About Cath: helping you make the world a better place, one chicken at a time.

You, me, my chickens and why you can rely on me for chicken-related advice.

“My name is Cath, and I’m a chicken-holic”. There. I've said it. It can't be helped. It's just the way it is.

Cath Andrews, with Sandro, a Polish chicken rooster.

If you’d told me only twelve years ago that I’d be obsessed with chickens and qualified in their welfare, I would have laughed out loud. That just wasn’t me.

I'm a city girl, born and bred in Liverpool, England (which is why you may notice slightly different spellings in my articles than those you're used to).

I liked my garden intact, thank you very much.

I liked the flowers blooming nicely and I liked the peace and quiet of reading a book in the early evening sun with a glass of wine in my hand and my dogs by my side.

I knew nothing about chickens, or smallholdings, or growing my own veggies.

It just didn't compute with my heels and workday suits. Compost was something I bought at the garden centre and chickens were something nice on the barbeque.

And writing a website about them? Ha! I could just about manage to turn on the computer and open "Word".

But things have changed - a lot - since those days!

What does all this about me have to do with you?

I want to share my knowledge about raising happy chickens with you - to invite you into my world, because it's a happy, (c)lucky world.

And it's a world that you can have too.

(Well, you might not want to move to Italy. There are frustrations).

But you might like to know something about how you can keep chickens too.

Perhaps you're feeling you'd love to, but you don't know what they'd eat. Or how to keep them entertained. Or whether they'll be bored without T.V.

Perhaps, like me, you're retired and you need something entertaining to fill your time. You think a few chickens might be the answer, but you're not sure where to start.

Perhaps you'd like your children, or grandchildren, to learn more about what healthy food is, and where it comes from (tip: it's not the supermarket!).

Perhaps you'd like a way of giving your family good quality, fresh, no-chemicals-or-genetically-modified-stuff-used-here-thank-you, food.

Or perhaps you're not able to keep chickens yourself just yet, so you just dream of the day when you can keep your own flock. That's a good dream to have.

If any of those things ring a bell with you, you're in the right place.

How I aim to add value to your chicken-keeping adventure: my "mission statement".

I help people who own, or want to own, chickens to become knowledgeable about the most natural ways to ensure that their chickens live their best, healthiest, most productive and well balanced lives.

In doing this I strive to help my audience (that's you!) lead a life you’ve envisaged and perhaps dreamed about. It’s a life where chickens add to your own and your family’s health and well-being.

I aim to do this by:

encouraging pride in and responsibility for caring for other living creatures

reducing stress by getting back to the basics of a natural, unhurried, entertaining way of life, and

increasing understanding of the value of a healthy, natural diet for both you and your flock.

My primary focus is on uncovering natural methods of keeping chickens so that they live healthy, happy lives while encompassing the five basic welfare needs which are:

a suitable environment

an adequate diet

the ability to exhibit normal behavioural patterns

to be housed with (or apart from, where appropriate) other animals

to be protected from pain, suffering and disease.

I accomplish this by writing well researched, easily understood articles which are always focused on one of those five needs. I’m able to do this because I have had my own flocks for more than thirteen years, and because I’ve taken time to read research articles and books, attend training events and become formally qualified in chicken welfare and behaviour.

I communicate this through providing tools which you can put to use immediately: detailed information with easy to follow strategies and step-by-step “how-tos”. You will gain confidence in your own capabilities because you know you can expect results by putting your trust in my information.

I act as an example because you will see me actively demonstrating the benefits of good husbandry, using experiences with my own chickens through words, photos and video. You can see me lead the way, by testing and using my mistakes and setbacks to build further knowledge and understanding so that I can teach what really works in practice.

I aim to encourage you by ensuring a caring, non-judgemental approach and providing honest, constructive feedback based on my knowledge and understanding, which both motivates and gently directs.

I am, at all times, open to feedback and discussion about anything related to information on this website.

Why you can trust me: I'm certified in chicken welfare and behaviour.

