A colourful small flock of 6 hens enjoying some late winter greens from the polytunnel in early March
There’s very little more rewarding than keeping a few hens in your back garden. A colourful flock of beautifully marked hens look every bit as ornamental as any exotic birds you could keep in an aviary – but unlike purely ornamental birds - if you look after hens correctly, they don’t just look beautiful, but they will provide you with far more delicious and nutritious organic eggs than you could ever buy. In addition to being amusing, intelligent and very watchable company all year round, keeping your own laying hens also gives you a measure of food security, because you will always have some eggs handy for a quick meal, for baking or can even to make a very welcome gift – far cheaper and healthier than a box of chocolates!
An organic egg is probably the fastest, most convenient and nutritionally perfect meal in the world. A simple omelette made with couple of eggs along with a handful of homegrown salad greens, is a nutritionally-balanced meal, containing high quality protein and fats, virtually all of the vitamins and minerals we need, and also choline – recently classified as an essential nutrient - which is vital for many bodily functions including liver function, cholesterol metabolism, and healthy brain and nervous system development. Eggs also supply important antioxidants like Lutein and Zeaxanthin, which are vital for eye health.
Producing your own eggs means that you know exactly where they have come from and how the hens were kept. That gives you a great feeling of self-sufficiency and of being more in control over what you’re eating – because you are, quite literally, what your hens eat. The better you feed them – the better their eggs will be. The more organic greens like broccoli, kale and spinach that you feed your hens – the higher the eggs will be in those vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients vital for eye health. In addition to all of that – as if that wasn’t enough - your hens will give you a wonderful free by-product, fertile organic manure which will greatly enrich and boost the vital microbial life in your garden compost, which can then be used to grow your own delicious vegetables and fruit! What a lot of benefits, in return for very little daily trouble, after you have initially set up your domestic egg production unit!
Hens are a valuable adjunct to any organic food-producing garden. They convert the leftover bits of green vegetables like kale, broccoli, spinach and chicory, which are not quite good enough for the kitchen, but still too good for the worm bin, into wonderful eggs. At the same time, they produce very valuable, high nitrogen manure. They are also very happy to help you to get rid of garden pests like gooseberry sawfly larvae, if you let them roam among your fruit bushes during the winter.
I’ve kept hens for most of my life but last year I was without them for 3 months in the autumn, and I really missed them. Although we buy organic eggs, they are not nearly as good as our own, because as I’ve often explained before in other blog posts – organic producers are forced by economics of scale to keep the maximum number of hens on their holding that they are allowed to under Irish organic standards (or Soil Association standards in the UK) - otherwise it would not be economically viable due to the cost of producing the eggs in relation to the price they get for them, and they could not survive. However, I won’t go into that here, as I’ve already done so before. Hens love to graze on short, sweeter, newly emerging shoots and grass, and the more hens you keep on any pasture naturally means that they eat any green food like grass and clover faster – so then their eggs will not have such as deep an orange colour to the yolks as hens where fresh green food is always available. When I was producing organic eggs commercially, I used to grow green food especially for them which makes a huge difference – particularly in the winter, when growth outside is slower. My customers really loved our eggs. I often see some of them and they still tell me that they simply can’t buy eggs which are anything like as good as ours were. I can guarantee that once you have tasted your own home-produced eggs – you won’t ever want to go back to buying them from shops!
Gerry and I looking at the friendly and fast-growing 8 week-old pullets and cockerels in net-covered run
Gerry Kelly came over here recently to see how the day-old chicks which had just arrived when he was last here in early December were doing – and he was amazed to see how grown-up they were already looking, and how friendly they were! I got a mixed bunch of male and female day-old chicks from the hatchery – somewhat unusual as most people just want females, or pullets, for laying eggs. However, I wanted to prove that it was worth rearing the male chicks too, which are usually discarded, and that’s certainly proving to be the case – but those details are for another blog post I will write soon. Suffice to say here, that the males produced when hatching eggs of laying breeds (roughly 50% of the eggs hatched) are usually discarded, which is not only cruel and unethical - but also incredibly wasteful, when so many people in the world are starving! While I think about it by the way – hens are just purely for laying eggs - while hens and cockerels bred for meat production are collectively called chickens. A fine distinction of nomenclature perhaps – but there is often confusion about the use of those names. I’m talking about keeping hens for egg-laying here.
