Keeping Chickens

Chickens Kill Fox… A few weeks back most of the national newspapers in the UK ran a story about three hens and a cockerel named Duke, who’d managed to kill a fox who’d ’broken’ into their hen house during the night. The fox it appears had been pecked to death after being dealt a ‘stunning’ blow by [...]

Pullet Egg We started last Saturday getting two eggs per day but after the fox attack on Sunday, this has gone back down to one per day. One can only presume that ‘Dandelion’ had started laying before her ‘untimely end’ - hence we’re back to one pullet egg per day for the time being, whilst ‘Softie’ and [...]

Chicken Manure Compost Bin I posted the other day on Chicken Manure, and again with photos of our plastic compost bins full to the brim with chicken poo, bedding and straw waste material from our chickens on the Chicken Run post. We have a ‘three’ compost bin system, we have two plastic compost bins that [...]

Fox Kills Chicken… The Morning After sees Toby say to Julia, ‘oh well never mind Mum, we can get another chicken’! There’s feathers still blowing round the garden, but the survivors don’t seem any worse for wear. They’re a little ‘miffed’ that they’re being kept in their run and keep pecking at the door to [...]

Fox Kills One Of Our Chickens… This post contains a graphic description and image of one of our chickens that got ‘taken’ by a fox on Sunday night. What a roller coaster ride we’ve had keeping chickens this last 24 hours… Our first eggs have been laid, now we’re faced with breaking the news to Toby in [...]

1000 Chicken Coops Sold Every Week In The UK was printed in the Mail on Sunday on 31/08/08. Did anyone else read this chicken keeping article? The article is here if you missed it. The chicken keeping article spreads over two pages in the Mail on Sunday and states that thousands of city dwellers are [...]

Chicken Lays An Egg! Whoopee our chickens have laid a egg! Wait, no scrub that, our chickens have laid two eggs… Toby our four year old discovered the first egg on Saturday morning. He’d been staying at Grandma’s house for a couple of days and came back at around 10:00 am in the morning. I’d [...]

Build A Chicken Run – we decided to build a chicken run so the chickens can have a bit of extra space when we go out. It’s ok having them wandering round the garden free range whilst we’re at home, but we’re a bit worried about leaving the chickens in the garden when we go [...]

Cleaning Out The Chicken House it’s a mucky job, but someone’s got to do it! Even though the chickens have had ‘free range’ round the garden, their chicken house is filthy. What’s more, the chickens are ’pooping’ in their nesting box, so the advice about, ‘don’t expect them to lay eggs where you want them to’ [...]

Axminster Chicken Keeping Saga – Hugh Responds! Over the last few days I’ve posted on the chicken keepers in Axminster, who seem to be hitting the headlines in both local and national newspapers. Check Cock-A-Doodle-Don’t and Keeping Cockerels for the stories. Anyway, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s company (River Cottage) have responded with the following comment; “River Cottage [...]