Keeping Chickens as Pets



 Keeping Chickens As Pets

I don't know why but a life long ambition of mine was always to keep chickens as pets. I just love everything about them, their quirky personalities, the noises they make, for some reason they just make me happy when I'm with them. So as my 40th birthday present my husband finally gave in and we went and collected Alice, Martha and Heidi.



Peacock, Bonnie & Bluebell

Since my girls came and joined the family they have proved to be everything and more, that I'd hoped them to be. As a novice chicken keeper, I chose the comical Pekin Bantam, which are a great breed to start with. A small bird, with short squat body, pom pom tail and fluffy feathery trousers. We are now on our second set of girls, Bluebell, Bonnie and Peacock. Every bird has a distinctly different personality. Bluebell, soft cuddly and affectionate, Peacock, the Barbie doll bird, a little bit ditsy but truly beautiful, and then Bonnie, a little bit grumpy and a little bit of Mrs Mangle about her, for those that remember the matriarch from Ramsey Street.

So what makes Chickens good pets?

Friends with benefits

 You get all the love and interaction of a regular small pet but of course you get the eggs, just like friends with benefits! I'm often asked how can you keep chickens and have a pretty garden. Well my garden is far from perfect but I grow a huge range of edible and decorative plants in a small space and still let my girls have free range of the garden.

 

Chickens - great pets for the garden

My Garden, not too shabby, although we have chickens

They do love to scratch for grubs and do eat lots of different vegetation but it's a balance. They keep the creepy crawlies that can harm the garden down and in return some of my plants have doily like leaves. Now I don't know about you, but I'd rather have a few doily leaves, knowing that they will be turned into delicious fresh eggs, rather than providing food for slugs, and the loss is tiny and unnoticeable across the whole garden. Perkins are also the one breed that are least likely to wreck your garden, their fluffy feet mean that they don't like getting muddy feet and consequently don't scratch up the grass. The only adjustment I have had to make to the garden is to edge the borders. The girls love where boarder meets lawn and will extend the boundary given the chance. So to keep things neat, I have edged the boards with log roll, it keeps the lawn edges crisp and gives the girls handy garden length perches. They also keep the lawn length down, together with help from the guinea-pigs, I have only had to cut the grass twice so far this year. Obviously they help keep the nutrients in the soil tip top, chicken poop is a fertilizer second to none, helping me grow a wide range of fruit and veg in a much smaller space than normally possible. Also reduced chemical fertilizers and pesticides means gardening with a clearer conscious.


A quick after school cuddle with Peacock

Chickens as family pets

Perkins are incredibly friendly, they will follow you round the garden, they genuinely want to be where ever you are. So whether you are working in the borders or relaxing reading up on the decking, they will always want to be within a few feet of you. They adore my daughter, as soon as they hear her voice, they will charge the length of the garden, doing their fly running, galloping wildly, while madly flapping their wings for extra oomph! I love the little tap on the back door while I'm cooking dinner, just their little reminder to make sure they get their dinner too.

 

Sanity Saving Crock-Pot Ready Meals

How a trip to Essex has given me back an hour everyday and saved me some sanity?

A late summer trip to see a very dear friend of mine, who had recently moved back home, led me to a huge time saving practice for the kitchen. She introduced me to the art of pre-prepared freezer meals that you pop straight into your crock-pot ready to give you warming nutritious meals at the end of a busy day.

 

Her actual words were "I thought you would have known all about crock-pot ready meals". I let the annoyance, that she had discovered this wonderful kitchen art before me, slide and then raided her Pinterest boards when I got home.

 

And so after 4 hours (that includes the shopping time) I have 44 meals sitting waiting to be devoured, and all I have got to do is pop them in the crock-pot and maybe do some extra fresh veggies on the day, if I'm feeling all righteous and Super Mum.
 

We in England call them slow-cookers, but I have adopted the Americanism 'Crock-pot' because 'crock-pot' actually sounds quicker and as this has probably bought me an extra hour each working day, I think it's appropriate.

 

So that's the time saving, lets look at the cost saving. Total ingredients for 44 meals cost approximately £39, giving me a portion cost of just short of 90p, throw in some rice and veggies and stuff and you are probably looking at £1 per portion. Now in this day and age, I don't think that is bad, I used to budget for a £1 a portion fifteen years ago when I first moved in with my boyfriend (He hadn't earned his promotion of husband at that point). So time and money saving, together with trying some new recipes means, I think this experiment is going to be a winner.

 

So what did we cook?
 

Sweet Teriyaki Chicken
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup sugar
1tsp garlic salt
1/2 an onion
1 1/2lb chicken breasts

 

Chicken Curry (which I can't wait to try, loads of Mangoes and sweet potatoes)
3tbls flour
4tbls Curry powder
2lbs Chicken
2 cups set potatoes
2 cups baby carrots
2 cans Mango
1 Cup of Onion
2 cloves garlic (minced)
2 cups good chicken stock
 

Orange Chicken
2 cups carrots
2cups bell peppers
1lb chicken
3 cloves of minced garlic
1/2tsp pepper
8oz orange juice
 

Beef Stroganoff
2lbs stewing beef
2cans of condensed mushroom soup
1cup onions
2tbls Worcestershire sauce
1/2cup water
2 cloves minced garlic
1cup chopped mushrooms
 

And a spicy chicken thing I forgot to note the name of (sorry)
2lb chicken breast diced
1/8tsp cayenne pepper
1tsp paprika
1/2tsp ground ginger
3 sweet potatoes
1 onion chopped
1 cup apricot preserve
3tbls cider vinegar
1tbls soy sauce
1 cup chicken stock
2tbls cornflour
 

 

There are loads of great sites with crock-pot ready meals but the ones I have use so far are can be found on my Pinterest board slow Cooker.

