Hello and welcome to The Compost Bin. I'm Compostwoman and I live with my family in rural Herefordshire. We have nearly four acres of garden and woodland, all managed organically and to Permaculture principles, which we share with Chickens, Cats and assorted wildlife. We also grow a lot of our own food, run courses in all sorts of things and make a lot of compost!

I am a Master Composter and have spent more than a decade as a volunteer Community Compost adviser with Garden Organic and my local Council.
I'm a self employed Environmental Educator so I run workshops and events where I talk about compost, veg growing, chicken keeping, cooking, preserving and sustainable living. I also run crafts workshops and Forest School/outdoor play sessions in our wood.

We try to live a more self sufficient lifestyle here, as best we can, while still having a comfortable life and lots of fun.


To learn more about us click on the About Compostwoman tab and remember to click on the photos to make them full size!


Wednesday 3 August 2011

C is for ..............Chickens

Well, I couldn't pass the chance up to talk about my hens!

I LOVE my feathery flock. I only have 7 hens now as I have had a number of visits from Fox lately and so I have lost 5 hens in the last 6 weeks...which is very sad. But that is the risk I take by letting the hens free range in the wood, a more natural life for them BUT a risk.

But I am still getting 5 eggs a day from the 7 feathery laydees, which considering one is more than 4 years old and another is an ex battery hen of 3 years old    so they do not lay very often

is pretty good going.  AND I get the joy of feathery company whenever I am working outside AND the delight of watching their mad antics around the garden!

Hens do not lay every day even when in their first year. And once they are past their first moult ( at 12 to 15 months old) they tend to lay less eggs, The hybrids bred for egg laying commercially ( the standard "ginger" hen) do lay most days BUT they tend to die earlier, from ailments and diseases associated with being bred for maximum egg laying.

Regardless, I love my hens. I love hatching out eggs from under a broody hen. I love seeing them croon and dustbathe and run around like mad things when they have a tasty treat.

I guess this comes under a personal trait of Caring.
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3 comments:

  1. Chiot's Run4 August 2011 at 00:41

    love love love this one - I so hope to have chickens some day in my garden!

    Thanks so much for joining the challenge - love seeing what you come up with!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Compostwoman4 August 2011 at 00:48

    Thank you :-)

    I am looking forward to reading yours as well!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous4 August 2011 at 15:39

    After losing some of our naken neck frizzle bantam chooks (chickens if you don't use aussie slang) we lined the chook pen with a row of cement pavers all the way around.....not one chook missing since:)

    ReplyDelete

Hello! Thank you for reading my blog and for commenting. I try to reply as quickly as I can and I really appreciate your interest in my life and doings here in The Compost Bin.

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