Where do you live?

We are lucky enough to live in a village just outside of Exeter, Devon not far from where I grew up.   I come from a huge family and have a lot of siblings but at home it’s my husband and I, our two boys Oscar,4, and Ollie,2, our two rescue cocker spaniels – Izzy and Millie and the chooks who are all named after Downton Abbey characters! 

How many chickens do you have?

If you ask my husband how many chickens we have he would say too many! Occasionally he does have a point as last summer we had a lot of fun buying in some hatching eggs to hatch under our broodies and ended up with over 20 chicks. In our in our garden that was rather a lot!  We found them all lovely homes and we are now down to 6 Pekin Bantams who I adore.  They are such characters and although at the moment due to flock down I can’t watch them pottering around the garden I have their covered run set up so I can watch them out of the kitchen window! I get a lot of joy from watching them scratching about and they are such gorgeous balls of fluff!

How did you get into keeping chickens?

When we were children my mum brought us each a hen so we ended up with a small garden flock.  We went to a local Rare and Heritage breeds chicken breeder and came back with a beautiful selection.  I chose a Salmon Faverolle who I called Muffin because of the feathery muffins on her cheeks. We also had a Welsummer, an Orpington, a Cochin, a Legbar, a random Light Sussex and a Maran.  So, we had some beautiful eggs! From a young age I realised the delight of having a flock of hens and we even tried to teach them some tricks, although we weren’t overly successful! Over the years we also added Call Ducks into the mix and I can’t wait to have a big enough garden for them too! 

Share your tips for anyone thinking of getting chickens…

When I started to think about getting our own flock of hens I had to considered the space we had and also knowing that one day they would have to get on well with our children. I am an avid gardener and grow a lot of cut flowers so I didn’t want the garden to be scratched to pieces and destroyed by larger breeds. therefore, I looked at smaller, less destructive birds and this led me to Pekin Bantams and it was love at first sight.  Smaller and more compact than larger breeds but with huge personalities.  Available in a huge range of colours and fluffy feet made them an easy choice.  One of my first hens reminded me of ‘Nursey’ from the Disney film Robin Hood!  

The second thing to think about is where they will live. Up until last year I had always used a wooden coop but changed to a plastic coop last summer and it has made life so much easier. It is much easier to treat the dreaded Red Mite which is something sadly all poultry keepers have to contend with at some point. Finally, with Flockdowns looking likely to be here for many winters to come, it’s making sure that you have enough space for all your hens all year round.  We had enough space for all our hatched hens in the summer when they could be in the garden all day every day but not when it came to having to keep them under Flockdown restrictions. Roll on Flockdowns being a thing of the past! 

What is your favourite breed of chicken and why?

As I’ve already mentioned, I love Pekin Bantams, they are like fluffy little tea pots and so friendly, but I also have a soft spot for Salmon Faverolles, with their gorgeous colour and fluffy faces. 

Where can we find you on social media?

I mainly use Instagram because I love the community I have found on there and the people I have connected with.  My page, @petalsandpekins reflects life in my garden and the allotment, the chickens aren’t allowed at the allotment but once flock down lifts they will free range again happily pottering amongst the flowers. Our garden was a paving slab jungle when we brought our house but over the last 5 years I have completely transformed it and in the process I have found a love of growing cut flowers.  It has lead to me growing and arranging the flowers for three of my gorgeous siblings and there are still a potential 4 sibling weddings to go, this year however there isn’t so I can just have fun growing things I love and make me happy. Sitting in the garden, enjoying a coffee in the sunshine. Surrounded by the sight and smell of beautiful flowers with the chickens pottering around or coming up for cuddles is one of my favourite things to do!

Did you know that you can tell a lot about your chicken’s health by the look of their comb? 

A healthy comb on a laying hen will be rosy-red and moderately sized, indicating good health and that they are in lay. 

