Saturday stuff

Up and busy around the house and garden this morning - very cold but lovely and sunny :) I put Lilac hen outside with the other girls to enjoy the sunshine and she pottered around with them in the garden. She is very thin  and very slow, though ...

The other big girls are laying well so I collected 4 eggs from them and one of the Serama pullets is also laying an egg nearly every day so thank you Mandy ( I think)

Later, after lunch I brought Lilac inside the house and then Compostgirl and I went to Hereford for a shopping trip, collecting a friend of Compostgirl's on the way. They went off and had a look around and I did clothes returning and then book buying, using up loads of money saved up on my loyalty card. Two "free" Robin Hobb books to get stuck into later this week AFTER I have done my tax return I think! We met up for hot chocolate and cake ( them) and coffee for me.

Home (via friend's house to drop her off) to a beef casserole cooked by Compostman while we were out and a sit by the fire to watch TV. Compostgirl and I enjoyed "The Voice" and then we all watched a "Father Brown" we had recorded earlier in the week.


I need to get on with crochet and sewing as I have realised that in another few weeks it will be time to start the seed sowing/chitting/plant propagation etc etc and then I will not have time! Eeek where has the winter gone? 

Washing a hen's pudenda...

Ha! Thought that would get your attention! Copying John Grey's tactics with lurid titles :)

The hen in question is of course Lilac. Her crop seems back to normal and she is in general good health BUT she won't eat much while inside so, although she is alarmingly thin I put her outside in the pale sunshine to wander around the garden with the other hens. She perked up as soon as she saw them and, after a bit of pecking order antics from Sweetiepie to remind Lilac that she is STILL bottom hen, they all ambled off to sunbathe and dig up the veg patch.

Lilac had a mucky bum because she is inside in a cat carrier and she can't perch so is sitting in her (copious) night time droppings, which is why her bottom fluff is getting caked with poo. When it dries it cannot be very comfortable so at the end of the day I gathered her up and washed her poo clogged feathers. I then cut off the offending feathers. Hopefully this will make Lilac more comfortable until she is strong enough to perch in the hen house at night.

In other news I have definitely found I am also intolerant to milk and cheese, as well as wheat. So that will make life a bit more interesting on the food front! On the plus side my weight loss is even more dramatic now I have cut out milk and cheese! I seem ok with butter and natural live yogurt though - apparently that is not unusual.

Tidying up the garden

It has been so wet and dull here recently :( I loathe days when there is no sunshine, I don't mind rain but gloom makes me gloomy.

 














So I decided to get outside and have a bit of a tidy up.

This bit of path is flooding so Compostman  lifted the slab and dug out a gravel filled soakaway underneath it. We also cut back all the dead plants and swept up the path.














 The lean to was in a right mess, full of all sorts of clutter. I cleaned out the double hutch and re instated Juniper the guinea pig in there for the winter as it is insulated and has a cosy cover to keep her warm. The Seramas were in there originally, but now live in the polytunnel

 I also put things away, threw things away and did a lot of recycling to make the lean to a tidy, workable space again as we do work in it out of the rain a lot.

 Much better!

 Then it was onto the chickens, I cleaned out the big girls house and put down more wood chips in the Mega Hen Pen. I also cleaned out their drinkers and feeders and topped them up with fresh food and water. I also gathered the eggs  - thank you girls :)

The Seramas live in the polytunnel now; I did have them free ranging in there in the day and shut in the Broody Arc at night but it is a bit small so I decided to move the smaller hen run and Eglu into the polytunnel so they would have a more spacious run and  the Eglu to sleep in to keep warm. Juniper also has her run in the polytunnel and so can have a run around undercover.

But first, I had to make some space!

Algy the Serama cockerel always wants to see what we are up to, he is such a friendly little chap :)

As you can see in an earlier photo the big girls are laying well but the littlees had not provided any eggs for a few days and here is why!

Someone has been creeping into this tangle of old plant to lay :)

Much tidier and now the Seramas not only have a warmer house to sleep in but a much bigger run.

I felt much happier after doing all this work :)

Chickenailia

To add to the three Serama cockerels I got earlier this month I now have three pullets. Milly, Molly and Mandy.

Millie is the black Silkie pullet at the front, with Mandy the white pullet behind her and Molly the pheasant coloured one at the back (hiding)

 Ginger the Cockerel thinks they are lovely!

 A short video to show the difference in size between the big girls and the Seramas

All the new big hens are now laying regularly and Mandy the white Serama lays most days so we have lots of eggs now :) I made some baked scotch eggs from hard boiled Mandy eggs last Sunday and they were yum :)

On the mend.

Thank you, all of you, for the good wishes and comments recently :) I am now mobile and out of bed and on the way to recovery - still on medication and still feeling general pain but the hand and arm now look like they are  my hand and arm, again.

