My first batch of 4 hybrids were named after my maternal grandmother: Ida, Emily, Daisy and Peggy. Since then there have been many incarnations of these four hens as the fox and illness have claimed them, and I've had to dispense with the family member name plan as I've now got far too many chickens...
The hens are kept in my garden in a variety of coops, most of them from Fyte So Fancy. As I only work part time I have the opportunity to let them out every day to range in the garden and surrounding fields. They are fed Allan & Page Free Range Layers Pellets, with a bit of mixed corn in the afternoons. They also have any spare fruit and vegetables such as cabbage, chard, tomatoes and corn cobs from the vegetable patch, and they help themselves to apples from the trees in the garden. They help themselves to quite a lot of things but I'm focussing on the positive.
The current flock of laying hens consists of:
3 Goldlines
1 Amber Star
2 Rhode Rocks
2 Speckledys
1 Polish cross
1 Bielevelder
1 Rhode Island Red
I also have one trio and one pair of Buff Sussex Bantams, and a pair of Rhode Island bantams, all of whom produce fertile eggs which I sell for hatching. I also have 2 more small, crossbred cockerels who each run with a group of hens, and occasionally Pekin bantams on loan for brooding purposes!
Although the hybrid layers are excellent for egg production for their first two or three years, I am moving over to more traditional breeds as I replace the hens as they have added value, and although the egg count is lower over the year, they live longer and are hardier, and can be bred from.
I sell the eggs on my honesty stall alongside my plants and honey, and have regular customers who have weekly orders. I sell surplus hens and cockerels to approved homes and hatch eggs to order using a broody hen.
Pekin bantam hens make fantastic mothers
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