Why chickens?



Image from http://www.bbc.co.uk/


I suppose it started with watching the Edible Garden and falling in love with Alice and Gertrude... Now, for the past few months I've been reading about all things chickeny and browsing chicken houses, before finally stumbling across the ultimate chicken coop (and run) for a small urban garden, the eglu. It keeps the hens safely in and the foxes out, is very easy to clean (with plastic you don't need to worry about the dreaded red mite) and it looks lovely. The problem is that these beauties won't come cheap. After what has felt like an eternity, I'm happy to announce that I'm finally the proud owner of a second-hand eglu!


Image from http://www.omlet.co.uk/


It's all really happening now and it got me thinking, why do I (or anyone) would want to keep chickens? Well, here's how I see it. You'll have lovely pets that will gladly eat the slugs pestering your lettuce and the bits of veg that would otherwise end up in the compost bin. They will produce fertiliser for your veggies and you can use their dirty bedding to speed up your compost. They will keep you company when you're weeding in the hope of finding a juicy worm. And after all that help they still thank you for caring for them with an egg! Where could you find a better pet?

I've told all of this to Hubby, without going into finer detail about chickens wrecking the garden and eating all the veg. I guess he'll find out about that bit soon enough.