Connie's Coop - Part 1
The Beginning... Welcome to our hen journey!
When I was 7 or 8 I got my first hens - 4 Rhode Island Red bantams and a cockerel. I loved them. They were beautiful little bantams and hardy ... they needed to be as after a week or so in the hen house they were released on to the farm. We had lots of hens who free ranged around the farm. They were the yard scavengers - and we fed them too. The Rhode Island Reds settled in well and were around for years and years. Since then I have had a hankering to get some hens. Now is the time!
Backyard: Our situation now is slightly different - my brother and sister-in-law run the family farm (with hundreds of free range hens) - and although we don't own a farm we have a bit of space in our current location. We are your typical backyard farmers or will be. So now is the time to expand ...to date we have a Sprollie - (Springer x Collie) called Tinka and now Connie and Joe have 4 hens (3 for Connie (Oi, Coy and Joy) and 1 for Joe (Boy who obviously is not a boy... as she lays eggs!!)). I image in the future there may be a sheep or some more hens (but ssssch don't tell my husband!).
Environment: This is the year of recycling in our house and of trying to do our bit for the environment. So when we decided to get some hens for Connie for Christmas (an excuse for me to look after them?!) we wanted to do everything we could to do right by the environment. We searched locally for a hen house and luckily a kind neighbour gave us their hen house for free. We wanted rescue hens and again luckily just when we wanted them my sister-in-law was changing over for some of her 450 hens. We had intended on rescuing on three but on arrival at Old Leckie we were persuaded to get four (hence why we have one for Joe).
Feeding: Going on from being environmentally aware... when we have scraps we will give these to the hens. I have read that avocados are not good for hens but it seems that you can pretty much give them anything and they will peck it up. I have seen hens eat mice before when growing up on the farm (a mouse had drowned in a pale of water) - the hens went mad for this mouse... not what I was expecting. Anyway I wont be feeding the girls mice but I will be feeding them any food waste from the house - it will be a good way to re-cyle and not waste. Of course I remembered that hens need grit - its key to them being able to digest their food. I got them some crushed oyster shells - they ignored the lovely grain mix I had just bought for them and went straight for the grit. They must have really needed it.
Eggs: I love eggs - as does Connie. We eat them regularly - perhaps too often. But one of the nicest thing about having eggs is the kids faces when they find them in the nesting boxes... they are so excited. Joe was so excited at the weekend he wanted to carry one into the house. He got in the door and promptly fell over breaking the egg! Ooops!
This is just the start of our hen journey. We are all so excited by what we have taken on and love our four hens. This is part of our kids education...how else will they learn where their food comes from!
There will be more to come as we need to erect an electric fence, we need to suss out the best bedding for our hens, we also need to investigate the best feed... and also find a way to keep the rats out. And so it begins!