Testimonials
29th Sep 2009
Dear Alison
I am so very grateful to you for making it possible for us to have our chickens. Without your chicken course I don't think I would have felt confident enough to get them - it was just what we needed to set us on the road to chickens.
We decided to take on some ex-battery chickens and today they are scratching around in their run. I just love watching them! We are now waiting excitedly for our first egg!
Stephane Rocher
Feeding Chickens
It is important that your chickens have a balanced diet. They will fill up on tasty scraps and corn first, if given the opportunity, so the trick is to make the nutritious food freely available and to restrict the bulky food. A balanced diet, as for humans, consists of proteins, carbohydrate, fats, minerals, vitamins and water.
The main food to give your chickens is layers pellets and or layers mash.
Chicken Keeper Book
My Chicken Keeper Book is now published. This book is for anyone thinking of keeping chickens and provides all the information and inspiration to get started.
Chicken Keeping is a joy. You will have a constant supply of the most yummy eggs you have ever had and the fun of watching your hen’s personalities develop as they go about their day, chatting to each other whilst looking for tasty morsels in the ground. I want to encourage every one who is considering keeping a few chickens in the garden to take the plunge and go for it. You will be amazed at how friendly and tame the chickens become and how much fun they are to have around. I originally wrote this book to accompany the Chicken Keeper courses I run, but it has now grown to a point where it has become a book in its own right and I hope it will both inspire you to order your hen house now and reassure you that you will be able to cope with all eventualities in this most rewarding of hobbies.
The Breeds of chicken section is restricted to the readily available hybrids and a few traditional breeds. The reasons for this are simple. This book is aimed at the beginner who wants to keep a few chickens for the wonderful eggs they produce. The hybrids are bred specifically to be highly productive hens, producing good quality eggs. There is a cost element in feeding and looking after chickens, so I believe it is most cost effective to feed a chicken which is going to produce an average of 280 eggs a year. Indeed, it costs the same to feed a traditional breed hen who may lay less than 200 eggs a year. Hybrids also have the advantage of being good looking chickens and will soon become tame and friendly, so I can’t think of any better hens to start with. They do, however, mainly only lay brown eggs, so if you want a range of egg colours you can, later on, branch out into the world of the traditional hen, of which there are many.
The chapter on eggs has been fascinating to research and if anyone knows of any other egg tricks for the Children’s section do please pass them on to me. My children had fun making the egg animals and these were used for the accompanying photos in this book. Let your children’s imagination run riot and I am sure they will have as much fun as mine did.
As the introduction to the Troubleshooting section states, the list of possible ailments is in no way intended to put you off. Quite the contrary, it is designed to give you the confidence to buy your first two or three chickens safe in the knowledge that you are equipped to deal with any difficulties you may encounter. The troubleshooting section is almost entirely based on research, as I have not come across most of the diseases and problems listed. I have had one case of Scaley Leg, which was soon dealt with and I am able to cope with the inevitable outbreak of red mite. If you have the misfortune to encounter something not covered in the troubleshooting section, then please contact me and I will research your query.
Whatever reason you have for wanting to keep chickens, this book comes with a warning: Chickens are Addictive!
The book is £19.99 and P&P is free. Order by sending a cheque payable to Hook Farm to Hook Farm. London Rd, Hook RG27 9EQ. If you include any message you may want, I will be very happy to personalise the book to you.