Our First Ladies
In April 2011 on the weekend of the royal wedding (William & Kate) we picked up our first hens:
Frankie, Benny and Jerry (names based on the restaurant and ice-cream)
They were 15 weeks old and were VERY cute!
We hadn't had any experience in keeping hens and just took each day as it came finding out and discovering more as we went along.
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| From left to right: Jerry, Benny and Frankie |
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| The Shovel Finding Favour |
Losing Our First
Sadly towards the end of the summer in 2012 we lost Benny to an illness called Egg Peritonitis which is unavoidable and is quite common, I will be explaining about this in a future blog in more detail.
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| Benny sneaking into the house for food! |
A Failed Attempt
We tried settling in two new hens after losing Benny but Jerry was not happy about this at all - she was second in the ranks (pecking order) and needed to keep her place so she made sure that we all new about it!! (Apparently this is normal for second in line). Frankie is at the top of the pecking order and wasn't effected by the new hens at all. Sadly the new hens had to be returned due to the noise Jerry created, and we didn't want to upset the neighbours (it was non-stop) - see my husband's blog for full details of this story.
A Sad Day
On Christmas Eve 2012 we lost our second hen Jerry. We couldn't believe it had happened again from the same illness as Benny and in such a short space of time (four months). We knew there was nothing we could have done - she had presented similar symptoms to Benny but we managed to catch this sooner rather than later and had her put to sleep before she was in too much distress. I will explain how the vet tested for egg peritonitis in a future blog.
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| "Mother Hen" Jerry on the look out! |
New Year New Hens
After losing Jerry we knew we now had to get some new hens - chickens are sociable animals and need to be kept in groups. No chicken suppliers were open until the 27th of December so Frankie, our remaining hen was on her own for a few nights which she didn't seem to mind. We did check with our vet to make sure that she would be okay on her own and we were told this was fine for a short time.
We now have two new ladies: Miranda and Stevie - they are 21 weeks old and beautiful (names based on the BBC comedy show Miranda).
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| Stevie reaching for leaves |
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| Miranda and Stevie Enjoying A Dust Bath |
Our First Egg
Miranda and Stevie have only been with us for a short time but have settled in really well - we haven't had any major problems with our top hen Frankie, other than the usual establishing of the pecking order which has been hard to watch but is all part of the process.
Yesterday morning we had our first egg laid by Miranda. I had guessed she was ready to lay as she kept hopping up to the nest box and scratching around in there, creating a nest by picking up bits of bedding and throwing them over her back; an hour or so later I found this... VERY happy!
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| Miranda's First Egg! |
First Love
Though I love the new hens and will care for them equally as well as the others, there will always be a special place in my heart for Benny and Jerry (crying while writing this) - there is always something special about the first in anything.
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| Jerry and Benny Dust Bathing Together This Summer! |
Frankie
Frankie is our third original hen and she is a machine! She never stops (only to lay). She eats like a mad hen gulping her mash down rather than pecking like the others - she is top hen and will crush anything in her way to get what she wants. We have nick named her Frantic Frankie and love her dearly. We have also seen a softer side to her - when both of our hens were unwell, she managed to share food with them which apparently is very un-chicken like behaviour.
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| Still Standing! |