What do you need to think about if you want to keep hens?
- Before you start – the most important thing of all is to consider your lifestyle, and if you have enough time/are prepared to make the commitment to looking after them properly every day. In that way – keeping hens is just like keeping any other animals. Happy, well-kept hens lay the best eggs!
- Then will first need to check with your local authority to see if there are any by-laws forbidding the keeping of garden livestock like hens or rabbits. If you are renting your property, then you may also need to check with your landlord. Unless you are keeping a cockerel which will crow loudly, waking up everyone within a mile at 3.30am in summer - it’s unlikely that neighbours will object to some occasional daytime clucking from a hen that’s just laid an egg – especially if you occasionally present them with half a dozen. Obviously hens need to be kept clean as possible to prevent smells, flies attracted to their droppings or vermin like rats attracted by their food.
- If you go away occasionally - don’t forget that you will also need to arrange for a ‘hen sitter’ - someone who will look after them every day while you are away – whether just for a night or for longer. It’s important to make sure your hens are properly looked after if you’re away from home, even if it’s only for a day or two. You can’t send hens off to a kennels while you’re away like dogs or cats, as they get used to feeling secure in familiar surroundings. Any sudden drastic change can easily upset them and would definitely stop them laying.
There’s just no substitute for someone looking at livestock every day – whatever sort of livestock it is. While there are some automatic door openers, feeders and drinkers etc – I would never rely on these as they can always go wrong (and Sod’s law says – if it can go wrong it will – and usually when you’re away!) Drinkers can get blocked, hens may get trapped, injured, or have some other misfortune. While it’s alright to leave them if you’re at work during the day, they shouldn’t be left without attention for any longer – as this could lead to disaster and suffering for the hens. It’s also important that eggs are collected every day – because not doing so can result in broken eggs, which can then lead to egg eating. This can be a big problem, because once they get a taste for it – it’s almost impossible to stop.
I’m not trying to put you off – just to make you really think about the responsibilities of keeping them, and whether they will fit into your life. If you do decide to give keeping hens a try – then I can almost guarantee that you will never want to be without them again. Hens are endlessly fascinating to watch, far more intelligent than most people give them credit for and definitely have very individual personalities. They are great company and a really good way of teaching children how to look after animals responsibly, and also of giving them an understanding of where their food comes from. Being outside in nature and having contact with pets is known to be good for boosting children’s microbiome – the community of beneficial microbes living in their gut which is their immune system. Science has recently proven that the more naturally occurring, beneficial microbes children are exposed to from an early age – the better their immune system functions. This means that it is less likely they will suffer from the allergies which the many nature-deprived children, reared in often microbe-phobic, antiseptically-wiped environments, are increasingly suffering from.
- Then you must decide how many hens you want to keep.
If you want to keep hens really happy and healthy, the first thing to remember is that they evolved in Asia to live as jungle fowl, spending their time mostly in jungle clearings – so they are happiest when they have plenty of room, and are warm, dry and scratching around in grass and the leaf litter under shrubs and trees looking for insects and eating the green shoots of plants. They also like having a daily dust bath to keep their feathers in top condition. Hens are very social animals which evolved to live in flocks and are very unhappy if they don’t have the company of others. For this reason, I would never keep less than 3 or 4 hens, because if you only have two, and one dies or has an accident, which can happen occasionally, the one left on its own will pine and suffer. So, given that we can’t supply jungle – we must try to replicate the natural food, shelter, company, places to roost up off the ground as they would in jungle trees, the opportunity to dust bathe, and the freedom and plenty of room to scratch around looking for insects.
