You become adept at combing your fingers through feathers. I’ve got a Buff Cochin hen on my lap who is a giant, billowing, cushion-like creation of a chicken. I’m going through her huge amount of tangerine-coloured plumage to dust her undersides, gently revealing her pink skin to puff her with a white mite-repelling powder. She clucks softly with chattering concern, and I mutter back to her in agreement. This task is more of a precaution than a need, but there is lot of what I shall term “feather dressing” for those of us who really care for and know our chickens. Such rituals are regular occurrences if our hens are to have a harmonious party.
Chickens must be tended to with consideration and care. They are creatures of habit who must be kept clean, fed well, given space and protected from predators – and even, at times, from one another. How to keep them content requires the education of many books. What follow are the lessons I have learnt from my reading.
The pecking order
A blue Pekin bantam hen in writer and gardener Arthur Parkinson’s garden © Max Miechowski
Chicken society starts to take shape within a week of chicks hatching, which means you should always work out in advance how many hens you wish to keep so that you buy them all together. If you intend on keeping a mix of different breeds, then they need to have been reared together to avoid what can be horrific bullying as the stronger characters of more dominant breeds really show their true and horrid colours.
A Poland hen © Arthur Parkinson
The pecking order has a head hen who will always command respect. She’ll be given precedence by everyone beneath, right from her second-in-command down to the lowly bottom hen, who ekes out a tough but manageable existence. Plenty of space will see all the hens get along. A cockerel can help manage the dynamics between hens, but he must be made to realise that you are the boss of him by regular handling.
Hen houses
Designer Bonnie Hvillum at the hen house in her garden at her home outside Copenhagen © Rasmus Weng Karlsen
A cockerel will inspect the nesting boxes and cluck encouragingly if all is correct
A hen house should always feel cosy and airy – somewhere you would consider sleeping if you had been locked out of your own house. Plastic hen houses are more popular these days than their traditional wooden counterparts, with good designs giving the birds reassuring insulation against extreme cold and heat. I, however, find them visually poor and much prefer the aspect that a large, sturdy shed offers instead. My favourite garden hen houses are those designed by the Domestic Fowl Trust. Look to these for inspiration if you decide to build your own.
Inside the hen house, all the perches should be at the same height, so the hens don’t argue over who gets the highest one. Ensure the perches can easily be removed so that you can dust them regularly with food-grade diatomaceous earth, which helps protect against mites and other parasites, before replacing them.
A red millefleur Belgian Bearded d’Uccle bantam cockerel © Arthur Parkinson
Nesting boxes should be set up lower than the perches so the hens don’t sleep in them. One nesting box per three hens is ample; put them in the darkest spot, directly under the window. Furnish them with wood shavings or chopped straw – never hay or whole straw as these can harbour mites, absorb moisture poorly and become mouldy – and consider deploying fake eggs to show hens that are coming into lay where to lay. A cockerel will inspect the nesting boxes and cluck encouragingly if all is present and correct.
Hen runs
A fruit-growing cage will make for a good-sized, sheltered and secure hen run, so long as its netted sides and roof are reinforced with thick galvanised wire that a fox cannot chew through. Place the run alongside the shelter of a hedge, somewhere the sun will shine for part of the day. Hens will not thrive in damp, boggy or dark places. It is wise to connect the hen house to a secure run. The flock can then be allowed out to free range when you are around to keep an eye on them. Shutting the hens’ personal hen house door (the “pop hole”) at dusk is essential to avoid raids by foxes, badgers, mink and rats. A battery timer, known as a chicken guard, will open the pop hole at dawn and close it at dusk (dawn fox raids are common, so I don’t like to let my hens out before 8am; the hens know to go to bed before dark themselves, so the chicken guard is timed to close just after dusk).
Feed and water
A Blue Pekin bantam hen and a chamois Poland hen in Parkinson’s garden © Max Miechowsky
Always heed the very wise saying “don’t hatch if you can’t dispatch”
Each hen will eat about a mug’s worth of feed per day – they will quickly tell you if they are hungry. A compound layer’s pellet ration will suit most laying hens but more fancy breeds will benefit from being on a breeder’s pellet that has higher levels of protein. Buy the best quality feed you can, ideally one that is soya-free.
