We started keeping chickens so that we could free range them and raise them to high welfare standards. Unfortunately, bird flu (caused by the Avian Influenza virus) has become a large issue in the UK as well as across Europe, the USA and many other parts of the world. This means that at the momentContinue reading “Bird Flu and Chicken Boredom Busters”
Category Archives: Chickens
The Problem with Autumn/Fall…
Autumn/Fall is a beautiful season. The leaves on the trees show a myriad of colours and for a period of time the garden looks like a beautiful oil painting. The chickens love it too. As the leaves fall they take great delight in turning the leaves over, scratching at them to reveal hiding insects forContinue reading “The Problem with Autumn/Fall…”
Our Mixed Chicken Flock
We breed Buff Orpington chickens and anyone familiar with our social media accounts will be very familiar with the chickens either running towards us, or after us. Fiona’s accounts on both Instagram and Twitter as @theflooflady is totally devoted to the hens and cockerels stampeding across the field. In the sea of golden fluffballs thatContinue reading “Our Mixed Chicken Flock”
An Unexpected Chick
We breed Buff Orpingtons chickens here on the smallholding and we love this friendly and animated breed. Each year we buy in a small number of hatching eggs. This is so we can select an unrelated cockerel from the chicks that hatch as our breeding cockerel for the following year. This helps keep our flockContinue reading “An Unexpected Chick”
The loss of a star
This week has been difficult. We’ve lost the last of our original Orpingtons and she’s left a little ginger hole in our lives. Our chickens are livestock as we are a smallholding/homestead but as I explained to one person this week on social media the difference between how we treat pets and our livestock isContinue reading “The loss of a star”
Broody Hens are like buses….
We breed Buff Orpingtons. These chickens are large, golden and friendly like Cinnamon featured on the right. One of the best features of the Buff Orpington is that they have natural broody tendencies. They will incubate, hatch and raise the chicks for us. Plus there’s the added cute factor of hens with chicks running aroundContinue reading “Broody Hens are like buses….”
English Country Life 