John Seymour’s The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency approaches poultry with typical straight-forwardness.

Babies at large - the fulfilment of breeding dreams.

“It is inhumane to keep chickens indoors all the time,” he says, “and doing so leads to the kinds of disease only found in large commercial flocks.”

In 20 years John claims he had no poultry disease at all in any of his birds with the exception of the turkeys, which occasionally developed something called ‘blackhead.’

Keeping them outdoors wherever possible for as long as possible is the surest way to ensure their good health.

Chickens absorb vitamin D from sunshine, and they evolved to scratch the earth for a living – including their own dust-baths which are essential to rid themselves of mites.

Chickens will thrive in woodland – if you can find their eggs – but will get up to a quarter of their food and all their protein from freshly growing grass.

‘Free-range’ should be as diverse and interesting as you can provide on your property.

Seymour suggests that during the summer chickens will do very well with some additional grain thrown to them, but during the winter additional protein to supplement the lack of grass will be required.

Fish meal, meat meal, soya meal or fish offal are all good, but the suggestion is that soya meal is the best balanced of any vegetable protein.

If you can grow your own so much the better, but it must be cooked, because it contains a slightly poisonous substance when raw.

During the winter months protein is the essential supplement and it comes in a large variety of chicken-friendly options – sunflowers or lupin seeds, ground or whole, linseed, crushed or ground peas and beans, lucerne and alfalfa.

With plenty of space and fresh air, chickens will naturally balance their own diets when they are given a good variety of food.

From the age of ten days they need fresh vegetables – even if they are running free on grass. Seymour recommends a simple regime for daily feeding.

A handful per bird of whichever grain or protein is on the menu, and a further handful scattered on the ground in the evening.

Wheat, barley or kibbled maize are excellent, and today many poultry owners are soaking their wheat beforehand and giving it to the chooks in sprouted form.

Despite the need for hens to run as free as possible, it is a good idea to keep them in until around midday.

Generally they lay their eggs early, and as everyone who has kept chickens knows to their cost, finding a batch of eggs which you know must exist can be the devil’s own job.

Seymour is pretty dismissive of contemporary chicken breeding, believing that commercial breeders have bred hybrids for eggs only.

He recommends “old-fashioned broody hens” and although they were harder to find in the 1970s, the growth of interest in rare and endangered species in the last 30 years has meant breeds such as the Cuckoo Maran, Rhode Island Red and Light Sussex are all winning prizes at poultry shows today.

The delightfully named Cuckoo Maran, which originated in France and adapted well to damper conditions does not lay prolifically – around 150 eggs per annum – but the quality is said to be excellent and the deep brown of the shells is truly remarkable. ‘Dual purpose’ is the term Seymour uses for his hens – those that will carry on laying eggs contentedly for years, but be a breed good for the table.

Both the Rhode Island Red and Light Sussex have been used extensively to breed egg-producing hybrids, and both in their original form were excellent ‘utility’ birds capable of prolific egg production.

 But if you want first class, healthy chickens, do what Seymour suggests and let your broody hen disappear into the woods.

She should reappear with a dozen healthy chicks at heel.