Why chickens?

Before I start our diary of life as chicken keepers, I thought I would explain the process by which we came to find ourselves having chickens.


Having grown up with rabbits, guinea pigs, budgies and a dog, I think I always knew that I wanted a pet for the Smalls when they came along. However, I also knew that I didn't want any of the above :-) Hubby had a cat as a child and has great memories of her/him (I can't remember which) but the personality of a cat is unknown until they have settled in and ledt fur all over the house, at which point it is too late to evict them. Pretty much every cat I have ever known has had a spiteful streak (with the exception of my childhood neighbours ragdoll cat Simba- RIP) and although I think Small Boy could cope with that I think Small Girl would push her luck too far and be hissed at and/or bitten. The other point is that if I want pet cats then I would just start feeding those belonging to a neighbour of ours that seem to think they live in my garden...


So, no cats.


We have 2 fish already that Small Boy looks after (by this I mean feeds sporadically), but they don't really provide what I was hoping for in a pet. Small Boy doesn't really have a lot of language, and we wondered whether having a pet would help to bring him out of himself a bit.


Small furries- they are good, but the Smalls won't appreciate how gentle they would need to be- Small Boy would squeeze them until they squeak, so not a good plan.


Anyway, I have been thinking about chickens for a long while. We have a bit of a utilitarian regime in our house- if something isn't useful then it won't survive long. We don't plant flowers- only productive vegetables, shrubs and herbs. So, chickens, with their ability to lay eggs, are useful. However, I wanted an eglu, and they were well out of my price range, until 3 weeks ago a friend of a friend was selling an eglu and rehoming 3 ex-batts for a very reasonable and affordable price. That settled it for me- I arranged to take hubby and the Smalls to go and see it so that we could think about it, and somehow we came home with it all, plus the au pair, in the car.

That was last Saturday... and the start of The Egg Per Day Diaries.

Elizabeth, Camilla and Kate settling in- royal names as they arrived on Jubilee Saturday :-)