POULTRY
From page 35
tage of letting them range
freely is that eggs are laid in
arbitrary places around the
garden. Thus, if your chickens
are to supply you with eggs a
(time-consuming and not
always successful) daily
search, in all manner of nook
and cranny, is necessary to
keep your pantry stocked.
Sometimes arbitrarily-laid
eggs are only retrieved
months later, when your dog
gently lays them at your feet
as a gift, where they might
explode because they are so
old.
Sometimes
hens will
settle on a
clutch of
eggs in some
hidden spot
in the
garden,
where they
are vulnera-
ble to
predators. In
Brahmas are large, docile birds that come in a variety such a case
including ticks, and they
enjoy a healthy, varied diet,
although you still need to give
them some concentrates to
ensure that they have all the
nutrition that they need.
There is also all that natural
fertiliser for your plants.
It is advisable to bring them
in at night , out of the way of
predators or thieves. Keeping
them in until mid-morning
will also help to ensure that
the eggs are laid where you
can find them. The disadvan-
of colours.
you will
merely
notice that
a hen has
gone
missing.
Hopefully,
she will
reappear 21
days later
solicitously
escorting a Black Australorps are popular, and are also used in
clutch of tiny many mixed-breeds.
cheeping
If you choose to keep your
day-olds.
chickens in a pen, make it as
If your chickens are free range large as you can afford.
your coop doesn't need to be There might be something
so large, which makes it
on your plot already that you
cheaper to build and easier to can use or adapt. If you need
keep clean.
to start from scratch there are
Free range chickens also tend ready-made coops available
to eat your garden: they need for sale or there are DIY plans
aplenty on the internet.
to be kept away from your
vegetable patch and any beds
Continued on page 37
where you have planted
flower seeds or seedlings.
Some people are able to
manage partial free-range
flocks, where the chickens are
allowed out for a certain time
during the day, after all egg-
laying activity has happened,
and before sunset, which
seems like the best of both
worlds. However, someone
will have to be there to let
them out and bring them in
again, which is not always
possible.
36
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