Northumbrian Notes

IN SPITE of the late preparations that I explained last month, I think, on balance, that the breeding season has got off to a better start than last year.

The main difference is that, with one exception, the Norwich hens have sat the eggs when set, whereas last year in the first round I had a string of Norwich hens that either refused to sit or left the eggs after only three days or so. This is especially important with the feeder hens being further back in condition (mainly because of late preparations through my Covid bout) and so they were left in the outside flight for longer. These are catching up now, however, and it turns out that there were six hens among the potential feeding pairs.

So, at the time