Owning Chickens In A City, Is It Possible?

Morning ladies. There we go, there you go Meryl. Oh are you a bit shy today ladies? Oh excellent, an egg, good stuff. So yeah we've lived in London for about 13 years. In this house specifically for five years but we got the chickens last year so we've been here for four and to be honest it was Vicky that was quite keen on getting the chickens because she's very environmentally conscious and in a school they do a lot of stuff about self-sustainability so obviously you get the eggs from them. After rooming and ironing after a few years she kind of convinced me and we've never looked back to be honest with you. The obvious benefit is you get the eggs so we basically get fresh eggs every day and it's just nice knowing that you're getting these fresh eggs that are coming straight from the chickens. You get different kinds of reactions in regards to having the chickens because a lot of the time people will come here for dinner kind of look out the window oh my goodness you've got chickens, I didn't realise you'd have chickens or I wouldn't expect you to have chickens somewhere like this. Yeah it's a really good thing to have I think. People often associate chickens as a country animal and they are classed as a farm animal but in fact people have been keeping chickens in urban environments in towns and cities for hundreds of years. You really don't need that much space to keep a couple of hens. I've had people living on canal boats that want to start keeping chickens even giving them a couple of square metres in the corner of your garden could give them significantly more space than they would have if they were living on a commercial farm. For us we love the fact that as well as pets they give us food. The local eggs that they sell in the supermarket ones where you can pick your own and you're promised they're from a local farm will still have travelled about 100 miles to get to the supermarket whereas our chickens are laying eggs and we're collecting them and maybe bringing them three metres to bring them into the kitchen and having very very fresh eggs for breakfast. It's been a privilege over the years to have been able to help a number of Londoners start keeping chickens themselves but as well as helping families in keeping chickens we've been able to help a number of schools and community gardens and other organisations get chickens set up in their little bit of land and enjoy the rewards of looking after the animals and collecting those eggs. The chickens first arrived as eggs they went to reception first we watched them hatch and only then when they were big enough to come into the garden when they then brought into the garden and I mean that was very exciting and then obviously when they were old enough they laid eggs for us. Once the chickens have laid the eggs the children collect them which they love doing especially if they're warm and then we box them up we take them to the cake sale on a Friday and we sell them to the parents. It's amazing that the children here are able to use produce that the chickens produce and then I know that they go home and parents have mentioned also that they've gone home and spoke about the lessons that they've had here. The hens are the most popular part they are the carrot at the end of the lesson. We've taught the children how to look after them to feed them to clean them they do poo patrol every day. Some children are very aware environmentally of what's going on in the garden what's going on with the chickens and some children call the chickens KFC and you know just see them as food on legs. I've had one child out of the whole school say that they don't want to eat chicken anymore. One. They do get fond of them in the end. There's a bit of bravado around the chickens and oh yeah chicken nuggets and then by the end they're like stroking them and they're very fond of them really. Do you guys eat chicken? You don't eat chicken. Rocky do you still eat chicken? I stopped now. Oh she heard. Would you eat one of these chickens? Chickens can have their own personality and some of them can be incredibly friendly and obviously we get very attached to them and just like any other pet they can become part of your family and sadly when they do die for whatever reason it really is a loss and it leaves you grieving. Let's get you back in here. That's it. Good girl. There we go. Right let's get you locked up. There we go. Nice and safe. Yeah so we get a lot of urban foxes around here and a fox came into the garden and yeah unfortunately took one of the chickens leaving us with Meryl. So it was sad because they were both lovely. It was a real shame and yeah we just didn't want Meryl to be lonely so we've got another two in. We've actually come back a few times and found a fox sat on top of this just basically peeping in. There's been many a day where my wife's been coming out chasing them off. I've been coming out and chasing them off and what you'll find is they just end up going into the next door neighbour's garden because they're so cunning and they're kind of bed down there and then they'll be back. So yeah it's something that you have to watch out for when you've got chickens in an urban environment. I have to say since we've got the chickens actually grow really attached to them. They do become part of the family and yeah they become more than just chickens that give you eggs although the eggs are great and it's certainly increased my baking skills using them for baking cakes and things like that. But you do grow attached to them and they're like any other family pet you build up a really strong bond with them so they're really nice to have. We found keeping chickens to be so rewarding on so many levels and it's been a delight for us to share this experience with so many people. There's quite a few people doing it now keeping chickens in an urban setting and it's something that we could all have a think about because it is very doable very rewarding and you can have that confidence and certainty of knowing where your daily egg comes from. We love eating the Northfields eggs it's like eating a proper organic healing egg it's fabulous. Fresh eggs are definitely better than going to the shops and buying them. To have them fresh daily or to use them a couple of days after they've been laid I definitely think that that's better for the children and for them to learn where they've come from is also really good for them.