Hen's take a Bath

Hen's are taking a communal dust bath, but why do they do this? Hen's do suffer from parasites and the fine powder of dust (do not be tempted to use sand as this could hurt their eyes) is no good for lice and such, but very relaxing for the girls.

Eggs is Eggs

But they do tend to come out a different colour! This is just down to genetics as each breed will create different shades and colour tones depending on the breed of hen you have. However, there is no difference in taste!

The First Eggs

The girls have provided us with the very first egg on Tuesday the 10th and another today on Wednesday the 11th. Probably both from the same, most developed Vorwerk.

The New Flock

With the demise of the last of our six rescue hens, we have now purchased six new hens. After fitting a new roof to the shed where they roost, we have provided a fine new home for our three Vorwerks ( a traditional German breed) and three Warrens (a Rhode Island and Old Sussex cross).

Down to three

In quite rapid succession we have lost two of our rescue hens. Their droppings became very runny and they became listless and died. We are starting to realise that these poor birds have been so intensively bred that their life expectancy is shortened. Our bantam Rhode Island Red, who outlived our other batch of hens however is still going strong!!

One down! Yes that does mean dead!

Yes, sadly we have lost one of the girls. It was two days ago and we had noticed one started to get picked on. We took her away from the others during the day, but she did not make it more than two nights. Don't know why, maybe being halfbreed they are just not as resistant to thing? Any advice from others?

Poor Old Red

Poor old Red is no longer number two in the flock! It looks like she has once again been demoted to 'the other one'. This begs the question "can a specific breed be more likely to be dominated by others?"

I think the answer to that question is "yes" as she, like her long departed (a nasty indecent with a fox, almost two years ago)sister, were both bottom of the pecking order.