All quiet

I haven't updated this blog for a few weeks - only one entry in February - because the hens are very settled and happy and no dramas to report. We are getting 3-4 eggs a day, all different. I will try and photograph some to show the differences, but Speckeldy Selina lays smallish brown speckled eggs, Honey and Dopey lay light brown eggs, usually weighing about 60g, and Ginger the Black Rock lays beautiful large cream eggs which seem to have a touch of pink in them. She lays the biggest eggs - sometimes up to 80/85g.

I have grown fonder of Ginger - she is the least friendly of the hens but she is also very characterful. When we try to put the hens away after some time in the garden she is always the hardest to catch, and she is the only one who really resists being picked up. But she is friendly enough with the other hens. She is also very beautiful, with a real 'petrol green' sheen to her black feathers, and a rich ginger breast. The published literature about Black Rocks (which come from Muirfield Hatchery in Scotland) describes them as being very hardy, and weather resistent - this is certainly the case, as she is the only one of the four not to look terribly bedraggled in the rain. The Black Rock is a cross between a Rhode Island Red cockerel and a Barred Plymouth Rock hen, and it is definitely a cross that works well. It is described as a 'dual purpose' bird, but I don't think we will be eating Ginger anytime soon! Her eggs are delicious enough.