Summer Care for Hens

Summer is here and isn't it brilliant!? It's easy to get carried away with seaside trips, sunbathing and barbecues, but make sure you remember your hens at this time. Here are some top tips for Summer chicken care.

It is essential that chickens have a constant supply of fresh water during the Summer as they will be particularly thirsty when it is a hot day. Our feeder drinker stand is perfect for hanging out an extra glugful of water. They should always have a shady spot that they can rest and cool down in. Our Heavy Duty Covers are ideal for this, and you can choose one that will cover the whole of the run or one that will give semi-coverage.

During the Summer you may spot your hens doing more dustbathing than usual. This is just their way of freshening up and helping to get rid of any pests. Of course, when the soil is warm from the sun it is even more tempting for them to roll around in.

Chickens often go broody in the Summer. You can help to prevent this by ensuring you collect their eggs regularly, but it may still occur. If your hen is broody she will try to stay in the nesting box all day. This isn't good for the hen as she may get dehydrated if she isn't getting up for water. Although she might get annoyed with you it is best to remove her from the nesting box to ensure she gets food, water and fresh air.

If you have an Eglu you won't need to worry about Red Mite, but for anyone with a wooden hen house make sure you watch out for these little beasties during the Summer. Hot weather brings out mite problems so make sure you inspect the house regularly, keep it nice and clean and use a good mite-kill spray inside the coop.

Sunbathing Chickens

We've had some cracking weather over the last week and we hear that chickens have been enjoying the sunshine just as much as us humans. Gilly emailed us to let us know how much her hens were loving the sun, and she sent a great photo of one of her gingernut rangers, Lynette, enjoying a spot of sunbathing.

Gilly said the other girls, Bree, Gabi, Juanita and Celia were still hunting for the right sunbeds as Lynette had stolen the best spot.

You Must be Yolking!?

If you've ever been lucky enough to get a double yolker from your hens you'll know that it can be a pretty eggciting little eggsperience. But can you image the surprise of cracking open 29 double yolkers in a row? It's a seriously unlikely scenario but this has just happened to one woman in Manchester. Charlotte Matthews was preparing breakfast for her family when she cracked the first of her double yolkers. 12 eggs down and she couldn't believe that each one she cracked was another double. It was at this point that Charlotte decided to start filming the eggstraordinary event, opening the rest of the box of 30 eggs .

Amazingly every single egg other than number 30 was a double-yolker...and Charlotte and her family had an awful lot of scrambled egg to eat! Apparantly the odds of finding a double-yolker are just one in a thousand, so this was really impressive. Don't believe it? Take a look at the video to see for yourselves!

Win Win Win!

We had hundreds of entries to our Cover Competition, so there must be loads of you that want to get your hands on one. There could only be three winners though, and they were Michele, Jim and Sue. Hopefully we will get some photos of the covers in action soon!

Don't worry if you didn't win this time, because we have another competition for you this month. How would you like to win one of our delightful new doorstops? You could get your paws on the fabulous feline, the brilliant birdhouse or the charming chicken. To win just email stephanie@omlet.co.uk with the doorstop of your choice and the reason you have chosen it! Competition closes Sunday 17th July.

From the Omlet Team

Tested by Barbara

Egg Cuber

"I’ve had great fun testing the “Egg Cuber” this week and the resulting eggs have certainly tickled everyone who has seen them appearing in lunchboxes and sandwiches. The Egg Cuber does exactly what it says. It turns a normal hard boiled egg into a square one. All you need to do is put a warm hard boiled egg into the gadget, screw the lid on firmly and leave it for a while. I’ve been experimenting by leaving some for 10 minutes or so in the fridge and others for the same time on the kitchen counter and both methods work equally well and when the lid is unscrewed, out comes a perfect square egg! It doesn’t work too well with smaller eggs though so it’s best to use larger ones if you can for the best effect. The gadget has a loose base which slips in before you pop the egg in so removal is an absolute doddle. It really couldn’t be easier! Square eggs make a real talking point when you take them out of your lunchbox. They fit perfectly when sliced into square bread sandwiches and as the gadget compacts the egg, it’s nice and firm and this makes it very easy to slice and cut into triangles too which look very pretty in a salad. The Egg Cuber is a small, neat gadget so won’t take up much space in a kitchen drawer either."

Doorstop - Chicken

It's not very practical to keep poultry inside, but if you are barmy about hens you could always opt for this charming chicken doorstop. It's not quite the real mccoy but we think it makes a super substitute, and it has 'impeckable' manners - it'll even hold the door open for you!

Buy now for £17.50

Children's Tea Picnic Set in Basket

This little set has everything that's needed to put on a perfectly pink picnic for four. The set consists of 4 tin cups and saucers, 4 tin plates, a teapot, 4 spoons and a gingham spoon holder, all complete in a dinky pink wicker picnic basket. It's all ready to pick up and carry to the garden, to join the other children, dolls or teddies!
( Please note this is unsuitable for children under 3 years.)

Buy now for £16.95