This morning little Sweetpea was loudly announcing her imminent laying with an egg song.

Saturday is our full housekeeping day, and due to a little human lay-in I was still cleaning out the coop, so she couldn’t get to her usual nest box, which was clearly somewhat of a frustration from the squawking being produced.

She leapt up (flying would be a massive exaggeration) onto the roof of the chicken coop to have a good look around the immediate area, checking for other equally suitable nesting spaces. She happily spied the interim deluxe spacious nesting box, (otherwise known as a quickly assembled cat carrier with bedding) and happily settled in there for a lay.

(Edit to say the “deluxe secluded” nesting box is such a hit with all the girls it’s now been moved permanently into the run).

Sometimes it’s good to take a step back from your immediate situation and look at it from a different perspective, an alternative, equally viable, solution could be right under your nose.

This morning was a bit traumatic in our little corner of the world.

Princess Layer, who is usually fairly chilled, attacked both Sweetpea and Queenie within minutes of them all being let out of the run. Chasing them around to peck at them quite viciously.

This is very unusual behaviour for Princess Layer, she’s usually very relaxed with the smaller girls, so I separated them and kept my eyes peeled.

Sure enough Princess retreated under a shrub, puffed up her feathers and stood still with her tail down. Typical “unwell hen” posture. I scooped her out and checked her over, I knew that she hadn’t laid yesterday, so was concerned that she might be struggling to pass an egg.

A warm Epsom salt bath and a blow dry later (yes occasionally the girls are in need of a mini spa day) and out popped the offending egg. Within 30 minutes Princess was back to her usual greedy but relaxed self.

When someone treats you badly or unfairly it is rarely to do with you or your behaviour and more likely to be something they are going through themselves.

Don’t ever let someone elses opinion of you harm your own self worth.

This morning is a beautiful day in our corner of Yorkshire, the sun is shining and the sky is a beautiful rich blue. It’s the end of summer, but today it’s hanging on in there.

The girls were out early as usual, scratching around looking for worms whilst I drank my tea and read a few more pages of my book.

After 20 minutes or so I glanced around and counted up, Gloria was happily laying in the nesting box, (I could hear her egg song). Sweetpea and Queenie were together (as always). But Henrietta and Princess Layer – nowhere to be seen.

These ladies have form for taking themselves off, over the wall, into the big wide world for adventures and shenanigans. We have a public footpath regularly used by dog walkers, so it’s not the safest of environments for little hens.

Cue me running round calling for them, I should have known better. I paused, and listened and sure enough there was a telling rustle from the big fir tree next to the run.

Henrietta and Princess Layer were indeed on an adventure, they were half way up the tree delightedly hunting for bugs.

If you set out on a new adventure it’s always good to have a companion with you to share the journey. Good friends bring added joy to every experience.

This morning was beautiful here in Yorkshire, the sun rose into a clear blue sky. The girls (as usual) couldn’t wait to get out of their run.

Henrietta led the charge, and very quickly they were all happily either digging for worms or demanding layer pellets.

Then the world went quiet, all the wild birds stopped singing and the hens froze as one, all with an eye cocked up towards the sky.

Henrietta and Princess Layer both sounded an alarm call and the girls raced as one to huddle together under the trees.

I looked up to see a buzzard circling, silhouetted black against a pale blue sky.

As far as I am aware none of the chickens have encountered a bird of prey, they were all barn reared commercial hens before they came to us, and I sit with them whenever they are out of their run.

It was entirely instinctual, an inbred sense of danger (which interesting they don’t have with dogs or cats).

If something feels wrong or makes you uncomfortable, walk away from it, don’t worry about looking foolish or unreasonable. We all have an inbuilt self preservation, we just need to listen to it when it sounds the alarm call.

“Pecking order” is a term derived from chicken behaviour, it’s how they sort out their relative positions in the flock. The subtleties are fascinating.

Henrietta, with her wonky beak and pronounced limp, is top hen. She is completely secure in her ranking, leads the flock out in a morning and back at bedtime, and keeps an eye on all of them.

Princess Layer, the largest (and greediest) hen, is definitely Henriettas deputy and protector of the flock (chasing off next doors chickens when they come calling). She will half-heartedly peck at another bird, but only if they get too close to her current food source.

Gloria is the smallest and weakest of the older birds, she is outwardly feisty and regularly launches an unprovoked attack on the newest two. She was bottom hen in the original flock and is very aware of the fragility of her position.

