Chickens: An Update

I'm still waiting. I've been waiting for ages now. I received an email from Wendy at the BHWT saying that they are still waiting for a date to rescue the hens, and asking people to be patient. From what I can gather, the farmer notifies them of the slaughter date for the hens that are at the end of their commercial laying life, and then the BHWT take in as many as they can rehome and the rest of them go to be slaughtered - probably for something like dog food and stock, not to be eaten as chicken! Not much of a life really.


I also waited for 3 weeks for my chicken drinker that I ordered from eBay. After contacting the seller on a number of occasions asking why I'd not received it yet I managed to get a full refund from him. I saw the same model in our local garden centre for a lower price so purchased that last weekend. And here it is...

So while I've been waiting for my chooks to arrive I've been thinking about how they are going to change our family life. I'm hoping that the feeling of doing a good deed by giving them a happy retirement and the pleasure of eating fresh eggs will outweigh the getting up literally at the crack of dawn to let them out.


I've also been reading a little bit about the other work that the British Hen Welfare Trust do, and the importance of using free range eggs - shown in the pictures below.


From the BHWT website:

Nearly 60% of caged eggs end up ‘hidden’ in processed food products, such as cakes, pasta, confectionery and ready meals.  Caged eggs are also frequently ‘hidden’ in meals served at restaurants and other eating establishments.

Thanks to the BHWT campaign Hellmans use only free range eggs in their mayonnaise.

You can get involved in stopping the cruel practice of battery farming by following this link and using the templates to write to your local supermarket, MP and food manufacturers. To find your MP and send the template letters by email follow this link to write to them.

Not such a happy life!!! Please think seriously about buying Free Range!

Introduction

I’m going to keep chickens. For anyone who knows me and my family, this is in response to my other half keeping bees and blogging about it. I wanted a blog subject, and we want to keep chickens, for eggs, not meat (yet). So they will be mine, and I’m going to record my experiences of them here, along with anything else I think worth sharing, maybe some egg recipes! So in this first post I’ll document my initial findings about chickens and share some interesting facts about them.

Right then some chicken trivia...

• The chicken (Gallus Gallus Domesticus) was first thought to have been domesticated in South East Asia about 10,000 years ago, and from there was introduced to China, India and Persia and then into Europe by 500 BC. They were known by the ancient Egyptians as “the bird that lays everyday”.
• In 2003 there was an estimated world population of 24 billion chickens.
• The male of the species is a Cock or Rooster; a Cockerel is a male under 1year of age. I will not be having a Cock bird as I don’t imagine my neighbours would appreciate the noise. And as we don’t want little chicks, we don’t need our eggs fertilised!
• The female of the species are Hens or Pullets if they are young.
• Chickens may live for 5-10 years, although they lay fewer eggs as they get older. The oldest chicken was 16 years old when she died of heart failure according to the Guinness book of Records.
• Chickens can’t fly very long distances. If you've ever eaten at a Nando’s restaurant and read the wall, you'll know that the longest recorded flight is 13 seconds, barely long enough to get across the road!
• A flock of chickens will have an established “pecking order”, and if an individual is added, or taken away from the flock it can cause disruption.
• Hindu’s believe that a chicken can be a channel for evil spirits at cremation ceremonies in Indonesia, and Jews believe that courtesy towards your spouse should be learned from the Rooster, as he will always invite his ladies to eat first.

I haven’t done a lot of research into different breeds of chicken, or the best age at which to get them, because I came across the British Hen Welfare Trust website, they re-home ex battery hens, rather than selling them on for pet food! Giving three hens a happy retirement feels like a good thing to do. They should be back to full health within a couple of weeks, and should lay quite well, after all I am doing this for fun, not for profit.

Chickens are allegedly very easy to look after, and are not time consuming – they only require about 15 minutes care each day, then a weekly clean of their coop. They are quite cheap to keep too, and have basic needs which must be met, which I will be looking into before I get them:

• Somewhere to live: it must be sheltered, clean (ish) and dry and include a nest box, and an outdoor run. All of this must be fox proof. There are loads of designs and makes to choose from, and can range from the easily affordable to the very expensive.

• Something to eat and drink and feeders and drinkers to put the food and drink in.

• An owner who can spot any illness or medical problems and can provide worming treatments etc.

• Names: My ladies will be Omelette, Custard and Bennie (short for Eggs Benedict).