Hen-mania part 1
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.
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. 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
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Just DM’d you on Twitter to let you know, I’ve checked and the Battery Hen Welfare Trust these days asks for donations of
I found the opposite – getting ex-bats first allowed us to learn so much before getting birds not put through that evil torture. And although the majority of our flock are now purebreeds, there will always be a home here for ex-bats as they are always, in our experience, the friendliest and most intelligent of chickens. My favourite hen to date was an ex-bat, and she died recently. I still miss her cheeky attitude and think she genuinely had trust and affection for me as her keeper also.
We’re down to two ex-bats right now, with one of them sadly looking like she’s winding down. We have four ex-bats on order, picking them up August 1st – but hang on, you said
There were nylon bedsheets in the 1970s – says it all, I think!
Do get hens – they are lovely! This ark is made by Foresham in the UK, but you must be able to get similar things Stateside.
Nylon bedsheets? Why? Didn’t know there was such a thing!
Now you have gone and done it with this picture of a chicken ark. The bee-phobic Randy has been quite keen on getting a chicken or two. We live just outside of town, so chickens are street-legal. I’ll show him the picture of the ark. Thanks! (I think.)
I did have nylon bedsheets too – if I bicycled my arms and legs round fast enough under the covers in a dark room, static sparks could be produced! Kids these days in their 100% Egyptian cotton are missing out.
Blimey, with all that nylon you probably could have powered your house with the static electricity you produced!
Thanks, Richard – I hope the Hen-mania series will run and run, if we can keep Mr Fox away, that is.
Wish I had enough property to have chickens in my yard in Delaware, USA. I do not, so chickens are against the law for me! Shocking, In a state that is known for its chicken farms, big corporate farms run by the man that is.
Good luck in your adventure, and please keep us posted as to how it goes.