Paul Stubbs

Sarah Christine

My fist encounter with chickens was when I was a child. I used to stay on my granny's farm, and being the only child there, hadn't any one to play with. When the dog got tired of me dressing him up, I used to go into the hen house and play 'school' with the hens. I was the teacher and they were my students. They'd be sitting up on the nest boxes and I'd sit across from them with some books and a pen and teach them. Then if one of them moved, I'd put it in the corner because they never asked permission to leave their seat. Lol....

So fast forward 18 years, my boyfriend and I moved into a house in the country. The previous tenants kept chickens and intentionality left one behind because they 'couldn't catch her' apparently. 'Don't worry about her, the fox will get her' is what I was told when I questioned what to do with her. I'm a huge animal lover so that was out of the question. Susie as I named her lived free range in the garden for a few weeks and slept in the bushes. She would come running down the garden like a lion was chasing her in the mornings, fly up on the window sill and tap on it to get her breakfast. Then a close encounter with a neighbours dog, made me build her a secure run and convert a disused rabbit hutch into a house for her. She was quite happy, started laying and was officially my newest pet. Over Xmas, I built her a big new house and extended her run bit. A few weeks later I got her a friend, Doris, the white Sussex. Despite following the recommended introductory procedure, day 1 was bad, day 2 was good and day 3 was like a blood bath. My little innocent Susie had turned into a raging, blood thirsty lunatic. So now, currently one and half weeks of them being separated (although living beside each other so they will more used to eachother) Susie has escaped twice to sleep in the bushes and tries to eat me if she sees me taking her eggs, Doris feathers has started growing back but she has decided it would be safer to act like she's a Duck! But over all I love having my girls, even though I never would have chickens if it wasn't for them leaving Susie behind. Now I'm just hoping and praying the next introduction will go well and they will be friends.

Heather Brown

My love of chickens-- especially bantams started when I was about 8 years old. As a child I used to stay with my Uncle on a farm in Shropshire. His son kept bantams and although he was the same age as me there wasn't anything he didn't know about looking after animals --- I adored him and was absolutely convinced I was going to marry him and be a farmers wife when I grew up! Well that didn't happen but my love of animals stayed with me and when I acquired 2 allotments 4 years ago-- guess what I did. Yip -- got my bantams!!!! Best thing ever -- they have taught me so much and never fail to make me smile.

Moffazzol Khan

Mr and Mrs Ritson

Frances Corlett, UK

I grew up in the 70's. Our family home was an old farmhouse on the edge of the moor in the Yorkshire Dales. My parents were really into self sufficiency. With my father having the most amazing vegetable garden. We had lots of chickens, ducks, geese, bantams and guinea fowl. We were forever finding broody hens sitting on nests. Sometimes if the hen had left the nest, my Dad would put the eggs in the kitchen draw next to the Aga. I remember on one occasion, whilst Sunday lunch was being prepared. When we opened the draw to get the big serving spoon out (for the Apple Crumble) a chick jumped out and ran over the top of the crumble ! Mum and Dad had forgotten all about the eggs they had put in the draw a few days earlier !

They were very much a part of our family. We were always having 'sick' chickens or young chicks that had been abandoned kept in a box by the side of the Aga, with the hope that they would get better. Some did some didn't ! We loved having them, such friendly pets.

My sister and I had to put them to bed every night whatever the weather. But we didn't have to let them out in the morning, as we had to leave the house at 7.45 to catch the school bus.

Elizabeth Skelton

We had a children's petting farm pre foot and mouth and during that time we used to have a lot of young children and school children to view the animals. One of the things that we did was to collect the eggs and I have to say, if there were lots and lots of children there we cheated because one lot would collect the eggs and then we'd have to put them all back. Then the next lot would collect them so some of these eggs went round and round for days.

We used to have a selection of eggs in a tray and ask the children if they could identify them and guess which birds they came from... we'd have trick questions like 'who do you think laid this?' 'oh it was the peacock' 'no no definitely not because peacocks are all male, and peahens are girls'.

We'd explain how incubators work and how to bring them up to the right temperature and about automatic incubators that turn them, or manual ones that you turn yourself and have to mark noughts and crosses on the shells - every day you turn them over. Anyway, one lady was there and I explained that one of the reasons we turn them is so that the developing hen moves in the shell, so you don't get one arm big, one leg growing behind it's back, that sort of thing. And this woman said 'do you know love, I've been turning eggs for 50 years and I never knew why!' She was told to go and do it and she went and did it, no question!