Certificate in chicken welfare and behaviour

I have a number of degrees in modern languages, forensic psychology, English Literature and business studies from various different universities in the UK, France and Spain.

But this certificate is my all-time favourite.

I undertook a course hosted by the veterinary school of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland (UK) in chicken welfare and behaviour. I didn't do it for the certificate - I did it so I could provide my flock with the best care.

Having it ensures that I share with you information about chicken keeping which is based on properly researched evidence provided by scientists and chicken keepers both qualified and expert in poultry husbandry.

I don't rely on hearsay. I check all the information I provide on this website. It's from recognised authorities. Experts in the field.

Our flocks' lives are too important to rely on anything else.

Artificial Intelligence? Not here!

Please note that I do not (and never will) use any form of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to inform any part of my content.

Information about backyard chicken-keeping from AI is at best inaccurate, at times downright dangerous, and almost always out of date.

I write and regularly update all my own articles. Everything I write comes from my own knowledge and experience as a chicken keeper, and from learning through recognised studies and research.

Read about my "royal" education in chicken welfare!

Take a look at why chickens are the best!

Chickens were a part of my family history - but not in a good way.

My only contact with chickens before I began keeping chickens twelve years ago was my mother.

Evacuated from the heavily bombed city of Liverpool to the countryside of North Wales during the second World War, she was sent to a chicken farm where she and her brother, at the tender ages of six and eight, were set to work …

No, I can’t even begin to say it … set to work … wringing the poor chooks' necks.

My mother went to a chicken farm in 1939, but not in a happy way.

Honestly. No kidding. If she were here, she would tell you the tale herself. It left an indelible mark on her life.

And to tell you the truth, it wasn’t a great start for me in terms of wanting to raise happy chickens, having a mother who used to wring their necks.

Things were not looking great.

And then, everything changed.

I retired.

(It was, naturally, early retirement. I'm not old. Well, not very).

It's funny what life throws at you. And what you choose to throw back.

I left a job I had really grown to dislike and my husband Mike and I made a life-changing decision.

We would leave the rainy skies of England behind and move to live in Italy.

Which we did. But not to a city - oh no. We fell in love with a tiny village - population 536 - in the heart of Le Marche, which no-one has ever heard of. (It's in central eastern Italy). It's a tiny, rural community which takes great pride in upholding its traditions.

Take a look at the short video below. It was filmed after the huge earthquakes which devastated the region in August and October 2016. You'll see the enormous wooden supports holding the village church together.

But the village spirit can't be dampened, even by that. Watch the celebration at the end of the village wine harvest. Even the little ones join in!

Want to know more about how raising chickens in Italy is different? See my article about it, here.

My "informal" chicken education began here.

Not only did we fall in love with the village - we fell in love with a valley just behind it. And with an old farmhouse. Which had a lot of land.

And I'm not talking a nice, manageable, serene type of garden. Oh no.

This is seventeen acres of madness.

It has an olive grove. An orchard. An enormous field. Another enormous field. A smaller field. (Bonus - all the fields grow sunflowers in the summer.)

And we have a woodland where wild boar and deer and a lot of porcupines live. (Non-bonus - there are also foxes and pine martens living there. Foxes and pine martens like chickens, but not in a good way).

Oh - and we have another piece of land we thought would make a good golf course. Except neither of us plays golf.

And it also has - yes, you guessed it - a chicken coop.

The shady, stone-built coop I ignored for years!

That's because in this region, every family keeps chickens. They don't understand why anyone wouldn't. The knowledge about raising and caring for poultry here is second to none.

It's in their blood, part of the culture of the region. And I am lucky enough to be able to learn from them. The traditional ways of chicken keeping. Ways based on knowledge, and received wisdom.

All backed up by my own formal learning.

And given to you, for free.

I discover chicken coops.

For a long time I ignored the chicken coop. After all, we had an olive grove to get to grips with. As far as I was concerned, olives were things that came out of a jar, or possibly from a bin at a local farmer's market. And olive oil was very nice - from a bottle.

