Early Spring

Spring has sprung early at Violet Hill Farm with one of my new hens going clucky and successfully hatching (a week ago) the first ever 'home grown' Violet Hill Farm chickens.  I could spend hours watching her demonstrate the art of grass pecking and scratching to her fluffy wee children.  I'm hooked now and have set up a special nursery area so we can have the ongoing delight of baby chickens running around the orchard.

Such an amazing process - the tiny life squeezed into an oval capsule and finally breaking out...

Feathery Babies

We just picked up 40 new 5 day old Barnevelder chickens from Poultry Valley Lifestyle - they are such lovely bundles of cuteness and the dark camouflage coloring of the Barenevelders is just lovely.  One of the first out-buildings at Violet Hill Farm was the 'little red chook shed' and Barnevelders were the breed of hen I chose all those years ago.

There are four remaining of my first girls, and they still produce their lovely brown eggs every second day after 7 years!  Makes me wonder at the tragic waste from battery farming where after a year the hens are considered 'unproductive'.  After 7 years (and still counting) producing eggs my girls have earned a well deserved old age scratching around in the orchard and will NOT be going to the pot.  Anyway, they are wonderfully well-behaved examples for my new chickens.  Hoping that we won't have too many boys in the new cohort, but it's always a lottery.

Barnevelder hens originate from the Netherlands, and I drove through the village of Barnevelder just outside of Amsterdam when I attended a conference there last year.  They are a dual breed, which means they are good egg layers and also good meat birds (handy when you have a disproportionate number of males in the collective).  I have never had any health issues with any of my old girls, but then letting them free range in the orchard no doubt helps with their general health and well-being.  Barnevelders are so fabulous there is even a whole website dedicated to them! http://www.barnevelders.co.uk/chickens

I particularly love the large brown sometimes speckled eggs they produce, and after spending the day hunting for insects and pecking at grass in the orchard, the eggs have the most gorgeous orange yolks you could wish for.  I'm afraid that not even store bought free range cut the mustard at our house any more.  I highly recommend anyone having their own chickens, even in a small back yard - they are so easy to care for and are a delight to watch as they run towards you at feeding time with their feathery bums wobbling from side to side.