Brakeinews: Chickens

When I first embarked upon keeping chickens I thought it would be a great source of fresh eggs for cooking. What I did not expect was to become so attached to chickens. They are so easy to look after, so much fun to be with and every day you are rewarded with amazing, tasty eggs. They are all individual characters, they are wonderfully interactive and brilliantly therapeutic to be with.

We keep our chickens in an Omlet Cube. We also have a Classic Eglu which we started with when we just had a couple of chickens. It was an excellent starter chicken house; even after ten years it can be cleaned up like new; I really recommend them. We went for a Cube as the Eglu was so good and it takes up to 10 chickens. I've had it about 5 years now and we really like it. The picture here shows the inside of the Cube, modeled by a couple of our hens; we give it a really deep scrub each year which is enough. Red mite is the main issue for most hen houses... we use dimeteaous earth to control them and it works really well.

The chickens are fed organic layers pellets. We use this company's mixed corn product too as treats for the girls. They also love to have grapes, tinned corn or corn cobs, any salad items from cucumber to lettuce and they love tomatoes too, all sorts of brassica like cabbage, kale or even sprouts. We don't feed them potato peelings, but they do get cooked potato if there is any left over. They like fruit too, even bananas, but especially berries and apples. And they love grass too; straight off the lawn, but throw them a handful of grass clippings and they will be very happy.

If I was to recommend any single item to another chicken keeper, it would be a Grandpa's Feeder. It is worth every penny as it reduces wasted food stomped into the ground and it also stops wild birds and rats/mice/etc getting to the chickens food. How does it do that? It has a step which the chickens step on, and it opens to reveal the food. Paige is demonstrating this in the photo here.

On the health side, Gentian Violet Spray is brilliant if you have a chicken suffering from other chickens pulling their feathers. Sometimes chickens do this to enforce the pecking order. A good spray of this to the area the other chickens are pulling at will put them off; it hides the bare skin or blood, it helps the healing process and it tastes horrible should the hens keep trying to pull the victims feathers. Chloe is modelling the effects of the spray well here in the photo; the older hens were pulling her feathers; one spray and they gave up doing it and she recovered in a couple of weeks.

Sadly, not all chicken suppliers are reputable. Try to get a recommendation before buying. Don't buy the cheapest birds you can find, as they are often going to be not well looked after, possibly diseased or even injured. Ex-bats are great, of course, but if you are buying POL (point of lay) birds, then look for a good supplier and don't be afraid to ask lots of questions. If you live in the west Hampshire area I recommend these suppliers:

Don't forget to check out all my posts on chickens too, as there is lots of additional information in those posts you may find useful and interesting!

And finally, I have inserted below a chicken hall of fame, all the chickens we have owned: