Chickens, the productive pet, win a role in the new good life

(ALAMY)

Why did the chicken cross the road? To reach the back garden, where it is fast establishing itself as one of the country's favourite pets.

Chickens are the fastest growing pet market in the UK, with retailers reporting 50 per cent increases in sales of coops over the past year.

A steady rise in the number of owners has been recorded by the Hen Keepers' Association over the past year – the total is now estimated to be more than half a million people.

Such is the interest in keeping chickens that a new monthly magazine, Your Chicken, is being launched by the media group Archant.

"Hens are hot," says Anna Atkinson, the magazine's publisher.

While there can be pleasure simply in having a bird roam the back garden, the eggs they lay are the primary factor in their soaring popularity.

"More and more families are buying birds," explained Ms Atkinson. "It seems that hard economic times are partly driving the trend – people realise they can save money on eggs by having their own hens.

"Hens are also part of the good life, along with growing your own veg. They are also fun and easy to keep as pets, so ideal for the family with young children."

Many thousands of chickens – or at least promises of chickens – were given as Christmas presents this year, and Annie Stone, of High Green, Worcestershire, and her family were among the lucky recipients of "chicken vouchers", which will be redeemed later in the spring.

She expects her birds, when she receives them, to make good pets. But she conceded that she wouldn't have contemplated getting them if not for the prospect of a constant supply of eggs to use in cakes and other dishes.

"There's something about the feeling of going out to collect your own eggs," she said. "It's very satisfying to see those eggs and bring them in straight away and have scrambled eggs for breakfast."

She and her husband Mathew, who gave her vouchers for six chickens, also believe their young daughters, Rosie and Daisy, will enjoy and benefit from caring for the animals as pets.

Among the retailers to benefit from the surge in interest in chickens has been Dobbies, a garden centre chain, which boasts a 93 per cent annual rise in sales of chickens, a 300 per cent increase in chicken food sales, and a 51 per cent rise in chicken coop sales.

When Richard Briars and Felicity Kendall starred in the television series The Good Life, the idea of self-sufficiency was regarded as an oddball lifestyle but today it is increasingly part of the mainstream.

Francine Raymond, of the Hen Keepers' Association, said: "There's a general interest in self-sufficiency. There's the general distrust of food suppliers, even though everyone tends to use supermarkets. They want to rely on themselves. You reclaim a bit of power when you have a chicken and get its eggs."

The newfound popularity of poultry echoes the boom in home-grown produce which has seen more vegetables and fruit grown in back gardens than for a generation, with the driving force behind the increase being a desire to reduce food bills.