It is birthday weekend in our house. My son and I both have a birthday over the weekend and the family got together for a meal yesterday evening. It was fun but my husband and I were not feeling very much like night out - we've both had a bit of a bug recently and I went back to work this week and well, suffice it to say it was a looooong week. My husband did 14 hour days at school on Wed and Thurs and wasn't fit for much after that. My one daughter brought before dinner nibbles, my son cooked a curry with rice and dahl and home made naan, and my other daughter made dessert. It was a good evening. I had asked for practical presents so amongst other things, I got a bale of hay and a sack of hen food........ :)

My hens have almost given up laying now. There are 4-5 eggs a week in total from the lot of them - 8 hens. I haven't had an egg from Mrs Speckledy since the beginning of September and the bantams have laid 2 eggs in total in 2008. The Warrens are down to about one egg a week each. Not paying their way! But they deserve a bit of a rest for the winter, I suppose. At least the Light Sussex have not started crowing yet. I looked at the calendar yesterday (instead of just estimating) and this coming Wed, we'll have had them for 10 weeks. So they are probably 16 weeks old. The Day is coming soon. : (