If you follow me on social media, you can’t have missed what can only be described as chicken-spam, flooding your feeds.
I have kept chickens before but, when I was just about to have Baby G, Hubster sold my last lot of chucks to a workman as he said he was not prepared to look after them when I first had the baby.
My latest flurry into friends of the feathered variety began when Boo’s school took part in one of those hatching programmes where an incubator arrives in the classroom and they wait to watch the animals hatch, then brood them for 10 days.
I put my name down for any chicks right away. Another mum took two and I got four hens and a cockerel.
I don’t know what it is about chickens but I find them highly addictive. They are like the crack cocaine of the animal world. Once you get some, you just want need more.
So here are my top five reasons why you need chickens in your life.
1.Eggs. All the eggs. You get eggs. For free. You have never lived if you haven’t eaten an egg, still warm from being laid.
2.They are comical creatures and very inquisitive. You certainly don’t need television if you have chickens. There really is a pecking order and it is delightful to watch.
3.Cock-a-doodle-do. If you live in a residential area, you need to check whether you need permission to keep chickens-especially cockerels. On a farm though, there is nothing nicer than the sound of a cock crowing in a morning.
4.For a similar reason to the cock crowing, I honestly feel like a farm is not a farm without chickens. It just doesn’t feel right. Like bread without butter or strawberries without cream, farms without hens is just wrong.
5.Not only will keeping chickens make you more aware of what you are eating (give them organic food for organic eggs, for example) but they love eating anything-melon, pumpkins, vegetables* and you will never need to buy fertiliser again. Chicken manure is fabulous for your garden.
So have I convinced you? I have definitely convinced myself.
*The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs actually forbids scraps from being fed to chickens if they have been inside your kitchen. I get around this by growing treats for the chickens myself.
I agree they are wonderful. We were living in the country and had chickens and it was so lovely. We gave them away to a beautiful family when we moved, but now I am missing them so much! We move again in a couple of weeks and I would love to get some more. We will be suburban so no Rooster, but I would love a couple of hens walking around our garden. We’ll see.
Every week my children get a chicken dose at the stables where my daughter has riding lessons. Every week they ask me if we can have some chickens as pets! My answer is that I hope some day we have a place where we can keep some. I also buy my eggs from there which more often than not are just laid.
Adore the cute day old photos, they are adorable. No need to convince me on keeping chickens. #AnimalTales
Hi Emma – I have to go to the UK unexpectedly after a family death so I have not had time to read any #AnimalTales posts this week and I will do so when I get back. Please note there will be no linky this coming Tuesday – sorry.
I used to keep a chicken as a pet, hence my social media name, Chickenruby
You had me at eggs. One of the great regrets of the apartment living lifestyle I seem committed to is the lack of opportunity to keep chickens.
That said, my daughter’s school has a LOT of outdoor space they aren’t using…
Oh no I could try and post you some :(x
Catching up at last with #AnimalTales – 5 excellent points there, not that I needed any persuading. My latest gite guests even bought a chicken with them (a 2 week old chick) – that has to be a first!!