The Chicken Sitter

Hi Keepers,  as it is summer now in this part of the world it’s holiday season, and we are going off camping. It’s the first time we’ve left the chickens, fortunately we have a great friend with chicken keeping experience who is going to look after the place while we’re away. It feels a bit [...]

Predators

Hi there folks, while at the cemetry in Southend, I got talking to a lady about plants that rabbits wouldn’t eat, as the cemetry is overrun with rabbits, and most flowers that the loving families place on the graves, are demolished the very same night, so I put a small spikey succulent type plant on [...]

Abandonned Nest

Hi there, well I hope you all had a nice couple of days off work. There have been movements on the nest front, it seems that the girls do not want to lay in the nest that got attacked, I don’t blame them, it makes alot of sense. After the swamp hens demolished 2 eggs, [...]

Chicks Out

Hi there, yesterday we allowed the chicks out for a proper free range in the garden, they have been in the run before now, but never just let roam free in the garden, so ofcourse this was a bit scary for them, also mixed with excitment Í think because they reminded me of a bunch of [...]

Bartering with Free Range Eggs

Hi there , well new developements, yesterday as we were cycling back from the school where t.o.h works, I saw a lady carrying a large cabbage, to which I remarked, ‘ nice cabbage!’, carried on cycling, she called out to me ‘ do you want it?’, not often you get offered free food on the road, ’ [...]

A Flaw in my Floor

Hi there reader, well I was thinking that all of the work being carried out in the back yard was upsetting the hens, as we have been down an egg or two each day, not so. As it happens the floor I made, from a single pallet, and hinged the bottom front of the coop to enable [...]

Welcome One and All

Hi there, and welcome to The Chicken Keeper, my name is Rob and this blog is devoted to the keeping of chickens, and the trials and tribulations that go with it. We started keeping chickens in September 2008, the list of poultry we have at present,  one Minorca, and four Wyandotte Golden Laced .  At present we live on a 1/4 of [...]

Putting the new birds in the Run

Hi there reader, Today I thought I would give Maria, our Minorca hen, a run with the big girls, as she is nearly the same size as them now, well feathers  wise, her body doesn’t have much weight about it at the moment, she will grow to be quite a bit larger than the shavers, [...]

Am I bothered?

It seems not, the girls just sat there watching , there has been much activity in the garden today with the bridge for the sewer works being completed, one of the engineers has been welding up the metal plates, to the girders most of the day, and the hens nestled down in some straw and [...]

Rain Water

Hi reader, well my new project is to collect rain water, surprised really that I haven’t been doing it in winter when there was lots and lots of rain, more than usual, broke some records. Well, to excuse the pun, I have found my source of rain water, it’s a guttering pipe that runs off of [...]