The Chicken Blog!

On Saturday 20th March 2010 our flock of hens had a new addition. Meet “Maggie” our new resident to cluck apartments at the top of the garden. Maggie joins our flock as the only remaining hen from a flock that was ravaged by a fox. Hens are social creatures and hence remaining alone as an only chicken was not really fair. So her concerned previous owners asked if we would take on Maggie. We were delighted to welcome Maggie to our flock.

Maggie has already made friends with some of the ballerina bantams and on checking her after dusk on her first night with us I found her tucked up in the bantams’ quarters with Phoenix, the Lavenders and O2. Her clucking is slightly croaky and she has a few tail feathers missing, but I’m sure in time she will settle down and re-grow feathers and tune in her clucking! If Maggie had not already had a name we were going to call her the ginger ninja. We thought to out run the fox that such a chicken must be like a chicken version of 007!! Trying to get some photos of Maggie exploring the garden today was rather interesting, as she is really rather speedy as you can see below. We’ll keep you posted on her progress.

The combined flock appears to be enjoying the finer weather that has recently arrived. The garden recently experienced a rather startling freak flood due to a broken surface water drain outside our house. I’m pleased to say the house avoided flooding thanks to the help of a friend and a rapidly hired pump. Thankfully the garden quickly drained and we are now returned to normal.

The ballerina bantams having undergone a moult are now producing gorgeously perfect eggs. Grazing on the newly growing grass seems to make a difference somehow. The hens all seem to enjoy wondering around the garden, which perhaps fulfils a natural instinct in the hens for continual foraging. They appear to be happy to have something to do; a sort of purpose seems to exude from their foraging – to find the biggest juiciest worm!

Well, sometimes our Rescue Chickens seem to have be laying absoultely huge eggs. Our latest beauty is all of 98g - our record so far!