- Next you need to decide how and where you want to keep them
You may like the idea of hens romantically roaming free in your garden, but as they like to eat a lot of plants - they will destroy your garden! Bear in mind that 3 or more hens can also make quite a lot of poo and can damage a small patch of ground very quickly - turning a small piece of lawn into a mud patch within a few days, especially in wet weather, which is not good for their health! Also roaming completely free they are far more vulnerable to predators. Urban foxes are becoming an increasing problem often due to takeaway rubbish being discarded, most are not one bit afraid of people and regularly visit urban gardens. To a fox – a hen is naturally just another takeaway opportunity – and you don’t want your beautiful hens to be hurt or to disappear completely! Other predators like mink can be a problem if you have water nearby, and also neighbour’s dogs and cats. While hens undoubtedly look lovely roaming freely around the garden – that’s not the best way to keep them. From a welfare point of view – a roomy safe run is always best.
Some housing options:
The so-called 'Hen Hilton' - the re-purposed child's Wendy house where my hens live and even have their own vertical garden!
Wooden hen houses/chicken coops are widely available now and suppliers can be found online. They can be an expensive option though - but admittedly, they often look tidier and nicer than many homemade ones! A small re-purposed garden shed, making a pop-hole, can also be an option, but it must be heavy enough wood to keep predators out, or lined with wire to stop them eating through it as happened to me once many years ago. You can do a lot to beautify and have a lot of fun re-purposing a plain old garden shed! I was thrilled to find a child’s ‘Wendy house’ on sale 6 years ago in my local DIY store – it was just what I’d been wanting for keeping my few hens for ages. The hens even have their own vertical garden outside it in the summer!
I describe my re-purposed Wendy house further on. It is ideal for our 6 hens, and they provide us with more than enough eggs for our needs now. I prefer wooden houses as wood provides better insulation from heat or cold than some of the funky small plastic ones, which can also have condensation problems. Here are some ideas.
- A moveable house preferably on wheels - with a predator-proof run attached which can also be moved daily. This is what I chose for the few hens which I used to keep after I stopped producing eggs commercially. It was a re-purposed small dog kennel with a sliding door, and a hinged roof for cleaning out and collecting eggs. After I broke my shoulder, unfortunately I was no longer able to move it, so I purchased the Wendy house which they now live in. It is far more plush and attractive – and one of my friends even called it the ‘Hen Hilton’!
Four hens in a small re-purposed dog kennel house on wheels with movable run attached - in early spring.
- Permanent fixed housing - with 2 or more permanent runs leading from it so that these can be alternated regularly to keep them fresh and disease-free. This is a good option for anyone with limited space, as even if you only have two alternating runs, you can throw all their green food and anything else which could go on your compost heap into one small run, which they will enjoy scratching through, will give them exercise and keep them amused, while you’re growing a green manure or grass in the other run. Then you can change over sides when this is ready for them, cleaning out the one just vacated onto the compost heap and sowing more grass or green manure into the soil there.
- Permanent housing - letting the hens have free run of all your garden which some people do.
It may look lovely, but I don’t like this as:
- - It means you have no fresh ground for them, which is important if you have any disease problems introduced by wild birds.
- - They will destroy your garden, eat your vegetables if there are any, and they are far more vulnerable to predators like foxes and mink.
- Hens being hens – they much prefer to find hidey holes under bushes to lay their eggs, as they naturally would do in the jungle where they originally came from - rather than lay them in nest boxes for you to conveniently collect! Doing this can attract vermin like magpies which love to eat eggs, and also rats.
Perches – Hens and chickens like to roost at night off the ground on a perch. In the wild they would naturally do this in trees. The perch needs to be a minimum of 45cm/18ins off the ground and long enough for each hen to have a bout 30cm/1ft of space.
Nest boxes - Whatever type of housing you decide on – or if you make you own – you will need at least one nest box to every 3 hens. When I’m shopping, I always look for wooden orange boxes which are a real rarity now, as everything tends to come in cardboard. Wooden orange boxes make brilliant nest boxes with one of the sides lowered for easy access. If they have a lid you can leave it on as hens like to lay in a dark place. If not you can put a board across the top, which also prevents hens roosting on the and dirtying the nest. I always use hay to line them, as I can’t get organic straw, and it’s softer anyway. I make a cosy nest shape in the soft hay for them, and when they’re young pullets I also put a golf ball into each nest so that they get the general idea! I fondly remember the beautifully realistic china eggs my father used when I was growing up, and so wish I had one of them purely for sentimental reasons. The funny thing about hens is that when one decides to lay, usually in the morning – then they all get the urge to lay – often in the same nest. So, if you don’t have enough nest space you may well get smashed eggs! Purpose made hen houses obviously have their own, usually accessed from the outside of the house or coop.
