From the category archives:

Keeping chickens

January 2010 egg count shows how our chickens are declining

February 6, 2010
Thumbnail image for January 2010 egg count shows how our chickens are declining

Chickens lay fewer eggs as they get older, but how much does production drop off after one year? In our case it seems to be a massive 66% after comparing our January eggs counts for 2009 and 2010.

Read the full article →

The chicken bomb in our garden

January 28, 2010

Seems chickens aren’t just good for laying eggs. The British government spent time and money during the Cold War developing a bomb that would have used them to stop its mechanism from seizing up.

Read the full article →

How cosy is a chicken coop?

January 27, 2010
Thumbnail image for How cosy is a chicken coop?

By putting a thermometer in the chicken coop we have been able to keep an eye on how cosy it gets in there when the door is closed and they’re all packed in overnight. The answer, it seems, is not that cosy at all.

Read the full article →

Eden Project chicken coops

January 21, 2010
Thumbnail image for Eden Project chicken coops

The Omlet Eglu finally has some serious competiton. The Eden Project is selling its own plastic hen houses made entirely out of recycled plastic. They are the quick, easy and environmentally-friendly way to start keeping chickens.

Read the full article →

A new feeder for the chickens

January 11, 2010
Thumbnail image for A new feeder for the chickens

The chickens love their kitchen scraps, but they make a terrible mess. Like a dog with a rat, if we don’t cut it all up (or send it through the blender) they shake everything they pick up to try and make it smaller.
That’s fine, except that when half of it goes flying off across the [...]

Read the full article →

Chickens in the ice and snow

January 10, 2010
Thumbnail image for Chickens in the ice and snow

We’ve had snow and freezing temperatures for three weeks now, but the chickens don’t seem to have noticed. They’re lucky: they’re not the ones that have to head out with a kettle to defrost their waterer.

Read the full article →

Rooster lungs

January 6, 2010

Ever wondered why environmental health departments aren’t keen on having roosters / cockerels in residential neighbourhoods? Watch this video and your questions will be answered.

Read the full article →

The final egg count for 2009

January 1, 2010
Thumbnail image for The final egg count for 2009

Despite a serious decline in the number of eggs we got from our hens at the end of the year, the total for 2009 was 876, which averages 2.4 eggs a day – almost one for each hen in our flock.

Read the full article →

Scrambled eggs

December 21, 2009

Problems in the coop. The chickens are slowly starting to lay again, but they are doing it on the roosting bars, not the nesting box. The result: broken eggs that are no good for human consumption.

Read the full article →

November egg count

December 2, 2009
Thumbnail image for November egg count

I think we should stress the first two letters of November: NO. Specifically NO eggs from two of our three hens for most of the month.
Poor old Margot is dropping feathers quicker than a pillow fight and she looks quite a state (or at least as far as we can tell she does, but we’re [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries