The story so far.

Welcome to Hens and Eggs - my blog about my henkeeping adventures! I've been wanting to keep chickens for ages, and finally decided to go for it! Graham built a henhouse, and we duly went to get our hens on June 24th - we bought a black leghorn called Sarah Jemima, a Speckeldy hen called Speckeldy Selina and a Black Rock called Ginger. Sarah Jemima was the first out of box and seemed to be making herself at home. Unfortunately, on Wednesday 27th she looked very under the weather - hunched, not eating and the other two hens were keeping away from her. On Thursday morning we took her to the vet, who thought she had an infection - unfortunately she died that morning. We took her for a Post Mortem, and they were a bit worried she might have had salmonella. After about 2 weeks of worry, and manically examing the other two for signs of ill health, the results showed she didn't have salmonella. During these two weeks, Speckeldy and Ginger had really increased in confidence, and became very tame - coming up to us when they were out in the garden. We also built a permanent site for them - slabs of concrete covered in bark chippings - to make cleaning easier. They seemed to like it.

We wanted to add another hen, but to make it easier for them to be accepted, decided to get two, which necessitated an extension to the run - Graham created an extra end section, and on Monday July 16th I purchased two Bovan Goldline hens, Honey and Dopey. Dopey was very sluggish when she came out of the box, just wanting to sleep, but after a drink of water she perked up. Tuesday was a day of open warfare, but we did get our first eggs! Both from Honey and Dopey, weighing 42g and 50g. We had poached eggs on toast for tea! Today they seem much more incorporated into the flock, and are spending more time with Speckeldy and Ginger. As of now, we have one egg today, weighing 45g.