Hens in the City
Urban dwellers across the land are being encouraged to get in touch with nature by keeping hens in their back gardens. But does it make sense - and what do the chickens think about it?
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'Before I started', said Tony Volpe, one of Shirley's novice customers, 'I wondered how practical it might be, to keep two hens in the small patch of green that I and most townies have at our disposal? What about the neighbours? Would I need a cockerel? Would the hens be happy in my garden?
Two weeks into my life as an urban hen ranger, I can say that I'm delighted that I did it. I've never had more amusing, audacious or more productive pets. I go out in the morning, and as I let the first one out, I can see that I'm being scolded. There she is, clucking in an accusatory tone at my tardy arrival to let her and her companion out to explore. She approaches the wire, fixes me with a beady glare, and I know that she wants me to let her roam around the thrilling habitat that is my garden. I unlatch the door, and she scuttles past me to rake in the dirt and unearth a juicy worm, or was it a beetle, a wood louse or a slug? All the same to her. Hardly do they appear in her diggings, before they are history.
They lay like clockwork, one of the advantages of hybrid hens - Mrs Pepper Pot disappearing into her nest box at nine o' clock each morning. I hear a shuffling, a cluck, and then she emerges shaking feathers and leaving behind a beautiful large brown egg. I'm not sure when Henny Penny does her thing - mid morning, I suspect, but both of them do their stuff most days and as I eat the outcome with my toast, enjoying the almost orange coloured yolks that only free range hens produce, I remember that at least these hens know what the sunshine is and have the fun of scratching about in the dirt, as nature intended for them.
As for the problems - what problems? They're a delight from start to finish. We had a party here the other day for colleagues - some dragged children along with them. A couple of days later, a note dropped on my doormat from one of them. Dear Uncle Tony, it said. I so enjoyed the party at your house. I especially liked digging up worms for the chickens. They were very funny the way they ran after us when we had worms. I told my friends at school and they are all jealous.
Shirley and Alistair were a great help, supplying everything that I needed to get started and making themselves available to answer any questions that I had - either by phone or by email - oh, and as I discovered, you certainly don't need a cockerel to have happy hens and plenty of eggs - who wants to be woken at four in the morning anyway?'
Tony Volpe - Satisfied customer….
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