yet more chickens Croad Langshans

The Next 9 Months

The story so far.
First there were 6 eggs.

There then there were 6 croad langshan chicks.   Three pullets and three cockerels.  

Two cockerel got ate at Christmas along with Dad (now redundant and cooked very slowly quite delicious - most chicken meat you can get today is too young to have enough texture or flavour).
One of the pullets went broody on Dec 27.   Early but worth the risk - it's warm under a hen and we want them brought up hardy. Eight eggs went under her. 
21 days later we had 5 chicks.   Two eggs  went almost to term but didn't quite make it, and  one was missing.   Either I can't count or the rats got it. Two of the chicks got squashed flat in the first couple of days.   This is a common hazard.   Croads have big feet.

The young birds having fun.

And the result

When we moved this family out of the ark to the main house we found mother had already started laying again - 4 eggs - so she started laying about 4 weeks after hatching. Is this a record?

Now 12 weeks old

12 eggs in here - due 20 April - a proper ark
And 12 eggs in here - due 2 May - a very home-made house
This is not a successful hen house - fine for a normal spring - cool, wet, sunny periods - so what do we get - a heat wave. So what does mother hen do?    It's too hot inside so she moves her eggs to near the door - and they fall out.    No way she can get them back.    Fortunately I notice and we put them back and hope for the best.   They have been out for several hours but on a hot day.

The saga continues.   21 April we get 7 live chicks, 3 fertile but didn't make it and 2 not fertilised.

Now we start to worry - where to put the next lot - so we separate the two chicken houses with a wire fence.
BUT mother 2 comes out one day for her daily outing and hears the chicks next door - flies over the wire and tries to pinch the chicks. Not a successful exercise but by the time we find her in the wrong pen her eggs are cold. Lost that lot.

That's enough for this year we think. Then one night I go out to shut the chicken house and one hen is missing. Panic - try and search the orchard in the dark with a torch - no sign of feathers - usual mark of a fox taking a bird - and no hen. Go to bed and hope to see her waiting outside the house next morning demanding breakfast - has happened before.
Not this time but a search finds her hidden in the undergrowth sitting on 16 eggs (not all her own).

No way she can cover that many eggs so give her just her own (9) and put her well away from the other mother