So thanks to my dear friend from Essex, for giving me the extra hour in the day I have been looking for!

 

 

 

 

Why I Love My Dishwasher

For years my husband and I resisted the lure of the dishwasher. Somehow we were a little suspicious of the claim that it could wash the dishes as well as a person. For me it was the extra consumption of energy, the detergents and the gallons of water that would be wasted, that put me off. Eventually we were seduced and after a bit of rearranging the kitchen units our dishwasher arrived.

The novelty of the arrival of the new kitchen appliance was a kin to the excitement of getting a new family pet and in fact I have caught my husband stroking it lovingly at times.

So why is it so fantastic?

In the early days it was the obvious freeing up of time. Then it was the excitement of finding new things to put through the dishwasher; tooth mugs, the removable drawers and shelves from the fridge, vases etc. I have known my Mum to put her washing up bowl and brush through the dishwasher to give them a bit of a spruce up! but then again I have also known her to put flower pots in too!

But our affection for the dishwasher has moved on from the honeymoon phase and we still love it. One of the more obvious benefits is the re-assurance of knowing that the temperature of the water used is far hotter than any human hand can endure (and we have all experienced the impromptu steam facial from opening the door mid cycle to prove it!). The high temperatures will kill off far more germs and bugs than conventional washing- a good thought if you have young children. They essentially cook the germs to death but if you want to try cooking something a little more appetizing try cooking salmon in the dishwasher! not done it myself but i hear it gets great results.

The less obvious factor is the subtle effect it has on our family at meal times. Knowing I'm not going to be faced with a mountain of washing up helps you make more of an effort. Sitting down to a simple lunch of salad used to be a raced affair, lasting barely minutes, with us hardly tasting the food let alone savouring it. Now we get out all the condiments, pickles and preserves. The salad is lovingly prepared in a serving dish rather than just thrown on a plate.

Our kitchen actually feels bigger. We lost a cupboard in order to fit in our new pet but the lack of pots and pans precariously piled up on the draining board has given the appearance of a larger more airy kitchen. The kitchen is cleaner and tidyer too. Actually being able to see the draining board means you clean it more often. The clean worktops mean they don't succumb to the "stuff magnet"- that's the natural law of stuff is always attracted to stuff. This is illustrated  in many areas of the house. Particularly kitchen work tops, hallways and window sills. For example if you put a piece of post down in the hall, the next time you walk past the table it will have drawn various objects to it. It will have been joined by at least two more bits of paper, a bunch of keys, a piece of Lego and most likely in our house the remains of a biscuit!

Anyway back to the draining board - a clear draining board without objects will stay clearer, for longer without the "stuff magnet".

Cooking is also much more appealing - baking, jam making etc is so much more fun without spending more time clearing up than actually eating the cake.
So what else? The evening meal - We eat less and enjoy more. For a start the table looks prettier, the table mats we usually save for guests come out. Instead of just grabbing our own cutlery on the way past the drawer we lay the table. We even use the gravy boat! - my Mum will be so proud!At weekends we even have candles or a vase of flowers. We eat less because we use serving dishes on the table instead of piling the food high on our plates in the kitchen. We waste less food too, the food we don't eat is still neatly sitting in the serving dishes uncontaminated ready to save for another day.

What's next ? I hear you ask. Well I may even go that little extra step and invest in a milk jug!

Beat the house work - get a Cleaning Buddy!

There are very few of us that enjoy the endless cycle that is housework. Even the smallest of residences turns into the Fourth Bridge when it comes to keeping up with the house hold chores. The majority of us can keep up with the day to day washing up or a quick flick round with a duster while spraying polish randomly into the air before friends arrive - a very wise friend taught me that trick! but I challenge any one to be on top of all those jobs that require a bit more effort and thought.

These are the jobs that don't come a long that often, the ones that once you do it, it could be six months or even a year before you have to do them again. The sort of jobs you have to psyche yourself up to tackle. The cupboard under the stairs, the cleaning of the grout in the bathroom, washing all your net curtains. Other jobs like actually getting to the bottom of your ironing basket - yes even ironing that top that seems to permanently live in there, you know the one, the one that's been in there so long it doesn't even fit any more! and getting rid of the random objects that lurk in there too - I have a set of curtain tie backs in mine? I don't even remember owning any curtains they would have gone with!

Well my solution is to get some one else to do it! well may be not all on their own. In other words get yourself a Cleaning Buddy. Someone that you feel comfortable enough with to show them your flaws and weaknesses, or at least show them the state of your airing cupboard. So how does it work? first select your friend - I suggest choosing some one that lives a hectic a lifestyle as you do. You don't think they will be too keen? they're too busy? - they will jump at it once you explain that you will come and help them defrost their freezer! Next choose your chore - start small - going through and sorting all the childrens' jumbled up puzzles over a pot of tea will be more appealing than if you invite a friend round to paint the outside of your house! Then arrange the time - its as easy as that!

As if the satisfaction of completing one of your dreaded tasks wasn't enough you have the added benefit of spending some quality time with one of your best friends. Although I have to confess on my first cleaning date we just drank the tea! but I did clean the grout afterwards anyway! So don't be daunted get some one else to do it.

Any one fancy sorting my loft out?