Great, thanks. I have no red mite where I am. Is there a chance these ex-batts could bring them in with them? Any other nasties they can bring along that are not visible that you can think of? Never had much of a problem up here, except with rats which I know a bit about in terms of risks / disease ...

Our 3 hens, all hybrids about 19 months old, are due to be joined by another 3 in Jan. We are getting 3 ex-caged hens via the BHWT on Jan 4'th. I have read the information on the BHWT site and a few bits on the web, but just wondered if there is anything to be aware of when introducing them to the o...

Sorry to hear you lost her. You did all you could.

Have you got a rat problem? If rats are getting in the coop at night they can pull feathers, bite legs and this leads to stress. I have read that rats can even kill a chicken, but never actually met anyone that has had this happen. Recently, I noticed one of my hens was off colour and finally found ...

Ah well, my hens really do free range and produce (very) big, yellow yolks, compared to those 'free-range' ones I used to buy from the supermarket, which were a dodgy, darkish orange. That's all I can tell you on that one. I take on board your point that the yolk colour is no indication of the condi...

You can`t beat proper free range eggs but some people are not lucky enough to be able to make the choice as to what and where they buy their eggs. Presuming most people either have their own hens, know someone who has, have the option of visiting a farmers market or just go to their local supermark...

NO, not vegan. The answer is either get your own hens / buy from a local producer. OR Prof Nicol recommends buying eggs from retailers with their own inspection schemes, such as Marks & Spencer or Waitrose. Waitrose, for instance, prides itself on being in regular contact with all its suppliers....

YOUR FREE RANGE EGGS... Under the EU rules for free-range production, nine hens can be crammed into every square metre of floor space & (under the industry’s British Lion and Freedom Foods quality assurance schemes) free-range farmers can house 16,000 hens in one building. There are no rules to ...

Nice pics.

Our Red Rock is always trying to come inside as well. Nosy

Been looking into this myself recently. You can go on or off grid. If you go on grid, then you will lose power when there is a power cut, so you are not really self sufficient in that sense...on the other hand, you can sell back any excess power generated to the grid. Cost should be about £5000. Thi...

Nice

Thanks, my old cat never eats them, she just chews their heads off for some reason. I hate using poison tbh because I know rat poison kills a lot of owls across the UK, and we have a number of Little Owls round here as well as the odd visitor, a lot of buzzards also live here as well as the odd spar...

They stop laying in Winter, but its usually down to cold, not reduced daylight hours in my experience. Eggs probably get smaller before they stop completely (what happens with mine anyway).

Thanks for the comments :) I didn't take the pics, my fiancé did, she has taken better ones today! I have (still) been like Bob the Builder out there all weekend but all is finished now. Bunnies are binkying around, seem pretty happy which makes it worth it. I can't take the older cat now, I was too...

We did! http://i1375.photobucket.com/albums/ag449/o-Chloe-o/photo4_zpsf067c8ca.jpg http://i1375.photobucket.com/albums/ag449/o-Chloe-o/photo1_zps84968b52.jpg http://i1375.photobucket.com/albums/ag449/o-Chloe-o/photo_zpsc80bbc50.jpg http://i1375.photobucket.com/albums/ag449/o-Chloe-o/photo6_zpseaf9be...