New Arrivals

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Quite a few of our hens are getting on a bit and that combined with the very hot weather has reduced the number of eggs we have each day.   There seem to be quite a lot of regular customers who buy eggs at the farm gate, putting their payment in the honesty box, and when one of us happens to be near, they tell us how much they like our eggs and the fact that they can actually see them free ranging in the field.

We have just bought another ten point of lay hens and are very pleased with them.   We kept them in for 48 hours and then opened their pen so that they could wander out.   Only two or three went out the first day, and one of those was frightened when Charlie, one of our border collies, tried to help Dolly (the farm shepherd) round up stray hens.

Unfortunately by the time I had taken Charlie out of the equation and got back to put the rest of the chickens away, the stray newbie had disappeared into the hedge across the ditch and through the wire fence.  Dolly and I could not persuade her to come out and in the end we had to go indoors until dusk and hope that she would return of her own free will, assuming she could remember how she got there in the first place.

Mike came out with us in case he needed to cut the wire so we could get to the hedge, but luckily she was outside the pen squawking away.  We managed to get her into a corner and I picked her up and put her  back in the pen.

Tonight most of them went to bed willingly but a couple needed a helping hand.  I am sure they will get into the routine soon.   They are already laying lovely little eggs and seem generally healthy and happy.