State of the flock, April 2018

Behind bars, Apr 2018

Our biggest news is that we have four new chicks, bred from our Orpington rooster and our two Australorp hens.  They were hatched around the end of March under our broody Pekin hen and are growing well.

The sad news is that our Orptington unexpectedly died.  We can't say for certain, but it might have been related to his no-crow collar which had been adjusted earlier that day.  This is the third young rooster to die without explanation, and all three had worn a collar (though none had been adjusted so recently before death).  Coincidence?  I'm having a good hard think about keeping another rooster.


We're at eleven adult hens now:  six ageing brown hybrids who are giving us up to two eggs a day, one each Cream Legbar and White Leghorn (both now two years old), one year old twin Black Australorp (honestly, I think of them as one chicken in two bodies), and our Pekin bantam.  We're getting an average of four eggs a day, with no one seeming to lay every day, not even our young Australorps who only began laying this year. 

I haven't put them back on their regular garden rotation as it still isn't growing much out there;  they're getting one hour a day of free range, with the rest confined to their yard which has been mulched with straw to try and soak up the mud.  Mother hen Cookie and her chicks are in a separate rabbit hutch with full access to grass and a little patch of the perennials section (mainly weeds).