Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

I am the oldest chicken on the smallholding (and obviously the wisest and most sensible). I have lived here since I was four months old when I came here as a young 'point-of-lay' (about to lay eggs). There are usually around 20 to 30 adult chickens on the Relaxed smallholding and in the spring/summer this number can double and more due to all the chicks we hatch out! We don't have names (I don't think our owners could remember them all) but we are all known individually. Here are a few of us...

Hi, I am often known as 'The Little Man'! I am without doubt, the most beautiful of all the chickens living here. I have a few bantam 'wives' but I also quite like some of the bigger chickens and some days 'hang out' with them instead!
I am very tame and am quite happy for my owners to pick me up and to perch on their hands.
I have a fabulous cock-a-doodle-doo and am also quite good at clucking, especially when one of my 'wives' had just laid an egg!!

Hello, I am one of a few different types of Leghorns (the others being white and black) but I am the only red one here. There used to be two of us and it was really sad the day my friend died - I tend now to spend the days pretty much on my own but I am okay with that. I lay lovely white eggs and lay most days and my owners call me 'a reliable layer' (whatever that means...). I love perching as high as possible each night in the barn (no chance of the fox getting me) and am not that fond of being picked up!

Well me and my sister were hatched on the smallholding from eggs given to our owners by a friend. We are known as 'meat' birds as we are very heavy and compact but thankfully we were kept to lay eggs, and also of course because we are VERY pretty. There is a third one of us who we don't mix that much with (she is rather young!!!!). We make terrific broodies and will happily sit on a good dozen eggs, hatch out the chicks and then look after them for around six/seven weeks. We lay medium sized brown eggs.

I was also hatched on the smallholding and am what they call a 'pure' Light Sussex - there are two others that live here now but they are crosses, so not pure, but I am not a snob and as far as I am concerned they are just like me!!!
I have heard my owners say I am a 'dual purpose' bird in that I am a good layer and good for meat as well. Thankfully I just do the laying eggs bit!! Phew!!
I can go broody and if I do sit on eggs and hatch them out. I make a great mum. My eggs are a light brown colour.

I am a sort of Belgium Silkie hatched here on the Relaxed smallholding from a clutch of eggs given to our owners by a friend. The eggs were blue and the hope was I would lay blue eggs... whoops, it turned out I don't! My eggs are a creamy brown BUT it makes no difference to the taste!!! I am quite a quiet bird and I make a great broody and mum. I don't wander that far and quite enjoy spending a bit of time indoors - not sure my owners appreciate this though as I tend to mess up their nice clean straw!!!

Our owners love Leghorns and they love our white eggs so in total they have four of us (one red, two black and me) plus they often use our eggs to pop under broody hens and so hatch Leghorn crosses. I am very handsome and very independent and can often be found wandering all over the smallholding but don't worry, I keep an eye out for Mr Fox. I had a terrible moult in early 2014 but grew fabulous feathers again and looked even more gorgeous! I NEVER go broody and have no desire to raise any chicks at all.

I've lived here since June 2012 - there used to be four of us but one was given to a friend, one was killed by a fox and one died suddenly. I am not lonely though as I tend to hang around with the Sussex birds and one of the cockerels. I am what they call a 'reliable' layer and lay nice large brown eggs. Warrens are used a lot by big chicken farmers who keep hundreds/thousands of us in HUGE sheds. A lot of supermarket eggs come from Warrens. I enjoy my days pottering around on the grass with my friends.

I was hatched from a 'Relaxed' egg and am a cross breed. It is more than likely that one of my parents was a Light Sussex as I have some of their markings and build (so they say!!). I am quite a handsome chap and I 'love' my girls (some a bit too much sometimes as I can scratch their backs - sorry!!).
I am definitely top cockerel here but then I am the oldest. I am pretty tame, I make sure I check most of my girls most days and I have a fabulous cock-a-doodle-doo!!!

I am definitely one of the prettiest chickens on the holding. I am very well behaved BUT I am not that good a layer! I ought to be but after laying for a few weeks in spring 2014 (my first year of laying) I seemed to stop - who knows why? My owners are not impressed because the only reason they hatched me out was because Legbars lay blue eggs! The first one I laid was ever so tiny but they were so pleased. After that I laid more and then stopped. Whoops. Oh well, there's always next year...

I am from a 'Relaxed' egg and I definitely have leghorn in me as I am very flighty and not at all tame. I was a terrible teenager. I never used to go to bed on time and then I took to sleeping at the very top of the barn on the roof of the aviary and every night my owners had to climb a ladder to get me down... They eventually blocked it off and I finally started to behave. I am a fab a layer and very independent. I often meet up with the white Leghorn at the bottom of the paddock - it's nice to get away from the turkeys for a start!!

I am a very pretty hybrid based on the Rhode Island Red chicken. I am very calm, friendly and sociable. I get on with most of the other animals on the smallholding (even the ducks) and enjoy my days simply pottering, chatting, preening and resting. I lay light brown eggs and pretty much lay most days.
There were two of us but the other one went wandering a bit too far one day and ended up as supper for the fox. A bit sad!!! I am also called an Amber Star and I think I am a bit of a star!!