Keeping chickens and geese in France: one family's experience

Sunita McDonald, a former marketing manager, moved from Berkshire, England, to a village south of Toulouse in 2020 – just two days before the first Covid-19 lockdown. She lives with her husband Andrew, their three children and plenty of animals.

On moving to France, I decided to get some chickens because we had a large garden and a shed. We bought some books about keeping them and adopted half a dozen ex-battery hens through a French rescue charity.

They arrived with no feathers but began laying four weeks later, and their feathers grew back within a couple of months.

Now, they try to come into the house whenever they can.

One of our chickens was killed by a fouine (beech marten), and someone suggested that geese make good guard animals, so we got a gander. However, he seemed very lonely, so we bought a goose to keep him company. Unfortunately, she died.

We did not have much luck with her replacement either. She first went missing, then returned with a broken wing and damaged foot, and died soon afterwards.

The rescue organisation offered us another gander and two geese, explaining that they are herd animals. So we took them, and the four birds get on very well.

We currently have two geese and five chickens, and we keep them all locked up at night. If they have goslings, we will keep them too.

Geese as an early-warning system

If they hear anything unusual, the geese make a huge noise. The dog then runs out and starts barking, which frightens predators off.

All our chickens have names, despite the devastating accidents and attacks by foxes and beech martens. After a while, it feels less dramatic when a hen dies. In any case, I think it is important for children to learn about life and death.

Experiencing the death of a chicken is a kind of preparation for experiencing other losses later in life.

It has enabled us to talk about the circle of life – the fox has babies too and, as humans, we also kill animals to eat.

Sunita's tips for keeping hens and geese

1. Read up and research online before you buy any birds. There are also Facebook groups in French and English where you can pick up lots of knowledge.

2. Make sure you have a secure coop for the birds at night. I think even geese need a safe place to sleep. The coop will need regular cleaning.

3. We dust our birds with diatomaceous earth (a soft, crumbly white powder made from the tiny, fossilised remains of aquatic algae) to get rid of mites. You can also sprinkle it around after cleaning the coop.

4. Keeping farmyard fowl free-range seems the most humane way to raise them.

5. Our hens lay all year round. We give them a handful of corn or mixed grain, but most of their food comes from foraging because they have a large space. They even have access to a stream. We find that they also help with garden pest control.

6. We feed them kitchen scraps such as crusts, dry bread, vegetable peelings and apple cores.

7. You must ensure the birds remain within your property boundary at all times, and you are liable for any damage they cause to neighbours. You must also declare to the local mairie that you own fowl, so it can inform you of any rules relating to diseases such as bird flu.

8. We generally get a house-sitter if we go away, who looks after the chickens and geese, the nine cats and the dog.

9. Our cockerel has rotating favourites and keeps the chickens in order. Hens without a cockerel can establish a pecking order, but ours have so much space that they do not need to compete for worms, water or space.

10. Fouines can squeeze through tiny spaces, so make sure there are no gaps in the coop.