True self confidence is not being the loudest or the most aggressive, it’s being secure in yourself.

The authentically self-assured never have to shout over people or put others down to demonstrate their own value.

Chickens, dumb animals, right? Queenie was “retired” from her commercial egg laying barn in May this year, just 4 months ago.

Watching her get used to her new free range surrounding has been a fantastic experience.

This morning Queenie jumped into a tree, jump down (from what must have felt like a great height to a little hen), literally squealed with joy and repeated the process 4 more times. She was genuinely giddy about her new discovery.

And then I thought, when was the last time that I did something just because it made me joyful?

So today, I’m going to be more like Queenie, and do something just because it makes my heart sing.

Treat time! All the girls love a bit of long-stemmed broccoli in the evening and will jump up next to me on the bench to have first dibs.

However, broccoli isn’t easy for a chicken to eat, it can’t be gobbled up in a single peck. Sweetpea hops up and allows me hold onto the stem whilst she pulls off the tasty florets at the top then moves onto the leaves.

Gloria on the other hand is far less trusting, she grabs the broccoli straight from the bag and runs off with a full stem, then get frustrated that she can’t really get enough purchase to eat much of it. Eventually she get’s utterly disheartened with the whole task and wanders off.

Life lesson, if someone offers you a helping hand with something, then take it, there are no special prizes for going it alone in life.

This morning I was hand feeding the girls (I know, but they’re ex commercial hens and I love to spoil them).

Because I only have the two hands I was feeding Queenie on one side (the littlest and one of the new girls, and Gloria on the other (the smallest of my older girls).

Gloria was so fixated on seeing what Queenie was getting, rather than her own handful of (identical) food, that she left her breakfast portion of pellets and leapt over to Queenies side to try and muscle in on her share. Princess Layer (the greedy security guard of the flock) saw her opportunity and polished off Gloria’s breakfast lickity split. So poor Gloria lost out on her hand-served breakfast this morning.

Life lesson, focus on what’s in front of you, your challenges, dreams and goals. Focusing on what others have or want will just distract you from your own path and could end up losing you your ultimate goal.

First blog – why?

When my husband and I moved into our first owned house together, we both knew that what would make our house a home was a dog. We researched and talked to friends and concluded that an ex-racing greyhound would suit our lifestyle perfectly. (They are built for speed not stamina and can sleep up to 18 hours a day).

Enter Amber, our sweet black and white grey, we fell in love with her and the breed and over the next 5 years we created our own precious pack of 6 black ex racing greyhounds. At this point the husband really put his foot down and said, no more!

But the genuine pleasure I get from adopting an animal who needs help and protecting, nurturing and loving them is not yet satiated. Hence graduating from greyhounds to rescuing ex commercial hens.

Commercial layers are kept in varying levels of welfare for about 17 months, after that statistically they are less likely to produce an egg a day and therefore are no longer economically viable. The lucky ones are rehomed, the rest are slaughtered for animal feed.

My first four girls arrived on my birthday in 2019, best gift ever! Despite our research online and reading heaps of books we were woefully unprepared. The girls looked almost oven ready, with huge bald patches and an initial nervousness about everything.

However, with a great deal of support from some amazing online groups we all muddled through our first year, the girls regrew their feathers, gained confidence very quickly and really started to show their own personalities. I learnt to recognise warning signs that something wasn’t quite right.

We lost our beautiful Chickpea just short of a year after we’d rehomed them, she developed a neurological condition and blindness so unfortunately she had to be put to sleep. The husband agreed that replacing her with a single hen was unfair (chickens can be bullies) so two newbies arrived in early April this year. (A full description of each of the girls can be found in the “about” section).

The covid lockdown was tough for everyone, in my case the vast majority of our workforce was furloughed, but as an owner managed business the key to survival was controlling the cashflow, which fell to me as finance director. I put myself under a huge amount of pressure and felt personally responsible for all 160 employees. The dogs pick up on emotions and the atmosphere in the house wasn’t calming, peaceful or relaxing, so in order to maintain my mental wellbeing I spent more and more time outdoors with the chickens, (thank goodness the weather was decent most of the time).

The chickens had no idea that there was a global pandemic going on, they simply didn’t care. As long as there was plenty of space to roam, fresh water and food they were not just okay, they were happy, they were joyful even! My little feathered chums, who had grown up in fairly dire circumstances, seemed to find a huge amount of pleasure in life. And I started to learn from them………….