In June 2007 we lost Henrietta and Yoko in quick succession.  Penny and Chelle seemed a bit lost on their own, and we didn’t want them to lose interest in life, and felt that it wouldn’t harm anyone to have a few more hens in the household, so we returned to the same farm from which came the original four, and bought another four.  They weighed around a kilo each.  Continue reading →

Throughout 2005, we have had to deal with Penny and sometimes Henrietta being egg-bound. This is when they have difficulty in expelling their eggs. They look and feel very ill and uncomfortable, and it is very distressing all round.

We don’t know very much about the condition, but understand that it is due mainly to a lack of calcium in their diet. This may be part of the reason, but all of our four hens enjoy the same access to the same food, so there has got to be some other factor as well. Continue reading →

During the Spring of 2005, we spent a lot of time in the garden, finished off the aesthetics of the hen enclosure, built a retaining wall around the pond, and hung up a few hanging baskets. The purpose of the wall around the pond was to prevent the hens scratching the earth away from the sides of the pond. As for the hanging baskets – they were so that the hens could not get at the plants.

We had found a few mice in the garden as well, during this time. There was a nest of them long before the hens arrived, so it has nothing to do with food and grain being left out in the garden which might attract rodents. We used safe and humane traps to rid our garden of these mice, but of course, there are always more.

One day, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a small movement inside the enclosure, close to the hen house. Penny, who was also inside the enclosure, noticed the same small movement. My eyesight is not as good as it used to be, so I looked more closely at what it was, in case it would harm Penny. I need not have worried. Continue reading →