I will start with an apology for not giving this blog the attention it deserves. What started out as a lazy streak turned into an almost summer long break. I will endeavor to be better in the future. I have LOADS to write about!
With all the stories that have backed up in the past weeks, I don't want today's news to get overshadowed.
I killed chickens today. I killed all six of them. I know this news will upset people but my hens were not pets. The hens are on our place to lay eggs for me, that is their function. The stock was getting very old. I think the youngest hen was at least three and the oldest was well past six. They were not laying very well anymore, some not laying at all and it was time for sentimentality and these old hens to go.I will spare you photographs of dead chickens and draw a discrete veil over how they were dispatched. I will say that it was done as humanely as I know how and that before they died, my hens had a happy and cosseted life.
Not long after the deed was done, the ones that were healthy enough were plucked, cleaned and either put in my freezer for coq au vin at a later date or given to the neighbours for their pot.
I then whipped around to the nearest free-range egg farm that is run by friends Shona and Paul and purchased eight fresh hens. These new girls look a bit bedraggled even though they are free range gals. A few weeks here should see them plump up a bit. As they are already laying, I look forward to their first efforts!
These are the new hens. They will be getting kitchens scraps and lawn clippings as well as some cabbages that were too slug riddled for humans to eat. Let's hope for their sake that they make with the eggs pretty quickly.
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