We were given 4 laying hens by our lovely friends Nina and Jason (aka NinJa) a few weeks ago as they are moving back to the UK. The boss is called Queenie but the others do not have names as yet - to be honest I find it really tricky to tell them apart !We have never had chickens before but they are pretty easy to look after and have been laying 4/5 eggs evey morning for us - great ! I love them.
They put theselves to bed every night and spend most of their time in a huge run - we do let them free range whe we are in the garden but there is no fence around our garden at the mo and I am worried they could get taken out by a passing tractor or dog... They are great fun to watch, fab pets. We also picked up some young chicks at the fortnightly market in Mortagua recently... Sienna thinks they are fab, and spends lots of time with them.... It took a few days for them to work out that it was not nececcary to stand on each others heads all the time to get to the food and water.. they were not used to having there own space... really sad.
These guys are not destined to be layers and we have been talking about the best way to broach this with Sienna as she is only little... I have come the the conclusion that she should know the truth about where her food comes from and make her own choices.... we are doing this slowly and she now has learnt that the chicken she eats actually comes from............. chickens. Yes, it seems obvious I know - but she had not put two and two together. Anyhow. She is fine with this first stage.... still, we wont rush things.
In the mean time they are all leading happy and healthy lives hangin' out in the garden.
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