Diary of keeping Hens in the Yorkshire dales

Well Eddie finally meet the new neighbours!
Eddie is our dog,not to phased by the hens which is a good thing,the hens seem to be the same.No more eggs yet.

Face to face.Who blinked first?

A bit of a tentative dog!

Oh its raining!

Well they got through first night ok!They were both waiting for me for breakfast!
No eggs yet so rubber crumpets for breakfast
If it keeps raining I think there going both going to shrink!and theres not a lot of them now!

10.15
FORGET THE WORLD HEADLINES,HERES THE NEWS WEVE BEEN WAITING FOR!

AN EGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!TWEETYS FIRST,WELL FIRST HERE ANYWAY

They seem to like the new residence.Eat all the time!Love scraps,all the left overs then hen poo for the garden.
As it is raining again watching them through the living room window,sure the novelty will wear off soon!
Ok I,ve lost count how many times I went out to check them out with my torch and getting soaked.There ok.What would you expect? as my wife would say,but as ive said before im a man with hens and soft like that.
I got them into the hen house,eventually.Henrietta no problem just went in and feel asleep, but Tweety,bit of fun there.Not very happy to get dry it seemed but happy to see me soaked and crawling on all fours making hen noises to get her in!I think a white van is going to arrive sunday and I,ll get to try on a shirt on with long sleeves!
Anyway off to bed, wife not happy to have windows open so I can hear them ,funny that eh?
NEXT.......oh look!

Saturday the 2nd september

Today is the day we get our new hens.Yesterday I rang a shop in Leyburn to enquire about what we would need for them and the prices.I also asked if they knew of anyone local that would sell hens.A person on a farm from Fingall came the reply she wil be able to sell you some,some We only wanted two!
I rang her to explain what we wanted to do and she was more than happy to help out especially with such a huge order.It came to light that she took eggs into the shop we had been in.Come around and have a look she said.They were going to cost a kings ransom,a pound each.But the feathers will eventually grow back I was told.
We drove on to Fingall and eventually arrived at the farm.Not the correct farm of course,Im a man after all and not going to listen to my wife and her instructions am I!
It was now chucking it down really heavy rain.cows were coming towards us and all the windows steaming up.the boys now realising that we were getting the hens started to come up with names for them.No rude ones from the wife this time but i think she had some for me at the time!
So TWEETY & HENRIETTA,thats what we ended up with.That should help us get in the farming community dont you
think?
She was at the front of the farm waiting in the pouring rain.Parked up and got the huge box from the boot.
'I wont take any money'she said.'just in case they dont lay or drop dead'
She checked a couple over for us and both of us managed to get them in the box,heads kept popping out and looking at us as we tried to tie the box up,which was now paper mache' in the rain.
They are around 14 months old,not sure what that is in hen years but they look over 100!and a bit bald.
OUR NEW HENS,TWEETY THE BIGGER OF THE TWO
NEXT.....THE FIRST NIGHT AND THE SURPRISE

I have read that a light will help with the production of eggs,in fact to a level of the european butter mountain,if that mountain is still there of course.
So a light it had to have.The light is on par with the rest of my construction.A timer switch with a light bulb glued to it,the mains plug under a bucket to keep dry and to stop electrocution and instant roast chickens!
Internet
We have been looking on the net and have been getting all sorts of details on hens,some very strange but try anything once.Human hair in a stocking to keep foxes away!How about that.In fact all sorts of stuff on chickens or hens as my wife keeps reminding me,'there hens not chickens

Next the big day comes!!!

After going to a very wet Indian themed party at a friends house across from the village I now have little more imformation on keeping hens.
My wife had agreed (after three years of my nagging)to get some hens.I have to add that she was always up for getting them but was concerned we had enough space for them to be happy.
It is suprising just how many people love hens or are more than willing for you to take theirs!
A friend in the next village was the man to speak to and he went over the finer points of hen keeping.
I was invited to view his handy work in the art of hen house production.With his skills he had produced somewhat more exclusive a residence than I had ever dreamed of making.The second mine would be complete my wife would be on the phone calling the BBC to arrange a makeover diy team to arrive.
He had made his from reclaimed pheasant housing that he had convinced(after large amounts of tea)a local breeder
not to burn.
Zero budget.Thats how much we had to build our hen house.
The long and short of it is that we now have acompleted(?) hen house with a run for it new owners.
It was constructed from old pallets that I had been given from a furniture shop along with a display box that also came from the furniture store,this would be the actual hen house.
After much hammering and splitting of pallets(and almost bring on an early birth of a nearby guinea pig)I had enough wood to build it.
The wire and roof felt was swapped from our friends up the village with some chilli or pepper plants(were not sure what they are yet).
The finished item now sits ready for its tennants.
Our sons,with rapidly rising excitment levels have been coming up with names for this structure.My wifes suggestion of pluck it towers or just pluckham have been shelved after being bit rude for the young ones.
THE HENPIRE STATE BUILDING was finally decided upon.
PLEASE CLICK ON ARCHIVES FOR FULL DIARY ENTRIES