This page is the garden, with a hen house in one corner and an aviary in the other. Move your pointer and your bird will scratch about or fly after you. Choose a different one at the bottom, and tap the notes to open them.
The chicken is one of the closest living relatives of Tyrannosaurus rex.
A good laying hen produces around three hundred eggs a year.
Every flock has a strict order of who eats first. It is where the phrase comes from.
Hens roll and flap in dry earth to keep their feathers clean and free of mites.
A hen can recognise about a hundred other chickens, and the people who feed her.
Thousands of hens retired from egg farms are rehomed as pets every year.
The hen run
Move your pointer into the run and wait for your pet to arrive.
Meet them all
Poultry · descended from the red junglefowl of Asia
A plump brown hen with scalloped feathers, a red comb on her head and red wattles under her beak.
Small domestic duck · from the Netherlands
A small, round, white duck with a short orange bill and orange legs.
Small game bird · from East Asia
A small, round, brown bird streaked with cream, with a tiny tail and a pale stripe over each eye.
Tamed from the rock dove
A sleek, blue-grey pigeon with two dark bars on each wing, a shimmer of green and purple on its neck and orange eyes.
Finch · from the Canary Islands
A small, slim, bright yellow finch with a pale beak and a neatly forked tail.
Finch · from Australia
A tiny grey finch with a bright red beak, orange cheek patches, a black tear mark and a black-and-white barred tail.
Good to know
Hens, ducks and quail must be shut in a fox-proof house every night, without fail.
These are flock birds. Keep at least three hens, a pair of ducks, or several finches.
When bird flu is about, keepers may be told to keep poultry indoors. Check the current rules.
Spilt feed attracts rats. Use a feeder they cannot reach, and put it away at night.
Hens need grit to grind their food, and crushed shell for strong eggshells.
Hens lay eggs without a cockerel. Your neighbours will thank you.
Birds: 1 more group
Real photos of the pets on this page. Tap one to see it bigger.
Photos are from Wikimedia Commons and are used under free licences. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews. Open a photo to see who took it.
Three hens will give a family more eggs than it can eat, and make a mess of the flower beds. Most people who keep them say it is a fair exchange.
Back to the topOther kinds of pet live on their own pages: choose another.