Laying hens and turnip eating sheep
Hens are great heralds of spring. Although it is still cold enough for the woodburner and the electric blanket every night, the hens are more responsive to the lengthening daylight than the temperature. We have eight hens and one cockerel. Throughout the short dark days of November, December and January we get just one or two eggs every couple of days. It is hard to tell whether they are laid by our rehomed hybrids from the British Hen Welfare Trust or by our own Welsumer crosses as both lay a medium sized pale brown egg, though perhaps the Welsummer eggs are a little darker and more inclined to be speckled. The Cream Legbars don't lay at all in the winter. Their eggs are a beautiful pale blue and as the days get longer we check the nesting boxes hoping for the first sight of that pale blue gleam. This one is so pale you can hardly tell it is blue in the picture but I promise you it is. Now we have all the Cream Legbars laying and eggs com...