The Chickens
We started off with three Isa Brown chickens, Ivy, Lily and Ferne, donated by a friend. The farmer next door then asked if we'd like a Cockerel to go with them, very nervously we said yes – we'd only just got used to the hens. He gave us a Light Sussex cockerel that he'd hatched and we named him Foggie after the cartoon character, Foghorn Leghorn and he certainly lives up to his name – from about 3 o'clock in the morning during summer months!
Unfortunately both Ivy and then Lily passed away within a couple of months of joining us, we were unsure of their age but Ferne now no longer lays eggs so we think they may have been quite old girls. So we were left with Foggie and Ferne. However, while we were collecting Fez from the RSPCA in Bradford we noticed a large Rhode Island Red hen in one of their pens and they explained that she was found wandering. We enquired about re-homing her and a week later we collected Henrietta. We now had 2 hens and decided to actually buy some point-of-lay hens from a local farm. Again they were Isa Browns but they were a variation of colours. We bought 4 for £4.50 each. A couple of weeks later we had a call from Bradford RSPCA, they had 8 chickens that needed re-homing and also 8 boxes ready for us to bring them home in! They were a little worse for wear when they arrived but this is all in the past and now 13 of them are beautiful egg producers (Ferne is just beautiful!) and they also have very individual characters.