We picked up the chickens on Saturday morning, so the coop is no longer echoey and empty. Barbara, Margot and Gerry, after a little bit of hesitation, are now clucking happily around the garden, pooing on the lawn and plucking at the grass.

This is Gerry. She’s by far the most friendly, and happily sat in our arms as we had pre-dinner drinks on garden chairs on Saturday night. She almost went to sleep as we tickled her neck.

This is Barbara. She has the softest feathers of the flock, and while not quite so forthcoming as Gerry she’s in no way a shrinking violet. She really tucked in to a carrot top we plucked out of the plot for them to nibble on.

And finally this is Margot. She’s both the biggest hen in the flock, and the most timid. She has dug a wide shallow bowl at the back of the run that she spent most of yesterday having a dust bath in. I think she’s going to be a bit of a stand-offish diva.

No eggs yet - they’re too young for that, but in just a few weeks we should be cracking our first.

I have never known animals with such a capacity for either producing poo or destroying a lawn. In just a day they had the over-long grass in their 6ft x 3ft run shorter than I usually manage with the mower.

We’ll be tracking their progress, starting tomorrow morning, over at Blagger.

1. Barbara lays the first egg!
   After two days of walking around the coop in a half squat, Barbara has laid her first egg. In fact, the first egg of...
   
   
2. Four eggs, two rabbits and a fox
   Four eggs in one day The change in the weather these last few days has been unbelievable. Tuesday morning, I was cleaning out the...
   
   
3. Building a chicken coop
   The home-made elderflower champagne is still proving explosive. We've steam-sealed some caps onto the bottles, but even they don't seem to be up to the...