Keeping hens

We used to keep 4 hens and they were really lovely pets, very sociable, ate up all the leftovers and provided us with fresh eggs every day!

Ours were rescue hens (ex battery hens destined for slaughter at about 18 months) and Warrens I think, they cost 50p per hen as a donation towards the cause.

I used to clip the wings of mine else they would fly over the fence and ruin the neighbours gardens

They were also master escape artists so make sure you can keep them well contained! Oh and don't let them have access to any plants/flowers/lawns etc that you don't want ruined, they will eat anything and love nothing more than to scratch all the grass up!

They were so comical though, very time I went into the garden to peg the washing out, play etc they would followme round in a line!

Good luck!

We have three hens, have had up to 13 in the past though. I'd start with a couple and see how you get on, it can be a bit addictive

We used to keep 4 hens and they were really lovely pets, very sociable, ate up all the leftovers and provided us with fresh eggs every day!

Ours were rescue hens (ex battery hens destined for slaughter at about 18 months) and Warrens I think, they cost 50p per hen as a donation towards the cause.

I used to clip the wings of mine else they would fly over the fence and ruin the neighbours gardens

They were also master escape artists so make sure you can keep them well contained! Oh and don't let them have access to any plants/flowers/lawns etc that you don't want ruined, they will eat anything and love nothing more than to scratch all the grass up!

They were so comical though, very time I went into the garden to peg the washing out, play etc they would followme round in a line!

Good luck!

That's a lovely idea about getting rescue hens. We have a rescue dog and 2 rescue rabbits already, so rescue hens would be a good addition to the menagerie

Oh you should get some, they are lovely family pets. We had two for a very long time and I got really attached to them - they have their nown distinct personalities. One thing I would say is that they do produce quite a lot of poo! More that you'd think little birds can. We let them have free range over half of our garden and they did make a bit of a mess of one of the lawns but we weren't bothered about that. We are planning on getting some ex bats in a few weeks and are now trying to make a more enclosed section as we don't want Ewan toddling around in chicken poo - its not too bad on the bottom lawn but our chucks liked to hang out on the patio and look into the dining room through the french doors leaving us little presents for whenever you stepped out the door.
We had hydrid chucks (amber star, bluebells and black rocks) and they were so good to us - one a day without fail from each of them. We had so many eggs we gave them to neighbours, family and took them to work too. There's only so much baking I could do in a week and completely went off eggs whilst pregnant and since having Ewan. If you get posher chucks then you can expect less eggs in general but each hen is different and you can't guarantee egg production from any.

if you want to know anything about food, health etc just ask away hun.