my chickens in october 2013

Clover has a bigger cone and her feathers are clearer and brighter than Ashley's. Their eggs are getting bigger too.



Teasle likes scratching for insects in the front garden and hunting for apples and plums that have dropped on the floor. She likes to follow me around a lot of the time.



Snowdrop is pretty muddy at the moment because she is white. She prefers to stay in the hen house with Clover rather than go out though she does like to go in the front garden some times. I think that Snowdrop and Clover are frightened of the cars on the drive. She likes to sleep high up in the grape vine in the greenhouse rather than the perch.





Bramble goes around with Ashley once they get let out and they disappear off in the field together.



Ashley has grown a tail because she molted last month. Since I last blogged, Cherry died. Ashley spent a lot of her time looking in the greenhouse window for Cherry but she has now started to go round with Bramble who is exactly the same colour as Cherry but just smaller.

Catch up on the new chickens

Teasle has now grown a cone and she is laying eggs now and she is the second biggest of the new hens. She also like apples but Clover doesn't. Clover is very naughty and she keeps going in the vegetarian garden. She think airplanes are birds because she hides from them. I can pick Snowdrop up a lot easier than before. At night she sleeps on a vine branch in the greenhouse and Teasle sleeps in the little henhouse at the foot of the grape vine. The rest of the hens - Brambles, Ashley and Clover sleep in the main henhouse.
Cherry is sleeping in isolation in the new greenhouse as she is quite poorly and I don't think she has long to live.

Here are some pictures of the chickens we have now.

Teasle is very much the youngest of the hens. See how tiny her cone still is! She's still too young to lay eggs.

This is Clover trying to pinch the grapes.

This is Bramble and the name suits her personality.

This is Snowdrop having a dust bath.

This is Cherry sitting on her perch. In the evening, we have to take her out of the hen house for a while because she won't let any of the other hens on the perch.

This is Ashley these days. Not much difference!

hello, Charlie died on November 29th last year. I think it was a disease like Hazels because they died in the same week. Maple died on my first day of my summer holidays,she had been poorly for a while. Ashley had moulted and now she is laying eggs again. Ashley likes the front garden, she likes it because we have birdfeeders in the garden and when the birds are eating, Ashley stands underneath and waits for the birds to come and then she picks up the crumbs that the birds have dropped. Cherry does not lay eggs any more. Cherry likes her knee in the evening in the living room and she closes her eyes.

We bought 4 new hens on Monday the 2nd of September. Their names are Bramble, Clover, Snowdrop and Teasle. Bramble is the feisty one she is the boss. Clover is the soft and friendly one. She always wants to go outside but she is not allowed because she is too young but I take her around the garden in my arms. Snowdrop is the biggest and the best layer she is second in the pecking order. Teasle is scared of the other hens. I go in the pen when I get back from school, she sits on my knee and I have to feed her and give her drink.

Charlie disappearing again

In the summer we were doing some gardening and in the evening after I put the chickens away I noticed that one of my chickens was missing. I looked around the field it was getting dark and there was no sign of Charlie. I went inside and saw Charlie on the sofa asleep in front of the telly.

life after hazel

This is Charlie on the stool and my dog is in the background.

This is Maple staring at me in the garden.

My chickens like to stand on the logs and one of my chicken sleeps on them.

Maple and Ashley like the front garden because it's sunny and they go in the front garden on a sunday.

It's tea time for Cherry.

RIP Hazel

One of my chickens has died today. It was Hazel, one of the newer hens. She was the boss of the others and she would attack Charlie the old hen. She was a naughty chicken and would go across the road to see the neighbours and scratch their soil up. She used to like going in the house to sit in front of the fire and on the bed. She was a cheeky chicken and will be sadly missed, except by Charlie.

Hazel in bed.

Hazel in front of the fire.

Hazel with her best friend Maple.