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My name is Mrs Tweedy and my husband is called Mr Tweedy, not really…. but we were named that by our nephews who had been watching the comedy film “Chicken Run” and when they found out we were getting chickens they were ecstatic to be able to call us the names from two of the characters in the film!

We decided earlier this year, while on holiday with nothing to do, that getting some chickens would be a good idea. The last time I had anything to do with chickens I was 6, I’m now 43. The last chicken I had contact with I accidentally killed… I would run down to the bottom of the garden, lift the sliding hatch on the huge shed and put my hand in and collect all the eggs, I can remember the joy of finding the warm, just laid ones and placing them in the basket. I can also remember the horror when I let the hatch drop like a guillotine just as a hen popped her head out! My sisters and I buried her and didn’t tell our parents! 8 years ago my parents found out when we were all rather tipsy at a dinner party together. One of my sisters laughed and said “remember the time you killed that chicken?!”…I think my Father was more annoyed that we couldn’t have it on the Sunday roasting plate and that I had buried a perfectly healthy, but dead, Sunday roast!

So anyway, that was my first experience with hens. I can’t remember it being difficult. I was over the moon when Mr Tweedy asked “Shall we get some chickens?” “YES!” was my reply and as soon as we returned from our holiday we started planning. Now according to my best friend our first egg would cost in the region of £400 which kind of put me off a little and we were positive it wouldn’t be that expensive to keep hens, after all they are little feathered creatures, about the size of a football costing around £8- £12 for new hens or a donation to the Hen Welfare Trust for second hand ex-battery hens.

We decided purchasing a hen house would be a good start and spent about 5 hours on the internet researching, checking out prices, not even remembering we had a 6ft x 4ft shed in the garden not doing anything. £119 later and a successful bid on EBay we had a henhouse with free delivery. 3 days later it arrived, I was so excited I couldn’t wait! The delivery man nearly gave himself a hernia, getting the boxes out of the lorry, they were huge, the size of a small wall. I kept saying to hubby, “have we allowed enough room in the garden” (the garden is only 45ft by 35ft), I really wanted the hen house under the tree at the bottom of the garden to give the hens some shade in the Summer. Mr Tweedy told me to leave him to it, so off I went and took the dogs for a walk. About an hour and a half later I returned and saw this small panel. “What’s this bit then?” I asked. “That’s the side panel” said Mr Tweedy. “Is that it?!” I said.  The side panel was not even my ‘wingspan’. I was gobsmacked and I hadn’t read the Ebay ad properly (first rule read the obvious but smallprint!) and then henhouse was tiddly! Re-reading the ad again, it said would take 6 -8 hens. It would if you squashed them all in ad forced the lid down! PLEASE NOTE: Allow 1 large football for each large hen and you will have enough room. We only had room for 3.5 footballs, which was fine as we were only getting 3 hens to start with but any additions to the flock would ensue an extension.

Once built we purchased the plastic feeders, one for food and one for water around £10- £12 each x 2, bought the sack of food, layered meal pellets, we were ready for the arrival of Fanny, Delia and Nigella!