Eggs-cellent we have chooks back on the farm!

Keeping chickens is fun and rewarding. The rewards are great tasting eggs, which when you see the number of eggs a chicken can produce they do cover their cost.

Fun is watching the antics of your poultry as they search around their enclosure, cleaning up all the bugs, slugs and insects.

And don't forget chickens are no different to any other animal if you spend time with them they will be just as interested in you as you with them.

We have had our new flock at the farm for just over 6 months now. We got the birds at 10 – 12 weeks old. So had a little time to wait for them to become “point of lay” birds – due to the Covid 19 pandemic, we were finding it really hard to source our new flock, as POL birds were nearly as rare as toilet roll and bread flour!!

Meet our ladies:

Leghorn Chickens

Leghorns originated in Tuscany, Italy, were introduced to Britain in 1870. These birds are prolific layers that rarely go broody and are non-sitters unless left undisturbed. Eggs are white and of good size and are laid throughout the year, averaging over 280 eggs a year. They are lovely white birds with a single red  comb, their legs are bright yellow and ear lobes are white.  They can be left to roam freely but are just as happy in a run. They are sprightly, alert birds and can be tamed but not enough to allow handling and prefer to remain rather aloof.

Cuckoo Maran Chicken

The Cuckoo Maran chicken breed was prominently used for utility, hybrid production. Their origin can traced back to Marans, France. They are hybrid of Faverolles and Langshan, English Games and Coucou De Malines.  Marans made their official debut as “Country Hen” at 1914 national exhibition in La Rochelle, France.  These beautiful birds have cuckoo barring feathers with irregular dark and light slate coloured bars.  They have pinkish white legs. One of their main attractions of this breed is the dark brown colour of their eggs.

Wheaten Maran Chicken

Finally, our last hen breed is the Wheaten Maran.  Without doubt the layers of the biggest and brownest of all the eggs are from the Wheaten Maran.  Mature hens are big beautiful birds. With their colouring they are pure eye candy in a flock! The girls are steady and calm and are good producers. Believe me, you won’t be disappointed as they regularly lay huge double yokers the size of duck eggs!

Our handsome cockerel

This is Lord Leonard Snowy The 1st :

(We think is a Faverolles crossed with a Plymouth Rock – he is a very sweet, laid back and social kind of a guy!)

Friends of ours keep hens too and they have over the years reared a few chicks from ½ dozen fertilized eggs via the postie.  The only issue here is that you have no control on the outcome of the sex of the chicks.  In one batch of eggs ordered via the post, our friends ended up with 6 boys!!

Though boys are a lovely addition to any flock, with their wonderful shimmering coloured feathers and curling tails, these lads however lack the ability to lay an egg!!  For the first chapter of their lives, these 6 boys were looked after by our friend’s grandchildren. Though, as time passed and they matured, when all 6 lads went into competition on who would be the loudest cockerel at the start of the day it all got a bit too much for the whole family and their neighbours. So an emergency SOS went out to find new homes.  So Lord Leonard Snowy 1st arrived at the farm at the same time as our new ladies.

Whether you want to breed or not – a cockerel is a very useful guy to have around and Lord Leonard takes his role very seriously. He is a very gallant gentleman, he protects his ladies, alerting them to predators (as you know we have had problems with both foxes and Goshawks), he corrals them safely back up into the hen house every evening.  He acts as the peace keeper –he has been seen to intervene when his ladies get too “clucky” or are too busy minding their fellow mate’s business and there is something quintessentially enchanting about a farmyard scene with a flamboyant feathered chap making his grand announcement each and every day that morning is here!

Lord Leonard Snowy 1st is now at his forever home at Acres Down Farm – he adds a little razzle dazzle to the flock, whilst he struts his stuff

Cock - a – doodle – do!!!