Emma Butcher

My chickens keep me sane and have helped me through really tough times.....
I never realised that these funny little creatures could have such a therapeutic affect on me.

After suffering a massive pulmanary embolism to both lungs which resulted in my heart failing last August I was, needless to say at the age of 34... gutted!! But after a long stint in hospital my chickens and ducks even kept the girls on the ward smiling!! I amused them with tales of my Drake that fancies my chihuahua and my Poland cockerel that looks like Rod Stewart! My tales kept all of them smiling and earned me the name chicken Mad Emm.

Once I was allowed home from hospital and reunited with my family I could not wait to waddle outside to see my girls, and was greeted by my seven large fowl running at top speed down the garden to greet me (my clumsy exchequer leghorn stumbling as usual).

My cup of tea in a comfy outside chair was the highlight of my day as i could see my poultry and tell them my worries without feeling guilty for alarming them. Even now the girls i've kept in touch with still ask me how my birds are.

Although i am unwell again now due to a relapse i know my girls are there as a release and escape if needed!! They bring joy and companionship to people who really need it so never discount poultry as a wonderful pet and hobby.

Felicity Anne Hayes

My chicken story started with my husband designing a chicken coup. He works in the timber industry and has always had access to cheaper timber as a result. My son was a carpenter, and together they decided that, after clearing our back garden, which was a mammoth task, they would build the chicken coup. Well, they did that beautifully and even had help with one of my son's friends, who, being in the roofing industry, was able to put a proper corrugated iron roof on it and attached gutters and a down pipe. Then came our first three rescue chickens, Rhonda, Darkie and Honey. We had all three for just over two years and I became very attached to them, although I was nervous about the responsibility at first, and knew absolutely nothing about looking after chickens. Rhonda and Darkie unfortunately and sadly passed away last winter, but Honey has stayed with us and she is a very, very strong chicken, and lays lovely eggs about three times a week. I was going to just keep her on her own, but my son said you have to get more chickens to keep her company. I resisted at first but then, upon returning from a vacation to help my sister move, my husband and I bought two pullets, Bec and Jo, off a breeder. Honey was really bossy at first and caused some grief as she was always picking on the pullets. Bec had a cold but she started to lay eggs every day and has been very resilient. Jo got sick early this year and I took her to the vets and he treated her for chicken bronchitis. Thankfully, she has now recovered fully and she laid her first eggs this week. I am absolutely delighted. Even Bec has stopped her sneezing, so I think all the chickens are now happy and content. I have always liked animals and I really enjoy my new lifestyle with my friendly chickens.

Eilene Corcoran

I lost my tiny little flock of four last year to a couple loose dogs, so I had to start over this spring. We raised 13 chicks for ourselves and a couple friends, and would you believe 10 of them turned out to be male? So we were down to one little pullet for us, and a couple for the friends. We found a woman advertising an easter egger on a local poultry group, so we arranged to meet her in a parking lot of a local business. She pulled up, grabs this little girl out of a cage, and hands her to me... I swear, she had exactly three tail feathers, bald spots, just a sad looking bird. My husband said... are you seriously going to take her? Look at her! I said... yes, absolutely... I have to get her away from them! So, for $15, I got the saddest little chicken in the world. She lays a beautiful blue egg nearly every day, and though she is still sort of a ragamuffin, she's feathered out quite nicely. We call her Lucy, the Junkyard Chicken! She has more personality in her little foot than most other birds! Love my little Lucy.

Francesca, 46, Trieste

I live in Trieste, I am not so old (nearly 46) but I lost relatives and friends as well, my best friends are my two ragdoll cat girls and the cat colony. I have loved chickens since my early childhood, when I wanted to have a pet hen, but was not allowed, so had fun in attending the house of my mum's aunt, where there were several hens that ran free. They were kept for eggs, but also as pets and members of the family.

But I meant to tell you about Olga. There is a hen here in the neighbourhood, she is an escapee like in "Chicken Run" the movie, flew away from her original home, and travelled hidden in a workers' bus; then she found an ideal home here - she is loved by the kids at school and all people who meet her, she eats with pigeons, crows and cats, roams around in the day and sleeps on tree tops at night. She is really a character, and makes the day of many people!

Linda, 62, Las Vegas

I feel blessed to reintroduce chickens to my life. How little did I remember the time when my mother had a few hens, leghorns when I was a kid.

Now 62 years old, relocated and kids grown, it was time. After helping my son, Stephen start his flock, I went home in 2012 to visit. Totally fell in love with his birds, and once returning home found a breeder of Seramas. Since the bird was going to be an indoor pet, the Serama being the worlds smallest chicken was my best choice.

