Who (of my UK readers) remembers the first series of Big Brother? Way back in the year 2000. I was young lass at the age of 18 when the show first aired. Where the nation watched in fascination for 64 days in a row at the goings on within the secluded house and it's housemates.
I'll confess I did become a quick fan of the show, but only watched the first few series that aired in the following years. I don't keep track now.
Anyway, back to 2000. In this series there was a housemate called Darren, who apparently arrived into the house with a chicken phobia. Phobia is probably a strong word (I'm quoting Wiki), so let's just say he wasn't too keen on the feathered friends in the garden. However, as time passed and chicken duties became a norm, Darren became rather attached the flock - one in particular. can you remember her name?
Marjorie.
It was while watching Big Brother that I first became attached to the idea that at some point in my future I would own chickens. I didn't know when, or even if it would ever happen. Like it was just one of those things you'd add to a bucket list and realistically it would never happen.
Skip forward to a couple of months ago. I have a few friends who have a 'backyard flock'. We also have a good pal who is a farmer and have visited her in Devon a few times. My kids love the chickens and collecting eggs for the first time was joyful! Sorry, I digress... Back to a couple off months ago. We had some building work done at the back of our house. Moved the rear door which was at the side of our house and replaced with double french doors at the back, not at the side. This has left us with a wide corridor of empty space down the side of our house which is adjacent to our terraced house entry. Never say I'm one to miss an opportunity, and whilst my husband was still 'deciding' what he might do with this good sized area (probably fill it with old paint tins, random planks of wood, spare parts of machines we don't own, that sort of thing) - I pounced!
"Hey, so do you think that would be an
ideal space for a few hens?"
"Yeah, maybe."
"That's a yes then?"
"Okay, yeah"
BOOM!
*My mood at this point*
Anyone that knows me will know that when I set my mind to something I like to move on it straight away. I'm not a hanging around kinda gal. I research to within an inch of research's life and make a plan. And seeing plans come to life and actually happen is so ridiculously exciting. So then I made a list, researched coops, researched chicken breeds, measured up plans, bought wood and galvanised mesh. Managed to stumble across another neighbourhood backyard chicken keeper who was kind enough to lend us some tools to make my plans come to life (cheers Steve Anderson!) Hubs and I then built a gate, constructed a frame, raised up some borders for topsoil and wood-chip areas. Our brilliant coop arrived from Solway Recycling (amazing product and service!) and we set it up. We had been gathering bits and bobs through the month this had taken to do. The likes of a feeder and drinker were sorted. We had bedding, cleaner, mite dust and all the bits you need to start out.
In this time I had also been in touch with a wonderful breeder called Julie at the 'Hedgerow Henporium' who has been a wealth of knowledge and great advice for us chicken novices. And on the 19th May we brought our four 8week old girls home. We have 2 Black Rock chicks and 2 La Flèche chicks. When they came home they still had their chick voices and were quietly cheeping away. But one has found her chicken voice now and clucks at us softly.
They are great girls and we can't wait to be treated with eggs from them when they reach their point of lay maturity. They are still to young to have a pecking order yet. (Yes, that's a real thing - something my research flagged up) So we'll be keeping a watchful eye on them to see who emerges as top hen over the coming weeks and months.
In the short space of time I have learnt a few fascinating things. As follows:
- Chickens have no scent. Really none. You can get your nose right in their feathers and nothing! Not to the human nose anyway.
- Chickens will mistake toes for food. You can be sure that I have now rendered my flip flops as unfit attire for chicken duty.
- Chickens sleep like a log. My husband learnt this one night when my daughter had closed their coop and they couldn't take themselves to bed. They'd huddled themselves together and he had to pick them up to pop them away for the night. They didn't flinch at all!
- Chickens like to be noticed. I only have to run the water at the kitchen sink for them to all hop up onto the window ledge and start pecking away at the glass to say hello.
Right, to the images. There really aren't that many. But you can be sure there will be further blogs coming. You can count your chickens on that one!
Thanks for viewing.
Fleur x
(As I always mention - click into the images to see them at a higher quality. Cheers peeps.)
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