Research/Preparation

Being the former, we found that there were no regulations whatsoever excluding us from keeping chickens other than those of causing a nuisance in terms of smell or noise. Don't be surprised if your neighbours complain when they find out that you want to keep chickens, most townies don't realise that chickens are quieter than any children we know and only COCKERELS make noise. Also, chukkies DON'T smell as long as you keep their quarters clean, but that's the same for you, your children and your pets isn't it?

The bottom line is that if your neighbour says he will complain if you get chickens, tough! It's his problem, not yours - I bet you'll be able to keep them. Our neighbour threatened to shoot them because of the noise AND the smell, and that was before we even got them! In the time we've had the chukkies we haven't heard a peep from either the chukkies or the neighbours! Oh, by the way, you DON'T ever need a cockerel if all you want is eggs! That's good news. If you want to rear chicks, that's a different story and not covered here. The chukkies get up at daybreak and go to roost at nightfall - simple as that. If only children were as easy! Or as quiet!

The rest of the research was easy. We just went to the local library and looked for books on 'chicken keeping'. There's a whole load of information there if you look in the right place. We

also bought a very informative video. Ditto for information. Working from photos and drawings from various sources, we designed our own hen-house 5' by 3', enough to house up to ten hens in comfort, who'd have plenty of ventilation, yet be out of the draught (which to chickens can be a killer).

Then we had to work out where to put the chicken run. We decided to give the chickens the bottom 25' of the garden, an area 20' wide which includes a small fishpond, a number of small trees and shrubs, and is bordered on two sides by 6' fences. In this area we would place the hen house, within its own secure wired-in run.

In Spring 1999 we built a new and larger hen-house which sits in a fully enclosed fox-proof chicken run that's about 30' by 10'. During the day the chickens have the whole garden, but at night I make sure they're all tucked away and locked up for the night.

 Materials & Construction

We're on a tight budget so the hen house was made completely from wood cadged from neighbours, including some shiplap from an old shed one neighbour had demolished! Against some advice we roofed the house with felt and treated the whole with a creosote emulsion (e-mail us if you want to know details). The pop-hole for the chickens to get in and out was made from an old toilet seat and lid, hinged and all! A cord was tied to the pop (poop!) hole and run to the outside of the hen-house so that the hole could be opened and closed without having to enter the chicken run.

The chicken run frame was made from 2"x2" timber and then enclosed in 3/4" chicken wire, top as well. The last may be a bit over-cautious, but we have a lot of foxes around here. We were quite ingenious as well, because we have some young maple trees and a mature budleia which we didn't want to chop down and which are now growing happily through the chicken wire. Forget any ground-hugging plants though - chickens will devour most of them within days, sometimes hours!

The hens also get to run around the lower third of the garden which is fenced off from the dogs and straying children. Although they don't fly in the generally accepted sense of the word, the chukkies will happily flap their way to heights as high as 5 or 6 foot if the temptation is there, but after the first few weeks they get into a routine. Our ones are now quite tame, so they don't mind being picked up and they'll happily scratch around the dirt about our feet as if we weren't there.

 Other Considerations

To round everything off we needed a poultry feeder and a waterer. Chukkies can go without food for a while, but they must have water!. We tried the farms, scrap merchants and the second-hand shops but we eventually had to buy that equipment new. Apart from the chicken wire the waterer was the most expensive item, £22. They don't make them in any great numbers because chicken-keeping is apparently going OUT of fashion! We'll soon see about that!

We then made sure the chickens would have somewhere within the run to dust-bathe - very important. Along with pecking, scratching and roosting, dust-bathing is essential to a well-adjusted chukkie.

Any decent local animal feed supplier will be able to supply chicken feed (in mash or pellet form) at about £5 or £6 per 25 kilo bag. This will last 6 chickens about a month. We also supplement their diet with wheat grains. The chukkies like the variety and it makes them work for their food. More about that elsewhere. Remember to keep your feed dry at all times - you can easily kill your chickens with fungus or mould. A plastic bin in a dry shed is where we keep ours.

 Acquiring the Chickens

Here you have a number of options:

• Point-of-lay modern hybrid (18-20 weeks old, excellent layers) This is what we got at first, 6 of them.
• Pure breeds (good looking, fewer eggs) This is what we bought in July 1997, two ANCONAs and one LIGHT SUSSEX.
• Bantams breeds (small eggs, but frisky, livelier birds)
• Rescued battery hens (few eggs but VERY satisfying)

Whichever you choose, you'll pay from £4 or £5+ per bird (and of course the rescued are free!). We bought six Isa Brown hybrids. They are derived mainly from the Rhode Island Red and were bred for their good laying qualities. We thought we'd go for a good known quantity before trying anything fancy! When we bought them from a local chicken farmer at 16 weeks old they were very timid and panicked easily. Now they are positively tame and easily take food from our hands, sometimes before we're ready! Frank's had one hen sitting on his shoulder, one on his knee and the others pecking at his shoes waiting for their wheat!

If you intend to sell your eggs, you will easily recoup the purchase price of your hens many times over. Unless you are completely brain dead you should never be out of pocket with laying hens unless you choose to be. Laying hens will give you two good years of regular eggies. After that their egg production will tail off. If you are a complete heartless bastard you'll ring their necks and dump them like they do in battery farms but if you are a love 'em, bless 'em, squeeze 'em type of person you'll keep your chukkies and let them live out their natural lives in peace and tranquility. Am I preaching on my soap-box? You bet your nuts I am!

 Eggs, Eggs, Eggs!

This is the good bit!

This is a photo of our very first full basket of eggs. It was a wonderful moment for us, but even more special when we started to eat them and give them away to our friends. Fresh eggs from your own well-looked-after, happy and contented chickens will always taste better than the artificially coloured yolks of traumatised battery hens. Quite a few have been double-yolkers - yummy scrummy! We're now getting an average of six eggs per day. How's that for fresh? We soon found out that there was no way we could eat all of these lovely eggs ourselves every day (trust me, Frank tried, but failed!) and Dannie won't let Frank sell them, so we give them away to friends and neighbours. It's an excellent way of showing generosity and preaching the message without having to be over the top. Nothing wrong with a bit of barter, that's the way Frank looks at it! What goes around, comes around! Please, if you can, consider what you are contributing to when you buy your supermarket eggs. Anybody can do their bit, even if, like us, it's just a little bit.

• This is Where 95% of your Eggs come from.
• The other side... Go and Visit a Rescue Centre