Choosing the chickens!

After a great deal of research on what types of chickens to get- we decided to go to a chicken show to buy our Bantam hens.

Luckily for us the Reading Bantam Chicken Show was being held the week after we had put up our house so we went along to see what we could learn and hopefully buy our hens there as they have a sales area at the show.

We were looking for some specific breeds of Bantam chickens - these are chickens that are normally about 1/3 of the size of a normal chicken- abit like you can get miniature dog. We felt these would be better suited to a smaller urban garden.

The breeds we decided on were chosen for their friendliness and their quietness! Both essential attributes for hens in a suburban garden! Oh and egg laying was a good quality we looked for too!

We were looking for a Light Sussex, a Blue Laced Wyandotte and a Barred Plymouth Rock- however there was no guarantee that any of these breeds would be for sale at the show.

Wow it was an experience- it was very exciting and people took it very seriously! In the sales area to our luck we found one of each type of the hens that we were looking for! However unfortunately these girls were only for sale as a pair (as in you had to buy a Cockeral too!). We definately would not be able to keep a male chicken in our urban garden let alone 3!

We were very dissapointed we could not find single hens for sale- and almost decided not to buy any that day- and look elsewhere, as the sales staff were not very keen to sell the hens separately as can be expected as they would be left with them-so the only other option was to buy both the birds and try to find new homes for the boys! Not an easy task!

Extremely luckily for us I had met a lovely lady at the show earlier who after we explained the situation agreed to take the boys for us and keep them on her farm- where she had loads of chickens- so it worked out perfectly for us. Probelm solved!

These arent the best photos i know sorry! But they were the only ones I took of the girls in their sales pens with their 'boyfriends' that we had to buy but then went to live on a farm! Im sure the boys are having a great time there!

And the lovely lady who took the boys to live with her!


So we have got our chickens! :)