Can I keep a hen as a house pet?



You can if you are not too fussy about mess on the furniture, but it might be healthier for the hen to live out of doors and just come in occasionally as a visitor. I once saw a house hen brought in for hospital treatment at The Blue Cross animal hospital in London. Her owner was insisting that she should have tea (with one sugar) and a biscuit in the mornings.

Another house hen was Hatty who slept in the kitchen at the end of a 120cm piece of furniture. Felix, the cat, slept at the other end. He, and the dog would watch her war dance with anxious eyes. Her owner reported: "Hatty stands and eyes them up and down in a way that leaves them no doubt as to their expected behaviour - and they obey. Felix takes the same line of least resistance as the dog, and the result is a happy family. Only one animal does not kowtow and
that is our tortoise. Hatty used to stand on its carapace and issue orders but all that happened was that she was thrown off by the lurch as the tortoise got under way."

If you want to reduce hen muck on the furniture, you could let the hens into the house during the day but keep them in a hen house at night. Quite a few outside hens visit their owner's kitchens (no guesses why) during the day time! A bantam used to visit her owner's house and lay her egg on a wire dish tray on the draining board!

Bade, a Rhode island red named after a Salvation Army Lt Col, came in to join the family in the conservatory after she had mastered the cat flap. She asserted her authority over the cats early on in their relationship! "She is very blasé about the cats and is not averse to giving them a peck," reported her owner.