Before we started our little free-range-egg operation I was under the impression that it was easy to sex a chicken.  I aimed my sights on pullets, not tiny chicks, so it should have been easy, right?  Hah!  I ordered five females from the local pet shop and took the children along to fetch them.  We were so excited that we couldn't resist another three which looked so sweet.  With eight potential egg layers in a box and a bag of food we headed home and released them into their specially constructed chicken run.

I must add here that we were complete novices and didn't even know that chickens like to fly (they fly?!) UP at night to roost.  Before we could shoo them into their house they disappeared.  One moment they were pecking around happily and the next they were gone.  All eight of them.  We were baffled!  A frantic search everywhere confirmed that they had escaped en-masse...