If you’re handy at carpentry you could make your own hen house from recycled pallets or other materials, which I have done in the past. Ventilation without draughts, insulation against heat or cold, easy access for cleaning out, and being raised off the ground to prevent vermin must be considered when building it. Or you could buy a small wooden garden shed and re-purpose it as I did as I describe below.
My girls have a delightful re-purposed Wendy house which I bought cheaply in a DIY store sale. It has a smart front door and an opening window. The front door allows easy access for cleaning them out once a week. It came in a flat pack, which my son put together, lining the inside with small-mesh chicken wire to keep out predators. He made a pop-hole in one side, which has a sliding door leading out into their roomy scratching pen. I just love it!
On the floor I have heavy-duty, recycled polythene damp-proof membrane, which is available cheaply from DIY stores and prevents the floor from rotting. This is then covered deeply with wood shavings which are topped up with a few handfuls more daily to keep the air sweet. This is all cleaned out weekly and goes onto the compost heap.
Hen house with scratching pen attached accessed by the pop hole. Sliding side panels allow access to runs on either side.
The roomy scratching pen is especially important to have for biosecurity reasons, if there is any risk of wild birds bringing in bird flu – which can happen occasionally in winter when birds are migrating from Eastern Europe. Being covered means that it completely prevents any wild bird faeces from infecting the area in which the hens are being kept. It is vitally important to have a big enough covered area for the hens to exercise in the fresh air and to be quite happy for a few weeks if required to keep them shut up by the Department of Agriculture – as happened last year, when there were bird flu cases in the UK and in County Wexford here in Ireland. As the hens are quite used to being in the scratching pen a lot, it just means I feed their green food in there instead of outside in the open run if necessary, and they don’t seem in the least bit bothered by being shut in there. It doesn’t affect their laying at all – which is always the first thing to be affected if hens are at all upset. Many commercial organic and free-range hens were not so lucky however, having to be shut up in their sheds due to the bird-flu outbreak upset them, reduced egg-laying, and upset the customers who were buying those eggs, as they felt they were no longer free-range!
The scratching pen in turn leads to several runs radiating out from it like the spokes of a wheel. The hens spend about 2 weeks in each run before I change their access to a fresh run, and the corrugated plastic sheeting either side can be slid back or forth, depending on which run I am giving them access to. This arrangement does take up a bit of space, which luckily we have here, and it works extremely well for me, now that I can no longer move a heavy movable hen house since I broke my shoulder badly 5 years ago, and our six hens produce roughly three dozen eggs a week in their first year – with perhaps one egg less a week per hen in their second year and so on. More than enough eggs for us and some lucky friends!
Hens enjoying a fresh run. You can see 4 of their 7 runs radiating clockwise from here, the other 3 are to right of picture
The runs are mown regularly to keep the grass short and sweet and to encourage clover, both of which hens like to eat. Mowing also prevents larger weeds like docks and thistles, which they don’t like to eat, from taking over. I also keep whichever run the hens are currently in covered with crop protection netting, to stop wild birds from getting in, stealing food which will cost you a fortune and also to prevent them from possibly introducing disease. It also stops the hens flying out if something frightens them - which they may often do when young. This means that I don’t need to clip their wings which I think is very cruel, and it allows them to do their pretend - ‘flapping prior to take off’ routine, which they really enjoy and get very excited about – but without actually getting up into the air too far. I rest the netting on bamboo canes with tennis balls spiked on top, to hold it up, and I secure it to the chicken wire at the sides of the runs with wooden clothes pegs, so that it is easily moved to the next run being used when necessary. Crop protection netting is again easy to obtain from farm supply shops – most of whom are happy to cut off just the amount you need from a huge roll of the stuff. It is far better quality, more durable and is far cheaper than any you can buy in DIY or garden shops.
