One friend of mine uses an Aloe Vera gel as soon as she sees the feather quills poking through the skin ... that's the bit that's most uncomfortable for them, poor dears. Mine are ragged too, just now. But funnily enough, we're getting more eggs than throughout the summer ...

Has anyone tried using a household flea spray on RM? I've heard it's a useful part of the armoury, but can't find any evidence ...

Red bottoms?



Bless her, she just can't get them to grow ...

I have leg rings (spirals) on the ex-batts, but our bantams are pekins and I wouldn't know how to put them on because of all the feathers! We've had ours some months now, and I still can't tell for sure which is which ...

Honestly with ex-batty's Beulah I wouldn't ....they've been through enough already and often have Osteo problems due to the amount of Calcium they have leeched out of their systems....as I say each to their own but I wouldn't. I have no plans to do so, and I wouldn't in our current set up anyway - ...

Four of my bantams have been broody for over a month now ... though one of them seems unsure whether or not to continue!

I turf them out several times a day, and they eat and drink - chuntering all the while - and then go back in.

It's interesting most of our favourite hens are the ones at the bottom of the pecking order/the skinny ones/the ones that have been poorly - we're all a right bunch of softies Which is why my current favourite is a new ex-batt called Bertha - she's gone into a full moult and is obviously feeling ve...

The ex-batts are Milly, Molly and Mandy (The A Team) and Betsy, Babs, Bertha and Belle (The B Team), collectively known as The Vicarage Girls. The Pekins were Amy, Abigail, Alice, Annie, Agnes, Alberta and Amelia (aka The Moppets) – we have since lost one, but I never could tell which was which …

I'd love a cockerel but the neighbours would object. I've wondered about a bantam cockerel of some kind (probably not a true bantam with feathery legs, such a nightmare to look after) to put with my ex-batt ladies ...

re leg rings - our latest batch of ex-batts were much stronger than we've had before ... possibly because of the enriched cage system? Anyway, we used large leg rings, 18mm, so they have plenty of space and it's been no bother for them.

I net our veg patches against the cats anyway ... we don't free range any more, but when we did, I fenced in the veg patches and it worked most of the time.

You can never have too many eggs! Is there someone who would buy a box from you? Or something you can exchange some eggs for? I love the barter system :)

kitla - If it's smelly and slimy, it needs some roughage! Cardboard, straw, paper - give it a good mix. We use daleks, too ... we have four on the go in rotation. All our compost goes in together, chicken poo, straw, garden waste, veg peelings (those we don't feed to the hens). We fill one at a tim...

Our ex-barn girls were by far the feistiest (is that a word?!) of any of the rescue hens we've had ... says something about how they have to live in those places :(

I have four broody bantams occupying two nest boxes on no eggs at all! Silly girls. I chuck them out several times a day, but can't really shut the coop as I have two other girls one of which is still laying usually quite late in the day.