It's been a while since we heard anything about the girls so I thought a post was a little overdue.
As the temperatures have dropped, the girls are having extra goodies for breakfast in the way of mash and, as was a cold Saturday, porridge! Naturally, with less light and colder weather, they are now laying less but, having said that, we are still collecting 2 eggs most days. If we have any to spare, we still put them out in the box at the end of the drive. Sales out on the lane are good and at a £1 for a box of 4 we could sell far more if we (the girls) had the capacity!
The funny thing is, they have recently taken to laying in the Hennery House and not the Polehouse where they roost and where they have been laying for the past 4 months. Who knows what goes on in the mind of a hen? We continue to keep a record and so far we have:
June 77
July 91
Aug 90
Sep 108 Estimated (as Colin & Val forgot to keep records for 2 weeks!)
Oct 78
Nov 60 (Up to 24th)
TOTAL 504 in less than 6 months! Pretty good by any standards! They continue to enjoy a very varied and natural diet which includes fallen fruit (apples and pears which they love) and vegetation such as carrot tops, home grown lettuces which were surplus to human requirements, cooked vegetables, boiled rice etc etc etc. If Chris is working nearby, he will toss over juicy fat worms and once in a while, they are allowed to have a forage around the garden. This means an immediate reduction in slugs - and also a rake and a tidy up after all the scratching around!
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| The Henclosure |
One thing we have done is to have a large load of wood chip delivered and lugged down to the Henclosure. We were determined that our girls were not going to spend a winter in a mud bath. The upside being a clean, dry and sweet smelling area and cleaner eggs. Totally worth all the hard work!
PS The music is actually called Chicken Music!
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