Happy brood: Mick Bermingham with son Charlie (3) in their hen house. 'They're very good with children,' says Mick

In the not-too-distant past, keeping chickens was seen as the preserve of the yoghurt knitting brigade. Tending to an allotment and growing herbs on your window sill - fine. Keeping a few birds out the back and putting up with all that maintenance (not to mention the smell)? It just seemed like an awful lot of effort for fresh eggs, particularly when you can buy lovely organic ones in Superquinn. But whether it's recession related or a desire to reconnect with our rural roots, hen keeping is on the rise and the sight of a chicken coop, even in suburban Dublin, is no longer unusual. Alex James, former Blur bassist and now the most famous neo-farmer after Liz Hurley, says chickens are no harder to look after than goldfish. This may be a slight exaggeration but they are relatively low-maintenance, as more people are discovering.

Tom Pollard – who, along with his wife Heather, runs Tippy Chicks, a small Tipperary-based business selling hens and hen houses on its website and at farmers' markets – says they can't cope with the demand. While they didn't have an agricultural background (he is a stone mason; Heather is an environmental consultant) they left Dublin behind for a life in the country, living off the land. The chicken rearing started initially as a hobby and quickly became a proper business venture.

"The interest in it is massive," Pollard says. "At the farmers' market in Dun Laoghaire, we make a lot of sales and we almost became this little crèche where the people would leave their kids ogling the hens while they nipped off to get their veg and a coffee."

Once you've made up your mind to give over some space to a couple of hens, the rest isn't too hard at all he maintains. "When you've sourced your hens and organised the housing, picking up the feed is very easy and it doesn't have to be strictly pellets, which you can get in a co-op. You can also subsidise them with peelings from the kitchen," he says. "After that it's let them out in the morning, replenish the water and check their food. At night they take themselves to bed [chickens' eyesight is terrible so they naturally retire at dusk]. You just need to remember to lock them in because the fox is ubiquitous, whether you're in the country or city."

"I'd always wanted to have chickens but I didn't think it would be practical in this part of the country," says Mick Bermingham, from Glasnevin. "Then we were minding chickens for friends who were away on holidays for a couple of weeks and that sold me. I thought, 'This is easy.'" He now keeps three hens ? one bantam and two Rhode Island Reds, which are two of the hardiest and most reliable of breeds; collectively they lay two eggs every other day. It wasn't all plain sailing however. There was another bird who died two days after she arrived home with the Berminghams. It may have been cold or flu, which chickens are very prone to, but finding a local vet who would treat the chicken proved problematic. "The internet is the best place to buy medicines, and generally they're natural ones," Mick says. "I bought preventative drops on eBay and put two drops in their water which keeps them hardy."

He doesn't hold with the common perception that hens are filthy. "They're only dirty if you don't clean up after them once a day, which I would say is a minimum. They do poop a lot, especially at night, but you just need to dispose of it properly – stick it in a compost and it makes a great fertiliser for the flowerbeds." Would he get more? "You need at least two because they're great companions for each other, and in winter they huddle together to keep warm, but I would get more, two at least because they're really easygoing and there's no hassle with them."

A constant supply of eggs and thriving garden aside, there are other benefits to hen keeping, according to Michael Kelly, author of Tales from the Home Farm, who also runs chicken-keeping courses on his farm in Dunmore East. "They give fantastic colour to the garden at this time of year and a sense of companionship, although they're not pets in the traditional sense, in the way that you'd bond with a cat or dog," he says.

"They're also very important in terms of the broader issue of producing your own food. We have our own vegetable patch, and the chickens produce wonderful manure which helps the veg grow. The scraps go back out to the hen so it's a life cycle thing."

Mick Bermingham agrees. "They're extremely friendly and they're very good with children. Our three-year-old, Charlie, loves feeding them, as do any kids that call over, and now Charlie knows where eggs come from." Hens are great to be around, Tippy Chicks' Tom Pollard says. "They're content little creatures – they don't do depression, they don't have good or bad days."

And as for the eggs? They say once you've tasted eggs from your own chickens, you'll never eat shop-bought again. "The eggs taste wonderful, without a doubt," says Pollard. "There's the colour for a start, but even the white is different. It's meatier in some way. The standard you buy off the shelf is fine, but these are from happy, well-fed hens and as a result just taste amazing."

Getting the hen party started

» Tippy Chicks sells a full two-hen starter pack including hen house, two hens, feeder, drinker, bag of sawdust and 20kg bag of food for €390. See www.tippychicks.com; tel: 086 8627 306. Hens can be purchased individually for around €20 from poultry shows and farmers markets. Check www.poultry.ie for details

» Many pet stores sell chicken pellets and grains; also try agricultural feed shops. A large bag costs approximately €10 and will feed two chickens for up to three months.

» You can make your coop yourself if you're so inclined – the important thing is to make it fox-proof, but you can also pick them up at B&Q and from suppliers such as Irish Chicken Coops (www.irishchickencoops.com). Also check www.gumtree.ie.

» Essential reading: Henkeeping by Jane Eastoe, available from Avoca Stores; Keeping Pet Chickens by Johannes Paul and William Windham, available from Hodges Figgis.

» Need to know: Opt for resilient breeds like Rhode Island Red and Sussex, both of which are great layers. You can expect anything in the region of 200-300 eggs a year. Chickens will live approximately four years – it's a short life, but a good one.

» Don't leave eggs in the chicken house overnight. Hens may break them, deliberately or accidentally, and some develop a taste for them. And never, ever pick a chicken up by its legs.