For years we kept hens at the bottom of the garden. At first they started off as a home-education project. A friend brought round a broody hen we named Gladys and some fertilised eggs and Bob's your uncle, we had chicks. Ah, those were the days....
We kept three of them but Elizabeth Ist had a run in with the dog who, being a gun dog, was a bit over enthusiastic and thought that she ought to pick up anything with feathers.
She has a gentle mouth, pretty essential for gun dogs apparently, and can carry an egg in it without breaking it. Hens, it would appear, are a bit more fragile than eggs and ours died from shock.
So along came Elizabeth II, from the same friend, and more eggs and chicks and so it went on, with us only ever keeping three chickens.
The children loved them, going down the slide clutching their hen. And, of course, we had eggs. Only the chickens laid them everywhere so it was always a bit of a hunt before the dog found them.
Eventually, we moved them (the chickens not the children) into rather more palatial quarters (ie the bottom corner was fenced off for them) because they did like to dig up the garden. The lawn has never recovered. And sometimes they escaped.
It wasn't until we moved a shed in the opposite corner that we had problems in the shape of a fox who cottoned onto what we had in the garden and took them all, including the broody that had hatched a clutch of partridge chicks (I know, clever these chickens).
Do we miss them? Yes. And the eggs of course. Anyone who has chickens knows the eggs are far superior to shop bought. They are a deeper yellow. Eggs I buy now are quite anemic.
The extra space in the garden now we've dismantled their home is a bonus though. And of course not treading on chicken pooh, one of which was enormous because she was a chicken not a bantam.
I'm not sure our garden is really big enough for chickens and I'm glad, at this stage of my life, not to have the responsibility of them. But if we moved into a large house (with five/six bedrooms) and at least half an acre (please), would I get some more? Definitely.
