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Keeping hens
Keeping a few hens… Is it worth it? Billingshurst resident Clive Wigan thinks it is A bit about hens As with most other females they are born with their lifetime supply of eggs. After about 13 weeks from birth they start to drop them at the rate of about one a day until their supply runs out in about three years (no sex with cockerels needed!). You know when they are in egg-laying mode – ‘point of lay’ – when their combs are red and they crouch in a ‘submissive’ mode when you stroke their back! Why have them? • With, say, three or four hens you get an average of two or three eggs a day for you and your friends. • You enjoy the magic of collecting eggs that seem to come from nowhere. • You get a wonderful supply of rich manure… ideal to enrich your compost heap. • It gives you a good motivation to go ‘down the garden’. • Hens are very friendly and fascinating to watch. Some even find them therapeitic. BUT looking after them can be hard work if you are the diligent sort… easier if you are not too diligent! Are they nice to each other? Often, yes, liking to stay together and sleeping huddled together. Occasionally, no! Hen pecking is real. New introductions to the flock are often given a hard time (pecked, etc). Occasionally you are reminded that chickens are descended from T. Rex. If they see blood on a hen they can act a mob and peck the poor soul – occasionally to death. Stuff you need A hen house. Feeding and watering kit, layers’ food (be aware of possibility of rats and mice so keep food in zinc bins and be prepared to poison or trap) and possibly some anti-red mite stuff. (Red mite can be a big problem. A plastic hen house is easier to clean and red mite cannot hide in the wood grain, etc.) Some grazing ground. Hens will dig holes in your lawn, scratch out your favourite flowers, etc. If you let them loose in the garden beware foxes may roam during the day as well as night. The setup with least worry is a hen house set within a fox-proofed compound. If this is a small compound then they will soon wear the surfaces down to bare soil (which is OK but not as interesting for them as grass) so move the compound occasionally or create a hatched exit to fresh grazing grounds Last but not least… A wet/hot weather shelter.
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Interesting food like fatballs suspended in a cage. A perch or two. A few bushes. We tried a swing but no interest! Looking after hens Some owners treat them like a commodity and just allocate a short time in the morning to feed and collect eggs and tidy up. Others treat them like friends and allocate much more time to give them treats like spinach leaves, corn, etc, treat any red mite, clear up all the poo (the smell of poo is bad for them) and clean out the hen house, etc, and just enjoy being with the hens, often naming them or ringing them with varying coloured rings. How long do you keep them? This depends. If you want them only for the eggs then you would change them every three years or so. If you keep them after their laying life then maybe seven years on average. Health issues If you keep them for only their egg laying life and are lucky you get few health issues, usually only: • Red mite issues. • The rare need to clean up • the occasional bottom if it gets caked in poo. • On the rare occasion that a hen is attacked by others and needs to be treated and isolated, etc. The end game At the end of your hens’ egg laying years you may want to ‘swap’ them for a new younger flock. You may want introduce new younger hens to existing older flock but this has it problems. No-one fancies killing their own pets (very difficult if you have named them). Some owners are brave enough to do it; others let them loose for foxy to do it for them. Once we found a farm theme park that accepted them. Now we have found a hen supplier that has offered to exchange our old hens for new and they do the dastardly deed on the old for us in a professional way. No-one seems to like eating their tough old hens. Is it worth it? If you have time and the inclination then, yes. If you are unsure then, no. Further reading www.omlet.co.uk/guide/chickens www.bhwt.org.uk/hen-health/hen-husbandry Photo: Some of the hens on the Village Tweet smallholding. Says Editor Grahame: “Fancy breeds are all very well but we have found ordinary brown hens to be much friendlier and the longest layers. Cheaper too!”