After seeing all of the birds I fell in love with a beautiful little rooster, Kasey Kahne he was named after my grandsons favorite Nascar driver. What a sweetie...but feeling he should have a companion I returned a couple of weeks later to purchase a hen, Danica Patrick. Yes, another Nascar driver.

To make a long story shorter many birds have came either by hatching eggs....oh yes had to have an incubator and since we didn't use the second bedroom it was converted into the bird room. In 2013 I was given Angelina a tiny tiny little Serama hen who was almost featherless due to her molt and it is now November. Living in Las Vegas NV the nights get chilly and she was outside. So home with me she came and we were inseparable. She went shopping and loved riding in the car. I adored her. She was special. I have many birds I love but none as much as Angie. I rocked her to sleep and spend endless time with her. On Sunday February 22 she was gone. She had past away overnight. I was devastated, lost and cried for days. But God works in mysterious ways...

One of my other hens, Snuggles who is full sized saw my sorrow and has become my constant companion. She comes to my bedroom early in the morning to lay beside me, and fall asleep in my arms. She is always talking to me, I just wish I knew what she was saying...but I have a pretty good idea. She is saying, I am here for you, I love you and will watch over you. I am so blessed for the chickens in my life.

Eileen Nicholson

My story is only from about three weeks ago.

I was in the garden, cleaning the coop and run, and the dogs and the chooks were just bumbling about the garden.

After a while, I realized that not only had no one tripped me up for a while, but that it had gone awfully quiet. Looked about - not a hair or a feather anywhere! I fair panicked, thinking they'd escaped some how so ran indoors, checking the undergrowth and bushes on the way, and saw I'd left the backdoor open.

The chooks often steal my dogs' dinners, if they can sneak in so I headed for the kitchen. No dogs, no chooks.

Was about to proper panic and headed for the stairs to wake my OH up (he's a night-worker) to panic him too, when as I passed the living room I heard a 'bok'.

Popped my head round the door and there are the two dogs, sitting comfortably, one either end of the couch and my three Ladies sitting in the middle WATCHING TV!

Oh, I SO wish I was a modern techie person with the mobile always to hand, but I'm not - it was on charge in the kitchen...

Mr and Mrs Ritson

Raising Happy Chickens

I have a tiny little bantam Lemon Millefleur Sablepoot called Bono (he was called Bonnie until he started crowing and squaring up!) who insists on squaring up to everyone, including my huge 50 kilo Livestock Guardian Dog. She is completely bemused by him and never tries to hurt him - she just stares him down. He doesn't actually do her any damage as he can't even reach the top of her leg.

Charlotte Skelton

I got into chicken keeping because i'm interested in rare breeds and collecting different breeds to sell in the future. I keep them to sell and for enjoyment, however I can see many backyard chicken keepers would buy them to be self sufficient or just for pets!

I have a couple of acres full of different types of chickens. They all have their own pens so they are seperate. I have blue laced wyandottes, silkies, polands, rhode island reds, gold laced wyandottes and a few more. There are too many to count! But they're all very friendly and inquisitive.

Pros: Beautiful, friendly creatures. Eggs and hatching eggs

Cons: They tend to wander off!

If I were to give advice I would suggest people recognise that they do need looking after, ie, locking in at night. And research breeds, for example silkes don't fly, vorwerks can fly 2 meteres! And Ixworths lay lots of eggs.

Rachael Harris, London

On honeymoon in South Africa there were some feather footed chickens (?cochins) in one of the places we were staying. They were so much fun and came to visit us every morning! When we got home I said to my husband that I wanted to keep chickens but my husband didn't agree. It took me about 18 months before he agreed and now we both love them. It hasn't all been straight forward but it is a huge learning curve which is just ongoing! We have now had chickens for about 2 years

I would like to keep more animals and become more self sufficient but our hectic London life style doesn't let us (we both work full time). I was always nervous about supermarket eggs, not knowing how the hens are treated :-( Plus, how great is collecting fresh eggs everyday?! We also find that it is very relaxing watching the flock free range in summer... But we also go through very stressful points when things go wrong... Foxes, illness, pecking order etc

We started with one second hand Eglu with 3 hybrids, last summer we expanded to a cube with 6 bantams, about 4 months later we rescued a bantam rooster. We then got 2 Polands, they were not happy in the cube so we had an emergency purchase of a second eglu.

3 hybrids have died in 2 years, 2 from fox attacks and one from a mystery illness. The 1 orginal hybrid is alive, she is top of the pecking order, she pecks the lowest chicken and that one always has a bare bottom! Names are Mrs Pilkington (named after my great Grandma, 2 that died were Dorothy and Clara after my grandparents) The rescue rooster is a Pekin bantam called Rocky (previously named!)

