My Little Piece of Reality Now Includes Chickens

6/9/2022

During the first birdemic lockdown of 2020, I spent the bulk of my time renovating a dilapidated building in my backyard that the property's previous owner had used as a chicken coop or hen house. I completed the work within a couple of months and vowed to procure chickens immediately after but somehow did not get around to it. Well, it's taken two years, but the hen house finally has some residents -- twelve of them to be exact.

Three weeks ago, I purchased a dozen six-week-old hybrid egg-laying hens. Not knowing much about how to care for poultry, I asked my neighbors for some tips and tricks. It turns out that there isn't all that much to know when it comes to keeping chickens. Give them fresh water, feed, and some space to run around, and the chickens pretty much take care of themselves. To keep "the ladies" happy and healthy, I installed some roosts and nest boxes in the hen house and provided them with a large, fenced-in run full of vegetation. If all goes well, they will lay their first eggs in August.

I never had much of an opinion about chickens before I got them, but now that they are a part of my reality, I find them to be surprisingly delightful. Their presence also adds a little life to the yard and creates a comforting and warm ambiance.

I get the sense that hens will become a permanent fixture in my life. Next up -- goats!*

* I have to be careful with that one because my wife has bluntly informed me that she will leave me if I dare to bring a goat within a hundred meters of the house.

The ladies, numbers 1 to 8 . . .

. . . and 9 to 12 (though I think Lady Number 6 -- the prima donna -- appears in both photos).

18 Comments

bruce charlton

6/9/2022 14:39:47

One of my friends kept Anglo-Nubian goats, which were quite friendly and cute looking (for goats...).

I don't know if you ever went into the wilds of Northumberland around the border (Cheviots or Kielder Moor) where there are some big herds of feral goats with *massive* horns (and you can smell them from hundreds of yards). They have been fending for themselves for hundreds of years - and are, indeed, so successful that they need culling from time to time.

Francis Berger

6/9/2022 20:42:03

@ Bruce - We explored the area a bit, but I didn't know about the feral goats. I wouldn't have thought such things even existed in Northumberland.

Speaking of Northumberland, we've been enjoying some fine northeastern English weather here in Hungary these past few days -- overcast and cool (17-20 C) with a few light showers here and there. A nice little break from the warmer weather (25-30 C) we usually experience at this time of year. Don't get me wrong, I like warm and sunny weather, but the older I get, the less I like the heat and the burning sun. It's far more pleasant to work outside in the yard when its overcast and 17 degrees!

6/10/2022 21:14:39

"cool (17-20 C)"

Cool? Shurely shome mishtake...

S.K. Orr link

6/9/2022 15:08:43

I no longer keep chickens because the predators were able to outsmart me every time. Raccoons, foxes, and snakes made short work of the hens and eggs, no matter what I did. I had to accept that being surrounded by varmint-rich woods would necessitate me building a chicken run that would have been quite expensive and labor-intensive, so when the last hen disappeared some years ago, I surrendered.

I do miss the girls, though. They used to chase me across the yard when I came outside with a treat (mealworms, melon rinds, etc) and some of them would come to me and put their heads against my leg while I sat reading in the yard. They were very docile and allowed me to hold and stroke them anytime I wished. Just sitting and watching them and listening to them was balm for my soul.

I wish you the very best of success in your new chicken venture, Francis. I suspect you'll be very glad you took this step. And fresh eggs are so superior to store-bought, it's difficult to describe.

6/9/2022 20:53:38

@ S.K. - You and Wm got me all paranoid now. I think I'm going to sleep in the hen house tonight!

We have foxes in the area here, but they tend to stay out of the yards. Luckily we have no snakes that pose any sort of threat. About the only thing that makes me anxious are the martens. If you recall, I managed to trap one a couple of years ago.

https://www.francisberger.com/blog/finally-trapped-the-marten

These little buggers can sneak in through the smallest openings and cause all kinds of damage. Thankfully, they don't tend to bother the village chickens too much. They tend to leave the chickens alone and go after the eggs, but every now and then I hear someone complain about a hen or two being taken.

My hen house is a sturdy brick building, but I had to leave a few openings for ventilation. I covered these opening with thick mesh. I hope the mesh is strong enough to withstand curious martens.

Other than that, I too enjoy watching them. Sometimes I'll go in the coop and sit on a bucket and just let them peck away at my shoes. The braver ones even perch on my knees or elbows sometimes.