Beryl Mercer

When I was little, my Mom used to send me to gather the eggs. I used to love that job and would run out as soon as I heard the 'laying song'. There is nothing nicer than holding a warm egg that the hen has just layed, against your cheek.

I gathered the eggs and helped my Mom clean the coop as it helped to feed us. I loved the hens and miss having them very much!

John Bayles

Well before I actually got hens, I used to go to my mams friend's farm when she went there and I used to go around looking at all the animals, but I always found myself looking at the chickens the most. I used to sneakily give them food and look for their secret nests etc. Their hens all died and I was quite sad about it and they said we could get more and they could be mine too, but it never happened. I pestered my mam for ages asking for some but we had nowhere to put them. After a while of pestering her she eventually gave in and asked my uncle if we could put some in his field and he said yes! I was nine years old at the time.

We went to a battery farm for the hens. I was complaining to mam that we needed to go sooner for them incase someone bought them all, but she said theres thousands so there will be loads. I didn't know what a battery farm was at the time, so I was excited and thought I would love it. On the 17th of May, we went to pick them up, I was shocked when I walked into that battery farm, I stopped eating chicken and have never touched it since and I'm 17 now. The hens were my responsibility and at the time were my only pets apart from two goldfish. My parents have only seen the hens about 10 times since I got them 8 years ago, so they trusted me to look after them.

I love my hens and really wouldn't be without them now. They each have a different personality and a few of them actually make me laugh because they are that crazy. All my friends ask "why do you like them so much? They are just chickens!" But I say that they wouldn't know until they kept them.

I did everything. The cleaning, feeding and watering etc was all my responsibility. Like I said above, my parents rarely came to see them and they live a ten minute drive and a 45 min walk away from us, so it was really my responsibility.

When I was younger, my hen keeping was usually overshadowed by older people who kept hens telling me old wives tales and whenever they were ill, they just said "they will just be old". I eventually joined some Facebook groups and got lots of help on them and have great knowledge now.

Sally, Portsmouth

Last July, I had read about hatching and thought that sounded fun to do with my son who loves science so we built an incubator and hatched a few ducks and chickens over his birthday. We like animals and fresh produce so it seemed like a nice ecological project. We raised them until a fox got them at Xmas, now we are awaiting the hatching of our new flock.

It would be lovely, but unrealistic for us to be self sufficient, but it is practical and economic for us to keep chickens, ducks and grow vegetables. It is good for the children to recognise that cockerels are butchered for every hen (in our case fed to the dog) and to recognise a little more about how the food they eat came about, not to mention interesting to see the eggs development.

Set up consists of an outside hen coup for ten birds in an 3.5mx3.5m enclosed pen. In the summer they are often let out to free range while supervised.

Currently there is only the three survivors, two road island reds and a partridge silkie, there was prior to xmas also a light Sussex, a hybrid large fowl like a bluebell, a white silkie, a cuckoo maran and a ginger hybrid hen. Ducks there were two runners and an Aylesbury drake. One of the runners was very imprinted so she would sit on laps and have cuddles, all would eat from your hand and come running and shouting if you came near them. The kids used to catch big garden spiders in fishing nets and the chickens would go nuts squabbling over them. Names Bean the imprinted runner duck (runner bean, cocobean as she was chocolate and jumping bean as she was a very very bouncy duckling), jasmine the drake, scamp the other runner, flutter the bluebell type, buttercup  the light Sussex rooster, maria the ginger hen.

Pros: fresh eggs, company, fun, no slugs or snails, educational, quicker composting, nice being out with them.

Cons: mess of chicken duck poo everywhere, dig up the lawn, responsibility of early morning let out, hard work mucking out!

Councillor Marilyn Charter, Newcastle

My 20 month old son would get up at 5 o'clock in the morning. Running around the house we didn't want him to wake the old men in the house up. Me Mam says we'll lift him over the fence and put him in the field outside. He ran and didn't stop running. My mum got the binoculars. Saw him go into the farm yard. He went straight after the hens and went straight into the hen house. So me mam had to phone the farmer up and say 'can I get my grandson back, he's in your hen house?'.