Looking after chickens...

This is the first time we have had responsibility for hens during a housesit and it is proving to be very interesting!

There are 3 "girls" here, Fanny, May and Freddie. They are Limousin hens and quite beautiful. We have been surprised at how "talkative" they all are, calling in the morning to be let out, clucking amongst themselves during the day and, a soft little cooing-type sound when they are in their house or pecking around the ground. We talk to them (of course!) and they seem to respond (or that could just be our wishful thinking!). All three seem to get along well and they are very curious, watching when we are pottering around and keeping a watchful eye on the dogs and cat!

They are great creatures of habit. They spend the best part of their day pecking around, scratching at the ground, resting and eating of course! They put themselves to bed when it gets dark (or a tad earlier on cooler nights), and usually rise around 8am. When they come out in the morning the first thing they do is poo! And it has amused us (we are so juvenile sometimes!), at how large their poo can be! So much for the nice, clean area of grass!! They then head for their feed and spend some time pecking, sifting and eating their pellets and corn.

These particular hens are semi- free-range and are kept in a mobile hen house - a wooden structure with a fenced-run, wooden ladder, nesting boxes, perches, a galvanized bell drinker and a feeding plate. We crank up the wheels first thing so that the hen house can be easily moved to a new patch of grass, the run part is easily detached from the house which makes it easy to move. Once in the new location, the house and run sections are reconnected and after refilling the drinker and filling the feed dish the hens are let out of the house.

We have been lucky enough to have 2-3 eggs most days from "our" girls - warm, freshly-laid eggs, what luxury! Having collected the eggs we clean out the nest boxes, replacing the soiled shavings with fresh and once we reopen the hatch the girls generally pop back in, have a look around and then come back out again clucking what we hope is their approval!

As the sun sets the girls take themselves off to bed and we simply have to close the hatch so that they are safe and secure for another night.