Sarah Clarke

Julie Smith

It started when I was in plaster I'd had to give up a job I loved and couldn't ride my horses - it was the 3rd op out of 6 so far. I have osteoarthritis in both hands and wrists and have had them partly and fully fused.

We live in the country my daughter works while studying at a free-range egg farm, she was banned from taking anymore hens home who were injured to her boyfriends place. She fetched me one hen, we called her Hettie she was in a poor state I actually took her to the vet for antibiotic but sadly she died. My daughter calls it Hettie hospital.

I now have about 45 not all Hetties I also breed and show vorwerks have a few runner ducks. I still take in the Hetties and have a coop of limpy hens that have come with either deformities from old breaks or have new ones I splint until healed. From peck injuries to nasty open wounds their ability to heal once separate and treated is astounding. I rehome the fully recovered that can go back with other hens. It's time consuming but rewarding I remember my famous last words after finding out my daughter had been banned from having anymore hens. No way, don't ask we're not having any chickens here, lol.

Paul Stubbs

Neil Watson

Paul Perryman

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 Haigh

Will Gill

Alex Batey, 13

I breed and show hens - I just fancied taking it up as a hobby at first but then it grew from there. Some parts of it are competitive but it is mostly friendly. My first show was just a small village one but it was a good experience.

The first chicks I hatched and reared were belgium's bantams - they were good mothers. Call ducks are especially hard to breed.

Steve Grinham

My involvement in breeding and showing began when my wife gave me two hens as a present and it started from there. The world is competative but always friendly and you feel nervous but excited.

I used to have a call duck I bought in Acton and she won every single show I put her in.... I did not have a clue what I was looking for!

Richard Toward

I'm involved in breeding and showing just for the sport of it. My family always had hens but I was the first one to show. Although my great-grandfather showed so i suppose it's in my blood and just came naturally. I just got it in my head one day and now I'm addicted.

The first one I hatched and reared was a cross-bred that won nothing! It was a silke cross. But you're going back a long way trying to remember that.... I've been keeping my own since I was 10 and i'm 23 now.

My first show was in the May when I was about 17. It was nerve wracking but I won every class I was in. I don't like being beaten so it became an obsession. You just have to have the best. Winning reserve champion was probably my highlight so far.

Derek Sowerby

I'm involved in hen keeping as I'm the chairman of Eden Valley poultry club. I've been in this job about 6 years, it's the best hobby I've ever had, I'm really enjoying it. There are loads of people that want to help you. Sometimes you can get a bit set in your ways and complacent but then someone new and enthusiastic comes along, does a lot of research and is more committed... it proves successful!

It's just a hobby for me. I was a shepherd all my life... until foot and mouth. And then I needed a hobby. A friend of mine said I needed hens... I said I didn't! But then with the help of other people I've just got in.

I like something that's flashy or showy like I would in cattle or sheep. I have old English game birds. They're not very commercial... they don't lay many eggs, but I'm drawn to the style rather than the functionality. If you're walking down the aisle and a bird stands out it just makes your head turn. And then you go from there. If something catches your eye...

Judging poultry is all experience. There's a book of standards for size, colour, head colour, leg colour... that sort of thing - it can get quite technical when it comes down to it. If they don't fit within that standard they're not even worth showing in the first place. But you listen to experienced people and learn. And it's a good day out.

Stanley Simister

I got my first bantems when I was 3, I'm 81 now. Over the years I've probably kept about 50 different varieties of breeds. I've been a poultry club panel judge for 46 years. My daughter used to show but now she's married with a family so doesn't have time, other than that it's just been me in the family. It's been a lifelong hobby.

My father and grandfather both kept poultry and waterfowl. My father bought me by first trio of banties when I was 3, so then I went on to other breeds and it just grew from there. There was a period where I couldn't keep them because we lived in a property without sufficient land and then when we moved house and hand land again, it started up again. It's just been a lifelong hobby.

I was secretary of the poultry club in kent and chairman of another. We used to get about 800 entries in the annual show, and we used to hold social get togethers and smaller shows. Other than that I've judged throughout the country... England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales... and I've thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

Now I'm having to cut down because I had a serious illness so I'm having to ration my judging now. But in the summer you could be out every weekend at different shows because they come fast and furious at that time. All being well I'm due to judge at the Scottish National next year. But age has crept on so you have to be careful! I like the pleasure of being able to examine other peoples birds and compare them... and compare them to your own. I don't know what it is, judging just brings general enjoyment.

