One of the many advantages of keeping hens is that changes in the hours of light and darkness are very clearly defined. Over Christmas it was dark enough to go down to close up their houses at about 4.15pm. Today I went down at 4.35pm and it was only just dark enough for some of them to have put themselves to bed. Hens are very predictable. They like to be outside in daylight and safely inside once it is dark outside. Our hens are also individuals and some go to bed earlier than others. It is inevitable that I will go into the kitchen, put on my hat and coat, roll up my jeans to put on my wellies, walk purposefully down to the hen coop in order to lock them in safely for the night to find one or two of them still wandering around. It is always the same pair - Maldwyn lll and Kevin. Sometimes Kevin has gone inside but, hearing me open the gate, will come rushing out to join Maldwyn. Kevin is not so much of a problem. She is one of the hens who cowers when she sees me so is easy to pick up and place inside the house. The trouble is that once she has been placed inside but realises that Maldwyn is still wandering around, she pops out to see what is going on. Maldwyn can rarely be captured and it is a case of patience or returning to the house, taking off the wellies and hat and coat and waiting until she has decided to go in. Then it is back to wellies and coat and hat and returning outside to quickly shut the henhouse door before any decide to escape again.
The columbines have not been laying for a few weeks but today there was a soft shelled blue egg so hopefully one of them is staring again. Perhaps, as the nights get lighter, they will all start laying again. An average of 3 eggs a day from 9 hens is not a good return on the cost of layer pellets, corn and hay. It is fortunate that I treat them as pets.
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