I didn’t let the chickens out yesterday as the weather was miserable. About six in the evening, I went to shut them in their shed and one of the black girls was the only one who hadn’t gone to roost. She tried to skip past me out of the door. I stopped her, picked her up and put her to bed. She hadn’t laid an egg by this morning, but I suspect she, and probably others, have been laying away.

There are two big black hens and one big brown one, and she actually did lay an egg – I know because it’s a distinctive khaki colour. Then there are Rose’s two bantams, and then the rest of the young ones, hatched last year. I think that they are actually off lay, but I don’t trust the rest of them. And I don’t want to have to search, fail and then have a clutch of chicks to cope with, not right now.

Having said that, I don’t feel the need to stock up unnecessarily, but I do think I’ll get some more chicken feed tomorrow. I’ve got a bag still, but I’ll be flummoxed if I run out and can’t get out to the shop.

I’ve been thinking about food; specifically the food my mother provided when I was a child. There seemed to be an awful lot of it and I wonder what happened to the leftovers. I think another blog post is coming on. But I may have to ask my sister first.

When I went out this evening, it had just stopped raining. But the chill has left the air. It’s still raining, but it’s spring rain, not winter rain. There may be cold weather ahead but the tide has turned.