keeping chickens in the garden

I first wrote about keeping chickens in the garden three years ago, when I became the proud owner of Hermione, Pamela, Nancy, and Martha.

Since then I’ve had a constant stream of questions about keeping chickens, from which chicken house I’d recommend to which food to buy and whether or not a dog will eat the chickens for breakfast.

If you’d like a sensible post with helpful tips on how to start keeping chickens have a look at my Chickens category. Otherwise, read on.

 

I’m currently chickenless which is a TERRIBLE state of affairs.

 

I refuse to eat eggs unless I know where they’ve come from (and they taste horrible from shops, anyway) and I miss having my garden covered in poo and all my plants being eaten. Er, I mean I miss their happy pecky little faces and listening to them muttering away in the henhouse at night.

 

So here, in typically Tales from the Village fashion, are my vague and slightly disorganised tips for keeping chickens in the garden:

 

 

First of all, if you have children you can use them to tame your chickens.

 

This will come in handy when the inevitable happens. It doesn’t matter how well you chickenproof your garden (for never listen to the people who tell you that you’re foxproofing – it works both ways)

There was a period when we were living back in Buckingham where we had a “Have you seen this chicken?” sign up almost constantly in the corner shop. The grass was clearly greener on the other side of the fence/chickenproof netting/gate/chicken run (she was the Houdini of chickens).

And my other tip: hide your wine.

 

Oh and don’t forget to hide your chips, too.

This post brought to you by a) procrastination, and b) missing my chicks. Maybe it’s time to get some more?

Other things I’ve been doing today ~

Reading: Momastery, for inspiration and sharing stories
Celebrating:Kirsty getting a book deal
Planning: A Seasonal Scrub from Brocante Home