WJT link

6/9/2022 15:15:07

When we had chickens, hawks and eagles were a constant problem. We tried lots of things, but what ended up working best was putting fishing line up at intervals above their feeding area.

6/9/2022 20:55:14

@ Wm - I hadn't thought about birds of prey. We have some small hawks in the area. As far as I know, they don't pose much of a threat to chickens. I'll find out soon enough if that's true or not!

Heather Shaler

6/9/2022 19:05:50

Have fun with them! My kids also think that now we have chickens, it's time to try goats. I'm not so sure...

6/9/2022 20:55:55

@ Heather - Maybe Carol's sheep suggestion is the way to go?

Carol

6/9/2022 20:04:55

Hey Frank,
Did you know you can make cheese and butter out of sheep's milk? I'd never have thought so, until I watched this video I'm linking (which is actually kind of amazing in itself!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U54HRmglYEA

I bet you could get away with bringing a cute, fluffy little lamb home to your wife ;^)

6/9/2022 21:01:52

@ Carol - Fittingly enough, sheep's milk cheese was part of my dinner this evening. I love the stuff.

A few people in the village here keep sheep in their yards, and there a few flocks of sheep out in the fields. I really like sheep, but I'm afraid I couldn't keep them in the yard. They'd end up eating everything. I imagine goats would do the same.

However, I do own a piece of vacant land in the neighboring village. Moreover, I just received a rather stern letter from the mayor of that village who informed me, in no uncertain terms, that I needed to cut the grass and weeds on the property or face a stiff fine. It might not be a bad idea to invest in a couple of nature's lawn mowers and put them on that vacant lot.

Max Overhead

6/9/2022 21:30:19

Where I live at, I got away with keeping 6 hens in a laissez-fare manner for a year before predators began picking them off. When I was down to two, I introduced 8 pullets which were wiped out in the course of 2 nights. I'm careful now, and practice a benevolent kingship over the girls. My dozen new girls are in the process of integration with my 1 surviving hen. They stay in the coop until they're large enough to fend for themselves, at which point they'll be let out into the run, but all the girls have a curfew and are back in the coop by 8 pm. Raccoons here make short work of chickens. I have caught 2 coons, 2 possums and 1 confused cat. I used to think that chickens were stupid but now I know better. They can learn words just like a dog can. They can mourn. If you don't have a rooster, they consider you the rooster and will feel safest when near you. Their eggs, from the carotene in the lawn greens, contain vivid orange yolks which resist beating, unlike the pale yellow yolks of the store eggs. Whatever vegetation you have in your run will disappear, sorry to say.

6/10/2022 08:15:49

@ Max - I also assumed chickens were relatively stupid, but I'm learning that's not the case.

Luckily, we don't have raccoons here, only martens.

You are right -- the vegetation will inevitably disappear, but it's nice that they have it now while they are still young.

Epimetheus

6/11/2022 00:16:15

Chickens are also curious. If you jack up your car or whatever and crawl under it to work, they will come along in a line and tilt their heads upside down to see what you're doing.

My brother-in-law was a carpenter. Apparently, his chickens memorized the very early hour he left the house and waited in a line to watch him pack his tools, clucking to one another. There's a reason people called the old knitting circles of gossiping old ladies "hen parties" - when hens watch you and cluck, they're expressing some kind of (usually disapproving) judgement. It's also possible to hypnotize them into a kind of trance, if you can believe it.

John Venlet link

6/9/2022 21:56:15

Good luck with the chickens, Francis, and you'll love the freshly laid eggs. They put store bought eggs to shame. And about that threat about if you come home with a goat - Back in the day, when I told my wife I'd like to have a dog, she said, in no uncertain terms, "The day you come home with a dog is the day I leave." Well, we've had two now in our 30 years together. She picks them out, and I take care of them and become their Alpha, and she misses our recently deceased dog as much as I do. God Bless.

6/10/2022 08:20:07

@ John - Yes, I've come learn that -- despite their warnings and threats to the contrary -- women will not leave you over something like a pet or animal. If they do, then the pet or animal is not the real cause of their departure.

6/10/2022 21:22:18

"women will not leave you over something like a pet or animal"

I note the plural term 'women' instead of 'a woman'... is there something you are not telling us?

6/10/2022 22:49:58

@ Bruce - Speaking about women in a general sense . . . thankfully.

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My Little Piece of Reality Now Includes Chickens

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