Patsy Booth

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!

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...

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.

Wilfred Wales

Laura, UK

Our chickens are pets although there is too many of them to know them all by name, theres always the odd few that stand out as they have so much character!

We have a a rather mischievous chicken named Vera who is an escape artist. She was recently missing for a long time, and could not be found. This was until one cold winter morning she was found on top of the hay bales with a bunch of chicks. This then lead to my elderly Grandma having to scale the hay bales to rescue mother and young. Luckily all are recovered and doing fine (my grandma included!)

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.

Jan L'Argent, UK

When I retired I realised I could do something that my mother did in keeping hens.  We always had chickens but the one I remember is the pet chicken that I called Penny and used to come to the back door for treats.  It isn't just that they give us beautiful eggs but that they are great little characters, funny and so endearing in their ways. I've had hens for 2 years now, they are my pets, they all have names and I love them very much some even like a cuddle! I've lost a couple and it broke my heart but you never stop learning but one of the most important things is that I have made friends because of the hens.

I wanted to have really fresh eggs and on the side of economy I rarely have to buy eggs.  My hens are well cared for and not in cages, they are kept clean and have room to fly, which they're usually too lazy to bother with. I can't bear the thought of hens kept in cages where they have no room to move, where they are pecked by their too close neighbours and are considered 'past it' by the age of 2 and sent for meat unless they are lucky enough to be rescued.

I have 2 runs, 7 share a 2 x 4 metre run, they have a converted garden shed for a coop because I find purpose built runs too difficult to clean (I have arthritis in my spine).  It is well sealed against draughts, has nest boxes and a perch.  Their kiln dried sand on the floor to which I occasionally add diatomaceous earth - they use it for dust bathing but it also really easy to keep clean.  They have hemp bedding because it is so absorbent and easy to clean out as well.  Their run has hard wood chip on the floor and is changed every 3 months or so and when someone is home we let them have the run of the garden, which upsets my other half as they decimate his veg beds!  The other run has 3 girls but is similarly set up but smaller and they have an ark not a shed, I take the roof off to clean it out.

There are 10 in number, 2 Speckledy's, 1 Bluebelle the rest are hybrid crosses of Copper Black Maran, Cream Legbar and Skyline.  They are all named after British Queens and Queen Consorts because one of my first hens was a lovely coppery red/brown with creamy feather mixed in around the neck which I thought looked like an Elizabethan ruff so she was called Elizabeth.  Sadly she died from mycoplasmosis. I now have Eleanor, Caroline, Matilda (who strictly speaking called herself Empress), Margaret, known as Meggie, Guinevere, Isabelle, Anne, Katherine, Jane and Boudicca, clled Boo for short.  Annie likes to cuddle as does Matilda.  The 2 Speckledy's are just gannets and very noisy especially when it comes to telling the whole village that an egg has been laid!  All the little cross breeds are less biddable and prefer not to be handled but once they have been picked up they tolerate it except for Meggie whole give you a nasty bruise with her beak!  Oddly she is bottom of the pecking order but is not bullied.  Katherine is also bottom of the pecking order in her run.

Pros are fresh eggs, friends (both hens and people) and always having a talking point.

Cons are it's expensive to get your set up, keeping it clean is less so but is time consuming, feed is relatively cheap but good quality food is worth it.  If you live in an urban area getting a good poultry vet is difficult.  Losing a hen is very hard, it's as bad as your dog/cat dying. Going on holiday is difficult unless there is someone you trust to care as much as you do.

You may have to deal with the horrific result of fox invasion or even buzzard and sparrowhawk. You have to be prepared to deal with mice/rats if they crop up.

Advice? It is not cheap or easy so think hard before you jump in. Do a backyard chicken course. Research breeds, some lay better, some are noisy others less so. some may be more prone to disease. Consider taking ex-batts they will lay for several more years, are well domesticated and will give the pleasure of knowing that you gave them freedom from cages and a longer life.

There are so many little things but I'll never forget the day I met Matilda walking down the road when returning with the dog from a walk. Thankfully, we live in a village and a cul-de-sac but we do get traffic. I was horrified that I could have lost her but it was hilarious watching my blue/grey hen happily strolling along and picking up tidbits from the neighbours hedges!  She'd flown over 2 garden gates to get out so I've never let them free range unattended again!

The Hunters, UK

My daughter,  who was about 3 at the time, used to get taken for a walk by her granny or grandpa every so often.  She would hold their hand and happily wander up the country lane.  On reaching the back lane she would ask to be lifted up and carried.  Rounding the corner and being carried by her grandparent she would see the small flock of hens halfway up the lane and amongst them the small white cockerel.  As they approached the hens would wander off but the cockerel would stand in the middle of the lane and puff out its chest, it was up for a fight and my daughter would hang on tight and begin to laugh.  She thought it was hilarious that granny or grandpa was being attacked by the miniature cockerel and the fuss that ensued.  Unfortunately the cockerel picked a fight with a 4 wheel drive and came off second best!

Mandy Roberts, 50, Nothumberland

My family kept hens when I was a teenager - part of the self sufficiency 'craze' of the 70's I guess.

 We had a Rhode Island Red cockerel called Eric The Red who we were very scared of but needed to lock up at night. We had to use a bamboo stick to get him into the greenhouse - a bigger target than the chicken hut.

 We also had bantams who would roost in the bushes at dusk - we had to lift them down and pop them away as they roosted so low that a fox could have easily got them.

Dorothy, 82, Gateshead

A lot of people had them during the war - mainly for the eggs I think because they were hard times. But you could nearly always get chicken or eggs. You always had chicken.

 I used to stay at my aunty's in Embleton when I was a child. From about the age of 9 me Mam would put me on the bus at Haymarket and my aunty would get me off at Embleton, up the coast. I used to go up there for holidays in the summer - I loved the sea. Anyway, there were chickens all over the bloody place up there. They'd just wander in the middle of the road. They knew who you were and they'd follow you all over, I've even seen a chicken trying to get into the bloody sea man!

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?'.

Noreen, Birtley

I used to like to take the eggs out - they were my dads. We used to like it when they laid the eggs because we had something to eat! My dad was very keen so we had lots. We used to like the eggs. We didn't play with them, but we liked them. We certainly liked the eggs.

 When I was a little girl I went with dad who kept bantems. We ate them because we had lots - we would replace the ones me Mam had killed for the Sunday dinner. We went to the allotment every day from the age of 2 until school and we played with them, they were very friendly.

 My Mam was very interested in the hens - she used to gather the crusts off the neighbours and she'd mix that with their food. Look after them was hard work. Getting them back into the garden after they escaped was especially hard work!

 They kept them in wooden cages called crees - cobbled together from whatever wood they could find. My dad put them into shows - they'd judge them on their feathers, if the nails were properly cut - allsorts. He used to win and that kept him going. We went all over. You didn't have a lot of money to spend in those days but we went as far as we could - we went on some hilarious hikes.

 On the morning they knew who you were - they definitely knew they were getting fed!

Jodi, 30, Gateshead

My friend Mel has a Chicken called 'Wanda' that likes to wonder off from time to time.