How I care for happy hens!

We've kept them now for a number of years, and I get so much pleasure from them. They're probably the easiest of all the animals that we have to keep as well. They're pretty low maintenance and fun to have around. The children love getting involved as well, which is brilliant.

I love walking up to the coop in the morning, seeing the ponies in their stables and then letting the hens out, giving them their breakfast as well. We have a selection of hens, bluebell, speckledies, speckledy blue and black rangers. I love the variety of different eggs that we get from them.

They're normally free-ranging in the orchard and I love to see them roaming about and having lots of freedom, but unfortunately, because of avian bird flu, they've got to be confined to this much smaller area. Although they seem happy enough!

They're all real characters. One in particular, when she's allowed out and about, clucks around the yard with me and likes to be on her own. She's very independent. They've all got their own little personalities.

Cleaning out the chickens:

Cleaning out the chickens is something I do every week. I encourage them all out of the coop, close the door and give it a thorough clean. I use a large bucket and a trowel to get as much of their mess off as possible!

Once it's all thoroughly cleaned out, I get some fresh straw and just sprinkle it around.

The structure of the coop:

The hens have got their nesting boxes along the back. I've got some batons because they like to roost at night so I lay them across the length. One of them I leave slanted and it works as a ladder so they can get up and down.

Feeding:

I keep all of their feed in a galvanized dustbin, and it just means that rats and things like that can't get to it.

I've got some poultry grit and my eggshells which I mix in a bowl. I just give them two scoops of feed each morning, and add a little bit of my grit and shell mix in there as well.

In the evening I feed them in here because it encourages them to come in. The moment they hear me, they come scampering in and I don't have to wait until it gets dark to encourage them to come into bed.

They're normally free-ranging in the whole orchard, but obviously, they're in lockdown as well so at the moment they've just got limited space. They're always quite keen to come in. In the evening I mix in some corn to their feed and it just helps make the yolks really yellow. It's a bit of a treat and they love it!

By keeping their feed in a galvanized metal bin, it means that rats and mice can't get to it.

We don't have a problem with rats and mice luckily, and I think that's probably because we've got little terriers that chase away any vermin. So we're very lucky on that front, but it's really important to keep your hen house clean.

It's really important that they've got fresh water at all times and I feed them in the morning and then again in the evening. I feed mine in the coop because it just makes life easier and they're always keen to come into the henhouse in the evening.

I get so much pleasure from keeping hens. I love the fresh eggs, they're wonderful characters, and they're really, really easy to look after.

I used to have a plastic henhouse called an Eglu from Omlet, which lived out in the orchard and it worked well when I first kept hens. But actually, I wanted to keep more. The space in the corner of our hay barn wasn't being used at all and was just full of wood. So Ruben built me this Avery style henhouse and it works brilliantly.

Chicken manure is also great for your garden. I mix it in with the compost!

The children's favourite job is collecting the eggs. They're always keen to go and do that.

Repurposing the eggshells:

I keep my chicken shells and put them into the oven or AGA to kill off any bacteria.

They don't want to go into a really hot oven so I pop them in the baking oven for about 15 minutes and that is perfect. When they've cooled slightly, I crush them up and I feed them back to the chickens mixed in with their grit and it's a really good source of calcium for them.

I know it sounds bonkers, but chickens need some grit in their diet. The grit sits in their gullet and it helps them produce calcium, which forms stronger eggshells. There's nothing worse than having really weak eggshells that just crack when you're trying to do anything with them. So this is a great source of calcium to give back to them. And they just break up brilliantly.

There is nothing better than your own fresh eggs. With all the cooking and baking I do, it's brilliant having them to hand as well.

I hope you've enjoyed having a tour of our henhouse and letting me explain how we look after our hens. Wishing you all a really, really fabulous weekend!

Love, Charlie x