Perris
Come say hello to @Perris! She has been a member since January 2018 and comes to us from Wales.
1. Tell us a bit more about yourself.
I am a recently retired academic. I am lucky to live in a beautiful part of the world, the first designated ‘Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’ in the UK. The Gower is a peninsular with stunning beaches on 3 sides; one of them, Rhossili, regularly features in lists of the world’s top ten beaches. Some Dr Who episodes were filmed here, e.g. ‘New Earth’ and ‘The New World’. The air blows in from the Atlantic, so is relatively clean, and wet. Our house is in a tiny hidden hamlet, with a beach, a hill and woodlands to roam in. The climate is temperate: never too hot, never too cold, rarely too dry. It rains more often than I would like, but that suits the vegetation and the wildlife, and flooding is not an issue, so that’s OK. This environment suits pretty much any chicken breed, fortunately.
2. Why and when did you start keeping chickens?
I thought about getting chickens for quite a long time before I actually took the plunge. My sister had kept them for 2 decades, and while the eggs her hens laid were fantastic, her war against mites, and all her family members’ dislike of cleaning the coop because of the mites, really discouraged me from getting some myself. So when I did finally start thinking about getting some chickens, finding out about mite prevention was actually my first research priority, rather than chicken breeds! Coops made of sturdy recycled plastic had the best reviews in terms of mite deterrence, their inside being smooth so there are no little cracks and crevices in which bugs could hide, and they can be easily disassembled to clean and even power wash as necessary. I was quite shocked how expensive they were, but since by this time my sister had given up chicken-keeping because of the mites, I decided that if I was going to do this, it would be worth it. Experience has confirmed that hope and expectation; I have had no mites, so far! And cleaning is a doddle.
Once I sourced the coop, I started looking into different breeds. Time had been short when I was working and raising a family, but now it was not as I had stopped working and the kids were grown up, so I knew I could be around to let any chickens out and put them to bed at whatever time was necessary all year round. (Actually, I think the fact that the kids were now grown up was subconsciously part of the motivation for getting chickens when I did – a need to look after something!) So I went looking for breeds suited to free range dawn to dusk; at this latitude days vary from about 8 hours to about 16 hours long. I was looking for a breed with good predator awareness (foxes are the main threat here, but there are goshawks and buzzards too) and good foraging abilities. I discovered that Swedish Flower Hens had survived by natural selection rather than breeder design, were good utility birds, and I like their plumage, so they seemed ideal and, luckily, could be acquired from a local man who was advertising them on Preloved. I got my first chickens on 6 March 2017; three pullets aged 6-8 weeks, fully feathered and thus able to survive outdoors without heat. I gave them Swedish girls’ names, starting a tradition I’ve stuck with of giving my chickens names from their area of origin, and with different first letters to avoid confusion in abbreviated record keeping. Britt was blue-grey and was my first avatar; Freya was black with a crest, a mahogany brown neck and white spots all over; and Lotta was black with white spots.
My first coop, with first pullets.
This is the girls all grown up:
3. Which aspect(s) of poultry keeping do you enjoy the most?
The most enjoyable part of poultry keeping for me is having a broody and chicks. It’s a bit of an emotional rollercoaster when a hen goes broody – not knowing whether and if so how well she is going to do as a mam, and the chicks grow really fast, but for two months, from hatching until they are about 8 weeks old, the little family is adorable, and I could spend all day just watching them. An attentive broody teaching her youngsters what in their environment is food and what’s a threat is an education in itself. That’s how I learned that chickens are really adventurous and will try anything if it is presented by someone they trust. I guess that’s how they’ve done so well in so many different environments round the world.
The eggs run a close second; my girls lay a colourful basket of fabulous eggs most of the year round. A brioche loaf or a shakshuka, for example, made with these eggs is truly delicious and a stunning colour.
I have also enjoyed learning about the history, care and development of chickens over the past few centuries. I find older handbooks’ advice on feeding, health and welfare of farmyard flocks generally more useful to me than sources based on modern huge commercial production processes and practices. Of course, not all old ways are best, and some look decidedly dodgy! So I select from old and new ways of chicken keeping, such as fermenting their feed, which seems to be a recent practice in poultry keeping, though not in human nutrition of course, where it goes back millennia.
4. Which members of your flock, past and present, stand out for you and why?
Maria is quite the character. Pint sized, she has been head hen since she arrived in April 2018. No- one argues with Maria, including all 4 roos! She also was my first broody. I had not intended on having chicks, and at the time had no roos, but when she went broody and seemed really determined (in that, as in everything else she does), I got her a few hatching eggs of her breed, so she should could live the life she obviously wanted to live. Two of the four eggs hatched, and Barry is one of them. As they are not related, I am hoping that this year they will produce some youngsters of their own.
Maria, my first broody, and her chicks at 2 days old.
5. What was the funniest poultry related thing(s) that happened to you in your years as an owner?
Obelix, my lanky juvenile Barbezieux cockerel, has been a source of much amusement since he was a few days old. Even as a chick he held his ground by the food bowl and stared down a 2 1⁄2 yr old dominant roo. Now he strides over to the food bowl (he’s usually last because he hasn’t yet got those long legs totally under control) and simply stands over one of the hens surrounding it, like an upper storey, his legs placed either side of whoever was there first, and bends his head down over their heads like a giraffe!
Another regular source of amusement is bedtime. As the flock has grown, I have acquired more coops. Most evenings there are shenanigans over who roosts where and with whom, but usually it settles down to 4-6 birds per coop. However, there are times when Maria (or more recently Eve) is in a particularly bossy or foul mood, and the rest of the flock have all crowded into the other coops, as many as nine in a coop designed for 6, to avoid having to share with her!
6. Beside poultry, what other pets do you keep?
We have a 5-year-old Lakeland terrier called Archie. (And a nascent mealworm farm, though I don’t think anyone, even me, would count mealworms as pets.)
7. Anything you'd like to add?
I completed the regulatory requirements here to be officially recognised as a producer and packer of eggs; it is not as difficult to fulfil as I was led to expect, and I would advise anyone wishing to sell their eggs to consider it; don’t be put off by the bureaucracy or inspections. I learned a lot about poultry health and hygiene through the process, and can now sell to shops and restaurants, as well as private sales, if I so wish. I have regular customers for my surplus eggs (these are customers who understand that traditional poultry keeping means that availability fluctuates, for all sorts of reasons, and they are happy to wait for their eggs), which makes my favourite hobby not only cost- free but stress-free too!
I am immensely grateful to all the people, past and present, who constitute the BYC community. Their help, their advice, and their friendship have been fundamental to my enjoyment of poultry keeping. Thanks all!
@Perris
For more information about the interview feature and a complete list of member interviews:
introducing-vip-member-interviews.905602
For more information about the interview feature and a complete list of member interviews:
introducing-vip-member-interviews.905602
Thank you for the interview! So nice to learn more about you.
