Chickens !

We have added to our family today when we acquired some point of lay chickens. A drive out to Stebbing in Essex to visit Hens for Homes and to speak with Kirsty helped us to decide on what chickens to buy. Here you can see a big range of point of lay chickens before buying. They can also be delivered. The chickens cost us £12.50 each.

The choice in Chickens is vast but rather than venture into pure breeds we decided to go for some hybrid hens. We decided we wanted both friendly chickens and good egg layers. We have 4 hens 2 of which are around 15 weeks and another 2 who are about 20 weeks old.

We have 4 different birds a Bovans Goldline which is a brown coloured chicken which lays brown eggs, a Bluebelle which is a grey/lavender coloured bird, a Bovans Silver which is said to be a very friendly bird and a Maran Cou Cou a speckled coloured bird.

Kirsty provided us with a starter pack of various items including all of the necessary food which was a supply of corn and a big bag of layer pellet, some grit to aid the birds digestion, and a drinker and feeder for the water and pellets.

We transported them back from Essex in a cat box and a crisp sized cardboard box. Apparently this is the standard way of doing this. Before bringing them home all of the birds had one of their wings clipped. This is an entirely painless process which will hopefully stop the chickens flying into trees to roost. It should apparently mean they will only be able to leap about 3 foot which is important to us as some of our fencing is only 5 feet high to our neighbors.

The previous week we had bought and erected a very well made chicken house and a 6 foot run from Tillett Pet and Poultry. The houses are well made and you can fit a chicken house and a run into a standard mondeo car. The house was well made and was easily fitted together in about 20 minutes. Although we gave it a coat of Somerset Green Cuprinol paint first.

The birds traveled well in the car and were very quiet. Getting them out of their boxes and into their new house meant picking and holding a chicken which Kirsty made look simple but takes a bit of practice and confidence to get right. however mission accomplished and the birds are in their new home. We are told to expect a 2 week period period while the birds become used to their new home and during this time they have a bit of a sneeze or two.

we have yet to name the four chickens. So far the silver bovan bird seems to be the leader pecking out sometimes at the others when she is wanting first peck at any food. However the grey/lavender bird seems the most flighty and adventurous and once or twice has tried to make her escape back to Essex launching herself at the top of the run.

We are complete novices at chicken keeping and no absolutely nothing really. However it will be exciting to see when we start hopefully getting some eggs. My pictures were take in the evening fading light and I hope to get some better shots soon.