Overall then - the key thing is to give laying hens and other poultry enough space and fresh air to be happy and stress-free, while being secure from predators. They must have enough room in their house and run not to be overcrowded, as this can cause a lot of stress and aggravation, feather-pecking, fighting or even sickness. Stress also naturally causes the hens to produce more cortisol – which in chickens kept for meat production can affect the quality of the meat. But if you keep poultry happy by giving them everything they need and you feed them well – you’re most unlikely to encounter many problems.
FEEDING
Organic feed specifically manufactured to contain complete nutrition for laying hens is available in most agricultural suppliers now – or they can order it in for you. If your hens are only 10-18 weeks old, they will need what is known as “lay chick grower pellets” these are specifically for feeding to young, growing layer replacements. I wouldn’t feed anything but organic - because all normal laying hen rations now contain conventional, chemically-grown wheat, genetically-modified maize and also GMO soy as part of the protein element of the food. These are high in residues of glyphosate, which can damage the hen’s gut health, making them more vulnerable to disease. It’s worth feeding your hens the very best, most naturally healthy food possible, not only to give them the balanced nutrition they need to lay the most eggs – but it’s is also scientifically proven to produce the best eggs from a nutritional point of view. I prefer to feed the hens inside their house, where I keep their feeder topped up all the time, as they will only eat as much as they need and don’t waste food if it’s in a proper feed hopper. They wander in and out of the house as they like whenever they feel like a snack.
Organic poultry feed is more expensive I grant you - but it’s worth every cent because put quite simply - you get what you pay for! I worked out several years ago that if you have six hens and you sell just a dozen eggs a week at the current organic price - then the rest of the eggs you will get in that week from those hens are free. One or two-year old hens will lay almost every day for most of the year, just slowing up a bit in the winter and for a couple of weeks in June or July when they naturally ‘moult’ or grow new feathers. Good nutrition is extra-important at ‘moulting’ time, when they need plenty of protein to produce their new feathers.
It’s simple! Put the best food in – and you get the best eggs out! Poor nutrition produces poor eggs, and poor hen health. I don’t feed grain, as grain alone is not a complete feed for laying hens. They need more protein as well as other nutrients, which they would normally find from insects and grubs if they were on extensive free-range. The other aspect to this is that insects and their grubs are all now becoming far more scarce than they were years ago – something which has recently been very much highlighted in the news. So I prefer to feed the correct poultry ration, and not to affect what remains of the wild food chain - leaving any insects to reproduce in order to feed wild birds and other biodiversity.
Another important reason to use organic feed is that last autumn, it was revealed that for the last 4 years, most non-organic animal rations in the EU contained a contaminated feed supplement - vitamin B2 or riboflavin – produced in China by fermentation using a bacteria which had antibiotic-resistance. There is meant to be no viable trace of the bacteria remaining after processing – but it was found in this case that not only were there live, viable bacteria remaining in the feed supplement, but that these were capable of conferring, or spreading, microbial resistance to antibiotics which are vitally important to human health. More on that here:
Luckily, this feed supplement was not used by any organic feed manufacturers, as they need to be much more careful than conventional feed manufacturers about where they source the required feed additives – even if that source is more expensive. I don’t mind paying a little more for my hen food if it means I can be sure that everything it contains is safe to eat. Frankly - antibiotic-resistant bacteria is the last thing I want to be feeding to my animals – or to potentially be eating in their eggs!
Hens love the green food they get every day, but I’m careful not to give it to mine until midday or later – in order to make sure they’ve eaten enough layers pellets first. If I didn’t do that, they love green food so much that they would greedily fill up on them and then not eat the correct amount of pellets they should. Feeding greens is something I’ve always done. The more green food hens eat – the deeper the orange colour the yolks will be – indicating a higher vitamin A/beta-carotene content. One not such good thing I discovered though, over 30 years ago, when I fed some leftover red Brussels Sprouts to my flock, was that if I fed them very high sulphur-containing vegetables to them – the eggs developed a strong, unpleasant sulphur smell and taste. As a result many of my customers complained and asked if I was feeding them chemicals! Feeding the rest of the green cabbage family is fine and doesn’t affect the taste of the eggs at all, but too many cucumbers or courgettes seem to make the eggshells thinner, so I’m careful about giving them those, although the hens really love them – especially the yellow ones.
