Donating a chicken

A while ago I was talking to my friend Becky about the chickens that we have in our back garden.

We were speaking about how much they cost and how much it costs for us to feed them, which led to her talking about something that Oxfam offer.

Oxfam have this new gift idea, that if you don't have an idea of what to buy someone for their birthday or Christmas, you can donate money to give someone who is worse off some books or in this case a chicken.

By paying £11 you are giving a family all of this:

"Give a chicken and you’re giving a family a little egg factory that will also produce chicks for rearing into other chickens or trading to pay for school fees and health care. Low-maintenance and high-yielding, these little cluckers are going to help a local family feed, thrive and survive. " From the Oxfam website - click writing to see link.

I think personally that is such a good idea, seeing as how many eggs chickens lay and Oxfam also help with maintenance costs.

The brilliant idea...

My mom came up with a brilliant idea over the weekend when she was feeding her chickens.

She decided that she would create a sand bath for the chickens to go in.



All this really consisted off was a plastic tub with a bit of sand from my nephew's sand box.

At first when the chickens saw the new sand bath in their pen they have no idea what it actually was and began pecking at the sand.



Later on when we looked outside we saw that Ronnie had decided to step into the bath and move around inside.



Seems a success but I still don't think that the chickens have the right idea.

Life guard really does work....

As you know from my past post about Life Guard we bought it to put in the chickens water, as the ex battery chickens were having trouble laying eggs.

And now less than a month on we are now getting five or six eggs a day!!!!




It really does prove that life guard is a miracle product that does its job well, and it has made a difference to the amount of eggs we are laying.

We are all very happy!

Bertie thinks he's a chicken

Somehow our dog Bertie is getting into the pen where the chickens are.

We still don't know how he is getting in but we know how is getting out. He is head butting the joint where my mom gets in to give the chickens their food.

To be fair though once he is in there he isn't hurting the chickens they just seem to walk around him and he just tries to eat their food.

He is just a greedy dog but at least he is friendly.

What has Sabrina ever done to you?

On my return home I went into the back garden to check out the chickens, and to my horror have noticed that my chicken Sabrina is being picked on.

As Sabrina was an ex battery chicken she is not as strong, and because she was the most weakest when we had her she still hasn't got the courage to fight back.

The free range chickens - THE MOB (as we call them seeing as they stick together) have been pecking at Sabrina's back whenever she goes near them, and because this is the way nature works we can't get involved.

However there is a solution......my mom is going to go to her chicken shop in Shenstone, Lichfield and pick up a solution called anti peck which hopefully will save Sabrina and teach THE MOB not to mess with her.

Oh the embarrassment

Recently it was my sister's birthday so we all went out together for a meal.

After we all finished eating my Mom asked my Grandma for the lettuce and she began wrapping it up in a napkin. Later on I caught her wrapping up tomatoes.

And then chips.

We all looked confused and when we asked: "err what are you doing?"

My Mom replied: "It's for my girls."

Now I think I have mentioned this many times in my blog, this is what my Mom calls her chickens. The girls. Even though she has 5 daughters.

It's fair to say that the chickens (her girls) did enjoy the food that 'their Mommy' bought back but still we all thought it was crazy.

Chickens do eat a lot of left overs, potatoes and pasta being their favourite (obviously it has to be cooked first).

To be honest though my Mom does love her chickens.

I am being made a fool of

So everyone in my family knows that I am afraid of the chickens and my older sisters are also a bit wary of them. But there are a couple of people who are making me look like a fool.

My three year old nephew, six year old niece and ten year old sister.

These three people over the last couple of months have become extremely brave with the chickens and now actually enjoy when they come out of the pen so they can pick them up and put them back in.

My three old nephew, Adam is fearless.





I now have insults shouted at me from these little kids saying "don't be afraid they aren't going to hurt you."

And another one of their favourite phrases "Come here Auntie Faye, let me show you how it's done!"

I am sure more pictures of my sister and niece will follow just so they can show that they are not afraid of holding the chickens.

Clipping the chicken's wings

After noticing that the chickens kept getting out of the pen my dad kept an eye on the chickens to see actually how they were getting out.

Today he saw Henny Penny some how flutter over the pen and into the back garden. So my mom decided that we neeed to clip the chickens wings to stop them flying.

The first time we saw anybody do this was when the chickens first moved in, and this would be our first time to do it by ourselves.

I just want to make sure that people know that by doing this it does not hurt the chicken as its feathers (which is just like cutting someone's hair). You will see that the chicken does not react.



For all the chicken keepers out there if your not too sure how to do this then make sure you read how to:

Make sure that you do some research before clipping the chicken’s wings.

It’s pretty simple.

Pull out the chickens flight feathers by gently pulling it away from its body.

The flight feathers are longer. Then use a strong pair of scissors and clip two thirds of the first feathers on the wing.

The chickens keep escaping out of the pen!

Well since we had chickens they were free to run freely around our garden but after they ruined the grass (as it became muddy) and they attacked my mom's vegetable patch we decided that we would create an area just for the chickens.

We bought a pen that goes around the area where the hens eglus are, so that they still have their freedom but don't ruin the garden.

Even though every so often they still get out, and we (by we I mean my parents and little sister) spend some time getting them back into their pen area when they escape.

Our garden has since started recovering but their is only one other problem. When we put bread out in the chicken area, our dog Bertie becomes jealous and wants to eat the chicken's food. So this results in him getting his head stuck through the mesh.



To be fair this is probably how the chickens are escaping. Through the holes where we have to cut the dog out. Bertie the dog still won't learn though all because he loves food so much.

I need to get some guts!

As you all know I have a big fear of the chickens. I like them and think they are nice to look at but I always think they are going to get me.

But when they first did come and moved in the man who set up the eglu where they sleep passed me a chicken and I was pretty forced to hold the chicken.

This is the picture my dad took of me. If you look closely you will see the tears in my eyes. But to be honest I am very proud of this picture.