The Birds (Part 1)

We've been up in Glendoik (Perthshire) at Dan's parents' for the weekend. The'yve recently moved from Errol (about 4 miles away) and this was the first time we'd been to see them in the new place. It's a lovely old farmhouse - a bit draughty, but loads of character, with an aga, a creamery, 4000 cubic feet of cupboard space (well if Michelle is to be believed anyway!!!) but lovely big bright rooms (many of them have dual aspect) and 4 bedrooms. It's much more of a "house" - their last place was a cottage. A cosy cottage, but definitely cottagy. This is completely different. It's lovely. Big, spacious, roomy, and they've made it really homley already since they've moved in which was only just before Christmas.
On Saturday morning, we were sitting down for brekkie and Michelle said would I like a boiled egg - oooh definitely - I thought. I love a nice boiled egg. She then went into one of the many cavernous cupboards and came out with a large egg box. She opened it with a flourish (I'm sure a heard a 'taaaa daaaa' in the background!) They were all shapes and sizes, brown, blue, white and creamy coloured. They looked like someone had already been at them for the Easter parade. But no, in fact, they were all 'natural' and had just come from all sorts of different hens. It turns out that Conrad and Michelle have a neighbour who keeps a small flock of chickens, and he provides them with a dozen or so mixed eggs every Friday! How lovely - you don't get much more farm fresh than that! And talking about 'carbon miles' the neighbour walks accross the field on a Friday to deliver them!
That afternoon, we went for a wander to have a look at these generous birds. We got to the 'run' only to discover that it was more of a forest than a run, and these birds must have about 150 or so square foot EACH to roam around in. It's a nice chunk of land for a dozen chooks! There are about 10 hens and 2 cockrels - I think there are a couple of the breeds had 2 birds, but mostly they were singles - all different. Fabulous colours. So for example I was able to identify the hen who laid my breakkie small blue egg (the Araucana) and the larger dark brown egg (Rhode Island Red). So a first for me - meeting the ACTUAL bird who laid my brekkie egg!!!!

Hey little hen, when when when will you lay me an egg for my tea....?

So there you have it - we had a lovely relaxing break up there and took a few piccies on our stroll which are all up HERE on Picassa for you to look at. Check out the cockrell with the golden ruff - he's just like Foghorn Leghorn!