I'd say experience makes a good, winning hen. If you've kept a breed, you're better at judging that breed because there isn't a living person that could tell you every detail of every breed. You've got a wide view of the breeds but you have thorough view is something else. At the shows we have specialists for different breeds. In my case its sebright bantams that I've had for about 40 odd years; I've judged and showed those at championship level at the national shows.

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!

Ali Horn

My cousin had a henhouse that he had built at school and advertised in the local paper to sell it. He sold it and we just thought that we wouldn't actually mind getting into hens. So we went to a local auction, started with wellsummers first and he bought some cream legbars and then after that we sort of got the bug and went to different sales and making henhouses and stuff like that. It was after we used to go clubbing... when we stopped we needed something to do!

So we looked at all the different breeds and what they should be like in Poultry Standard and 5 years later we have 28 different breeds, one for every letter in the alphabet. And bantems, geese, turkeys, allsorts. Then we did a little bit of showing and it was just a hobby that got carried away! The people you met through it were interesting because they're different to the sorts of people you'd meet before.

The shows are just a bit of fun. Everyone has got a chance. Whatever background you come from, everyone has got a chance at winning a rosette. If you do start winning and collecting prizes it just gets quite addictive. It's just about doing the best you can. It's just not a bad way to spend an afternoon!

Edwin Parkin

For me it's just following in my fathers footsteps. My father was a keen exhibitor and breeder and I followed on from him. I realized it was an interest you could work on and it started from there. I started taking him round the shows when he was too old to drive, because you don't retire. You get into the team of people that you meet and its social as well as the exhibition side.

 The showing world is hard to describe. But you meet people and get to places just with a box of hens that you would never have gone to. You drive through or past somewhere and know nothing about it... but if there's a show on you put some birds in a box and go. The people that are here today aren't from around here. It's a social thing - you compare notes and exchange birds. It works.

The skill is to not keep very many but breed good ones. Every year you think I'll do it better next year - I'll improve and improve. That's what keeps you going. You keep trying, you have your favourites... but then you move on to a new one. Always trying to improve your standard along the way. Some people keep a specialized breed, some have a few. Every one is different. My focus is the game birds.

Margaret Bell

I'm not sure how I got into judging eggs... someone just asked me and I said yes! There's different classes and different things that make a good egg. Shape, colours; tinted, brown and white and numbers; threes, fours, sixes and single eggs. The groups on a plate all have to match, so the colour and the shape... it's a lot harder than you think to get 3 or 4 eggs exactly the same. Just because they lay one, one colour and shape one day, doesn't mean they will the next day!

And then there's contents, where you break them and judge the inside. The yolk has to stand up nicely and be a nice colour and that sort of thing. You don't get a lot if you win... probably a rosette! It's just interesting and keeps things going. My favorite are probably the greeny colour eggs, or a nice dark brown.

Charlie Simpson, Carlisle

 It's a hobby, I have 27. I haven't all of my life... I don't know how it began really, I just started keeping them. I thought we may as well have our own free range eggs - we have plenty customers for them. I have 2 different breeds - barnevelders and welsummers. I don't name them, there are far too many for that.

 They're not that hard to look after. Just food and clean water every day and then you have them to clean out once a week and all that. It's something to do when you've retired. So you go out in the morning and feed and water them, and then I maybe go down later in the afternoon and then when it gets dark I go down and shut them in... cos Mr Fox comes along. So i've got to fasten them in of a night.

 I come to the shows just as a matter of interest. I like to come and see what's in the boxes, what's being shown. I wouldn't show myself though - I shouldn't say I haven't time, because I have time... but no, I've never fancied showing myself. It's a lot of commitment.

Mr Bull

Jimmy, Gateshead

I kept hens yes. I had a hundred ducks and geese and chickens. I was a breeder and would sell the eggs. About 6 years ago - it was a hobby, I loved it. I'd sell the eggs to pay for my food and that, you know. I had Black Minorcas, White Leghornes, Rhode Island Reds. Id let them run around by themselves, and loved collecting the eggs. They were great - I loved them.

I also kept them as a young man. I had to sell the eggs to pay for the coal - to keep warm. We'd feed them cabbage leaves and vegetable peelings.