[karlooben]

i have quite a few peeps on my site asking me about letting the girls out to play around an de bug an weed  thier plots , so in a way a few times a week the girls would get to  free range more then they do now only prob is it wont be happening for a while as i need to sort out fencing also it would only be while i was there to watch them .i was thinking about charging £10 a day for them 

[azubah]

My Mom and gran used to keep a few hens during/after the 2nd world war. They used to get very few eggs even in summer, probably due to inadequate diet and breeding.
I suspect that modern breeds which lay every day need a more ballanced diet to cope with the high output and resulting strain on the body.
An elderly friend told me recently that eggs were a luxury item during the winter when she was a child as hens did not lay much in the cold months. She said that one father used to let his 10 children dip their bread soldiers in his boiled egg. They could not have got much each!

[yorkshirerose]

My chooks live on corn - wheat and a little barley - off the farm and any scraps - plus my hubbies grapes when i can sneak them out to them  . Though they are allowed to free range and have now started going into the horse field to keep him company and scrat at anything nice.