Raring Chickens on the Farm

 

Raring Chickens

Marie Kelly

My nanny had hens and she would sell the eggs to the travelling shop. She got the day old chicks from the Department of Agriculture in Athenry. She wrote a letter to them, placed an order by postal cheque and told them how many chicks she wanted. They wrote back, telling her the day that the chicks would be on the bus.

Nanny would cycle to the local shop to where the chicks were. The bus had dropped them off at the shop.

She brought them home and put them near the fire inside for a day or two. She would feed them water and a little bit of feed.

Then, Nanny brought them out to the shed and fed them twice a day for a few months. Then, when they were grown up, she let them out with the other hens and into the henhouse.

From the hen house she would collect the eggs every day. She kept some eggs and sold some eggs to the travelling shop. It was Paddy O’Flynn’s shop and it came out from Woodquay in Galway.

When the hens were old and didn’t lay eggs anymore, Nanny would catch the hen and kill it for dinner.

Original Writing