Chickens and eggs

A bit of free range, March 2024

In the days leading up to the weekend, I let the chickens and ducks have regular free range but that has now stopped as I've begun sowing seeds in the kitchen garden.  The ducks have been locked back in their large yard and the chickens have been taken to the allotment until further notice.

However, I do plan on planting up their yard at the allotment with vegetables later this spring so they probably won't be there too long.  But we'll see;  plans are still a bit fluid.  The yard at the allotment is full of grass and weeds and bugs, so the chickens have had an upgrade from their yard at home at least.

The kitchen garden has gone through periods of being fenced with temporary fencing over the years;  fencing plus supervised free range is my preference for our feathery friends.  I may try to rig something up later on;  the two ducks in particular are pretty easily foiled by fencing (unlike chickens who can jump).  Or I may fire up the chicken tractor once more, focusing on the lawn rather than the veg beds.

Action shot! March 2024

It's definitely spring if the chickens are laying this much--even two of the oldtimers are making an effort.  Not the other two though;  however those two venerable hens celebrated their seventh birthdays yesterday.  For the sake of mathematical ease, we mark all our hens' birthdays on the first of April, but for Rock and Cookie, it's their actual birthday/hatchday--I can hardly believe they actually made it to seven years old!