Flock catch-up - Light Sussex

Light Sussex chick, 5 days old

A year later we set fertile eggs once again under Gretel (she goes broody so reliably you could set your annual calendar by her) and she duly hatched out two Light Sussex chicks. This time one proved a cockerel and one a pullet - and by golly they've grown up to be magnificent looking birds.

Half-grown Light Sussex cockerel

We found a home for the boy with Nicky down south, where he lords it over a bunch of shavers and is crowing his head off every day. He survived babyhood to lead this life of unadulterated roosterish joy only because we were prepared to pay an outrageous sum (given his value, which could generously be stated as nil) to send him south with a pet courier. If nothing else, we learned from this that there is such a service as a pet courier - who knew? We kept his sister, Kitty, and she lays smallish pale cream eggs. I don't suppose she qualifies as a very economic converter of feed to eggs - she must weigh twice what the brown commercial varieties weigh, and her eggs are smaller - but we love her. Not least because although she's enormous, she's...well... a bit of a chicken, and allows the others to boss her around.