Surrey Homes | SH43 | May 2018 | Restoration & New Build supplement inside

Jane Howard’s
Fables from
the Farm
Jane goes out for chickens and falls for less paltry poultry
I
am always amazed that our hens are able to wander
around the farmyard and across the fields without
meeting a fox! There are plenty of the latter about so
not sure why this status quo persists – but I think you can
imagine where this story is going.
About a month ago, having set off on their daily walk
about they didn’t come home to roost and a search soon
found the sad pile of tell-tale feathers. Doubly galling as they
had only just come back into lay after their winter break
(being posh pure-bred hens they only oblige at certain times
of the year).
Anyhow our chicken-free status did convey certain
advantages, the main one being no need to remember to
shut them in every night at dusk. As the years advance the
ability to remember anything, and especially when it is time
sensitive, is not a given and so it was liberating to strike this
essential task from one’s mental ‘to do’ list. There was however
another positive to look forward to.
Every year I diligently prepare the raised veg beds by
covering them in manure in the autumn and lightly digging
them over in the spring. The one chosen for
the salad veg also gets carefully raked and then
I plant very straight rows of lettuce, spinach,
beetroot, rocket, spring onions and carrots and
sit back waiting for the seedlings to poke their
heads above the surface a week later.
Why, oh why, after all these years I still
believe in the possibility of this happening I
don’t know because without fail the chickens
consider it their God-given right to break in and create havoc.
Finding such a fine tilth they scratch away so that all the
seeds get jumbled up and so what does appear is a) not in a
straight row and b) can’t be distinguished from all the weeds
that germinate at the same time.
“The chickens
consider it their
God-given right
to break in and
create havoc”
So I was feeling rather thrilled about the chicken-free status
when my daughters came home. They no longer live here
full time but are convinced that nothing at home should ever
change. Coopers Farm without chickens was unimaginable
and they simply had to be replaced.
Now for those of you who don’t know,
chickens come in two basic types: hybrids
and purebreds. The hybrids are the working
girls, bred to lay an egg most days of the year
and not go broody (when a hen decides to
become a mum and stop laying).
The purebreds are the indulged beauty
queens, all different colours, shapes and sizes,
which lay eggs in an amazing variety of tones that would
grace any Farrow & Ball paint chart. But they are unlikely to
lay every day anyway and are prone to go broody.
Having always had Buff Sussex, which fall into the latter
category, I thought this time we would get some brown
hybrid hens which apart from being excellent layers you can
also pick up for about £10 a bird. So, with daughter No 2,
in tow we set off to the equivalent of a chicken superstore to
pick up our brown layers.
Even the man who was selling us the hens advised that the
huge Gold Laced Orpingtons were not the best layers and
we’d be far better off with a different breed. But the inevitable
happened, we happily parted with a ridiculous amount of
money and are now the proud owners of three hens that only
lay when the wind is in the right direction.
But thankfully the fox hasn’t discovered them and they
haven’t discovered the veg patch.
Follow Jane Howard – and the farm – on Instagram @coopersfarm
surrey-homes.co.uk
168