When we got married we kept a few chickens. When they stopped laying we killed and cooked one and it was as tough as hell so got binned.
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They also love a mash made from all the boiled up veggie peelings.
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I was born & raised on a farm back in the 50s. I remember an endless supply of eggs, I remember my father wringing chicken’s necks, helping my mother pluck them while still warm. And saving the blood for stews.
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Of course, they make good pets.
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Yes, similar. It was a hill farm for us. Some arable and cattle and a lot of sheep.
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My friend adopts ex battery hens and I’m amazed how affectionate they are, they sit on her lap and come when she calls them
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Omah, Yes, you are correct, l do keep chickens. I only have three that’s enough for me!
I have kept chickens for about 18 years. At first, l became addicted to keeping chickens and ended up with 16.
I feed them with layers pellets as it contains everything they need for perfect eggs. They have a very long run and when l let them out into the garden l have to be with them as foxes are always around ready to pounce.
There are certain foods they cannot eat… chocolate, onions, avocados, kidney beans, green tomatoes or potatoes.
When a fox gets one of your chickens, the others mourn and keep staring over to the area where the fox took the poor chicken.
They are fascinating to watch. One of mine keeps flying up onto my back if l bend over and l dare not straighten up. If l sit on a bench, she will join me, or try to sit on my lap.
The worst is when l am standing innocently in the garden and she will suddenly peck the back of my leg.
I wormed them all last week as they get them after scavenging in the garden.
Yes they are great to keep and the eggs are delicious but they are very tying.
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don’t you mean wot do chickens treat?
I have to ask Art …do you eat chicken?
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chickensd eat eggs we all know that and they come out of their bums?
Regarding the mourning chickens …. Horses are the same! When one of our ponies died some years ago we had a digger come and dig a hole and the pony was laid to rest. It was like a Disney film. The other horse and a couple of sheep stood around the hole watching what was going on and I swear they had their heads down as a mark of respect. 
Never seen it, but heard tales of nasty fox killing every chicken in the coop, taking just one.
Maybe nothing more than rumour started by pro-foxhunters.
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I can confirm this is true. There is a smallholding beside our horse field and we regularly find chickens heads in our field shelter because the smallholder keeps chickens and the fox often clears out the whole lot.
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Yes, l understand that happens, a fox will kill all the chickens but only take one. They say, it’s the clucking of the hens that sends the fox into a frenzy and it massacres the lot.
I have only lost two hens to the Fox. They were all out free ranging and one just disappeared.
The other was at 9.45 in the morning. I saw a fox with the hen in it’s mouth, l screamed and the Fox dropped it. The hen was dead, probably from shock.
There was one sprightly hen and l heard a lot of clucking… a fox had caught her by her tail feathers. The fox’s grip wasn’t strong enough and the hen got away… there were lots of feathers everywhere. She just ran into the coop run and was fine.
Touch wood, a fox has never got into the coop/run. I check it regularly. In fact, l haven’t see a fox here for years, nor have l seen any fox poo!
A teacher at my children’s school said that an egg was a chicken’s period. They refused to eat eggs for a while after hearing that.
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Annie, Yes, l love chicken but l couldn’t eat my own hens. Besides, laying hens become tough old birds!
One of mine at the moment, a Welsummer is over 7years old. She only lays from the end of March until May. Her eggs are delicious.
She would be really tough to eat!
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We look after some when their people are away.One’s very old and she goes around the garden talking to the chicks she thinks she has.
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One of my hens was ill once, making awful loud rasping noises as if she couldn’t breathe.
My ex partner said if she didn’t recover within an hour, he would put her out of her misery.
I asked him to open her mouth and l got my asthma spray and l sprayed it into her mouth and gave her a quarter of an aspirin.
Within the hour she was fine and she lived a long life!
The lady that I used to clean for had chickens, she used to give me the freshly laid eggs, they never tasted any different to the shop bought ones,
…you still have to feed and look after the chickens, so you don’t get the eggs free…mr Fox is pretty partial to chickens, I’ve worked for many customers who had chickens, the foxes were a real pain and killed every chicken in its hen house…they told me…you need to build the hen house like a fortress, to keep mr and Mrs fox out…on saying that, my customers lived in the heart of the rural country.
I hear they will even eat boiled baby chicken if you shell them for them?