It’s a challenge for any chicken owner to look down on the birds knowing eyes and resist the urge to satisfy their every need. We all know that birds will eat most of what is put in front of them – not unlike my brother – but how much is too much?

Cat’s father had often thrown down a little extra corn to his birds without concern – until recently when one of the birds passed. As the results returned from the chicken’s autopsy, it was clear the bird had been overweight. Whilst this was not apparent to the eye, the bird was ‘fat on the inside’ – an insult we regularly throw at our elder brother who, I have to admit, is actually quite streamline.

To overfeed was certainly not their intention yet in their innocence, it had happened. One does not imagine corn can kill but an overdose can be deadly. I hit the net to try and assimilate a solution. ‘Moderation’ was thrown around with the highest frequency – a word weighted heavily with ambiguity. Since there is no chicken treadmill on the market, the best solution I was able to source is to make the birds work for their treats.

Hanging vegetables high in the air is a trick we have tried with our birds. This keeps them occupied and out of trouble for hours. The are also treat balls, usually positioned for cats or rodents, which slowly distribute corm or meal worms as they are knocked or pecked. A pecker block is another recent addition to our enclosure – these can be baked at home to cut down on cost and numerous delicious recipes are available online.

Our birds have certainly experienced a cutback on the calories and are hopefully healthier for it. They may think they have had their revenge by devouring my flower bed but I’m sure they would one day thank me if they could.

Want to hear the chicken’s point of view? Visit my Chicken Talk Blog.

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S has always wanted chickens, which was first randomly announced when we bought our first house together 5 years ago, in an area with restrictions that categorically stated no livestock! Wind on to last year and we got the keys to our new home. We’ve spent the last year bashing the house around and rebuilding it and generally making it our own and now its time for chooks!

Back in March I went to see J the chicken lady (as she is referred to in our house) and met her chickens. I initially decided on two Sussex and two Brahma but then decided that I’d prefer two Welsummer instead of the Brahma (I got worried about their size).  So we can look forward to brown (welsummer) and white (sussex) eggs.

Our chickens weren’t even eggs back in March, but they have since hatched and in a few weeks I’ll be going to collect them! They just need to finish feathering.  Their ride home will be in a… card board box with some newspaper in and air holes?  Will that be OK?!  Forum post coming up…

Since March we have been busy. S has built them their house or the “Palais de Poulet” as it has been nicknamed and he has also built their run. We’ve vermin proofed it as best we can by digging chicken wire into the ground and then stainless steel plate as well, and a net will shortly be put over the top of the run to prevent the wild birds getting in.

I’ve bought a feeder and drinker, food, grit, lice powder, dust extracted shavings, blue egg boxes… the set up for these hens can be pretty expensive if you let yourself get carried away!  In a nod to recycling though, the nest boxes are going to be lined with shredded paper.  My place of employment generates black bags of the stuff almost daily, and I hope it’ll keep them nice and warm and be nice to make nests in.

Then there are the gadgets – pop hole openers, timers, solar lighting systems…  I thought this was quite a low-tech goodlife kinda hobby?  But in all honesty, it does seem to be that it can be as simple or as techy as you want to make it!  My biggest worry / ambition is that the hens we have are happy and healty.

As our chooks are going to be quite young – about 10 weeks old and another 10 weeks (fingers crossed) away from the first very much anticipated egg, we’ve bought growers feed for them.  We’re using a brand that is manufactured in our county of Norfolk and available from a feed merchant who is all of 5 minutes drive from my place of work.  We’ll switch to layers pellet when they get to the appropriate age of 16 weeks.  Is that right?  It’s what it says on the feed sack…  Hmm, another question to the forum…

We should be expecting our first eggs in August /September, and hopefully we’ll continue to get sporadic eggs throughout the winter with our girls hitting their stride next spring!  At least the egg boxes will get some eventual use…

All I’ve got to do now is come up with some names for them…  Any suggestions?!  S has suggested Paxo, Sage, Onion and Roast.  I like Wilma and Wendoline for the Welsummers and Shaz and Sheila for the Sussex.