Still feeling shaken by the recent and sudden loss of Myrtle (bluebelle hen) to neural Marek’s disease, I’ve been watching the other girls intently for signs of illness or anything untoward. Generally, they seem well.

However, I’ve recently noticed a shape change to the pupil of Ginny’s (Speckledy hen) left eye and slight pigment loss to the iris with a grey area. The pupil no longer round and uniform in shape as it previously was, I could of course be worrying over nothing but then again it could be early stages of Ocular Marek’s. If it is, the reality is certain blindness and whatever else the disease decides to throw at her. I have been testing eye reactions whenever possible and the pupil dilates and contracts as normal, meaning that she still has sight in this eye.

On a lighter note…. We visited a great poultry place in Sharnbrook, Bedfordshire today called Cock and Pullet (love the name!). They have a fantastic range of traditional hand-built (on site) coops, none of the flat pack flimsy rubbish I often see being sold at ridiculous prices that won’t even last a winter. They hatch their own pure breed and hybrid chickens, ducks and geese and there’s a feed and bedding shop too (I bought a sack of Marriage’s layers meal, having heard great things about it). Helpful and friendly staff, we were given a tour around the farm. They really knew their stuff and I was really impressed with how they kept their animals, particular the very spoilt ducks and geese who even had their own lake!

So that’s the latest on the girls, as you can see they seem pretty happy and healthy, fingers crossed things stay that way.