By Ruth D'Alessandro, The Wildlife Gardener

The Wildlife Gardener has always liked hens. From their cosy farmyard associations and gentle companionable clucking to their abilities as efficient slug disposal machines and producers of eggs and rich organic manure, what’s not to like? One of my very favourite childhood pets was a rescued battery hen called Clara. She lived to age 8, produced eggs regularly, got under my Dad’s feet when he was digging the veg patch, and bullied him if he didn’t move out of the way fast enough.

Vintage 1970s bowl haircut, nylon anorak, and yes, those trousers were nylon too. Lucky Clara to have natural feathers.

Now we have reached the stage where the Junior Wildlife Gardeners want pets. Hamsters? Too bitey: vets are scared of them. Rabbits and guinea pigs? Not keen on mammals imprisoned in cages, and the endless nagging to clean them out and feed them. A house rabbit? Maybe, but my house rabbit ate the back of Mum’s sofa and some electrical wiring. Cat? Er, no. Dog? Love ‘em, but the endless amount of stinking, useless poo that has to be bagged up and disposed of, the walking, escaping, muddy paws and vet bills...maybe later in life. That left us with rats, ferrets and chickens. To my mind all wonderfully entertaining, but the chooks won out on 3 counts: affectionate pets, supply of eggs, useful poo. Win, win, win.

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So hens it is for the Wildlife Garden. A very kind friend in town gave us her old Foresham chicken ark. It needs a bit of repair, cleaning and fox-proofing, but it will house up to 5 hens:

Now, just the question of where to get the hens from. It’s currently very fashionable and ethical to rehome ex-battery hens, and indeed, my beloved Clara was an ex-batt. Flocks of hens rescued by the excellent Battery Hen Welfare Trust are quickly snapped up in our area, and the waiting time is months rather than weeks. The suggested donation per bird is £5 and they are 12-18 months old, having been producing eggs intensively in artificially lit cages for most of their lives. They look tatty and exhausted, and have to be taught night from day, how to forage and find the nest box, even how to walk. Some don’t survive the rescue and rehoming, such is the shock of freedom.

Alternatively, there is a reputable local poultry farm that supplies point-of-lay pullets. They are £7 each, around 18 weeks old, vaccinated and have not been intensively farmed. They are young enough to explore their surroundings and learn to forage, and get used to us from a young age. It is likely that we shall be choosing the point-of-lay pullets as our first venture into hen-keeping, although we may well look at ex-batts in the future when we are more experienced. We’d like to get them early June, giving us time to prepare the ark and possibly a large run.

Keep watching The Ranger's Blog for the ladies' arrival, learn along with us how to look after hens, what they get up to and even discover what their names will be...