Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

Our wonderful White Leghorn is back laying eggs. As you may recall from the first photo (see entries on 29th January and 7th February) she had a severe moult this winter where she lost a great many of her feathers. Moulting is natural and the bird's way of shedding old out-of-condition feathers and growing new better ones. It usually happens in late autumn (our bird was a little late) and it is also usual for a moulting bird to stop laying eggs, so that all their energies can go into re-growing feathers.
Our Leghorn is now looking quite beautiful as you can see in the second photo: her tail is better than it ever has been and judging by the size of her eggs, her whole body is in tip-top condition. Whilst our ground is still very wet, the days are getting a little warmer and of course longer and both of these are good for our poultry. Longer days mean more eggs (birds need light in order to lay eggs) and warmer days mean the grass may start to grow and minibeasts will begin to appear - so lots of food for free range birds.
Other good news today is that both our out of sorts cockerels (from the fox attack) continue to improve and both have begun crowing again - always a good sign that a bird is well. We are still a bit more worried though about the one who was not actually taken (but we think must have had some kind of encounter with the fox, enough to shock him) as he isn't preening himself as well as he should and his feathers are not in great condition. As usual, we will monitor and assess.
We gave our broody bantam six eggs today, she was VERY pleased. We will check them in a week or so and see if any are fertile (fingers crossed). And finally, Mrs Brown, one of our two ewes is looking ever closer to lambing - we may just be a few days off now!!! The excitement is mounting!!