All is well

Tracey Beaker and Louise appear to be friends - Hooray!

All the chickens have been moved to the area at the end of our garden which I have fenced off. There is a reasonable sized run as well as a slide, a swing and a climbing frame for them to play on! I am letting them out on alternate days ie Tracey and Louise on one day and the terrible trio on the next - They all seem to be ok with this arrangement. - Except that since I moved them the eggs have dried up - not sure if this is a delayed reaction to coming to live with us. I think I will give it a little while - then start worrying.

Louise

Picked up Louise, who according to the Oracle (my daughter who knows all things TV) is apparently Tracey Beaker's best friend - I hope so otherwise all my cunning plans will have gone pear shaped and I will have to make hen house mark 3 and move to a farm or something....

I got some lovely flowers from my friends for my birthday - Beautiful aren't they?

Thankyou everyone!!










P.S also picked up 8 bags of horse manure!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Good news - another Buff Orpington has been found at the same place we got the others from so at last Tracey Beaker will have a friend. I am going to pick her up on friday evening. When I was picking the others up I noticed that there were bags of horse manure for sale so I might pick some of that up too!

It is also my 40th birthday today - I am now apparently officially old - NOT

Hen house mark 2

Have built another hen house so that tracey beaker and her future pal have somewhere of their own to sleep - and lay eggs I hope! Not quite up to the same standard as mark 1, but I am sure they will not complaing especialy as they will be away from the terrible trio.

Name that chicken

Yes the chickens now have names - The Buff Orpington is now Tracey Beaker - duly named by my daughter who is a great fan of the aforementioned TV icon (good name isn't it!). The Light Sussex is now 'Edwina' - no prizes for guessing why, the Rhode Island Red is now 'Florentine' (oeufs florentine - yummy!) and the Speckledy is now 'Pepper'

Chicken saga

Finally we picked up our hens and this is a run down of the past couple of weeks:

16th Feb - Hooray after alot of to-ing anf fro-ing I finally managed to pick up the three pure breed pullets that we had ordered (only 4 weeks after we should have picked them up!) We have got a Rhode Island Red, a Buff Orpington and a Light Sussex. I got them safely home and ensconsed into their house with some food and that was it until......

17th Feb - Opened the hatch for the chickens to come out and have a look - no sign of any chickens all day - diddley squat...not even a beak out of the pop hole...zilch - Then had the most amazing brainwave of getting a Hybrid hen because they tend to lay more than pure breeds - into the wilds of Norfolk I went and came home with a Speckledy hen. She was then also deposited into the house.....

18th Feb - Opened the pop hole this morning and waited....and waited....and at last the Light sussex poked her head out of the hole - I had put their food in the run and had put some grain on the ladder into the house to coax them down...eventually the light sussex came down into the run, then the speckledy hen, then the Rhode Island Red, then finally after what seemed like ages the Orpington came out.

The trouble was that the speckledy, rhode island and light sussex were all having a go at the Buff orpington, she ended up looking very sorry for her self cowering underneath the ladder.

19th Feb - The three naughty chickens were still having a go at the orpington so I have made a run extension to give them some more space - I have separated the orpington during the day and put her into the main house to roost. I am now searching for another orpington so that they can be kept separate from the others.

When I have sorted things out and have the time in the day light I will take some photos. We have had some egs though from the speckledy hen. I had the first one in a courgette souffle ala Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - very nice it was too!

More digging

Went to plot and managed to do quess what? - more digging. I also planted some broad beans into the bed where the others had got frosted, so I am hoping that these will get on a little better. I have also sown into modules some globe artichokes (purple and green), some brussels sprouts and some broad beans into newspaper pots, all of which are on my windowsill getting some rays. Again I totally forgot to take the camera, but I will definitely take it next time

Aching all over

I have very aching bones. Went to plot and nearly finished digging one of the beds for the peas and beans - did I say I ached? I also put more glass in the big greenhouse and moved the small greenhouse out of the way. I just need to order some odds and ends of glass to fill in the gaps and one of the greenhouses will be functional. Hooray!!

Everything is growing nicely apart from the broad beans that I started off in the house - There are only 4 left as all the others got mashed by the frost. I think I will just sow some more straight into the bed over the next couple of weeks. Hopefully these will do a bit better.

I still have a list that goes on forever of things I need to do, and I keep adding things to it which is depressing. At least the days are getting longer which makes me happy. Didn't take any photos today as I forgot the camera but I will next week. See ya!!!

Nest boxes

And a view of the nest boxes through the egg getting flap!
Hopefully lots of eggs.

Inside story 2

A view of the nest boxes from the inside

Inside story

This is the inside, with the perches (which are removable) and the pop hole.

The new des res

Buckingham hen palace - or is it Gin palace?
The Hen house is finished!
At last the hens have a lovely new residence ready for them when they get picked up at the weekend.