KEEPING CHICKENS

Chick chat: Clodagh with one of her hens

Make Easter nests from foraged twigs

IN THE COUNTRY WITH Clodagh McKenna

A YEAR WITH OUR WONDERFUL GIRLS!

This month marks our one year anniversary with our hens, or as we like to call them – our Girls! I had always dreamed of keeping my own chickens; the idea of having fresh eggs every day and living in a more sustainable way is the focus of our life here at Broadspear. It’ s been a steep learning curve ever since they arrived. But it’ s like anything, you learn as you go along, ask for advice and quickly get into a routine.

We have 14 hens in total that live in a lovely fenced area, sheltered by cherry trees, just beyond my kitchen window so I can keep an eye on them. There are two wooden coops perched on stone carved mushrooms that they cuddle up in every night. We have four different breeds – Burford Browns, Olives, Old Cotswold Legbars and Dekalb Whites. The eggs are a mix of beautiful brown, white and olive green.

The Girls have become members of our extended family – I absolutely love them, and each one of them has a unique personality. Tina (the boss and named after Tina Turner for her unique strut), Goldie Hen, Yolko Ono, Saoirse, Henneth Paltrow and Eggy Pop are a few of the big personalities in the coop! My morning routine starts with the Girls. I wake up and pop on my wellies and let them out of the hen house. As I walk closer they can hear me and start to yelp with excitement (well, I hope that’ s what the screeching is). Once they are all out and foraging, I gather the eggs (we are getting about nine a day at the moment), bring them back into the house, wash them and cook up a few for breakfast. Then it’ s back out to the hens to clean out their house and get them set up for the day. All the hay from the roosting area gets put into our composting pile, and we replace it with fresh hay for the day and night ahead. Feed and watering cans are cleaned

As it’ s Easter I’ll be using some of the eggs to decorate my Easter tablescape. You can see in the pictures how I have styled it and there is a step-by-step so that you can create it too. I hope you have a wonderful Easter!

NEXT MONTH:

Hive talking as Clodagh shares

her experience of keeping bees

Trees shelter the coops

Fresh eggs for breakfast

HOW TO SET AN EASTER TABLE

1 To create this Easter tablescape, I used sage green linen for the main tablecloth and added a biscuit-coloured runner down the centre. You can buy linen by the metre in fabric stores. I arranged the runner with bud vases filled with white blossom, white hellebores and peach tulips – flowers that are all now in season. 2 In between the flower vases I placed a mixture of different types of eggs collected from our Girls. Sage-green candles and candle holders were interspersed between the flowers and eggs. 3 I used white tableware and rustic side plates, plus traditional white napkins. On top, I laid a beautiful little homemade nest filled with quail’s eggs, which added such a special touch to the settings. To make each nest, I collected around 30 small malleable twigs and shaped them into a nest, using wire to hold them all together.

Happy chickens are allowed to roam free range

Countrylifestyle KEEPING CHICKENS