Here Come The Girls!
Myrtle, KFC, Roastie, and Mzungo are our new additions to the family. They are four hybrid hens, two Gingernut Rangers and two Miss Pepperpots - a birthday present from my husband. Each member of the family has named their chicken, which I had hoped would have encouraged them to share in the responsibilities of their overall care - but oh no they were after all a present to me therefore my sole responsibility. So I’m chief hen wife.
Omlet are the company that provided the hens, hen coop (or Eglu Cube as they call it) food and general advice and the coop was constructed by one of their hen experts. Omlet have brought hen keeping into the 21st century making their hen houses so practical, easy to manoeuvre, simple to keep clean and most importantly fox proof. They come in a number of bright colours; we chose a pretty shade of lime green.
Why keep hens? Well they are the ultimate recyclers, they eat kitchen left overs, garden weeds, pests, slugs and snails and will turn them in to beautiful delicious mouth-watering fresh eggs. They are also easy to keep, good company when you are in the garden, children are fascinated by them and they provide a great deal of entertainment!
They are relatively inexpensive to feed at about 3 pence per chicken per day feeding them layers pellets which contain protein, vitamins, minerals and fibre and of course the waste from the kitchen, like shredded banana skins, apple cores, left over porridge, rice and pasta and peelings from root vegetables cooked up in a mash. Water is essential and they drink a lot, so daily replenishing of the water trough is important. They need it for egg laying too.
When we first got the girls they took about a week to settle in and then a further 6 weeks before they laid their first egg, which was very exciting. Since then they have kept up a steady flow of wonderful eggs – generally one every day - each! It doesn’t take a degree in mathematics to calculate that equals twenty-eight eggs each week –more than we can use so family and friends also enjoy the benefits. I always pencil the date on the egg to make it easier to use the eggs in the right order. They can be kept in a cool place (not the fridge) for up to 3 weeks.
I have to admit I did have a rather romantic image of hens free ranging around my whole garden; the reality is that if you like a tidy garden with flowers then you will need to keep the chickens confined to a particular area. They enjoy nothing more than scratching away indiscriminately, pecking at new seedlings or flower buds. I’ve learnt that keeping them confined to a specific area during spring and summer is the best bet – allowing hen freedom during autumn and winter when little is growing. My husband uses black pea netting and plastic stakes to put around their hen house to restrict their movements. This is a cheap and easy way to fence them in.
Each week I spend half an hour cleaning their coop and nesting box. The droppings go straight on to the compost heap, as does the shredded paper from their nesting box. Warm mild soapy water is used to scrub down the roosting bars which are then left out to dry in the sun - this discourages red spider mite. The girls love to see me clean their house and make regular checks on my progress!
So far I haven’t mentioned the dreaded pests and predators. To discourage vermin we keep all the feed in sealed, dry containers and so far there hasn’t been any sign of break in. During our first winter of hen keeping we woke one morning to find claw marks all over the hen house. A fox must have been frantically searching for a way in but fortunately it was foiled and there has been no other sign since. We are all very diligent about locking them away at dusk just in case.
Once a month I use de-miteing powder in their nesting box and on the chickens themselves, we also give them a worming tonic each month.
A favourite chicken pursuit is a dust bath - on a warm sunny day the hens will join together for a communal roll around in the dry sandy soil- they flick the soil over themselves and each other and make contented clucking noises. They do this to get rid of any mites. Some people provide a tray full of sand for them to roll around in but ours favour a spot under the privet hedge.
During our first year with the hens Munzungo our big, black, glossy chicken became broody during the spring - a broody hen just looks all together rather glum and will refuse to leave the nest box. Each day she would sit on any eggs, hoping that one day they might actually hatch. But alas, without a cockerel her efforts were in vain.
My son described her behaviour to a lady farmer at the farm where he worked as a volunteer. She gave him a fertilised egg and advised separating her from the others to give her the chance to be a proper mother hen. My husband set to and built her a palatial new hen house where she sat on ‘her’ egg. On the 21st day of her sit-a-thon the first signs of the egg cracking began. All our neighbours and friends joined us in anticipation of the new arrival, which turned out to be a rather ugly grey chick - reminiscent of the ugly duckling. We began to wonder if we had been given the wrong type of egg. Over time the little chick became slightly less ugly, Muzungo loved her, which was the important thing. She was the perfect mother teaching her all the things hens need to know in life. We eventually recognised the breed as a Brahma, which is a larger hen than average with feathery trousers. She has grown into the prettiest one of the lot! We have named her Flossie.
Two years into our hen keeping and we are in a steady routine of feeding watering and collecting the prized eggs. Supply dropped in winter with shorter daylight hours but it is picking up now that spring is here, We’ve learnt a great deal as we’ve gone along and Omlet’s web site is very good at answering any queries. I found these books very practical too Henkeeping by Jane Eastoe and Keeping Chickens by Jeremy Hobson and Celia Lewis (available to order from Cover to Cover)
As I sit and watch my feathered friends out of the kitchen window - their tails held high, busying themselves in the garden, I find it hard to imagine life without them.
Judith Sadler
