chickens

Mucking out the chickens

October 6, 2010

The chickens’ compound was starting to smell – it was time to dig out two years’-worth of droppings and use them to fertilise the plot. It was a smelly, messy job.

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September was a record month for eggs

October 3, 2010
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September was a very good month for our flock of eight hens, who between them managed to lay more than 200 eggs, which is a record for us. What did we do right?

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The chickens go back undercover

September 28, 2010
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Three weeks of bad weather have left the chicken run rather waterlogged, so reluctantly we’ve put the tarpaulin over their compound again.

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Has the great moult of 2010 begun already?

September 3, 2010

Oh dear. It looks like our second-tier chickens – the second batch of three we bought – may be starting to moult. That means loose feathers, cold bottoms and, probably, a decline in the number of eggs laid. That’s a shame, really, as our three most recent hens (numbers seven, eight and nine) are only [...]

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Should we let sleeping hens lie?

August 19, 2010
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One of our chickens is reluctant to put herself to bed inside the coop at night. Instead she perches on its roof and waits for us to come out and tuck her in.

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Our little bruised chicken

July 19, 2010
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The chickens are still not happy. One of them in particular. In short, the old chickens haven’t yet forgiven us for bringing home three newcomers. Rather than taking it out on us, though, they’re blaming the invaders.

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Our new hens are getting hen-pecked

July 13, 2010

Our new hens are being viciously pecked by the older members of our flock. Settling in these three newcomers is proving to be a lot more difficult than we had expected.

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Three new chickens join the flock

July 10, 2010
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didn’t think I’d be writing this again quite so soon, but we’ve added three new chickens to our flock. Another three Rhode Rangers, which have proved such a success for us. Poor things are out there now getting pecked as the flock of eight establishes itself a new pecking order.

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We build the chickens a climbing frame

July 8, 2010
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The chickens have been laying so well that we decided to give them a treat by building a new, higher perch in their compound so they can see further down the garden.

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Even our chickens are self-sufficient now

July 3, 2010
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The chickens are more than paying their way now. We haven’t paid for chicken food out of our own pockets for a couple of months, which is another small step down the road to self-sufficiency.

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