Chickens - The latest craze of the middle class
A few years ago me and my family took ownership of two chickens. They were an unusual pair and they named after an unusual set of characters. One was to be named Evelyn after Patrick Bateman’s (American Psycho) girlfriend and the other was to be named Lady Heather after a guest character of CSI who was a Professional Dominatrix. From the moment we got them we instantly knew which chicken should be given which name. Heather was very prim and proper and definitely wanted to be in control, while Evelyn slouched around lazily dozing off in her new found home after a mornings worth of travelling to get to our house.
Our girls were definitely pets rather than Sunday roasts, but you got all the expected questions “Will you eat them?”, “What about when they die?”, “Will you let the egg’s hatch” to which the answers are no, definitely not (it’s probably a health risk) and thirdly, maybe a biology lesson is in order…
There was never a dull moment with the chickens, on the first night that we let them roam outside one decided to see if she could make the three foot jump up onto the table. She’d of got 2 out of 10 for elegance but 10 out of 10 for accuracy as she landed straight on top of my Mum’s untouched dinner! It may sound silly to say this, but anyone who has kept chickens as pets will know that they definitely all have their own personalities and traits so can be loved as much as, if not more as any traditional pet.
Though they ruined one meal, they did lay fantastic eggs! A really bright orange yolk which could never be duplicated by any shop bought egg. They made fantastic omelettes and perfect with a bit of bacon and tomato with your breakfast. With all the tit bits and treats we gave them the eggs were probably more expensive than the claims of 3p a day, that the company we bought them off claimed. This would maybe cover layers mash and water.
To begin with we only let them out of their run for a little bit of supervised exercise every day. We gradually got more and more relaxed until they had full run of the garden, from morning to dusk. There was the odd time they caused a bit of trouble - they managed to get into next door’s garden and one even found her way climbing up some piles off wood at the back of the house and nearly made it into the house at the rears garden. Thankfully I spotted her moment before she jumped to freedom,I managed to run and catch her…which was very lucky as when we told the chap who lived behind us he said he had a dirty great big dog! After this we put a few restrictions and obstacles in place to stop them trying it on again…then there’s the problem of foxes. Foxes nearly got both of our girls, but both times with a bit of help from my Dad they managed to get away. After this we became more cautious again and locked them in their run when we weren’t at home.
Heather and Evelyn were given a very lavish life style, with lots of treats (including fresh corn on the cob) as well as a home fit for a Queen. We’d bought a brand new, designer Omelet chicken coup. Take a look at the photo - pretty neat!
From an environmental point of view a standard wooden chicken hutch could be arguably better, especially as the [plastic] coup we’d bought would only house two full sized chickens or three bantams. When our girls eventually passed away we managed to sell our coup on an internet auction website for what we’d bought it for and it went on to benefit a few ex-battery chickens. So where our coup got reused and would be usable for many years to come, a standard wooden coup may well just be taken down and binned.
I can highly recommend getting a few chickens - they will bring lots of joy and fun to your garden. They can be a bit of work at times, but they’re much easier to look after than a dog and definitely a little bit more unusual. As a minimum get two, ours were great friends and I don’t think they’d of had as much fun if they were by themselves - otherwise why not get a whole bunch of them? Our two chickens laid eggs at least 6 out of the 7 days in a week, for a good few years and depending on your motivation for keeping chickens once they stop you could enjoy a very fresh dinner - if you could stomach it?
If you’ve got any chicken stories, or questions on chickens please post your comments. I’d love to hear them! On another note, if you are looking for Discount Vouchers for different products, you should try the website I’ve just linked to.