Chickens and Eggs
My passion for chickens began many years ago when my dear friend Sarah sold me my very first chicken house. It was definitely the beginning of a chicken thing… ♥
We have a small flock of organic laying chickens in the paddock, there are about 45 made up of a few Cuckoo Marans (speckledy fat hens who lay dark brown speckledy eggs), some Black Rocks (black feathers with green shine, ginger neck & heads – a Rhode Island cross, lays pale shelled eggs) and lots of Light Sussex (white fat hens with grey flecking around neck & wing area, lay creamy/light brown eggs). We also have some Sasso table birds....but they are just pets.
They live in the chicken house next to the garden at the moment, although we move them from field to field, and we strip graze them in the paddock using the tried & tested Balfour method.
I remember reading a Katie Thear book years ago in which she said that chickens can remember up to a maximum of 50 – 60 other chickens, (probably by recognising the shapes of their heads) and therefore this should be the maximum size of a single flock. The organic standards are much more than this (up to 1000 under the Soil Association – even more under other certification bodies). I suppose this is to make it commercially viable, but would rather have happy hens that live a stress-free life & come and talk to me when I feed them. It makes sense; the happier they are the more eggs they lay! We believe its important that chickens can express their ‘chicken-ness’ meaning they have free access to the great outdoors & can scratch & peck in the soil, which is their natural behaviour. They also have plenty of space on the perch and plenty of nesting boxes to lay their eggs in.