by Steve Byrne | Feb 3, 2016 | animals
For three years people asked “free range hens – don’t you worry about foxes?”. “Not at all”, I would reply casually, and so our hens wandered all over the place, right up until the night I came to their house, to be greeted only by the plaintive cheeping of one of the baby hens
by Steve Byrne | Aug 22, 2015 | animals
Today was ‘chicken day’ – 15 weeks or so ago, these 10 birds arrived as day old chicks, supplied by our friends Brian and Becky, as something of an experiment in rearing our own meat. They have led a happy outdoor existence, foraging, enjoying...
by Steve Byrne | Jun 23, 2015 | animals
After a couple of weeks absence, Dotty has returned with a sizeable clutch of chicks – fourteen, we reckon. These plus the seven that Fluffers had last week, and the ten that we are raising for meat, means that not only will our laying flock grow...
by Steve Byrne | Sep 20, 2014 | animals
The unstoppable broody Fluffers has done it again, this time vanishing to hatch 8 healthy chicks, returning to parade them around the place today. She’s perfected the knack of sashaying about with them underneath her, which is quite a sight, and here they are...
by Steve Byrne | May 13, 2014 | animals
After years of making do with a camera phone, we finally bit the bullet and got ourselves a decent camera. I have to say that the results were worth it, and our chickens have been obligingly posing for me. f
by Steve Byrne | May 13, 2014 | animals
We love our hens, and I can’t imagine a time when we wouldn’t have them here – after all, what smallholding doesn’t have hens roaming around? Although ours have lived at times in a contained area, they love to free range around the...
by Steve Byrne | Feb 13, 2014 | animals
This is Martin, a mostly Welsummer cockerel, who is truly a great looking chap. Martin is looking for a flock of ladies to call his own, and until then is roaming our smallholding, singing to any hen that will listen. Could you offer Martin a home? Otherwise I will...
by Steve Byrne | Nov 17, 2013 | animals
We hatched two lots of eggs this year, and would you know it, from nine chicks we got only two hens. Seven cockerels shouting at dawn every day is seven too many, and so they have all gone for the pot, bar one. Martin (I don’t name them;) is a wily young chap...
by Steve Byrne | Aug 31, 2011 | animals
Finally they have arrived – our four hens have taken up residence. We have an Ancona (pictured above left); a Lavender Araucana (above right); a Black Araucana (below) and last but not least, a rather marvellous Welsummer. They have had a fairly eventful 24...
by Steve Byrne | Aug 30, 2011 | animals
Here is my best attempt at a hen house yet. This version has front and rear windows, side door, 3 nesting boxes, and a pull out floor. As with all my constructions it won’t blow away. The frame was made from reclaimed 3×2 timber, and we went mad and bought...
by Steve Byrne | Aug 23, 2011 | animals
Claire has been studying chicken books all week, and we went to the Rare Breeds thing at the Folk and Transport Museum at the weekend, coming away convinced that the mighty Arucana hen is the one for us. Specifically the lavender Arucana, which lays fantastic...
