The beginning............

So, my first ever blog entry.........

I enjoy keeping chickens.  Hens to be precise.  I have been keeping them for about 3 years.  I live just north of Cardiff in South Wales.

It all started when our pet dog move on to doggy heaven just before Christmas.  For a month I moped around and then saw an article on hens.  I started researching what to do, where to buy equipment and hens.

I settled for a cheap option from eBay to test the water.

Our first Hen House!  It was a flat pack and quite easy to put together.

I decided that I liked the look of a family run business in Malvern (www.newlandgrange.com) that sold hybrid chickens.  I arrange to visit one cold Sunday afternoon in January (after stopping with my in laws).

And that was that.  3 Hybrid chickens in the car back to sunny Wales.

Rhubarb, Crumble and Custard

My wife thought I had gone slightly mad, but when the hen's started laying those fantastic eggs, she changed her mind.

Naming the hen's was great fun, and our boys had some great suggestions!

Now, things were going very well.  A constant supply of eggs a bit of cleaning, feeding and clean water.  This was "easy"!!!

BANG! 

All of a sudden after 12-15 months the hens stopped laying, I was struggling to find out the problem, I bought poultry tonic for the water and spice for the food.  Nothing seemed to help.  Then I discovered the dreaded Red mite!

I had no idea what it was, an hour or two later on the Internet it was panic stations.

I pulled the hen souse apart and discovered this.

Red Mite!

It was a bad infestation.  The mite were living under the roof covering. 

I have battled with red mite ever since, with several people including my local vet telling me to burn the hen house and buy another!

I have worked hard and now have it under control (I hope).

I think I will be posting separately on the red mite subject.  I think I have the beating of it and I'm happy to share experience. 

To cut a long story short (few you all say), 2 of the 3 original hens have passed away.  One left, the white one that I have nicknamed "Big Bird).  She is huge and lays massive eggs!

I currently have a total of 3 hens again having picked up 2 locally and successfully integrated them with big bird!

I have also managed to hatch a chick with a hen that went broody!  I will post separately on this!

Hope this first instalment was vaguely interesting!!!

Many thanks for reading.
Andrew