Tippy Chicks was set up by Tom and Heather Pollard. They, live on a smallholding in South Tipperary where they keep chickens, ducks, geese and pigs.

Having spent many years breeding our own chickens and enjoying fresh eggs from our hens, we decided to supply the hens and their houses via farmers markets.

It's often presumed that keeping chickens is only possible  if you're living in the country, but chickens are easy to keep as pets and there's no reason why we all can't enjoy fresh eggs every day from our own back gardens.

Apart from the supply of delicious fresh eggs, hens make lovely pets. Your hens will get to know you and look forward to seeing you arrive with treats for them.

Having said that, hens prefer the company of other hens and do not demand your attention like dogs and cats do!

Their droppings have a very high nitrogen compost which makes them the perfect addition to your compost heap. So now there's no excuse not to grow some veggies in your own home made compost this year, to sit on your plate next to those eggs!

Eggs are one of the most versatile foods there is. They can be used to make cakes, pasta, quiche, soda bread, meringues, pavlova, omlettes, not to mention the simple boiled, poached, fried or scrambled egg. If you have hens in your back garden you'll never be stuck for ideas for your next meal.

We've found that people LOVE to get a present of fresh eggs. They make a great 'thank you' present. They also make great "sorry I was late/sorry my kids trampled in your flowerbed etc etc" presents!

They're also great ammunition during an argument ;-)