So here are some of the things we have been up to in the last few weeks before the dreaded Blandford Fly got to me!

I only have two chickens now, but Poppet (aka Amber) and Sweetie are doing their best to create as much mayhem as a whole flock of hens!  With the various digging and weeding and new flower bed creating going on here they have had ample chance to dig up seedlings, dust bathe in new seed beds and generally be, well, hens.

And then they have to have a snooze, to recharge their batteries, ready for the next bout of naughtiness :)

 Annoying though their antics sometimes are, I would not be without them :)

I hope to have some more hens soon but am re thinking how and where to keep them to try to avoid more fox losses.

He, is a she... and other chicken news.

In other news, Blondie the chicklet has been re named Blondin the ( escapologist) Cockerel - he has finally perfected his crow ! Blackie is ( I am pretty certain) a pullet and is already a HUGE one  - she is only 11 weeks old and is already far larger than the adult hens.





And we are having some fabulous sunny days :) The autumn colours are finally here :)

Chick update - 4 weeks old today

Nutmeg and her two chicks. They are four weeks old today :)

See how big they are!




I think the black one ( a Copper Black Marans) may be a cockerel

I'm not yet sure about the blond one (Wheaten Marans x Cream Legbar)

Whatever, they are very entertaining and Nutmeg continues to be a superb mum to them :)

A bad back and chick antics

Life has got a bit harder this weekend as on Friday evening I somehow "did something" to my back and by Saturday am could hardly walk - a shame as I was due to be on a Master Composters stall in Ross all day - which I had to cancel :(

I hate letting people down.

But I managed to hobble to see what the chicks and Nutmeg were up to, which raised a smile on my face :)

Cassi Cat got a bit too interested and Nutmeg chased her away

And then Nutmeg found the newly cleared raised bed, full of lovely, dry, compost. A giant dust bath!

New arrivals and a very proud, very caring Mama Hen

This is what I videoed, yesterday afternoon.

And this is what greeted me when I went out to check on Nutmeg this morning :)

Two chicks have hatched!

The dark one is a French Copper Blue Marans, the creamy one is a French Wheaten Marans cockerel x Cream Legbar hen.

And here is a video of their first few steps :)

Nutmeg, aged nearly 6, a generic ginger hybrid, first time broody hen :) Well done lovely hen :)

New floor tiles and nearly, new chicks :)

 Compostman hard at work laying down the new terracotta floor tiles. They are lovely, but how I wish we had not had to spend the money and take the time to do this unexpected work.

 Oh well, they do look good and won't get damaged if we have any other water leaks

On to happier stuff.  See the pipping? :)

More news, tomorrow :)

A dreadful day.

Yesterday was a dreadful day :(

It started out with one of the four eggs under Nutmeg being rejected by her and pecked to bits - an embryo in it but deformed, which is presumably why she rejected it and shoved it as far away from her as possible - broody hens are very good at spotting non viable embryos.

Later on found the flooring was not usable again for the lower Kitchen so we had to go into Hereford and buy new floor tiles, for a room which was only refurbished a few years back and was not scheduled to be re done for many years . And, is taking lots of time for Compostman to do, which he was intending to spend re doing the pool area with the JCB as it is dry and fine.  Grrr.

And then finally at bedtime we were disturbed by knocking from a neighbour, who had accidentially hit Gizzie with their car, on the lane outside our  house.  Gizzie was killed instantly, which was a mercy, but it was horrible. We were all very upset, especially Compostgirl :(

Am glad today is over.

Marjoram update

She is still with us :)

She is still living in the house in the cat carrier but now goes outside during the day with the other hens , who on the whole are kind to her :)

I DO watch to make sure, though .

I take her outside when I go out to sort out Chicken Village, I put her down at the top of the wood, where  Chicken Village is situated.

I get Nutmeg out from her Broody Duties, and the two of them eat together - they were good friends before Nutmeg went Broody and Marjoram went moulty and then ill.

No other hens interfere as they are still shut in, it is just these two old girls, together :) And me - another old girl, sitting on the bench, drinking tea and chatting to them. Sometimes Cassi Cat joins me :)

Then Nutmeg goes back to The Eggs and Marjoram finds a quiet and sunny spot to sit and rest :)

Hen stuff

I have been candling the eggs Nutmeg is sitting on

 Home made candling stuff


Tube, very bright torch, cardboard with hole cut out so egg sits on it ( and does not fall through!)

All four eggs seem fertile, possibly one is not.

We shall see, on day 22! (28 August)

Nutmeg update.

So, with Nutmeg very firmly ensconced on The Eggs, my morning routine has had to change a bit.

I now go out and open the door of the Brody Ark where Nutmeg greets me with a frenzied crescendo of
 " bock bock bock" while I carefully pick her up off the eggs and put her outside.

