Olia

We lost the last of our rescue hens yesterday. She'd gone flat the day before, and because chickens, being prey animals, hide illness really well, if you find one sick you can safely assume it's quite serious. Resolved to having to do the necessary the following day, to save her suffering, if she was still the same, she'd died during the night. At least she was warm and safe inside the chicken shed.

Always fills me with a little melancholy when it happens, so I spent a little time with the remaining 6 hens, and one cockerel, this morning, with the light against the pastel frosted grass in the background rendering them particularly photogenic.

This is Olia, one of two Cheshire Blues, both of whom lay lovely blue-coloured eggs (which won best in show at last year's Scottish Smallholders' Festival). Olia is the more puffy-faced and crested of the pair (which is handy to tell them apart).

Dorian, our bantam cockerel, and Ru in the extras, as well as a neat astronomical alignment I noticed out of the corner of my eye while out with the chooks.

Plans to add to the flock in March with likely another 4. And probably from the same place we got the Cheshires (and our Coucou Marans); that'll hopefully be a couple of Polands, and then bringing some ginger back in as well, now that Mary is gone (might look into rescue hens again, but they do tend to be over-subscribed around here, which is a good thing, obviously!).