Hi all, 
Our chicken run story started about 8 months ago, my wife and I were discussing getting some chickens (Silkies) as we live in the countryside and have a fair bit of space for them. Then one day one of our neighbours young hens decided to move in to one of our large ivy bushes in the garden. We tried to take her back to the neighbours garden and she just came straight back, we must have tried this about 4 times over the first couple of days, but she just came straight back to her ivy bush.
Seeing as it was October and getting cold, we both felt bad for her living in the bush and gave her some food, and made her a little shelter out of half a large barrel. At least that way she could shelter from the rain and cold.
We don’t really have much to do with our neighbours, we just say hello when we see them, but I went to see them and explained that we had one ‘rouge’ chicken of his that doesn’t want to come back home however much we tried. We offered to buy it from him but he said we could keep her. If she choose to live here then that’s where she wants to be. So that’s how we got our first hen, and my wife said we should name her Ivy, after the bush she moved into. We believe Ivy is a Dutch bantam.
As we had done some research prior to Ivy’s ‘chicken run’ from next door we knew she would needs some friends to keep her company, so we brought some young silkies to join her, that were around her age, a white cockerel called Cotton and partridge hen called Duster and obviously a new house for them to live in.
A couple of weeks later we noticed an RSPCA (animal welfare to our friends across the pond) van parked outside our house. When we had a proper look their were 5 RSPCA vans and 2 police cars at our neighbours house and we believed that they seized all of their animals. This made us feel even worse for Ivy as firstly it must have been that bad next door that she needed to break free and also that we tried to send he back a few times. We were totally unaware of the conditions or treatment of the neighbours animals, and the truth be told we are still totally unaware. We just assume it’s really bad otherwise the RSPCA would not have seized their animals.
8 months later Ivy is Cotton’s number one hen and she has hatched 2 little chicks
of theirs, one cockerel and one hen. Duster is currently sitting on 3 eggs that should be hatching within the next week. As well as their little starter house we brought them, we have recycled an old wooden wendy house into a large 2 story chicken house for them too.
Our little stray Ivy has come from rags to riches lol.
Our chicken run story started about 8 months ago, my wife and I were discussing getting some chickens (Silkies) as we live in the countryside and have a fair bit of space for them. Then one day one of our neighbours young hens decided to move in to one of our large ivy bushes in the garden. We tried to take her back to the neighbours garden and she just came straight back, we must have tried this about 4 times over the first couple of days, but she just came straight back to her ivy bush.
Seeing as it was October and getting cold, we both felt bad for her living in the bush and gave her some food, and made her a little shelter out of half a large barrel. At least that way she could shelter from the rain and cold.
We don’t really have much to do with our neighbours, we just say hello when we see them, but I went to see them and explained that we had one ‘rouge’ chicken of his that doesn’t want to come back home however much we tried. We offered to buy it from him but he said we could keep her. If she choose to live here then that’s where she wants to be. So that’s how we got our first hen, and my wife said we should name her Ivy, after the bush she moved into. We believe Ivy is a Dutch bantam.
As we had done some research prior to Ivy’s ‘chicken run’ from next door we knew she would needs some friends to keep her company, so we brought some young silkies to join her, that were around her age, a white cockerel called Cotton and partridge hen called Duster and obviously a new house for them to live in.
A couple of weeks later we noticed an RSPCA (animal welfare to our friends across the pond) van parked outside our house. When we had a proper look their were 5 RSPCA vans and 2 police cars at our neighbours house and we believed that they seized all of their animals. This made us feel even worse for Ivy as firstly it must have been that bad next door that she needed to break free and also that we tried to send he back a few times. We were totally unaware of the conditions or treatment of the neighbours animals, and the truth be told we are still totally unaware. We just assume it’s really bad otherwise the RSPCA would not have seized their animals.
8 months later Ivy is Cotton’s number one hen and she has hatched 2 little chicks
of theirs, one cockerel and one hen. Duster is currently sitting on 3 eggs that should be hatching within the next week. As well as their little starter house we brought them, we have recycled an old wooden wendy house into a large 2 story chicken house for them too. Our little stray Ivy has come from rags to riches lol.
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