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Tuesday 30 March 2010

A Tale of Three Chickens

Hello lovelies, over the weekend, I collected some new laid eggs from a friend who has chickens


There are a couple of blue ones and a pinky one and a white one! Look too good to eat!
This reminded me of my very own chickens which I had up until last year.  You see, I kind of got them on a whim - a bit of a mid-life wish - something I had wanted to have for ages, but alas our garden is quite small, but then ..... I read about the Eglu a small brightly coloured chicken house suitable for small gardens.

The thought milling around in my mind I monitored some on ebay - and then one day bid, and waited, bid and waited and WON!    Oh dear - did I really mean to win - I would have to go through with it now.
Hubby, bless him, humoured me and we prepared a space in the garden for the run and Eglu and I excitedly did research and bought lots of chickeny things - only thing missing was the chickens!

One afternoon we ventured off to a "chicken" place and came home with three lovelies:



Oh I forgot to say, the Eglu was bright PINK.  Now watching chickens is a brilliant pastime and I could watch them from the kitchen sink.  When they laid their first eggs, the excitement was almost too much !  The thrill of opening the nest box and finding a warm egg is magical - and the eggs become so precious.  One day we had a double yolker which hubby ate before I saw it (still haven't forgiven him for that one!)

We would let them out into the garden for a wander, but boy, could they trash, they trashed anything they would get their little beaks on


then there was the small matter of poop!  they could poop for Britain!


they would have happily made themselves at home in the house if I had let them!


and when we had loads of snow last winter, I thought I might find frozen chicken, but they were fine, just a little bemused.


As they grew, they became rather loud, noisily asking for treats and as the lighter mornings came they wanted to get up earlier and earlier - various family members started to complain about the noise, hubby started to make grumbling noises about the amount of "poop" and where were we gonna put the BBQ now the chickens were near the area.

So in the end the time was right and I reluctantly rehomed them - but they went to a family up the road with a field so they had far more land to roam on - lucky chickens (bet they don't get as many treats now though!)


I was a little sad to see Rosie, Crystal, and Prudence go, even a little teary for a while - they were sweet, at least I fulfilled an amibition, even if it was only for a short while!

Speak soon xx

9 comments:

  1. Bless you. My In-Laws have chickens and they are more work than you would think! They started off with 3 and then got 4 more....The coop had to be extended to cater for them all!! They currently have 5 hens and a cockrel and get fresh eggs every day but I definitely couldn't commit to looking after them, however much I sometimes think that it would be nice......I don't blame you for taking the difficult decision to rehome them.

    xxx

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  2. Hi Kim!
    Lovely story about your chickens.
    We had 4 white Wyendotte hens.
    3 are already in chickens heaven, there is 1 left. She is so cute (and quiet). She is very special to me.
    ~X~ Karin

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  3. OOh cute Kim! They have been very 'fashionable' but I dont think I'd like the mess. But I would love a rabbit. Had one at home years ago. But once again the smell and the mess.
    Nevermind,
    I'm so behind again with blogging, been doing the updates!
    I loved this post!
    Hugs to you Suex

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  4. These things with animals always seem great but often when you actually do it there are problems that no-one talks about.
    Our dogs went off to stay with our daughter yesterday and, though we have been babysitting them for her for 8 years now, I keep going to the door to let them in !! The house seems very empty without them.
    Cheers
    Helen

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  5. I know exactly what you mean, Kim. Had chickens when my girls were younger. Had full size to start with (forget the breed) then went to the smaller fancier ones (forget the breed again). But they were such fun and our garden grew wonderfully with all the natural feed/poo. I so loved the eggs. Then we got a duck too - she laid beautiful eggs and the cakes were absolutely wonderful!!
    We went away for quite a few weeks and they went to a friends farm. Unfortunately a disease went throught the farm and they died. Just could not replace them, very sad

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  6. How neat! I'm not as brave as you. It is all I can do to keep up with our canine compnaions :-)

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  7. Near our house, we have a farm where you can "Rent-a-hen", which is exactly what it says. All the hens are scratching about happily in a free range padddock. I will have to Blog about it for you, I'm sure you would find it interesting.I always wanted hens, but my dogs would stalk them and frighten them to death, I'm sure :D

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  8. Hi Kim, I have always wanted chickens, but don't have anywhere to keep them, I suspect I would be overwhelmed by their demands anyway, cats and kids keep me busy. I loved hearing about yours. Louise x

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