Blue Tamago

Did you know that hens can display err...gay behaviour? This is Flopsy, our lesbian hen!

Chocolate colour eggs from our lovely Maran chicken. The dark colour improved over the next few days, starting with a lighter brown egg (right) with dark speckles to a deep milk chocolate colour (left).

Good news! Pippy is back from the vet, where she apparently responded very well to antibiotics and devoured crickets and mealworms.

Roosters are always thought to be the dominant ones, with the hens meekly submitting to them and the boys getting all "cocky" that they always get their way. We all thought that right? We'll that's definitely not the case! As Buffy found out on the weekend, some hens will put young roosters in their place. And not gently either!

This morning we saw Buffy having a dust bath with Spot and Goldilocks. Boy were they loving it! Buffy was even falling asleep. It must be therapeutic for them, like a spa day, and it's always more fun when others join in. I've read that chickens have dust baths to keep the population of lice and mites down. Being winter, a dry area anywhere is a bit hard to find, but I tried to provide one for Buffy's run.

Unfortunately our little Pippy has fallen ill. This week we noticed that she had a bit of trouble breathing and this morning was gasping each breath. So it was a quick visit to the vet and the initial prognosis is a bacterial infection.

Came home from work last night to find this in the nest box! One of our French Marans has laid her very first egg! Now the question is, which one laid the egg? Chocolat or Fromage?