Keeping Hens for Fun and Eggs

I keep chickens. I have done for years. Initially because we were living in the Irish countryside and a neighbour offered six of a small flock she’d rescued from gassing at a local battery farm. Those six birds were a source of much merriment and eggs. Eggs so many in number that we were feeding them to four cats and four dogs several times a week as well we four humans.

Those girls were kept in a wooden hen house which was actually a converted dog kennel. Big mistake. If you’re thinking of keeping hens and prefer the look of a traditional wooden house make sure you buy a purpose built structure[1], or if you’re skilled, make your own[2]. Our henhouse was difficult to clean with far too many nooks and crannies for pests and dirt to collect in.

Then we came back to England and now I have two rather battered eglus[3] with attached fox proof runs. I love the eglu – easy to clean, bright and cheerful and safe. My main one is covered in scratches, whether from my dog who enthusiastically makes murderous attempts on my one remaining hen (Polly) or from foxes I don’t know. I have seen foxes trying to get to Polly but so far (crosses everything for luck) they’ve not succeeded. Polly herself is really annoyed by these attacks and repels all invaders with vigour and a quick peck on the paws of any creature silly enough to jump on to the top of her run or a nose unwisely inserted through the wire.

Now that I’m older and hampered by a lack of mobility I’m finding the low down eglus more difficult to keep clean. The plan is to buy the much larger, and raised from the ground, eglu cube. I’ve had a demonstration of the ease of use from a cube owner in my home town and am looking forward to it. If you prefer not to go the plastic route look for raised wooden houses and coops – it will save your back… Search the web for houses and ideas. The other thing I’m planning is the walk in run – bigger for my girl(s) and much easier for me! At the moment if I take a dish of treats to the eglu I later find myself having to move eglu and run to retrieve a motley collection of plates and dishes, a walk in run saves all this.

Of course, like all husbandry, keeping hens is not all fun and laughter. Your hens will suffer from a variety of illnesses and their home will be invaded by any number of pests but on the whole it’s a fun hobby and that’s what I want to concentrate on in this article. Problems will be covered later.

During my time in Ireland I gained an M.Phil. in Women’s Studies. I’m pretty certain that it would have been a lot more difficult and less fun without my six girls. I remember an idyllic summer spent writing with help and construction criticism from ‘the girls’. The sun would rise before 4am and I’d take a large pile of buttered toast and a cafetiere of good coffee to the garden bench and there we’d sit, sharing toast and coffee and discussing feminist theory. I can’t imagine ever allowing a cat or dog to drink coffee from my cup (green porcelain with a gold edging if you were wondering) but it seemed entirely natural that one of the Gertrudes[4] would jump up beside me for sips of coffee between comments… I’d read out a paragraph from a book or from my own work and the hens would huddle together clucking softly. Then the elected spokes-hen would turn and give me their collective opinion. Sometimes it would be approval but often they’d suggest improvements which would mean rewriting and editing and even more discussion. Never underestimate the logic of a hen – unlike cockerels they have an intelligent perspective on every topic under the sun.

Of course once you have your hens, there will be the occasional begrudger who thinks you mad to be conversing with birds (my next door neighbour for instance) but ignore them. Hens are natural mimics and will often copy the odd word from you but their real talent lies in they way they quietly cluck and chook chook at each other. It’s up to you to listen carefully and decipher the meaning of these words of wisdom. If after a while it still sounds like gibberish then perhaps hen keeping is not for you – you’ll have beautiful, tasty eggs but you’ll miss out on so much fun!

[1] available from:

 http://www.wood-crafts.co.uk/poultry-houses-21-c.asp

http://www.woodenart.org.uk/products.php?product=The-William-Chicken-Coop-Hen-House-and-Run

[2] plans available from http://henhouses.com/Hen_House_Plans.htm

[3] http://www.omlet.co.uk for eglus and all chook related stuff

[4] it was so difficult to distinguish between individual hens that we called them all Gertrude