Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

Our light golden Bantam is still broody (see 8th Jan) but she is really looking after herself - she is in fabulous condition, she leaves the boxes to poo and eat and drink each morning and every evening her crop is wonderfully full of food to keep her warm through the night. She definitely prefers larger eggs, she always sits on the duck egg if she gets a chance and one day we found her on a duck egg and three huge chicken eggs. How she does it we don't know as she really is a tiny thing - the photos show this hopefully!!!!
It is still quite early for her to be sitting mind you - we have been getting some very cold nights this last week with temperatures below freezing. We don't want our Bantam to spend all her energy on keeping chicks warm and so losing her own health and well-being. Animals will often put the lives of their young over and above their own. As we can control our breeding programme however, we aim NOT to have any animal in that situation. Any animal we breed from needs to be in tip top condition AND have the right environment to be able to successfully raise their youngsters - and that environment includes the weather!!!