To say my Dad’s hens are free range is a bit of an understatement. He was given four hens a few years ago, and had built an average size coop and hen run for them to roam around. He became quite fond of the hens and decided to *extend* the hen run. Which is great. Now the hens had loads of free space to run around and scratch. The next time I came home I discovered that the hen run had been *extended again* and now encompassed our whole back garden. Fantastic. The hens were now getting really plump and laying lots of lovely eggs. However when I went home last weekend I discovered that that the hens had not been happy with the extension on the extension.
They were now being given free reign of the whole garden for a couple of hours a day ‘to get more worms and bits’. Needless to say, the hens are very happy now wandering around the whole garden. However, there are a couple of creatures who are not exactly content with this new arrangement. If you look very carefully at the top of the steps (left hand corner of the photo below), you can see one, very angry camouflaged tabby cat, looking down at the hens in utter distain, because they are invading ‘her’ space.
Free range eggs are delicious though. We had run out of egg boxes so I carried my half dozen wrapped up in newspaper. The yolks are really yellow and I intend to make some great new eggie recipes this week. Happy hens really do make for good eggs.
I also picked up these lucious spring leeks from the garden. So lots of exciting new ingredients to play with this week. Stay tuned!
