Meet the other chickens!

These are some of our other chickens. They are a combination of ones we've bought, ones we've adopted and ones we've hatched.  Along with Light Sussex, Pekin Bantam, Silver Laced Wyandotte, Rhode Island Red, Araucana, we have a colourful bunch of mixed breeds.  All of our chickens are allowed to roam round our gardens, woodland and paddock (and have been known to venture down the lane, into an adjoining field of cows or the nearby church yard!)  They really are free range!  They love sunbathing, scratching around and having dust baths in the flower beds.  The youngest hens have just stated laying, so hopefully we shall look forward to an abundance of eggs over the coming weeks!

Sunshine & eggs!

The sun came out for a while today which brought me out into the garden to rake up, sweep up and give the garden a quick tidy.  The hens are enjoying the recent sunshine too.  Yesterday they laid four eggs which is the most we've had in a day since the summer!   Their combs are all looking a lot redder so hopefully, they should all be back laying soon. The warmer weather has sent the cockerals into mating overdrive!  Maybe in a couple of weeks, we can think about incubating again. The battery hens which we rescued in October are also looking really well, most of their feathers have grown back and their combs have shrunk back to near normal size.  All the chickens seem less hungry as well.  A couple of weeks back, we couldn't even step outside the back door without being surrounded by them. Now they seem much more content (although they do a get a bit miffed when the pigs get fed in the afternoon!)