Friday, 27 May 2011

The ups and down of chicken keeping



On the up side, our broody hen Pepper came off the nest of her own volition a week ago and is now laying again. Hers is the pale egg above. She's been off lay for weeks so her eggs haven't grown in size like Ginger's.


On the down side, we lost poor Garnet to egg peritonitis. Unlike Topaz, whose infection responded to antibiotics, we couldn't help Garnet. It's always sad to lose one.

Tuesday, 10 May 2011

Broody!

Pepper has been determinedly sitting on other people's eggs for a couple of weeks now. She would happily spend the whole day in the nest box. When the other eggs are laid though, I chuck her out.




She then squawks at me and sits tight on the run floor for a few minutes. Then when she realises the house door has been shut, she admits it's a fair cop and rushes to the feeders to tank up furiously on pellets and water. At this point, when I'm home, I let them out into their own (fenced) bit of the garden and she enjoys scratching and stuffing her beak in there with the others. She's such a little thing too and only laid for a few weeks before going on strike to go broody. Two of the older hens seem to have reached the Henopause so we aren't getting a whole lot of eggs just now!