Chickens at last

Well, the chickens are all established in their new home. They came from a free range egg farm in Sussex and, apart from one which has a dodgy foot, they are in very good condition. I was expecting scrawny, featherless almost oven-ready hens so it was a nice surprise to see that these hens had been treated well. As with all eggs farms, battery, barn or free range, once a hen reaches about 72 weeks of age they are slaughtered to make room for the next batch. Egg production drops after this age and therefore are not financially viable for the farmer, which I totally understand. This particular farmer was more than happy for some of his hens to go to new homes rather than the slaughter-house.
So my 8 'ladies' are laying on average 3 eggs a day (they even laid 4 eggs in the car on the way back from Brighton!). It is an absolute joy to go down to the shed in the morning, let them out into the run and come back with eggs for breakfast.
They all have names - Clara, Louisa, Susannah, Hannah, Anastasia, Lily, Malaika and Tasneem. The last 2 are named after friends at work whilst all the others are named after various ladies in my family tree.
I found out about the Brighton hen rescue on the friendly and informative forum http://www.ex-battery-hens.com

If you are thinking of keeping a few hens in your garden then consider rehoming some ex-batts. After all, it's just another form of recycling.

The picture is of one of my hens sporting a rather fetching, rather too large red jumper. As I have said, I was expecting featherless oven readies so had been knitting 'hen cosys' for them. These were not required after all but, well, you just have to take a photo of a chicken wearing a jumper don't you!

Quick, quick the chickens are coming

I'm sooo excited, I'm getting chickens tommorow (it doesn't take much to excite me!). They are ex-battery/barn/free-range hens, not sure which, that the farmer has allowed to go to new homes as opposed to ending up as chicken nuggets.

So, this has meant an onslaught of hard work getting their house in order. On Monday there was just a hole in the ground. On Tuesday there was shed - and alot of muttering from the labourers about "bloody chickens". The aforementioned muttering labourers were my youngest son Chris and my DOH (darling other half) Steve, without whom the chickens would be living in a cardboard box.

There was lots of talk about "why can't you just wait until the shed and run are finished BEFORE getting chickens?"

My response was "well how long does it take to put up a shed, for goodness sake."

Fortunately, the chickens have to stay inside for a few days to acclimatise to their new surroundings, which is just as well as the run won't be built till Monday.

I have recycled an old shelving unit and some seed trays for nest boxes, and an old fence post into a roost/perch.

I still have to find something to put food and water in. Something they can't tip over. For the time being they'll have to put up with old dog food bowls.

I can't wait to find the first egg, although I think in the spirit of good will, it should be my long suffering DOH who should eat the first one. Better make that 2 eggs girls!