Food Forest and Timber Specialists

Eco-friendly plants and garden accessories grown sustainably in South West UK, with a focus on native species. All of our plants are grown without pesticides and herbicides and delivered in biodegradable packaging- order online now, APHA Authorised for Plant Passports, providing assurance of healthy, pest-free plants.

Blog

Homesteading Money

Homesteading

Pet Chickens

2019-01-26

I wanted chickens for five years before my husband finally gave in and finally gave in and let me have them.

We've got three hens, which is really more than enough for a family of four, since we get three eggs a day. Now, I've had them a year now and there's never been a point when we haven't had three a day. During the Winter they kept laying, whether that will continue as they get older, I don't know.

Finding ways to cook with three eggs a day can be quite a challenge to use them up. So we have a lot of cakes, omlettes, we have soft boiled eggs for breakfast quite a lot. I also make my own pasta, that's a good use of getting rid of quite a lot in one go, and things like moussaka you can add the odd egg to as well.

We've got an average sized suburban garden and when we first had the chickens we let them run aroud the whole area, but they made a lot more mess than expected, and every time we stood outside the back door we ended up stepping in poo, so they've now got the bottom half of the garden which is laid to lawn, or at least it was until this winter, now its basically a mud pool, we've had so much rain and it's suprising how much chaos three little chickens cause.

So, in the Spring we plan to redo the lawn and then have a little area where they can stay all the time, then in the Winter when we don't want them on the lawn we can stop them getting on there.

For the housing, we chose an Omlet Classic Eglu, and it really does make looking after them very easy. Once or twice a week, brush the droppings out into the tray below, then just pull the tray out and empty it into the compost bin. We keep the compost bin and a dust-pan and brush next to the house.

My little cluckers!

The Eglu is easy to keep clean, because it's plastic you can wash it with warm water and a little washing up liquid and then leave it to dry with the roof off. It also comes with a food and water bowl. It's surprising how quickly they can dirty a water bowl, so the water does need replacing every other day.

One thing the Eglu doesn't account for is somewhere to keep their grit. They have to have access to grit to peck at, so I keep a small bowl and replace this every other day as they frequently knock it over.

I really do enjoy having chickens, I think they are one of the easiest pets to keep. They are very amusing and because you can just let them run free in the garden you don't need to worry about entertaining them in any sort of way. They're ideal for children as well, they are quite robust and my three-year-old loves playing with them, so they are definitely a pet I would recommend for families.