Meet the girls at long last.

For years I have wanted chickens but have never got any because of worrying about the neighbors complaining, which is really silly as we live in the country and have sheep, cows etc all around us not to mention a gazzillion barking dogs! We also have a small garden but last year we got our piece of field enabling us to make an allotment there thus freeing up space in the garden. I did a lot of research and found out about the allotment act of 1950, which put my mind at rest, to a degree, about the neighbours. Anyway last Sunday we collected them a black Maran which, I've named Maude, a light Sussex named Delilah and a Silkie named Flossie.

We shut them in their house when we got them home, Mr CB had made it on legs to discourage rats, so they have a ladder to climb down. Maude was out first then Delilah eventually after a little nudge Flossie looked out and there she stood for 1/2 hr or so! She has the hang of it now and is straight out in the mornings.

Maude is quite noisy she seems to be the announcer of any eggs being laid by her or Delilah.

Flossie is such a cute little thing but I don't expect her to lay many eggs, I had to have her as I do love Silkies.

And Delila is definately Mrs bossy boots and the greedy one she goes inside to lay her egg Maude starts cackling I go to quieten her, which makes Delilah come out to see if I have some food for her, this makes the egg laying process quite a long one.

Maude laid the first egg within 2 hrs of coming home and her and Delilah have laid each day.

As they are on bark in their pen I've put a shallow flower pot of soil in there for them to have a dust bath it's quite hard to see in the picture but they love this.

They didn't think much of yesterdays rain though.

Once they've settled in, had their wings clipped and I've moved all my seedlings down to the allotment they'll be able to rummage around the garden I and I'm sure they can't wait!