around about her and doesn't bother them at all, they don't seem to be worried by her presence either, which is great.




The only thing we haven't really done is to settle on their names. As a group we call them the Spice Girls but I want to give them individual names that suit them. So far two of them have names that we are happy with, Kylie who is the smallest of the four(she also was the inspiration for the title of this op) and Bessie Bunter who is the largest,greediest and at the top of the pecking order. The other two have been named Molly and Poppy but for no particular reason other than I quiet like the names. Molly is quite shy and seems to be at the bottom of the pecking order (just above the dog) and Poppy is the friendliest and tamest of the group and she loves to eat out of my hand, any suggestions?

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