But from trees? Really?

Two men - my husband Mike and our friend Angelo – harvesting the olives.

All our olives are harvested traditionally, by hand. It's hard work, but in beautiful surroundings.

And who knew that chickens would like to join in?!

Three brown chickens help with harvesting olives.

The chickens like to join in when it comes to harvesting olives from our olive grove!

So then, when we had learned all about olive trees, and fruit trees, and raising vegetables (from the ground - ha!) I started to look at the chicken coop. This is some years later, you understand. Four, to be exact.

I had a lot to learn.

I realised that this was not just any old chicken coop. It was a stone-built, terracotta roofed chicken coop. With beams. Wooden beams. Old wooden beams. And oak doors. Real oak, not plastic oak.

Inside my chicken house before I worked on it. A luxury coop with wooden beams!

They were full of cobwebs, of course. But it had a lovely outlook, which made it a very desirable chicken coop, in my book. Any chicken would be proud to live there.

So I cleaned it up. And then I bought chickens.

Chicken-keeping is fun: I discovered that and so will you!

I'll admit - it was scary. I had no idea what to do with chickens. What will they eat? Do I need to entertain them? Will they get bored without a television?

I needn't have worried. They didn't like T.V. And they eat more or less anything they can get their beaks into.

But - no more nice flower beds. Or pots. They like to eat them. Or dust bathe in them. Or both.

Three brown chickens in the flowerpot surrounded by destroyed plants.

My plants are not my own any more!

No more quiet evenings sipping a glass of wine in peace. The flock likes to cluck, loudly. No more high heels. They sink in the mud.

And write a website about them? How? What would I say? How would I say it? What if no-one ever finds it? What if people do find it - and hate it?

Well - you know what?

I love it. All of it.

Love the noise (it's actually very soothing, once you get used to it); love the fact that my chickens make me laugh. Wasn't terribly keen on the eating the flowers part, but found ways around that.

And there was more.

I discovered how to write a website. I learned how to share my passion for keeping chickens with other people - people just like you. And I loved that, too.

All the stress I'd felt at work went. Just like that. And it's never come back, all those years on.

I love the fresh eggs, love knowing that the food I eat is grown in my very own garden, from soil fertilised by my very own hens, love how much my chooks appreciate the occasional treat (ask my husband about that - he would say the very regular treats).

Four of my chickens eating a large piece of watermelon.

I love spoiling my chooks with treats!

And love, love, love hearing from people all over the world who want to learn more, about chicken-keeping. About hatching little fluffy chicks.

About writing a website - a website which keeps my chickens in food, and me in my favourite drink of all time - Prosecco. And which gives me soooooo much more.

I almost forgot, in my chicken-induced excitement - my chickens also help me earn money online. (If you're interested to know how - check it out at this link).

Including enough money to support some charities. Like the British Hen Welfare Trust, who re-home ex-battery hens. What better charity could there be for a chicken-holic?

I am proud to support the British Hen Welfare Trust.

You and I together can make the world a better place - one chicken at a time!

Because I've been there. I've learned. My chickens have taught me. So have my chicken-obsessed contacts all over the world.

And so have all the courses I've taken. All the books and articles I've read. All the poultry shows I've attended. All the experts I've learned from.

I know it sounds corny (and maybe just a little demented), but chickens and my website, have added so much to my life. Health, laughter, a lot of learning, and a lot of friends.

It's not hard. It doesn't matter where you live, or whether your home is a castle or a caravan. It doesn't matter if you're very rich or struggling to make ends meet. It doesn't matter if you're eight or eighty.

I've been there. I know what it's like.

I don't pretend that chickens have been in my family for generations. They haven't.

But I do know about them now, enough to help you if you'd like to give it a go. Seriously - you can place your trust in me.

So come on in. Let's do this together. It's fun, it's healthy, it's not difficult.