The 6 bantams are the 3M's (after were my husband's dad worked!) Margo Maude and Mathilda. And the other 3 were named after Owd Lancashire sayings, Purrt'n Kettle On (Kettle) Is It Heckes Like (Issy) and Ecky Thump (Thumper). Our Polands are Onyx and Amber (they are our most recent addition in September

Characters... Too many to mention... The pecking order is rife... They all chase the ones below... When we add new ones my husband calls it carnage! The Polands are the sweetest the sweetest things.

We have one bantam who is the lowest in the pecking order and she has started spending some time inside with us!

It's relaxing but not so great in winter when it's dark and the are asleep when we go to home and asleep when we come home...! I worry that I won't know if one is sick. In the summer I love it... Just pottering in the garden with them... Seeing their personalities

Hopefully going to have chicks this spring which will be another huge learning curve!

If I were to give advice i'd say research research research, join poultry groups and ask lots of questions and get lots of support!

Is there anything else you'd like to tell us?

Everything changed for the better when we rescued our rooster! The whole dynamics of the group changed and I love the way he cares for his girls and they think he is a chicken God and act like groupies around him! I love watching him getting horny and getting some (is that too much information!?)

Angela Scott, UK

I used to visit my great grandparents, and grandparents who lived in the countryside on the edge of dartmoor every weekend with my parents as a young child 4-6 years old Which was a liberating experience as i was raised in a city.

They lived at the bottom of at large garden there was an orchard with an what appeared to be a very large metal Anderson shelter type building. I remember the brown chickens being everywhere inside, my grandparents would normally have to come and get me as I would be in there for so long watching the chickens going about their business. I loved it in that shed with the chickens, and I still carry those happy memories with me.

I always said when I grew up I would have a house with a garden and loads of hens. I currently have 12 rather pampered hens.

I would go and collect the eggs for the family, and would have to hunt high and low for them  so it was no quick job. For my family keeping chickens was something that went back generations so it was normal especially in a rural environment. However when back in the city other children in my school did not share in my excitement with the chicken experiences that I had.

There were stoats or minks at the bottom of the orchard. One particular day my grandad shouted that the stoat/mink was chasing me up the path for the eggs. I ran as fast as I could and tripped fell over breaking nearly all the eggs I had collected in the wicker basket. I thought that in was going to be in so much trouble for breaking all those eggs. However when I walked in no the house the whole family burst out laughing. I was understandably very relieved.

Roy Conyers, UK

My first real introduction to chickens was as an 8 year old kid in the back bedroom of an old Coronation Street type house in Hull in about 1949. My father, not being much of a handyman, (even I could see that at 8 years old ) put an old door horizontally across two trestles in the middle of the back bedroom. Knowing Dad , it could well have been the door to the room. All around the edges he secured a 9″ up stand with hardboard. I particularly remembering him cover the door with something called lino (linoleum). In the middle he placed a most peculiar sort of mini building. It looked like a pyramid on legs which were about 6″ high. It was about 2 ' 0″ square , and about two foot high and made of aluminium. I know that for sure because I always got my hands dirty when I touched it. Joining each of the legs was skirting which you could attach and detach. On one of the four sides of the pyramid was a huge sort of spyglass which you were supposed to look through. It seemed a bit stupid to me when all you had to do to see inside was to lift up the pyramid which was hinged on one of the four sides. Having done this it revealed a beautiful shiny brass, circular oil lamp on its own stand on three legs. Around the outside of the lamp was a circular piece of grey aluminium full of holes. It looked like a giant cheese grater and was about 9″ diameter and about 12″ high. He called this gadget a Hoover! The floor, or door,  was then covered with sawdust, probably got from the butcher at the top of the street. No one else I knew about kept sawdust! We got the paraffin for the lamp also from the hardware store at the top of the street. In fact you could get anything you wanted from the top of the street including fish and chips. I know that for sure because my mum used to work there sometimes, and come home stinking of them.

