Nicola and Steve

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.

Patsy Booth

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.

Julie and Andrew Snell

Dan Hardwick, 32, The Poultry Pages

I was 14yrs old and was in need of some pocket money to buy things I wanted, I had a paper round but this didn't suit me... so off i went looking for a weekend job, I came across a farm that a school friend worked at on a weekend again for pocket money and asked my friend to get me a job. Then it all started from there really!

I was 14yrs old and was working at a battery hen farming where we collected and packed eggs from chickens and on this farm there was approx 20,000+ hens at anyone time kept in cages. I worked there for a few years and turned 16yrs old and then the farmer asked, 'do you want to run the farm on a weekend?'. Through the experience I had gained I jumped at the chance and was responsible for running the farm on a weekend and looking after all these hens, then came the hen keeping, I lived with my mum and asked if I could keep a few in the back garden in which she agreed to which soon turned into more and more and before I knew it I was buying in day old chicks and rearing to point of lay and selling them all of course sourced from the farm I worked at. Unfortunately this didn't last long as the farmer contracted an illness and sadly passed away and then the farm folded as a result.

Now being 32 yrs old I got back into hens approx 4 yrs ago and again just keep a few in our garden now for pets and eggs and still love it to this day. Sadly family life and worries do get in the way. I now also own, run and administrate one of the largest poultry groups and communities on Facebook called (The Poultry Pages) and help other people with their day to day worries and concerns about hen keeping and provide a community where people can come together to discuss ALL things poultry. Again this was set up on the back of keeping poultry and working with poultry and feel very humbled to be in this position to be able to provide a platform for over 20,000 people worldwide and share my knowledge with others on a daily basis :-)

Mr and Mrs Ritson

Hannah Corden

My story started when I moved to my Grandads farm, however the most I did with chickens was to collect the eggs and give them the corn in the morning. It wasn't until me and my boyfriend moved in together that I decided I wanted some chickens. His grandad was kind enough to give us three and that's where the story began. Since then my flocks increased to 16 hens and a free range cockerel. These have come from people giving up so I've gotten them for free, or I've bought them or hatched them myself. I've got breeding pairs of polish and booted bantams. Plus I'm getting a trio of silkies in March. It's hard work. Nobody wants to go out in the rain and snow but to be honest I don't think I want to stop :)

Mr and Mrs Haigh

Wilfred Wales

Margaret Bell

When I was young I used to come home from a dance at 2 o'clock in the morning. I'd have to not wake any cockerels up otherwise they all crowed until getting up time. And I used to be in very serious trouble! My dad was a farmer... if you woke one up it set the whole lot off and they crowed until getting up time... so you can imagine...

I used to sneak down the lane on tip-toe trying not to wake them up. I was about 16 - 20... I'd been to a dance. You know.. it was just one of those things when you live on a farm!

We sold the eggs and the eggs for hatching - that's why there were a lot of cockerels because we needed them all fertile. I used to help feed them... just the things you do on a farm, you do a bit of everything when you live on a farm. I married into a farming family so there was no let-up from the cockerels!

W. Robinson