If you are looking for a low-maintenance easy-going pet then your search is over - chickens are seriously chilled out! No need to take for walks, chickens quite happily look after themselves and unlike a rabbit or goldfish, Chickens come with a lifetime supply of eggs. All you need to do to collect this amazing free prize is ensure a supply of fresh clean water and food, (layers mash and the odd slug salad). This will keep them in tip top condition.

Depending on how used to human contact your chickens are, the easier or harder it will be to catch them. A little enticement with a handful of pellets should get them close enough!

As a rule the best way is to quickly grab their feet from under them. Do NOT chase your chickens around grabbing at their tails or wings. This will only cause them panic which could be bad for their health or at the very least, affect egg production.

Sometimes your chicken may think that you are a cockerel and flatten themselves to the ground in anticipation of mating. This will actually make them easier to pick up!

Once you have your chicken by the legs try to get it into a position in which you can carry it whilst supporting its body. Use one hand to support it from underneath by putting your index finger between its legs and securing the legs with your thumb and forefinger.

With one hand under the chicken, it is relatively easy to keep the chicken quiet and do any health checks you need to. Handling your chicken and getting it used to human contact will help you in the long-run even if you aren’t keen to pick it up simply to stroke. You may want to put it in the coop in a hurry before leaving the house, and a willing chicken will make life much easier!

• When fully grown the chicken should sport a nice firm comb.
• The comb will be bright red when the chicken is in lay.
• The eyes should be beady and bright.
• A healthy chicken will be perky, lean and active.
• Scales on the legs and feet should be smooth and not lifting.
• The colour of the legs is a good indicator of whether the chicken is laying. If they are very yellow then she's probably not laying eggs yet. If they are pale almost white then she probably is.
• When you pick your chicken up her body should be plump and firm, but with no flabbiness.
• You can examine your chickens eyes and nose to check there are no discharges.
• The vent (the chickens all-purpose exit point) should be moist and white, with no lumps, crustiness, bleeding etc.

Your chickens might get these…

Worms: Round and Tape. These are the most likely types of worms that your chickens may experience. Symptoms: Drop in egg production with an increase in hunger. Birds can also have diarrhoea as a symptom, although diarrhoea alone does not mean worms are the culprit.
Contact a vet who will give you medication to be included in your bird's feed.

Lice: Symptoms: White build up around the feather base near the vent, in a bad case there could be a build up on feathers as well. The whiteness is lice eggs. If you do find lice eggs around the vent when checking the chicken's health, brush them off and rub vaseline around the area, (sulphur ointment is better than killing lice if the problem persists).
To prevent this, dust the nestbox with louse powder every week or so. Don’t panic, they will not spread to you or other animals!

Red Mite: Symptoms: Egg production will go down. In a bad case the bird could look a bit pale from blood lost to the little suckers.
You will not be able to find any by inspecting your birds during the day as they only crawl onto the birds for a nibble at night. Have a look every month or so for mites in the crevices at the ends of the roosting bars. There are mite-sprays available to prevent this for certain periods of time.

Northern Mite: Symptoms: In bad cases, scabby comb, face and wattles.
They tend to gather around the vent and are grey/black. Again mite-sprays are available to stop them.

When a chicken is about a year old she will start to lose her feathers but don’t panic this is meant to happen. She is moulting. This is a completely harmless process of plumage rejuvenation.

Most fashion-conscious chickens will try to coincide this with the annual autumn Paris Fashion Week so that they know what next seasons must-have colour is going to be.

They will then spend between 4 and 6 weeks completing their new look. As with most women, even if you can't see any difference, you must compliment your chicken on how wonderful her new feather-style is. If you don't, she may well sulk and refuse to lay you any eggs.

Make sure the birds are well fed during this period as it takes a lot of energy to grow new feathers.

Because of all the energy taking up with moulting, your chickens will stop laying until their new feathers have grown. It is also important to remember not to clip your chicken’s wings when they are moulting.

There are several things you can do to make your new arrivals feel at home in your garden straight away.

1: You can give their energy levels a real boost by feeding them marmite on toast (or bread). Marmite is packed full of B-Vitamins and is good for chickens and humans alike. A slice on the first day for your two hens will keep the vet away. You can keep feeding them this as a routine, about once a week.

2: Introduce your other pets slowly. Chickens get on great with dogs and cats, but it is best to wait a day or so until they are settled, before introducing them to the chickens.

3: Finally, try mixing some pro-biotic yoghurt in with their layers mash to create a kind of porridge. This does wonders for their digestive systems and helps them overcome the stresses and strains of moving home.

The garden begins to stir from its winter slumber…and your chickens will thrive on the longer daylight hours producing more eggs and enticing you back into the garden.
It is a good time to dig in all that lovely compost that your chicken droppings have produced and sow your vegetable garden to ensure a bountiful supply of salads, root vegetables and fruit. Chicken manure is especially good for things like currant bushes

Gardens and chickens are thirsty this time of year so keep checking that they have enough water. Let your chickens roam in the garden and they will pick of pests like slugs and flies, you may want to protect young shoots though as chickens can be quite partial to tender young plants. Your chickens may go broody around now; to prevent this make sure you collect the eggs regularly.

Oh No! There goes summer!

But autumn does mean the return of deep bowls of piping hot soup made from splendid vegetables grown, perhaps, in your own vegetable patch. It is also a great time for your chickens - who can be seen enjoying the last of the fallen fruit and raking frantically through the autumn leaves hoping to find a juicy bug.
If you or your neighbours like to celebrate bonfire night with a firework display it may be best to bring your chickens into the house. You can put them in a spacious cardboard box lined with straw and with plenty of air holes and then pop them back into the garden in the morning. Chickens will head straight for any ashes left over from a bonfire so just make sure that they have cooled down to avoid any accidental recipe ideas.
As the days get shorter and the nights start to draw in its important to remember to lock the door promptly. And

finally, sort out your compost heap and give it a good turn, to make sure all those chicken droppings are working their magic.

Chickens don’t mind the cold at all but they prefer not to get wet so why not give your chickens a bit of extra protection with the winter shade which covers the whole run. A good tip to prevent the area under the run becoming muddy is to cover the area with bark chippings. Check water regularly for freezing and use an old string bag to hang greenery in the

run for the chickens to peck at. You will get less eggs in the winter because of the shorter days but you should still get around 8 eggs a week.

Every hen house has a pecking order which is established early on and then again if a new chicken is introduced to the clutch. This ritual can be quite vicious but they will very quickly settle down. You should not interfere unless one chicken is being denied food or water. If this does happen, put out an extra food and water supply away from the primary source.

From time to time your chicken may go broody. In some chickens this maternal instinct is stronger than others and it can happen at any time. It is quite easy to spot because the broody hen will simply sit in the nesting box (or flower pot!) and refuse to budge. She may also make a peculiar growling noise if disturbed and become quite aggressive. However, unless your chicken has been near a cockerel within the last 7 days the eggs will not be fertilised and will never hatch into chicks. If you are not removing the eggs everyday there is more chance that a chicken will go broody.

What you should do

If you do nothing, your chicken will stay like this for up to 3 weeks (the incubation time for eggs). It is not necessarily a problem but it will prevent your other chicken from laying in the nesting box. You can remove her from the nest and block the nesting box so that she cannot get in. Be brave, open up the egg port and lift her off. After a couple of days she will lose the urge to sit on the eggs and you can open up the box again.

Above all you should enjoy your birds and the pleasures of poultry keeping

Remember other poultry owners will always be happy to give you a bit of advice

We would be more than happy to answer any questions about the chicken house

or poultry house you are thinking of buying from Wood-Crafts