I can't tell you how excited I am about this - we have chickens! I've been fond of chickens for as long as I can remember, but living in a terraced house with no back garden I had to set my chicken dreams aside. We looked after a friend's chickens for a couple of weeks, and I went on a chicken keeping course, but for many years my main chicken interaction was visiting the local city farm. When we started to think about moving house my thoughts turned to chickens again - in fact suitability for chickens became one of my requirements for our new home. Finally, after living here for six months, my chicken dreams have come true. We collected our girls on Sunday, from the British Hen Welfare Trust. They rehome hens who have been in commercial farms and who are about to be sent for slaughter. Our chickens haven't been in cages, but they have lived in a large barn with thousands of other chickens, and have never been outside. We're just putting the finishing touches to our outdoor run and making it fox proof, so our ladies have taken up temporary residence in the stable block. It's big and airy, with plenty of natural light, places to hide and hay to scratch around in. It's not ideal, but it's more room than they've ever had, and it's only for a few days. They seem happy. I've been spending quite a bit of time just sitting with them and they're slowly getting used to us. Today is their third day here, and this afternoon I had them eating out of my hand. Two of them found their way into the hen house at dusk tonight (the other two were huddling on the floor in a corner but it's early days yet).
They're establishing a pecking order - perfectly natural although it's tempting to intervene to stop Mildred going out of her way to chase Hermione (they're named after witches in kids' books...). My current pecking order prediction is Mildred, Luna, Hermione. I'm not sure about Maud, she seems to do her own thing and neither chase the others nor be chased herself. Sensible Maud. I'm sure one day chicken ownership will become second nature but for now it's still Extremely Exciting.
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Hello!Sit down and make yourself comfortable. I'm Jenni, and I write here about our new foray into country living, which includes growing food, knitting, baking, wandering around the fields, and seeing which local cafe serves the best cake. Categories
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