From hens who sell houses to rabbits who help with the laundry - bunnies and chicks are for life, not just for Easter!

Sparkly Sparky

'All you have to do is look at Sparky to know it is him – he always has one ear up one ear down, with a mischievous little look on his face,' says Sarah Louise Brooks.

Seven-year-old Sparky, of Spixworth, near Norwich, is a much-loved house rabbit, who not only kisses on cue, but also helps with the laundry, watches television and loves bouncing around his big garden.

'He is often in trouble, hiding in garden sheds and running round with socks in his mouth,' said Sarah Louise, who is now 22 and has had Sparky since she was 15. 'He loves to help hang out to washing, or to hop up on the sofa for cuddles and TV. His favourite food is curly kale, but he does like a little strawberry every now and again, turning his white fur pink.

'He doesn't like the rain and will throw a diva strop when going for his morning hop around the garden. Sparky is a great pet; he is cuddly and affectionate – he knows the word kisses and can kiss on cue!'

And they lived happily ever after

Hermione hen was feeling broody, so Sharon Booden gave her a duck egg to incubate. The result was Linford, the duckling who thinks he is a chicken.

'I was given the duck egg by a friend and as Hermione was broody at the time I put the duck egg for her to sit on,' said Sharon, of Ingham, near Stalham. 'She hatched the egg and is now a happy mum to Linford who follows her everywhere. Linford was named after the athlete as she is a runner duck, but I only found out she was female when she started laying and the name has just stuck. Poor thing!

'I love my chickens, and duck, and wouldn't be without them. They make me smile when they wake me up in the morning and follow me around the garden wherever I go. I have several other chickens all with names and they all have their own characters too.'

Feathering their nest

Florence, Daisy, Harriet and Nell could be the most expensive battery hens in history – although there was a house thrown in with the deal. 'We had four ex-battery hens,' said Dominic Castle. 'They were poor old things that looked just about oven-ready when they arrived. We let them out into their new run when we got them home and they just crouched down and fanned their wings in the sunshine. They'd never been outside before.

'They filled out and all their feathers grew back and they were a joy to have, not least because they were great layers still. They made the most endearing little noises and it was very relaxing to hear them. They all had different characteristics and when we came to sell the house we had to leave them behind because the children of the new owners fell in love with them…'

Best bunny ever

Matilda is known as Tilly, Tilly McGilly, Tilly Whitefoot and Angel. The rabbit with a whole litter of names is also one of the best-loved bunnies in Britain.

'She's like a cross between a cat and a dog and rabbit,' said owner Siofra Connor. 'She will sit on my lap like a cat, and fall asleep, but she will interact with you like a dog. She snuffles, and if I lie on the floor she will lick my face. I think she's so sociable because she's handled all the time and is used to interacting with humans.

'She's the best rabbit I've ever had,' said Siofra, who got her first pet rabbit when she was seven, and even kept a rabbit in her student house. 'I love her so much I got a tattoo of her! I think rabbits are really underestimated. People just put them in hutches in the back garden and don't get enough out of them. They are actually really clever and really social and really fun.'

Tilly lives in a large run when she's not lolloping around the house under careful supervision. She has her own toys, and a diet of hay, pellets and kale (apart from the one time she managed to get into the bedroom of her Norwich home and chew a PlayStation cable.)

Unpacking Easter eggs, bunnies and traditions

Easter is the most important Christian festival, marking the resurrection of Jesus.

Our word Easter comes from Eostre, the Saxon word for April and an Anglo-Saxon

goddess.

Rituals associated with Eostre focus on new beginnings (symbolised by eggs) and fertility (symbolised by

hares). One story tells how Eostre found a wounded bird and transformed it into a hare so that it could survive the winter. The

hare found it could lay eggs, so it decorated these each spring for the goddess. Hence the Easter bunny distributing Easter eggs.

Easter is always close to the ancient Jewish festival of Passover (celebrating Moses leading the Jewish people out of slavery in

Egypt) because it was during Passover that Jesus was tried and killed and rose again in Jerusalem.

Easter, Eostre and Passover are all spring festivals celebrating rebirth.

Traditional Easter foods such as hard boiled eggs and roast lamb have been served at Passover for thousands of years.

Chocolate eggs are a recent addition to Easter. Decorated birds' eggs were given as Easter gifts until a couple of hundred

years ago, and cardboard eggs were filled with presents. In the early 1800s chocolate eggs began to be made in Germany and France and were so popular that the custom soon spread around the world.

Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit…

Binky is what rabbits do when they are very happy. It's a kind of leaping dance. (Apparently guinea pigs do a similar thing and it's called popcorning.)

Rabbits are crepuscular, meaning that they are most active at dusk and dawn.

Baby bunnies were originally called rabbits. The adults were called coneys.

…and some cracking chicken facts

The tyrannosaurus rex evolved into our modern-day hens.

There are more chickens than any other type of bird species in the world.

Chickens can be hypnotised by drawing a straight line in front of their beaks.

The rare Norfolk Grey chickens, first bred in Hethel, near Wymondham, in 1910, were originally known as Black Marias. They came close to dying out but a flock of four birds was found in 1974 and the breed was revived.