Ad-lib feeding is best so the hens can help themselves to feed throughout the day. A little corn can be given in the winter, towards dusk, as a treat. If you choose – unwisely – not to invest in a rat-proof feeder, then you should definitely opt for hanging feeders instead. This will stop hens spilling too much feed onto the ground, thus attracting vermin.
Hens drink an average of 300ml of water per day so fresh, clean water must always be available. Drinkers modelled on a nipple-pecking design will ensure clean water for the hens and can be hung up alongside feeders, but unfortunately they often look awful in comparison to a lovely antique galvanised drinker.
Dust baths
Dust-bathing is often overlooked but this behaviour ensures healthy and beautiful hens; they will take great pleasure in bathing in a mix of dry, fine compost or earth, kiln sand and wood ash. A deep drawer placed somewhere dry, such as under a large garden table, will see much use by the whole flock, while an old greenhouse with its dry soil, a few of its panes missing and the door kept open will become a spa.
Holding and befriending chickens
Charlotte Dellal, founder of Charlotte Olympia shoes, in her greenhouse with two of her flock of 11 chickens © Emli Bendixen
It is a mistake to smother a hen tightly against your body or to hold one in an upright fashion. You must be mindful of the pressure hands can put on a bird’s ribs and lungs. Try to hold hens in what I call the bagpipe method. If you have a box of newly bought hens, slip your hand under the body of the bird and then clutch both of its legs gently but securely in the same hand. The hen’s body is now supported by your forearm as you lift her out of the box facing towards your body.
A red millefleur Belgian Bearded d’Uccle bantam hen © Arthur Parkinson
Establish an evening routine with newly bought hens. Every evening, when they have gone to roost, go and chat to them. You can gradually progress from talking to stroking their chests in the direction of their feathers. After a week or so, once they are used to this, begin to handle each of them in turn.
Hatching eggs
Eggs from fashion designer Wes Gordon’s flock of chickens in Connecticut © Weston Wells
Before hatching any eggs, you must heed the very wise saying: “Don’t hatch if you can’t dispatch.” This refers to the spare cockerels that hatching eggs will almost always produce. Most broods of chicks will have a majority of males, which will be a problem for urban keepers and those without space. Once matured, young cocks begin crowing and hassling the hens as their hormones rise.
Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to spare cockerels. Very few will be able to be rehoused to trusted homes, though it is still worth advertising them. You might choose to keep your cockerels as a separate bachelor flock. In such circumstances, without hens to fight over, they will form a male hierarchy. If this is not possible then it will be necessary to imagine the many wonderful soups and casseroles a young cockerel can provide. Culling any chickens must be done confidently and with a skilled technique. Seeking experienced help is best.
A chamois Poland cockerel © Arthur Parkinson
It is common sense to hatch eggs from spring onwards as nature intended so that the young birds can enjoy the summer sunshine, rather than beginning their life in the harsh winter weather. A broody hen, who won’t budge from the nest box and hoards eggs, must have her own broody coop. A secure rabbit hutch is ideal.
Recommended
About seven days into incubation you should candle the eggs. Candling is when you shine a bright light – a mobile phone light is ideal – through the egg to see (hopefully) a spider impression of developing blood vessels from the chick’s embryo. If the egg is clear then discard. The air sac, if the egg is fertile, will be visible at the fat end of the egg. When the hen’s eggs are due to hatch, don’t disturb her. Provide her with a shallow-lipped chick drinker by the nest and a little dish of chick crumbs too. The hen will be keen to eat the chick crumbs, but they’ll do her no harm. Short, fresh grass and dappled sunshine will see the chicks thrive. If the hen has become a little pale-faced during sitting then mashed carrot, hard-boiled egg and cod liver oil will be good for her condition. When the chicks are four weeks old, let the hen chaperone them into the main flock for protection.
Hens in the garden
The happiest chickens are those that spend much of their day under a canopy of branches. Hens draw comfort from the shelter that small trees and shrubs provide. Bantams are always a better choice for the garden-conscious as they have smaller claws to scratch about with that do a little less damage, and their smaller droppings are less noticeable on the patio. Defend vegetable beds with ornamental barriers, old, rusted metal gates or fire guards as otherwise the hens won’t be able to resist the loosely dug soil and tasty seedlings.
Extracted from Hen Party: A Celebration by Arthur Parkinson, with illustrations by the author, published at £16.99 by Particular Books. The US edition is published by Rizzoli Universe at $22.50
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