I’m sure that many Website Owners who feature Keeping Chickens will confirm that from May onwards 2012 was a bad year for Visitors to their pages.

The main reason for this I’m sure was the weather when from May onwards we had the worse Summer for rain since records began.
After all, who could really blame some people who were considering keeping Chickens in their garden for leaving it for a while, it didn’t really come good until the end of Summer and by then many were simply resigned to the fact that it would be best left until the following year…..this year.

Another confirmation of this has been apparent to me when I started afresh the Down the Lane Poultry Breeders Pages.
The websites of many Breeders who were listed before have vanished and one can only assume that it was so bad, some were forced into closing down.
Even after finding websites many emails I sent were returned as no known address.

The next question is, has this caused the Chicken Keeping ‘fashion’ to run out of steam? Have the people who were going to start, started, so everyone’s happy and simply adding to their flock when they choose to?

For the last few years Saturday and Sunday National Press Papers have almost weekly had an article about the joy and art of having Hens outside the back door, this year I’ve probably only seen half the amount, if that.

Ex-Battery Hens

With specific breeding of Hybrids and pre breeds it’s easier to act upon diminishing trends, you simply don’t produce so many, but one kind of ‘breed’ which will continue to be ‘bred’ in the same numbers are of course the Battery Hens.

Designed and fed to produce as many eggs as they can, squeezed up in tiny cages and kept like that until the eggs expire in quantity, then sold for Pet Food and cheap Pies, these Creatures have had at least a slim chance of living a normal life by re-homing Organisations.

The fear is these Hens may well be the ones to brunt the downward trend and not so many will find caring loving homes this year. See Battery Hen pages

A positive note

Quite simply, my fears could be completely wrong of course and things will suddenly pick up to previous years.

Let’s hope I am wrong and should you be one of those considering being a Home Farmer, take a peep at Battry Hens, they’re full of character (I call them the Hoodies of the Feather World), most will produce eggs and you’ll have the satisfaction that you’re doing something to make this World a better place.

But it doesn’t have to be ex-Battery Hens, any Chicken will do, look at your Garden, have you room for a few? Free Eggs and the knowledge of knowing where they came from.

Nothing Better!