Rosher.Net

It’s occurred to me that we’ve just passed the second anniversary of our keeping chickens! We started out with four girls in a six foot square mobile coop cum run on the front lawn and now, although I had to euthanise one of them, we’ve still got three girls – now happily ensconced in three hundred and sixty square feet of open run (and a mobile coop that doesn’t get to be very mobile any more!). We’re considering the purchase of three more birds to gently replace the first ones, who are not as productive now as they were in their ‘youth’.

The cost of each egg has been a source of much amusement to our friends, despite our asking for comparison costings for their cats, dogs and hamsters… I think we’re the only ones eating stuff that’s come out of the back end of our ‘pets’. Nevertheless, at the second anniversary of ‘smallholding chez bish’, the cost of each egg stands at…

89p!

The whole shebang, birds, coop, run, feed etc has cost around £1200 over the two years, and much of that was in the first year. As far as pets go, they’re as entertaining and appealing as any other I can think of (far more friendly than the tank fish, or even the pond fish), and when I consider the purchase and running costs of one dog I feel they’re still earning their grit. And they don’t need walking. And as I look out at the hard if welcome rain I feel good about that.

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