This obsession is relatively recent. I didn't really think about them all until I got to know a lovely lass in Orkney, and we ended up looking after her house, and chickens, one Christmas.
I adored it. There are no predators in Orkney, and these eleven chickens and their resident cockerel had free run over the garden and several fields, right down to the beach. Each night we'd put food scraps and porridge oats into the slow cooker overnight (heating the kitchen in the process) and in the morning we'd head outside in the snow to feed the chickens their 'chicken porridge'.
My friend has now moved from Orkney to mainland Scotland, and has a new flock of chickens, rescued from a battery farm. They're slowly regaining their feathers and learning to live, well, like chickens.
I'd love to keep my own chickens, but our garden is too small and right on the pavement, and while there may be enough space, I don't think it's fair to have them too close to prying eyes and passing dogs. One day we might move house, and I'll have 'suitable for chickens' pretty high up my list of priorities.
Until then, I get my chicken love vicariously, through other people's chickens. You'd be surprised how many there are in this city neighbourhood. The local school has a small flock, and you can wander in off the street to see them. The chickens in the picture above are at the local community farm, which I've volunteered at in the past.
And the local city farm, where we often go for lunch at the weekend, has chickens too.
Turns out they also run chicken keeping courses for beginners.
And so, even though I have nowhere to keep chickens and no prospect of moving house any time soon, I went to learn all about them. Because learning makes things seem possible when they seemed impossible before.
So now I can catch a chicken, and de-louse a chicken, and turn a chicken upside down to check for all manner of diseases. I know how to build a chicken house, and how to protect it from predators. I know what to feed to a chicken (and what not to feed to a chicken).
Just need to figure out how to buy a new house now so I've got somewhere to put a chicken...