Free range chickens

The first day

I got a chicken coop for Christmas last year. We assembled it in May and finally got our chickens on 1 August. We bought two Gold Star pullets (a pullet is a young female up to her first year of laying eggs, at which point she becomes a hen) and called them Hazel and Willow (we decided to use tree names which are found in or near our property). Willow, the youngest, has a small comb (that little red fleshy bit on top of the head) and is very tame. Hazel is a little more timid, probably because she is that little bit older.

Timid Hazel and Greedy Willow

 

They love worms (hand picked while weeding! yurk!), corn, bird seeds and bananas. We won't give them leftover meat nor any starchy food such as bread and biscuits.



The sixth day, Hazel disappeared. After searching long and hard, we came to the conclusion that she had been taken by a fox… Sniff!... So, we locked “poor” Willow on her own in the coop for the night and decided to get her a replacement companion. But the following day, Hazel had returned! She was waiting on the grass outside our bedroom window. She had obviously decided to roost up a bush or tree instead of sleeping in her coop.  But we still bought another hen though thinking that the winter nights would be warmer if they were three in the coop.  So, please meet Holly, our third and slightly older hen, a Black Rock who is already producing eggs for us.

Holly