Then the day arrived I had been waiting for: it seemed as if I had been waiting years. In those days most livestock and birds was transported on trains . (People were not allowed. Only livestock.) So we had to go to the main train station and pick up our special parcel. I was utterly disappointed. It was tiny. About 12″ * 12″ * 6″ high. I expected it to be massive. It was so light I thought there was nothing in it. There were lots of neat regular holes around the top about one half of an inch in diameter. I carried it home very carefully as if it was full of water which I was not able to spill. Before we went to collect it Dad lit the oil lamp and made sure all the 4 skirting's were secure to keep all the warmth in. I can still taste the smell of that shiny paraffin lamp today. I remember standing on a chair whilst we delicately cut the bright red waxed up string around the box . You did this with a candle to make sure all the knots would not slip and come undone. They had done it too well and I began to feel impatient because I could not get the string off fast enough. Then came the magic moment. Holding my breath I carefully and very slowly removed the box lid to reveal the most beautiful site I had ever experienced in my short life. Today , after 60+ years I can still visualise in my minds eye that most incredible site of 10 of the most beautiful tiny, yellow, fluffy day old cuddly chicks in the world. I was speechless and just overwhelmed. They were only a day old and were busy scurrying about searching for something to eat as if they were weeks old, and they were delighted to see the daylight. Some of them even tried to escape from the box to investigate this new world we had brought them into. We lifted them out of the box and put them next to the heater which by this time was lovely and warm. Dad had removed one of the skirting's thus allowing access both to the heater and to the open run. They were absolutely delighted and charged about all over the place chasing imaginary flies. I picked them up one at a time gave each one a kiss and a cuddle and put them back to play. What I found quite surprising was that they were not frightened of me or Dad. We were like giants to them and yet they showed no fear, just complete trust. We put in some water and chick crumbs but they just ignored them. Apparently they often go for a day or so without eating or drinking. After an exciting time in the sawdust they eventually settled down to sleep in their warm little den and we tucked them in, put back the skirting and left them for the night quietly churping away to each other. Just like kids do when they go to bed. My parents were not into cuddles and kind words and I suppose for the first time in my life I had found a bond of love and understanding that I had not been used to before between my self and these most special little bundles of joy.

For the next two weeks or so I spent all my spare time, looking after them. Cleaning them out. Washing their dirty feet and bums. Supplying clean water and food. I used to love feeding them by hand and they all used to try and perch on my fingers at the same time. They were so funny. It was a fascinating experience to have them walking all over my hands and arms. Of course the sad time came when one of them died, so without much ado my brother and sister and I had a serious funeral to organise, a coffin to make, and a hole to dig in the garden. And so we learned about life and death. I spent every minute I could with them . We talked to each other incessantly and I never got tired of watching them get up to all their funny antics. Another thing I learned was how quickly they grow up, and before three weeks were up they were jumping over the edge of their door onto the floor. So sadly they were discharged into the garden, which was much better for them and of course, much more fun. Even after all these years I still smile and reflect with such joy at my first introduction to chickens. I was a very lucky little boy.

Gordon, 78, Gateshead

We had a stray chicken. We never kept any ourselves but we had a stray that would come up the stairs and sit in front of the hearth. You know, like one of them big open fires. It would just sit there in front of the fire it until it decided where it wanted to go next. It didn't belong to us like, but it definitely took a fancy to us. When me father went out for a drink, the chicken would follow him home from the club and into the house. He was its guardian.

Red, UK

Milly and Eva especially were very tame, to the point where Milly would climb inside my jumper for a cuddle and both would come when I called their names!

I can't even begin to describe what an amazing girl Milly was. She was my shadow whenever I was in the garden and, often, in the house too! She passed away in 2010 and I still think about her every day.

This was my first cuddle when I got back from a few months at uni

Ollie, UK

During WWII my Uncle Fred had a small piece of land, known as a "piece". There was a small area for vegetables but most of the land was for live stock. A few pigs, one more than the government knew about (that one was for the family). Goats for milk and later their meat. Hens were my favourites and I've had a soft spot for them ever since. I loved collecting those warm eggs!

Joan, Tyne and Wear

Someone in the street used to keep them so we had to help. We collected the eggs but it was so long ago I can't remember much. They used to come running to you - they knew it was feeding time. I think they still do!

Karen English, 49,  Newcastle

My first experience of feeding hens from the hand was in Jo's back garden. I didn't care much for the sharp beak pecking at the palm of my hand but the experience being amongst them was great. The poo was fun. The eggs were so warm - Happiness was the name of the game... great to be a part of Henlife!

Ann Boyd, 56, Co. Durham

A young girl I fostered was really keen on looking after the hens'. She called her favourite hen lightening because it was fast. She had learning difficulties and thought she was training it to sit on her head etc even though she kept tight hold of it. She even kept hold of it while she was feeding the other hens, and she couldn't understand why it struggled so much to be put down.

Edna Sibblid, Newcastle

I'm delighted with the hens, they're lovely. They come straight to you. I think it's a good idea. I think a lot of people will get the thrill that I've had with the hens.