Ping's chicks

As I'm fed-up with the quality - or rather, lack of it - of the poultry we can find in the supermarket, and at the same time is appalled at the conditions commercial chickens are raised under, I have started to raise chickens in my own garden.
Many people think that chickens belong only on farms, but in fact any normal garden has plenty of room for a flock of hens and their coop. If you have a small garden, you just choose a smaller race. Not only will you get better meat, but you will get plenty of fresh eggs as well. If that isn't enough to convince you, the fowl will pick your garden clean of pests like larvae, beetles and, snails - they'll even eat the dreaded Iberian 'killer'-slug. As an added bonus, chicken manure is a powerful natural fertilizer.

I have chosen to raise Faverolles, a race of French origin. Faverolles are rather large, 3-4 kg, pleasantly docile and have very tasty meat. On the downside, the urge to nest has been bred out of them. On that account, I will use a Sussex hen for nesting the eggs - and, who knows, in a few generations I may have a broody Faverolles hen.