If your hen’s comb changes from rosy-red to pale coloured it could indicate a health issue such as anaemia. This may occur due to a red-mite  or lice infestation.  A comb with a purplish-hue, may indicate that she has a bacterial or viral infection and if she is showing other signs of being unwell she may require veterinary treatment. In summer, a purplish comb can also indicate dehydration so ensure there is plenty of fresh water available. 

You can tell if your young hen is ‘point of lay’ by the appearance of her comb. When she is ready to start laying her comb will mature and become larger and darker red. 

If you have ever had rescue chickens you will know that they often arrive with very large, floppy and pale combs. This is due to the heat of the hen houses they have been living in. Hens don’t sweat, but can use their comb and wattles to release heat, and the larger the comb, the more heat is released. Once arriving in their new home, a rescue hen’s comb will usually shrink and become a darker red colour as a sign of improved health and living conditions. 

Different breeds of chicken can have different sized and shaped combs. 

Jemma from Dorset Diaries & the Dorset Chicken Co

I’m Jemma and I breed pure and cross-breed chickens on the Dorset/Hampshire border. My husband and I escaped to the country, from London, in 2017 and found ourselves in a house with a chicken coop in the garden. The inevitable happened, I filled it with 6 ex-bats and became well and truly addicted. 

1 – Tell us about you and where you live….

We now share our house with our daughter, Lottie, who is 2 years old. My chief chicken chore helper. Two rescue spaniels, a German Wire-haired Pointer that works with my husband. A cat called Bazil and two ponies (one for Mummy, one for Lottie). As well as keeping chickens we also have two geese, with high hopes that they breed successfully this year and we can have a few more waddling around the place.

 2 – How many chickens do you have? 

My core breeding groups consist of 15 hens and 3 cockerels. I have some spare cockerels and some experimental layers. And then I have my retired breeding girls, who don’t lay regularly enough to produce fertile eggs but enjoy their time scratching around the land paddocks and producing eggs for us to eat and sell. Through winter this equates to about 37 chickens (best to keep this number vague) and during peak breeding season when there are chicks and growers all over the place this can increase to well over 100 birds.

I breed pure breed hens specifically for interesting (rainbow) egg colours. I try to focus on rare breeds where possible, most notably with my group of exchequer leghorns.

I breed crested cream legbars for blue eggs, marans for very dark brown eggs with plenty of speckles and the leghorns produce pure white eggs.

I also cross breed my chicken breeds to create olive egg layers. Hens that carry both the blue and brown laying genetics which give us green eggs of varying shades. From minty green speckled eggs to deep khaki tones.

Breeding for colour is my passion. In 2023 I am expanding my breeding groups to include an exciting new breed that is renown for laying eggs with a pink or purple tinge.

 3 – How did you get into keeping chickens?

We moved to the country in 2017 and the house came with a huge chicken coop and run. And every country house has chickens, so we got some. I was petrified of them, hated their pecky beaks and the way their wings flapped. Then one of them got poorly and needed to be nursed back to health. And that was when I discovered their intoxicating ways. Their gentle eyes and the softness of their feathers. How when you touch them they are like delicate piles of feathers. And from then on the obsession grew.

I started documenting our move to the country on Instagram and found a lot of American homesteader accounts that had the most incredible eggs. Rainbow eggs, of all different shades and colours. I honestly thought all eggs were brown. I wanted eggs like these and really struggled to find somewhere or someone that I could buy hens or hatching eggs from. I wanted a few of each colour, I couldn’t find what I was looking for. So, I bought in lots of different batches of hatching eggs, from lots of different breeders and set about creating my rainbow dream. It took months and months but I did it.

And that’s where The Dorset Chicken Co was born. I decided to specialise in breeding hens for egg colour and provide what I was looking for all those years ago.

 4- Do you have any tips for anyone thinking of getting chickens for the first time?

Get your set up right from the beginning. Build the biggest run your space can accommodate, you will never regret giving your hens too much space. 

