Hello ladies.

Since we first arrived here at The Quarters there has been a particular spot in our garden that we never ventured into. Not that it was some sort of creepy or otherwise mysterious place, it was just very overgrown. It was also easy to ignore because it was securely fenced off. It had lived a life as a maximum security vegetable plot, covered from all four sides and above by an extensive net of chicken wire, placed there to solve the most middle class of all problems. ‘To keep the deer off the brassicas’ we were told. And what a success it proved. After a couple of years of neglect, what we finally inherited was a mostly weed ridden plot with a few notable exceptions. Purple broccoli, Brussels sprouts and a line of cabbages all grown tall, gnarled and thick stemmed, long past their due harvest, looking like they would be a real pain to dig out. And so we also neglected it, preferring to start our green fingered work on other more accessible parts of the garden. But really we had other ideas for this brassica cage.

We’d often thought about getting chickens, discussing and planning it on and off for a long time. My mum had chickens when she was younger and so did Nathans dad. We’re both fans of Tom and Barbara’s Good Life. Growing up with these stories it’s hard to not want to experience a little slice of farm life for ourselves. So when we moved to The Quarters last summer, we noticed that in this old veg plot, overgrown and Jurassic, there was potential to create a perfect little chicken paradise. Unfortunately as our busy lives took over our routine here it became less and less achievable to be able to insert two legged feathered friends into the mix.

Obviously with the recent circumstances we decided it was the right time to take the plunge. We were actually given a chicken coop by a friend who had a spare one lying around, as any good friend does, which we spent a late evening giving a light refurbishment in what we thought was a pretty on trend grey. The next day, armed with a couple of cardboard boxes, and heads full of YouTube tutorials and optimism we went to pick up our chickens. It tuns out that there is a nationwide shortage of chickens right now as we are not the only ones to decide now is the right time to commit to these little creatures. We did however manage to pick-up four little ladies and they’ve now become like our adopted children. I’m not kidding. We named them Pam, Angela, Phyllis and Kelly after some rather popular sitcom characters that we have a soft spot for.

I can’t explain the joy of popping into the garden and having quiet little moments with these lovely, inquisitive little birds. They truly are special creatures and I can’t imagine our life here without them. They quietly peck away and busy themselves, always happy to see us too, following us around their pen as we do jobs and clean up after them. Mostly we just enjoy sitting and watching them interact with each other, bravely venture into the farthest reaches of their new garden home and try to work out what’s happening on the outside. Recently they’ve also discovered they like to come and sit on our knee to have a closer look at us, we like to think its just affection, not in the hopes of finding a tasty morsel of corn that we may or may not be hiding. Hopefully soon they’ll start to earn their keep with a handy supply of eggs, but we’ll wait and see about that. Check back here for more updates about our little pals, but for now we’ll be keeping a beady eye out for crafty Mr. Fox.