So, the day finally dawned, and the girls moved into their new coop and run. It’s 4 times the size of the old one, has no red mites and is full of interesting things to explore.

They were in the new coop overnight, so I raced out at dawn this morning to see how they had got one.

Everything seemed okay, the girls happily had some breakfast, then I let them out for some time in the woods.

Princess ran straight for the old coop, (a good 100m dash) squawking and flapping as fast as she could.

She then loudly exclaimed that she wanted back in her old home, that’s where she belonged.

I patiently went and collected her, brought her back to the new run (I even brought up the deluxe boutique individual nesting box up for her – it’s a cat carrier with bedding in it, but they love it).

Each time she raced back down, clearly irritated that I wasn’t understanding what she was telling me. In time she will get used to her larger, more luxurious surrounding, but at the moment all my little chicken wants is what she is used to.

Change can be difficult, even when we know it’s positive and there are better things to come, moving on from what we know, what we are accustomed to, is always challenging. If you just go with it, adjust to the differences and embrace the change great things can happen.

Picture one is princess at the old coop, two is the new coop, three is the third march back down the hill. She’s definitely persistent!

Oh, it’s cold this morning, I wish I had an inbuilt feather duvet / coat on days like this!

So all the girls have a similar diet, mainly chicken feed, plus daily treats with additional calcium to aid shell production.

All the girls spend a similar length of time out of the run, free ranging in the woods, and it apparently takes a similar effort (at least in terms of time in the nesting boxes) to produce their daily eggs.

The outcomes however, can be quite different. Gloria tends to lay “odd” wrinkly eggs. (See photo below). They still taste delicious.

Sometimes, regardless of your efforts, the results might not be exactly what you’d like. It’s okay not to be perfect all the time, everyone is going through different things.

Trying your best is always good enough.

(Just to note that wrinkled eggs are not unusual and might just indicate that Gloria will stop laying soon, and that’s great – chickens are much less susceptible to illness when they no longer lay).

At the moment the girls are all laying an egg a day, they each take turns to have some time in the nest boxes, mostly individually but sometimes in pairs.

The most distinctive “tell” that an egg is being laid is the egg song. Each girl chirrups away as an egg is being laid.

Sweetpea is the most vocal, Gloria the least, but if you listen the egg song is always sung.

However, overlaid on that is the fact that Sweetpea gets so excited about every egg she proudly announces if someone else is about to lay. She struts round, head held high, singing her little heart out about her friends efforts.

We should all be proud of our friends achievements, be their cheerleaders and make sure their efforts are noticed and appreciated.

Commercial hens don’t have the best start in life. Hatched in industrial sized incubators they are quickly carried by conveyor belt to a sexing room. The female chicks have a beak trim then off to a rearing facility for 16 weeks until they mature sufficiently to lay.

Commercial hens can be kept in a variety of welfare conditions which you can read up on. They are expected to lay 300 eggs or more over a year or so, until they are no longer economically viable at which point the lucky ones are rehomed.

All my girls have been in various states of “undress” when they arrived, with a scarcity of feathers and a nervous air to them. They’ve never been handled by humans with love or affection.

Within hours they start to explore their new environment. Within days they recognise that Vic = food appearing, and their individual characteristics are quickly established.

They greet each day with a level of enthusiasm and joy of which I am truly envious.

Please don’t let a bad start in life weigh down your future, it is very easy (and understandable) to take on a “poor me” attitude when life has been tough, but that won’t serve you going forward.

Start where you are, and move forward with hope.

Today we are clearing space in the woods for a much bigger chicken run. Removing shrubs and felling some of the smaller trees.

The girls love it when we’re working out here, lots of extra space to dig around and piles of branches to explore. But it does have some challenges.

It’s tricky for the humans making sure that all the chickens are clear of any falling debris, (and they can move at quite a pace if they think there are worms to be had), but the girls have a system.

If any one of the flock, regardless of position in the hierarchy, sounds an alarm and runs, (which they will if they hear a tree falling), all the girls charge for the safety of the coop. It’s a very effective protection (from both branches and predators).

We don’t always have to learn from our own experiences, if someone you trust and respect gives a warning it’s probably worthwhile taking notice.

So, I wasn’t feeling great this morning, kept awake by a storm overnight I knew that there would be nowhere dry to sit with the chickens.

I dragged myself out of bed, downstairs, out and across to the chickens. As expected everything was drenched.

The girls however, were screeching to be freed from their (frankly quite lovely) run and into the woods.

The excitement was infectious – overnight rain means we’re going on a worm hunt!!!

