Won't somebody think of the chickens?

Hello again. Chickens seems to be featuring quite highly in my life at moment, with My Greener Home having recently started selling poultry coops, and seeing this story in our local paper.

As the article says, a local animal rescue centre has received an influx of chickens dumped by owners who turned to the “Good Life” to beat the recession, without realising just how much work they can take to look after - something that is apparently happening more and more often.

Keeping chickens can seem quite labour-intensive at first, but it's really not that bad. If you're a first-timer though, there's a fair bit of information to take in to get the best out of them, and they can definitely feel a bit of a responsibility sometimes, especially if you want to get away for the weekend and can't find anybody to feed them.

As a child, my family kept chickens, so I was lucky enough to grow up with them around – although cleaning them out was never my favourite job!

I wrote a chicken keeping guide a little while ago that I've been meaning to mention, so this is a good a time as any. I'd love to hear from anybody that's found it useful, as well as any suggestions or tips that you'd like to add. There's always room for improvement!

Sorry about the slightly boring picture, by the way. Typing 'chick' into Google Image Search certainly throws up some interesting results, many of which I didn't think were appropriate to post here...

Have a great week!