Chickens:

We have far too many chickens for the amount of eggs we get each day, but chickens are great animals to keep and easy.

We always have some warrens to produce eggs.  These are the standard brown chickens.  They have high egg yields and we normally get ours from free range farms when they are sold off at 2 years old.  They always continue laying for us for a couple more years. 

We also keep Sussex hens.  These are what I think of as proper chickens. They come in several different colours and are quite a large bird and although they are not the most prolific layers they are not too bad and are beautiful to look at.  We hatch out some of these each year and now have quite a flock.  The Sussexes are also a good breed for the dinner table and produce a good strong weighty bird.

The other variety of hens we keep are the marans.  These are also large fowl and what people think of as normal chickens, however they lay the most wonderful dark brown eggs.  W have one or two which lay double yoker eggs and that is really something for breakfast!!