Anne Perdeaux - A Family Guide To Keeping Chickens: How to choose and care for your first chickens

Anne Perdeaux started keeping chickens almost by accident when she was presented with a ready-made flock of twelve assorted hens and cockerels. After a lifetimes experience with dogs and horses, Anne was quickly captivated by her new pets and set out to learn more about them. The chickens proved excellent instructors and became the inspiration for a number of articles published in Country Smallholding magazine. Annes practical observations and detailed research led to her writing regularly for Your Chickens magazine, where she is now part of a panel of experts answering readers questions. She lives with her husband in rural Wiltshire, where they keep a motley crew of free-range chickens and guinea-fowl.

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A FAMILY GUIDE
TO KEEPING
CHICKENS

Anne Perdeaux

To my father, who has always encouraged my enthusiasm for animals, and to Martin, who lives with the consequences

Constable & Robinson Ltd

5556 Russell Square

London WC1B 4HP

www.constablerobinson.com

First published in the UK by How To Books,
an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd., 2014

Copyright Anne Perdeaux 2014

Copyright illustrations Jess Goodman 2014

The right of Anne Perdeaux to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in Publication

Data is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-90897-415-0 (trade paperback)

ISBN 978-1-84528-554-8 (ebook)

Printed and bound in the UK

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Cover design by Mark Cavanagh

1. Before Your Chickens Come Home to Roost:
Planning for Your First Chickens

2. What Really Goes On at a Hen Party?
Understanding Chicken Behaviour

3. Feathering the Nest:
Where and How Will Your Chickens Live?

Different Types of Chicken Housing

Giving Treats and Extras

Domestic Cats and Dogs

10. You Cant Make an Omelette Without Breaking Eggs:
Eggs and What to Do with Them

Key Points

13. Dont Count Your Chickens Before Theyve Hatched:
Managing Broody Hens and Hatching Eggs

Chickens are extremely addictive and, as with many addictions, its a gentle yet slippery slope.

Only a couple, just for fun, you think to yourself. What harm can it do? Then before you can say cock-a-doodle-do, you are clucking to them, gossiping about them and waking up in a cold sweat worrying about foxes. Soon you will want more and more, realizing too late that you are now one of the millions of chicken addicts there is no cure.

Well, you have been warned but if you are still determined then this book will help you to start keeping chickens. We will explore their strange and wonderful world, finding out what they need to make them happy and happy hens lay eggs (sometimes).

Why Keep Chickens?

Its not surprising that so many people keep chickens. These versatile creatures can be at home on a farm or in a small back garden. They make excellent family pets, requiring less attention than a dog, while being entertaining, productive and educational. For those seeking the good life, they are the obvious first step into keeping livestock.

For hundreds of years chickens have been valued all over the world for their eggs, meat, fighting skills or simply their beauty. The chicken is now enjoying a renaissance and is also considered a desirable pet, competing with dogs, cats, rabbits and guinea pigs.

For those who have never kept chickens, this can be surprising. Chickens are often regarded as dull, brown egg-producing birds, or viewed neatly wrapped in the chiller cabinet. Useful, yes, but not necessarily what you would look for in a companion.

Yet chicken keepers quickly discover that there is more going on under all those feathers than youd think. Chickens have complex social structures, are surprisingly intelligent and quickly demonstrate individual characters.

Although chickens have many endearing traits, most people start keeping them for their eggs. Its very satisfying to be even a little self-sufficient; to stride past the egg shelves in the supermarket, knowing you have better and fresher ones at home.

If you grow vegetables, the addition of eggs from your hens can turn a simple meal into a feast how about a salad from the garden to accompany a golden omelette, flecked with fresh herbs?

Coming down to earth, chicken manure is great on the vegetable garden, chickens can turn over the soil when a patch needs to be cleared, and you can feed the chickens some of your surplus vegetables. Its a satisfying circle.

Maybe you are now itching to buy your first chickens, but before racing off to Chickens-R-Us, please read on a little further. Some careful planning will make the whole experience more enjoyable for you and, most importantly, your new chickens.

Its easy to buy a coop and chickens and its also easy to make costly mistakes. Dont hurry the process of acquiring your first chickens. Use this book as a guide and take some time to investigate all that will be required.

Can You Keep Chickens?

Check there are no restrictions on keeping chickens, either in your house deeds, rental agreement or local by-laws. Even rural areas sometimes have regulations of these kinds. Chickens are usually considered as livestock, including those kept as pets. If in doubt, contact your local authority.