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On a cold wet December morning during lockdown 2 we got up early, excited for what the day would bring and drove all the way across the Pennines to St Helens. Thanks to the wonderful people at British Hen Welfare Trust we were able to adopt three ex caged hens. Holly, Ivy and Mistletoe BerryContinue reading “Gloria’s Legacy – A New Hope (introducing the Berry girls)”

Little Gloria Chickenbottom has been struggling recently, we had crop issues and a potential tumour, then a severe moult. But my feisty, cheeky little girl bounced back from all of it. This weekend she slowed down again, still eating bits, still the occasional peck at one of the newbies if they got too close, butContinue reading “The Hardest Lesson”

As winter approaches the girls slow down on the laying, it’s a combination of shorter daylight hours (in a commercial environment they keep artificial daylight on 14 hours a day throughout the year), and them conserving energy to regrow feathers during moult. So we’ve gone from having 5 eggs per day in summer, to havingContinue reading “What are you worth?”

So, on top of everything else she’s dealt with over the last couple of weeks Gloria is now moulting. Chickens moult in Spring and Autumn, it’s a time when they shed their feathers and grow new ones. It’s a fairly intensive, uncomfortable process for the hens and whilst it’s happening they look really scrappy andContinue reading “Self care when you don’t care”

Happy days! Gloria has been signed off by the vets as fit and healthy. A couple of weeks of worry and 3 trips to the vets, but she certainly seems on the mend. Those long trips to the vets and administering multiple medicines was no fun for either of us, and I can attest toContinue reading “Your Self Worth”

The older girls tend to hang around in a trio (or perhaps triad would be a better description). They are, at best, dismissive of the two newbies, (at worst, in Gloria case, she actively goes out of her way to pull a “mean girl” routine on them). So what do little Sweetpea and Queenie do?Continue reading “The company you keep…”

Part of the new run that we built for the girls is the “hen-walk” a walkway between two mirrors for the girls to strut their stuff (and I can give the littlest ones some treats separately to the older girls). An unexpected consequence is Sweetpea’s reaction to the mirrors. She is generally a very goodContinue reading “Who’s your best friend?”

A worrying time recently at Cluckingham Palace, little Gloria appeared a bit under the weather again, which I initially put down to another stuck egg, so the usual spa morning ensued. Once she’d had her bath and blow dry she was back in with the others and seemed okay. However, when I went to collectContinue reading “A problem shared”

So the girls are getting used to their new deluxe accommodation, I have tried to add interest for them in the new run with tree stumps, branches, ladders, even mirrors and a “henwalk”, (as you might imagine this is a catwalk, but for hens). It’s fascinating watching their reaction to new things, the older girlsContinue reading “Fortune favours the Brave”

Our neighbours also have hens, 7 really beautiful girls, all raised together from eggs and bought at point of lay. They live in a huge stable and free range from dawn until dusk on 5 acres of the most verdant grass I have ever seen. They’re also a very neighbourly flock who tend to visitContinue reading “The Grass isn’t always Greener.”