We decided quite a while ago that we would quite like some hens. Well, I decided, and my Mr is keeping me company on my band-wagon.
We have sourced the hen house from the internet, coated it in several layers of animal-friendly wood preserver and set it up in a sunny spot in the garden.
The feed and water containers have been bought, as has the food pellets and bedding.
All we need now are some chickens!
I read over and over a couple of books about chickens, and have already been receiving a monthly magazine subscription for backyard chicken keepers. We decided on our favourite hens, but noticed that most breeders live in England... So after all this reading I came up with a plan: contact the breeders directly on the phone and see if they have what I'd really like the most, and then see if they happen to be coming up to the Scottish Poultry Show to compete! My cunning plan is that if they are travelling all the way up here anyway, then there'd be no harm in sticking one extra bird in their car.
And all three breeders said YES!!!!
So, we are going to meet, clandestine fashion, 3 breeders in a carpark. A breeder of Scots Dumpy hens, a breeder of Australorps and a breeder of Orpingtons, all on the Friday night before the weekend-long Poultry show.
Am so excited! It's this weekend!!
I got these pictures off the internet, and it is what the birds we have lined up should look like. A black, beetle-green sheen on the bantam sized Australorp, two bantam sized blue Orpingtons, and a cuckoo coloured, bantam sized Scots Dumpy.
Hope they like us!
What fun! A neighbor of mine just got a couple of hens 3 weeks ago, so far so good. He made a rolling covered wire pen for them so he can move them around his property to feed. The children about are fascinated by the birds as we live in a suburban area.
ReplyDeleteOh how wonderful! Very clever to have built his own pen. Watch out though, you might catch the hen-keeping bug and get a couple yourself.
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