I have already put her food and water bowl nearby, so she has to move towards it, rather than turning round and going straight back inside to The Eggs.

 here they are - two French Copper Blacks (dark brown) a Dorking x French Wheaten (pale) and a Cream Legbar x French Wheaten ( Blue)

 I quickly shut the doors so Nutmeg can't get back in until she has eaten, drunk

 and eliminated. Broody hens only poo once a day and do huge, very smelly ones. Like this.

While I guard her eggs, Nutmeg eats a bit of grass, does a few stretches and flaps her wings. Then with a huge "squaarrrk" she heads back to the Broody Ark and I let her in.

I do this before I let any of  the other hens out and I shut the others in at night a bit earlier than normal so I can let Nutmeg out again last thing at night for more food and drink.


If I didn't do this I don't think she would bother - I have seen a broody hen turn to skin and bone, rather than leave her eggs and I do not want that for Nutmeg.

Fingers crossed, so far, so good.

I finally cracked...

ha ha 

and tonight , despite a very aching bad back. went out and drove around a fair bit of my local patch in order to get four fertile eggs for Nutmeg my broody, 5 year old, virtually stopped laying eggs, ginger hybrid, (never had one gone broody before). She is now settled on them and gave an aprreciative purr after I put them under her

Watching her tuck the eggs under her, croon a bit and "nestle down" on them made my back ache from driving to get the eggs ( thank you Jo at Hansnett farm ) worth while

The things I do for my hens.

 She was SO pleased and  I feel very happy that I could make her so content

*If* ( big ask I know) she manages to hatch them I will have a very interesting mix of chicks - but am not counting my chicks before they have hatched,...! Just happy to let her try to do what Nature is asking of her

Monday snow

Hello, all :-)

The Hens finally ventured out today, they were slightly mollified by my leading them to a patch of green grass ( I cover up patches of ground when it snows, so I can uncover grass especially for them!)

But then they went and sat grumbling in the Barn for an hour.  Ungrateful girls that they are, they jumped into a wheelbarrow of used bedding and flung it out all over the floor of the Barn, for me to find and clear up later.

And then they all trouped back inside the Mega Hen Pen and sulked.

I think they don't like the snow :-)

I also found that the netting on my netted Kale bed had collapsed with the weight of snow, damaging quite a few plants :-( so I picked off the broken tops and we will eat Kale for the next few days - the tops are deliciously tender and the side leaves will be turned into a kale, potato and chorizo soup tomorrow I think. Hopefully the side shoots will re grow on the stems still in the ground.


As there has been a slight thaw Compostgirl went to school ( both the school and the school bus obliged!) and we managed to get our car out of the drive and out of our (very icy indeed) lane onto the (clear) main road and into Ledbury to do some bits and pieces of shopping at lunchtime - I went to a charity shop and nearly got a lovely cashmere jumper, but someone else just beat me to it :-(

The pavement was very icy in Ledbury and lots of people were walking on the roads - dangerous but understandable I guess.

More snow forcast for here tonight so after chores we sat inside by the fire watching "Father Brown" and drinking hot chocolate. Anyone else watching "Father Brown" (on BBC1 at 2.10 pm) Really good!

Stay safe and warm, everyone.

Feathers everywhere!

 Like this!
 

So - out of seven ex battery hens five of them are moulting, and I am only getting two or three eggs a day.

Nutmeg is slowly losing all her feathers and when she has a shake a small cloud floats into the air around her.

 The Mega Hen Pen looks like there has been a chicken plucking contest going on in there, loads of ginger feathers EVERYWHERE ( and lots of oven ready looking hens running around!)
 
 


Titch the baldest hen is still laying , but her egg shells are so very fragile - even with added limestone powder and Poultry Spice she lays soft shelled messes in the nest boxes nearly every day . I do wish she would stop - not because of the mess ( although I admit it is a pain to have to clean out the nestbox every day) but because it is such a burden on her system to be moulting feathers AND laying eggs. I worry about her being able to cope, poor hen.

 
 Tiny Hen, who was such a concern earlier in the year, now has a full set of beautiful feathers and lays now and then, lovely dark brown eggs of an identical shape each time.

When I let the hens out at lunchtime they all leg it into the garden like extras from a "Benny Hill" show doing the chase scene at the end, feathery knickers flying, some to lurk in the barn ...

 

and some to go and hang around under the bird feeder, hoping to mug the wild birds for seeds.

Hungry Chickens...be afraid...be very afraid.

For all of you who have EVER wondered why chicken keepers go to so much trouble to keep the chickens out of the vegetable garden.

As it has been SO wet here, the hens have been shut in their run rather a lot. So I thought I would give them a treat. This was a pot of  Kale which I put in the chicken run.

Watch...

"Let me get at it!"

5 minutes later...all gone. See the bare stalks!

And that, dear Readers, is why I DON'T want the feathery ladies ANYWHERE in the veg garden or the Polytunnel!