Long time no speak...
The truth is that everything is going smoothly. Routine established. Chickens healthy, Eggs lovely... and nothing really to write about. I could bore you about the possibility of mites or another attempt by a fox to get in or that we bought different feeders or that we're thinking of extending the run again. Or that the one that lays the blue eggs is very timid.
We had some friends over this afternoon who are contemplating keeping chickens. I think they'd made their minds up already but if we helped push them over the edge then I'm happy. I can't imagine not having them and I'm already looking for houses with bigger gardens. Well, not really but it does get you thinking...
The Guardian ran a piece last Saturday in their Money section on Chickens which was great even though it did make it sound more expensive than it needs to be.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/mar/14/producing-eggs-fruit-veg-honey
If you're in it to make money then I wouldn't bother, though I did hear a rumour that you can earn a lot of cash by squeezing a large number of chickens into a small space.
Then this week in the letters page one miserable soul who, because of the fox threat, reckoned and I quote "The hens would not last week without adequate fencing." Well maybe so (not really) but if we all lived by this mantra then bugger all would get done. And if the fox gets the chickens then we tighten security a bit then get some more chooks. Or maybe not.
Our garden is not "a stinking muddy patch" to quote the miserabalist Guardian letter writer. Chicken keeping is clearly something you 'get' or don't 'get' The letter writer didn't, but if you do and are concerned about the everyday practicalities then don't be. Just get on with it.
Every day we get eggs. 29 since I last posted 11 days ago. That's 130 since our first on January 17th. Normally we get three a day. Sometimes two and very occasionally one. From our own chickens. It's fantastic. Also - to date we've given a few to our neighbours to keep 'em sweet and sold 16 (in batches of 4) to various friends for a pound a pop so we're even getting a return on our investment. Bernard Matthews look out.
Three months ago when we first had the idea it seemed like a fairly major undertaking. Now its simply part of our lives. Would I recommend it? What do you think?
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ReplyDeleteWe're finding that chicken keeping is a lot of fun. Of course the more you have, the more work involved. With just three, we give their upstairs quarters a quick sweep each day, and then spend about an hour giving their housing a more thorough clean at the weekend.
ReplyDeleteTheir housing is pretty secure, especially since hubby added bolts to all the parts that open. Of course, if we were careless, or something else unexpected occurred, we could lose one or more of our girls to a fox, but as you say, you can't let that put you off.
We move them each week, so they haven't turned the garden into a mud patch, and the wire on the ground helps with that, too. They have made a few small patches of almost bare earth where they were allowed to roam free at the weekend, but they cleared the moss a treat.
When you think of all the pets people keep, chickens seem like a good idea to me. I'm finding them more interesting than our cat who died a couple of years ago, aged 18, but then I'm not really a cat person.
I know what you mean about thinking about moving to a bigger house. We're thinking we might like a bigger, and especially flatter, garden in a few years time, to grow more veg and keep more chickens. Hubby would quite like a pig, but I'm not sure he'd want to eat it, and I'm wondering about the possibility of keeping bees. Ducks might be nice, too, if we had a pond.