The difference feeding daily green food makes. Compare one of our eggs on the left, with a shop-bought organic egg on right
Lastly – hens are not an excuse to get rid of all your kitchen rubbish – the worm bin is for that stuff – or pigs if you keep them! Some foods like the nightshade family are toxic to hens when raw, and avocados are also toxic, apparently – although they don’t get wasted here as they’re so expensive to buy! Mouldy food can also cause illness which may be fatal. It’s much safer to stick to feeding them their organic layers pellets, and those green foods which you know are quite safe for them to eat and which will help them to produce nutritious eggs. Feeding anything else may affect egg production and may possibly even stop them laying.
What breed of hen is best?
If you want to produce as many eggs as possible all year round – then there is no question that the modern high-laying hybrids are the best option, as they will produce the most eggs – usually well over 300 per year per hen for the first couple of years. If fed well and kept healthy, hens will still go on producing enough eggs to pay for the cost of their food and keep until they are 3-4 years old in my experience. Pure breeds look very beautiful and will produce some wonderful eggs – but very often pure breeds will only lay for a couple of months and then go broody – becoming moody and wanting to ‘sit’ on eggs in order to hatch them, even if you don’t keep a cockerel with them! Not what you want unless you have a cockerel and intend to breed more hens! There are several options for attractively-coloured hybrids – you don’t have to get all the same type. Now I only have a few hens – I like to mix 3 or 4 different high egg-laying hybrids, some are grey/blue, some are barred black and white and some are black with a few brown feathers. This gives a very attractively-marked flock which are both interesting and beautiful to look at, as you can see from the picture of some of my small flock at the beginning. There are also all brown, or all white options. Most good poultry suppliers will have websites with pictures you can choose from.
Hatcheries selling day-old chicks usually advertise in farming publications such as The Farmer’s Journal in Ireland, and many will also sell young pullets from 8-10 weeks onwards – when they are well-feathered enough to be outside in good, dry weather. This is the best time to get them if you want the best hens, but don’t want to raise them from day-old chicks as I do, which does need some experience or it can be a disaster. Some hatcheries and producers also sell what are known as ‘point of lay pullets’ – these are normally around 20 weeks of age – but from experience the quality of them can vary a great deal, they will almost certainly not have been fed organic food, they will generally be of poorer quality and may also be a mix of differing ages, raised in different flocks unless they are all the same hybrid type, which can cause quarrelling at first and other problems. Another reason I prefer to get pullets as young as possible is that they will have eaten less of the conventional poultry ration – so they will have less damage to their gut, and as a result to their health, from any pesticide residues which may have been in the feed they were reared on. This also means that the eggs they eventually produce will also contain fewer residues of any feed they have so far eaten, as all the eggs that they will eventually produce will have already developed while growing.
If you’re new to keeping hens, then 10 weeks old is probably best in my opinion – then they are old enough to be outside and not to be too delicate, but still young enough to get the benefit of eating organic feed while they are still growing and developing their immunity – which will make them far stronger and healthier hens in the long run. While you may have to wait a bit longer to get your very first eggs – your patience will really pay off, in much healthier hens that will produce eggs for years longer. Another reason for getting hens younger is that the younger and more curious they are – the easier it is to get them to eat green food. Most ‘point of lay pullets’ will have been raised in vast sheds where they have never even seen the outside world – let alone any green food – and they can be very wary of it at first! Good ‘point of lay pullets’ from a genuine and reliable producer are a possibility if you can find them – but these can be very hard to find and will probably not have been raised on organic feed. For this reason, I would never buy pullets from poultry auctions or from free ad-sites like ‘Done Deal’. If I’m buying older poultry I like to see where and in what conditions they were raised, to ensure that they are perfectly healthy. Some poultry dealers can be a bit like horse dealers and can be a bit cute at times – especially if they’re aware that customers don’t have much experience of keeping hens and may not recognise any dodgy symptoms of illness!