They race up the woodlands into an open area, where they all start to dig for plump juicy worms, and slowly the exciting screeches turn to contented purrs (honestly, if you haven’t heard a chicken purr, it’s such a lovely sound).

Life lesson, there is something good to find in every situation if you look for it.

And just maybe, the early bird really does catch the worm (Sorry, I couldn’t resist).

We’re well into September now, Autumn is just round the corner and a chill is most definitely in the air. I was fully prepped for this morning, extra jumper, down-filled jacket and fleece lined boots.

The chickens have their own version of preparing for the colder weather, and it’s very simple. They change the orientation of their feathers to trap more air close to their bodies which keeps them toasty warm. It makes them look supersized!

Some morning’s, regardless of what life brings, you just have to fluff up your feathers and get on with it!

The days are drawing in now, the chicken coop door is set to open at 6.30am, and I like to be there fairly soon after to let the girls out of their run.

But it was actually still fairly dark at 6.35 when I came out this morning (full cloud cover over Yorkshire isn’t helping matter).

I opened the door to the run and the usual charge occurred. But there was one missing! And it was little Sweetpea, the noisiest, giddiest of the girls.

Now I don’t want you to think I’m a paranoid chicken owner, but immediately all kinds of catastrophes crossed my mind, a predator, a sudden onset illness, an overnight escapee?

I opened the hen coop and there she was, not quite ready to get up yet. Just relaxing in her nest box, perhaps planning out her day (perhaps not).

10 minutes later she came out, squawking and shouting for her breakfast as usual, absolutely right as rain.

Take life at your own pace, rest when you need to rest, don’t feel the need to “keep up” with others.

Anyone who has animals will know that it’s rarely all plain sailing.

This morning it was little Gloria who was down in the dumps. Unlike the hounds (who are, quite frankly, little drama queens), chickens will go out of their way to mask illness to avoid being rejected by the flock. So once an illness is bad enough to be obvious it’s important to move quickly.

After the initial scramble out of the run Gloria took herself off under the fir tree, standing still, tail down and feathers puffed out. Very typical “sick chick” behaviour.

I encouraged her back out and checked her over, her crop was firm and she had dirty knickers, which didn’t really narrow it down for me significantly, it could indicate anything from impacted crop to egg issues, (so both ends).

I sringed a little olive oil into her mouth and separated her into the mobile hen hospital (dog cage) with the isolation nesting box (cat carrier) for some quiet time.

Then a very odd thing happened, as I said earlier hens mask to avoid being seen as a weak member of the team. Descended from dinosaurs, hens sometimes attack a weak bird to maintain the strength of the flock. But little Queenie, the smallest of the birds, and definitely lowest in the pecking order went and sat next to Gloria’s cage and cooed at her.

Gloria is regularly vile to little Queenie, chasing and pecking her on an almost daily basis, so this behaviour really surprised me. But it honestly seemed to settle Gloria who laid down herself and had a rest.

After a few minutes she started laying a soft shell egg, thank goodness, problem uncovered! A quick spa treatment in the hen bath (bucket), quick blow dry (yes with a hairdryer – cool setting) and she was right as rain.

Support, empathy and understanding can come from the most unexpected sources. Remember who was there for you through challenging times, those friends are pure gold.

When we first got the girls and a pretty little wooden coop I’d never heard of red mite. After joining some online forums they became my biggest fear.

Nasty little vampiric mites that live in the crevasses of wooden coops and hop on the chickens whilst they are roosting at night, slowly draining their life blood.

We had a full year mite free, then the dreaded day arrived. Whilst cleaning the coop out one morning I removed a perch and there they were, tiny little red dots, full to bursting from feeding off my poor girls. We researched online, read books, spoke to more experienced chicken owners for advice. Once heavily armed with information we started the war.

We dismantled the coop and sprayed it thoroughly with heavy duty insecticide, (and had to leave it 12 hours to dry out)…….they came back.

We covered the coop and girls with DE powder, (which many chicken keepers swear by)……..they came back.

We put garlic and apple cider vinegar in their water and sprayed the coop with a mix of oil, water and washing up liquid. We tried everything suggested, (however ridiculous it sounded to us), because I wasn’t letting anything hurt the girls.

It was (is) a war of attrition, and slowly but surely it’s started to work. The numbers of mites are slowly dwindling, and we’ve had nothing obvious for over a week, but I won’t let my guard down, (little blighters can stay dormant for up to 8 months).

The way to tackle problems is head on. Research, ask advice, then act, and keep going until it’s resolved to your satisfaction. Don’t hope the problem will go away on its own or that someone else will deal with it.