Round the Kitchen Table – Chickens…

Rhonda Jean at Down-to-earth has started a series of ‘talks’ entitled “Round the Kitchen Table” – a great opportunity for everyone to join in and chat round the virtual kitchen table about various subjects. With modern society we have lost the small communities that we used to have which used to help so many people with advice, general chat and dare I say, companionship. This virtual kitchen table is going to be just great –imagine people from all over the world ‘sitting’ round the table to chat about that weeks topic!

This week the discussion is about keeping chickens – something that a lot of people do and something that many people would like to do but don’t know where to start. Rhonda Jean has a great starting post with most of the information that you would need – well worth a read!

We started keeping chickens a year ago – they are pets for the UG’s and they provide us with eggs. It took me a few months of searching the internet and reading various books to be sure that we could keep chickens in our small suburban space.

NG built the house and run – we chose a design from Poultry House Construction by Michael Roberts that would accommodate up to 4 chickens or 5-6 bantams and it was built from reclaimed wood – we just had to buy weldmesh and onduline for the roofing – less than £40!

House and run ready to go!

We put the house onto breezeblocks to allow space for the chickens to get underneath and we have added blocks of wood (cut offs from sleepers used in the garden) to make perches plus a big tin bath to make a dustbath (we fill this with old compost or bedding or playsand). The roof of the run is roofed with clear ondulline – this keeps the run dry – very important in the wet summers we have had! The floor of the run is scattered with woodchip or easibed (horse bedding) to give the chickens something to scratch and the floor of the house has this as well – it soaks up wetness from droppings and helps keep it clean in between cleanings.

While we are home, the chickens are allowed to free-range in my small garden (my pots and beds have all had to be protected from devastation – chickens will eat everything!!!) and are penned when we are out or at night. This seems to work well and the girls are happy!

Problems? Red mite - we had a terrible infestation of red mite last summer – I didn’t realise how bad it could be. Chicken Keepers explains all about red mite. I used diluted dettol or red mite concentrate, dusted the chickens with anti-red mite powder and used neat washing up liquid in all the cracks to get rid of the infestation and then as a preventative measure.

What about noise? Well… 95% of the time we have no noise.. just quite happy clucking.. but during egg laying time.. we do have one chicken in particular that likes to bok bok boak boaaak! It tends to be about 8.30-9am which isn’t too early ( but would be nicer if a tad later!). In the summer they will bok for breakfast (and it did get increasingly early when we had the red mite problem but shutting the hen door and keeping them as dark as possible before 8-8.30am has helped with that.

We get on average 20-21 eggs a week – we use many in baking, we make quiches and frittata’s, we occasionally have a baked egg on top of a corned beef has or bubble and squeak or have a treat of egg and chips. We even used a Jamie Oliver recipe and had egg on pizza! I would love more ways of using eggs in our meals… if anyone has any, please leave me a comment! I also give eggs away to friends and family – my little bit of ‘pay it forward'

Our Girls