Keeping chickens - the dark side
I love keeping hens. I love the eggs, brown and speckled with vivid orange yolks and a taste which beats even the best shop bought free range eggs. I love the way they are a presence in the garden, rushing and clucking and shouting to each other and bustling about. Watching them always makes me smile and the garden would feel empty and dead without them, although it might be quite a lot tidier. But it's time to lift the veil on the less pleasant side of chicken keeping. Those of a squeamish disposition should look away now. One of our older hens is a Welsummer, a dark brown hen who lays dark brown eggs. She was given to me by a friend because she was being mercilessly bullied in her flock and my friend wondered if a new flock would let her have a new start, a bit like sending a bullied child to a new primary school! It took her ages to settle in when she came. She didn't seem to be bullied here, partly I think because she clearly knew her place...