The days are short and the nights are long and cold.  During these winter days the chickens go “off lay” and they don’t start producing eggs again until the springtime.  The Maran cockerel and three hens came to join us after we bought them at the Fenland Country Fayre at the end of August.  Young birds when we bought them but now the cockerel has grown into a fine specimen and the hens are large and healthy.  Yesterday one of the hens produced a coffee coloured egg and today we received another one.  At last they are giving us something in return for board and lodging, love and affection…….and at the wrong time of the year too when an egg is nearly worth its weight in….. strawberries.