WHETHER it’s down to celebrity foodie Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and TV chef Jamie Oliver, or the recent economic down-turn, chickens are getting big.

Not increasing in size – just popularity.

The chicken bug is catching. More and more people are investing in feathered friends and it’s now commonplace to own a couple of birds, even if you don’t have your own smallholding.

Oxfordshire is no different, and a raft of people are enjoying the company of hens and the taste of fresh eggs, while county business Omlet is riding the wave of poultry success.

It really is the chicken or egg conundrum.

Are householders enjoying free- range hens as quirky pets, or do they want the guilt-free ethical treat of fresh, home-produced eggs?

There is the environmental advantage – hens are walking dustbins and (for those of us not living in south Oxfordshire), a great alternative to throwing food scraps in the rubbish bin.

Egg producer John Treble-Parker, of Cuckoowood Farm, Freeland, near Witney, said: “There’s an increasing interest in keeping hens and I think having free-range eggs is a big part of the attraction.

“Knowing where your eggs have come from is a bonus.

“It’s also a good cost-saving exercise, because the birds are relatively cheap to keep. They will live on your food scraps, which is also a recycling issue.”

Mr Treble-Parker’s 8,500 free-range hens lay about 7,000 eggs a day, which he sells to Waitrose.

Supplying point-of-lay pullets and ready-laying birds to the general public is a sideline.

“Keeping poultry is taking a step back in time. Years ago, everyone had a few chickens and it’s nice to see the trend coming back into fashion.

“I started selling chickens last year when people began contacting me about it. There’s definitely been an increase in demand,” he added.

WHEN student James Tuthill needed a finals project for his industrial design degree at the London College of Art three years ago, little did he know that it would lead to an international business.

Mr Tuthill, 30, had already built his mother a wooden chicken coop, but she was ready for an upgrade, and suggested it as the ideal project.

With help from fellow students Johannes Paul, 30, William Windham, 30, and Simon Nicholls, 31, he came up with the Eglu – a brightly-coloured plastic hen house for four, with a built-in run.

At their finals exhibition, in 2003, the team collected details from 500 people desperate for their own state-of-the-art coop.

Less than a year later, the four graduates set up Omlet UK in Wardington, north Oxfordshire, and officially launched their coop at an Easter exhibition, where it just “took off”.

Mr Paul explained: “We’ve basically doubled sales every year, and have produced about 25,000 so far. We’re now selling about 12-15,000 a year.

“We’ve just launched in the USA and the rest of Europe, where we’re selling in Holland, Belgium and Italy.”

In the UK, suppliers are often out of stock and find their UK-made Eglus – which come in a range of seven colours, from natural green to baby-girl pink – sold before they’ve even been delivered from Wardington.

The makers think the structures owe their popularity to the fact they are simple to clean and use, and sit nicely in the average garden.

Omlet also provides chickens, food, and online advice and information, making poultry strasightforward to keep.

Talking from the Omlet offices, Mr Paul said: “Chickens are friendly, have real character and produce eggs. We’ve just made it convenient for people to keep them and we try to offer the best service possible.”

Omlet has now launched the Cube, a 10-hen house, to cater for people so caught up by the chicken bug that they want more and more of the birds.