Our original hen 'Mrs Silkie' with one of her many well-brought-up broods. Sadly we lost her to bumblefoot this autumn. If you suffer this problem please insist that your vet tries a number of antibiotic types in the first instance as it will probably be too late to avoid septicaemia spreading if they chose a single type which proves ineffective.

We hope her many daughters and grand-daughters inherit her patience and reliability.

We also keep lavender (blue) silkies which we use to hatch and sometimes rear ducklings. We now have a cockerel again so we may have hatching eggs from January and possibly some pairs in the Autumn.

''Mrs Silkie' and a couple of her 'grand' chicks!