Ex-battery hens are an option if you really feel that you would like to rescue some – but I see some really miserable sights on social media occasionally – with people who think that they’ve been kind ‘rescuing’ battery hens, only to then ignorantly keep them in filthy, muddy and wet conditions, in cold, concrete back yards or bare sheds with no bedding, no fresh grass or trees, and where they can’t be comfortable or display any of their natural behaviours. The only difference between that and being caged hens is that they’re slightly more free – but keeping them like that is still a miserable prison with no hope of escape! Frankly if I was a hen – I think I’d sooner be dead than live like that – people really should inform themselves better! Unless you are prepared to give them the very best conditions possible – then it would be much kinder not to ‘rescue’ them.
The other thing to consider about ex-battery hens, is that up to the point when you get them – they will have been fed on conventional, chemically-produced rations, containing GMO soy and maize. This means that the all the immature eggs which they have developed while growing, in other words all of the eggs they will ever produce in their life, may contain GMO proteins originally introduced into those crops to destroy the gut of, and to kill any insects trying to eat them. Some may dispute this I have no doubt - but there is some evidence that GMOs, and the glyphosate used in growing them, can damage the poultry gut and I’ve this is something I’ve discussed at length with my zoologist son. While there is little scientific evidence yet to prove my theory, since no one involved in commercial poultry production is actually looking for it - it is surely only common sense to ‘join up the dots’ and to suppose that anything you feed the hens will go into their eggs – and my theory, on green food at least, has so far already proved to be correct.
Whatever hens you eventually decide on buying – it’s important to transport them home in as quiet and as stress-free a way as possible. It’s also important that their house is large enough for you to keep them shut in for the first day or so, so that they get the idea that this is home – their safe place where they are happy, warm and comfortable, well-fed and watered. Then when you let them out for the first time, make sure that they can easily find their way back in again, by not letting them roam too far away from the house for the first couple of days. This is another benefit of having an attached scratching pen.
What equipment will you need apart from housing?
All of these items can be bought from a farm supply shop – which will in most cases be far cheaper than any DIY or pet store.
- A feeder – usually plastic (isn’t everything now?) - which you can either put on a raised plinth like a couple of bricks or hang from the hen house roof if you have a suitable fixing point which is strong enough. Normally these feed hoppers have holes to let food out, but a grille-type arrangement which stops the hens from scratching food out, wasting it and attracting vermin.
- A purpose-made plastic drinker which prevents flooding, stops bedding getting wet and most importantly – provides a constant supply of clean water, which is vital to both hen and egg health. Plastic drinkers are easier to clean and better than metal ones for medicating the hens with organic cider vinegar or garlic which I do on a regular basis, as it keeps their gut healthy. I keep a stainless-steel herbal tea strainer, containing a couple of partially crushed garlic cloves, in their drinker up until the time when they are laying, after that I use cider vinegar, as the garlic can affect the taste of the eggs. If you’re keeping chickens for meat production though – it very disappointingly doesn’t flavour the meat!
Plastic feed hoppers and drinkers are usually around €10 or less – not too expensive.
You will also need a bin of some type to store your bags of hen food. A dustbin is ideal for this, and again will keep out any vermin which may be around.
You will need a small shovel, a stiff brush and a large tub for cleaning out the hen’s bedding.
It helps if perches are removable for scrubbing occasionally and for scalding with boiling water to remove red mite, which is a very common parasite – but you are less likely to bring that in with your hens if you are buying from a reputable supplier.
You will need to provide a dust bath as described in the section on housing, if you don’t have a covered scratching pen as I do. It needs to be somewhere which is covered so that it is always dry – or it will be mud!
I hope I’ve covered any questions you may have. Good luck - I know that you will enjoy your delightful companions and also those first precious eggs they produce so much!
