This is Sherri. She’s been a pbase star before a few times but I think this is the nicest pic I’ve done of her. She was on the top of the dry stone wall in the sunshine and just looked so beautiful I thought a pic of her would be a good thing for today.

She’s just started to lay again after a barren period over the winter so her comb and wattle are raised and red again for the first time in two or three months. When they go off their lay their combs shrink and go a pale pink instead of this vibrant red. She became top dog chicken when the uber chicken (Milly) died before Christmas. We're not sure quite how Sherri sneaked in and got the top spot because Terri has always seemed like the pretender to the throne but anyway that's what's happened.

We’ve had some sad news over night. The little chicks that were running around with our name on that we were going to introduce to our existing hens in a few weeks time, when they were big enough to fend for themselves and settle into the pecking order without too much mishap, are no more. A rat got into their incubator on the farm where they were being raised and ate the lot. The whole brood was gone in a single bad event.

That means we’re now waiting on a new hatch and hoping that they don’t befall the same fate.

We were really pleased to have found some really rare hens and only a few miles from here that it’s a blow but the farmer is working on getting us some more so we’re hanging on and hopeful of some good news soon.

So, Sherri remains top of the pecking order for now.

Dirty, dirty, dirty last year.