Buy or build a coop that’s easy to clean out. One you can easily reach all nooks and crannies. 

Focus on buying hens from a reputable breeder, with good references and focus on the health of your flock. Keep feeders and water drinkers clean and make sure the run is as dry as you can get it and there’s no damp in the coop.

Research common ailments for hens OR make friends with an experienced chicken keeper (I am always happy to answer questions on Instagram)

 5 – What is your favourite breed or favourite chicken and why?

Very hard to answer. Can I pick two?

The orpington, because they are so huge and laid back. Very easy chickens to keep and they are absolutely gorgeous to look at.

The exchequer leghorn, they are so stunning but also have the most amazing and inquisitive personalities. I get sent photos daily of people’s exchequer leghorns they have bought from me or hatched from my eggs getting up to no good. On top of shed and in trees, getting in feed bins, you name it. Such fun pets to have around.

 6 – Where can we find you on social media? 

My main account is @dorset_diaries on instagram and you’ll find lots of rainbow egg inspiration. Beautiful photos of eggs and the chickens that produce them. Lots of daily antics on my stories of our life here in Dorset, heavily featuring my 2 year old and her adventures with her feathered friends. 

I host a Q&A every Saturday where you are able to get all your poultry related questions answered. I try to recommend products I love and find helpful keeping my chickens in top condition. And I share other chickeneny Insta accounts for you to follow too for more inspiration.

We are delighted to be working with Jemma. She has been using our Gastro Grit for several years and her instagram is full of great chicken facts and tips – as well as her beautiful rainbow eggs. Give her a follow!

APPLICATIONS CLOSED!

Do you keep chickens? Do you love sharing your chicken keeping experiences on social media? You could be our next Brand Ambassador! 

As part of our 5^th birthday celebrations, we are looking for up to 5 Brand Ambassadors to join our team and help promote our range for poultry. 

To be considered you must:

• Already use and love our products
• Be a whizz at social media, especially facebook and Instagram. 
• Have a few thousand engaged followers
• Enjoy sharing stories about your chickens
• Be based in the UK
• Share our passion for natural products, the environment and supporting small businesses. 
• Owning horses and dogs would be an advantage but not essential. 

What we want from you:

• At least 2 social media posts per month which feature our products, including at least one reel or video
• A handful of stories every month
• The right to share these posts on our social media, and  use of your photos which feature our products. 
• Sharing some of our content which is relevant to your followers
• In addition we will occasionally ask you to help us create some blogs for our website, for example, Q and As, introductory features, helpful tips etc…

What we offer in return: 

• Up to £60 rrp value of products, delivered every 6 weeks. 
• The option to buy additional products at a discounted price
• The chance to take part in product trials and be involved in the creation of new products
• Discount vouchers or products to giveaway to your own audience – to be agreed on an individual basis. 

Terms:

• You must not already work with (or promote) a brand which could compete with ours, and you mustn’t promote a competing brand while you have an existing agreement with us. (We are not dictating which products you can buy or use, just don’t want you to promote competing products on your feed while you are our BA – as that doesn’t look good for any of us.)

• The agreement will initially last a period of 6 months

How to Enter

• Firstly, send me an email to hermione@thelittlefeedcompany.co.uk with your full contact details, address and where we can find your social media accounts. Tell us why you think you would be a great Brand Ambassador for the Little Feed Co, including how many chickens you have and if you have any other animals. 

• We would also like you to produce a reel featuring your chickens and telling us which is their favourite Little Feed Co product. Use the hashtag #littlefeedcoBA

Closing date: 28^th November. You can create as many posts / reels using the #littlefeedcoBA hashtag as you like

There is lots of conflicting advice online – some saying you should provide ice blocks, frozen blankets and iced drinks to your pets and animals, others saying it can do more harm than good!  

