In his second instalment of all things chicken keeping, our columnist outlines the dos and don'ts of hen house maintenance.

Arthur Parkinson is a gardener, writer and broadcaster. He trained at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew before working for Sarah Raven and as the head gardener at the Emma Bridgewater factory garden.

Sweep and weed any paths, too. Gardener and author Arthur Parkinson takes a rigorous approach here: “I scrubbed all our paving stones by hand a few weeks ago with a washing-up bowl of hot water ...