I have news!! We have 7 new hens bringing our total to 14. People I talk to always ask if we are practically swimming in eggs. However, Mrs Speckledy is down to about one egg every 5 days and the other old folk are not laying at all. My husband has built a new run out of scrap wood from a skip and chicken wire that we bought in a big roll (cheaper per metre that way) a couple of years ago. The 2 little silkie bantams have a rabbit hutch with the run used by the cockerels and the Warrens and Mrs Speckledy have moved into the 5 hen ark with a 10 hen run. The 7 new girls have moved into the 10 hen ark and will have a 10 hen sized run when we've been to the diy shop to buy the last thing needed as my husband's huge stock of "bits" under the stairs has everything but the very last thing needed to finish the run. : )

I went to a different place to buy my hens this time and it is much closer which means not only less petrol used but a shorter and less stressful journey for the hens. A friend told me about this place and I rang them up and talked to them and decided to try them out. They had their young hens all together in a big shed so as tey've all been living together quite happily, I decided on a mixed bag although I had gone with the intention of more Warrens. Their hens are all hybrids and they had 7 different types. Maybe I should have had one of each. I came home with 3 Warrens, 2 Bluebells, 1 black Sussex and 1 Coral. We could not decide on 6 or 8 hens so we bought 7. The Coral is slightly older than the others so she is laying. The others probably won't lay for another month - but you never know.... It is wonderful to have fresh eggs again! I have a queue of people at work who will be delighted to have fresh eggs again. My family are all in the queue too which is a good thing because the one time we might get inundated with eggs is in the school summer holidays. However, you can freeze beaten eggs in plastic bags for baking sessions in the winter. We've done that in the past and found it worked well.