So, what is the truth?…

Most animals are able to maintain their own body temperature on a hot day provided they have three key things:

water

Shade 

Ventilation

These are absolutely essential to allow your horse, dog or chickens to cope in high temperatures, and most of the time, they don’t need us to provide anything else. Remember, we do live in the UK, and it is rarely anything like as hot as in other parts of the world. 

Should you give your animals ice? Providing ice in the form of treats can be refreshing, but just like us eating an ice lolly, the effects won’t last for long.  Licking or pecking ice will lower the body temperature for a short while but it will soon rise up again. If you were to supply iced treats regularly throughout the day, the constant lowering and then increasing of body temperature may actually put more stress on the body than staying hot.  As long as your animals have shade, ventilation and water they will do just fine.

Key points: 

• Avoid exercising your dogs and horses in the heat of the day. Consider if they need exercising at all?
• Replenish water bowls regularly. Water in buckets and dishes can warm up quite quickly so replenishing it with fresh tap water will keep it cool. Position water in the shade and make sure it is easy to reach. Adding blocks of ice will keep it cool for longer. 
• If you are worried your pet may have heat stroke, don’t try giving it ice, call your Vet immediately
• Dogs and horses may appreciate a cooling bath, but chickens’ feathers aren’t designed for water. A dust bath will be much better for them.
• Allow your animals to enjoy a quiet day – a good snooze in the shade will keep them calm and cool – keep an eye on them, but let them relax.
• And, don’t forget to keep yourself hydrated!

It is possible to introduce new hens as I have done it successfully many times. There are a few important considerations, the main one being space. If you are short on space, or your girls are confined to a small run, don’t do it! I firmly believe that most problems can be avoided if they have a large enough area. 

Quarantine

Firstly, if you are not sure about the new girls’ background, it would be advisable to quarantine them for at least a couple of weeks to ensure they are not bringing any illness, mites or lice to your established flock. This will also give you a chance to worm them.  When the time comes there are lots of different ways you could introduce them, but this is what works for us…., 

Space

In the first few days there will be bickering as they try to sort out the pecking order. It is important for all the hens to have enough space so they can get away from each other – so the less dominant can move away from the more dominant and therefore avoid being bullied.    It is important to consider that your new hens may never have met each other either, especially if they are rescue hens. Expect some bickering amoung the new girls as well as with your older ones. 

Food

It is important to provide plenty of food stations. Depending on how they are reacting to each other, you might need more food bowls than you have chickens to allow them all to move around. Having 6 bowls for 5 chickens means there will always be a bowl free for the less dominant girls to choose. Spread the bowls out around the run so they all get their chance to eat without being pushed off.  After a few days you can start to reduce the number of food stations as they gain confidence to share.  You may need more than one water bowl too. 

Timing

You may want to have a separate area at first to allow the groups to meet safely wither side of a fence on day one. This could be a sectioned off area in your run.  I always wait until my original girls have gone to roost before popping the new girls in the coop with them. They are less likely to start fighting if they are already settled for the night and hopefully by the morning they will have started to get used to each other. You will need an early start the following day though! Make sure you are up with the light to let them out into their run and keep checking on them throughout the day. Expect them to be pretty noisy too!

I would recommend keeping your new girls in a run for a few days so they learn where home is. This can be tricky though if your original girls are used to coming in to lay. The first few days will be pretty labour intensive while you juggle keeping the old girls and the new ones happy so make sure you have plenty of time to spend with them. 

Key points:

• Have plenty of space
• Never add a single chicken to a flock 
• Try to keep the numbers fairly even. If you have 10 chickens already, adding 4 – 6 new ones will probably be more successful than adding just 2. 
• Choose similar sized chickens. 
• Have lots of food stations and tasty treats to keep them occupied
• Have an antiseptic spray to hand to treat any injuries. 
• Make sure you are home for a few days so you can keep checking them
• Expect it to take a few nights for the new girls to learn where they go to bed. 
• It might take a couple of weeks or more for them to settle