19 weeks old and looking good...

What a beautiful end to September and some glorious days to lead us into October... It's given me a chance to clear up the garden a little and I've had a sprinkling of hen help... With Archie over seeing the work...


I've pruned the apple and plum tree... They sustained some damage with the high winds and bad summer weather that we had...


This is Abby... She's very gothic in her all black plumage... Hence the name... (NCIS)


The older girls are getting on better with the youngsters ... Although there's still a little harassment when they go into the coop...


I'm sure they'll all get sorted soon... However I think Archie will have to be re-homed... he's started crowing each morning ... Not at silly o' clock or anything but the neighbours will not be enjoying it... And it makes me cringe in anticipation of grief that might be coming.... I do quite like his crow though...


I don't handle my hens very often... To be honest I'm not keen on flappy things ... Mad to keep chicken then ... I'm definitely mad! But Archie hasn't tried to attack me or be aggressive towards me... He's definitely not fearful of me... He practically stands on my boots when he walks past me.. Lol

It will be a shame to see him go... But I dare say we'll hatch some more in April or May...

Better get on... Need to do something with the apples I collected from around the garden yesterday...

Take care
Alex
X


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4 months since the chicks hatched...

All the usual goings on here at chicken central... the youngsters are growing well and are sleeping in with the older 3... there has been some feather loss black and ginger one below only has one long tail feather left, but I am hopeful they are regrowing. Sir Archibald hasn't really started crowing in a nuisance kinda way, he's tried a few kazoo like warbling's and the only time he crowed good and proper was when the older girls were in a different coop...


I think the older hens make him feel less superior... however as he grows into a fabulously beautiful young man that might all change... he is a stunning bird though, currently not aggressive or flighty...


this little fella hopped out from under a water trough... luckily I managed to get him hidden away under the hedge before the girls spotted him...


and my 2 apple trees are ripening up well...


I'm not sure if these girls will start laying this year... they are 17 and a half weeks old and everyone (young and old!) is eating layers and growers pellets... they don't seem to bothered what they eat... lol

I must buy some more dried meal worms, they do love them!

Hopefully the sunny weather will continue for a little longer... its breezy and a little chillier in the evenings but beautiful during the day... makes up for the lack of good weather during the summer...

I have loads of chores to do before the bad weather arrives... wood pile to clear and stack out of the way and winter quarters to be set up for the coops... somewhere with added shelter and gravel flooring... hopefully the weather will hold till I get it all sorted..

take care
Alex x

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Almost mingling...

The youngsters are keeping to themselves, but also trying to integrate with the others a little ... but its only been 5 days...


However I think I can safely say that I have 2 boys...


The girls are in the middle... their tail feathers kind of give the game away! lol


My poor border had been neglected as we have been working on a new bathroom.. so I spent the weekend clearing weeds and once I had finished the girls and boys inspected it and found any bugs that I might have missed..


Luckily they didn't catch this one though...


Amber.... always ready to take a pose and show me her best side!

I have a treat for them today... corn on the cob... that should be entertaining!

xx Alex

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Young and old ...

Every now and again one of the youngsters takes it upon themselves to fly over the 4 ft fence ... On Friday evening I decided that it was time to remove the fence ..


We were all a little apprehensive!


However, the youngsters took a little wander across the boundary un hindered ...


Only due to the big girls pigging out on growers pellets ...


The red rooster did mess me about and go up on the cube run to roost, but I eventually got him down and into his own coop...
The next morning I let them all out together for the day... And left them to it..
By the afternoon they were trying to meet the grown ups ... Lol ... It's surprising how a little gardening can calm everyone's nerves... Lol


Self seeded sunflower from the bird feeder seeds...



And the fun and games begin at bedtime....



However I headed in to prepare the veggies for tea...


I'll sort out the daft rooster later... Lol

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Prepping for Christmas

Well it's only 5 months away and I'm on a mission to make all gifts this year be it edible, crocheted or sewn ....


I have a Victoria plum tree fit to bust ... I've posted a Delia recipe for plum ketchup on my other blog ... Pink feather paradise ... I've ordered a preserving pan that will work on my induction hob and bottles and ingredients from the jam jar shop... By the time they arrive the plums should be ready ...

I have 2 apple trees that are crammed full of fruit so something apple based will have to be tracked down too...

As we only have 2 girls laying ( Hettie's been a little under the weather, she did lay an egg yesterday... So hopefully she's on the mend!) but I have accumulated a dozen eggs that I am letting age a little so that I can pickle them...
I have been searching the net for a recipe that looks right and thanks to the accidental smallholder

(http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/articles/recipes/pickledeggs/)

I have found what I'm looking for ...

It a fab site and this is the recipe that I will kinda follow ! ;D
Looks like I'll be making home made hampers for Christmas present this year ... Plum ketchup, sloe gin, pickled eggs, wholegrain beer mustard and homemade cheesy biscuits ... I think family and friends will appreciate a gift made with love... Xx



Pickled eggs are easy to produce and taste fabulous - a great accompaniment to salads, cold meat, and fish and chips, or slice for a roll or sandwich.

Ingredients

Eggs (not too fresh)
Vinegar (see below for details)
Blackpeppercorns
Flaked chillies (optional)
Instructions

Hard boil the eggs in plenty of water - boil for at least 10 minutes to ensure they are completely set. While the eggs are boiling prepare your jars by washing them in very hot water and rinsing well. Check the rubber seals on the jars for signs of wear - if they aren't in good order get some new ones.
Meanwhile prepare the vinegar - you can use any vinegar but the flavour of your finished eggs will reflect the type of vinegar you use. Standard malt vinegar will be harsher than clear vinegar, while white wine or cider vinegar will give a more rounded flavour. Experiment to find what suits your taste and by all means mix vinegars.

You'll need about 1 litre of vinegar for each dozen eggs. Put it in a saucepan with a sprinkling or peppercorns and chillies if desired, bring to the boil and simmer for a minute or two.
Once the eggs are cooked cover them in cold water and leave to cool. Once cool shell and pack into your jars. Some people like to add whole chillies at this stage - if you prefer a bit of a bite then do likewise.
Sieve the vinegar and pour into the jars covering the eggs completely. Seal the jars well, and store for at least a month before eating. In a cool, dark place they will store well for over 6 months.



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Eglu Cube cleaning

As I sat looking at the fennel which seems to have self seeded itself I wondered how much longer a hen can take to lay an egg... it seemed like she had been in there for ages... the chicks had investigated my feet... waited for a meal worm treat then got bored and wandered off when nothing was forthcoming...


So I took a wander to the end of our long narrow garden, flanked on either side by 6ft hedges and surrounded by neighbours gardens...


I placed the spare roosting bars that I had already cleaned up against the run and pondered if she were almost done.... or whether she had just gone to sleep ... or god forbid she was going broody.... I investigated and she was not impressed! lol
So I removed the poop trays and set about cleaning them while she strutted up and down the garden proclaiming to all who would listen about the indignity of being disturbed while doing such an important job... she eventually returned to the coop and peace and quiet returned....


THe poop drawers just need the loose poo hosed off and then I spray them with a coop cleaner and give them a good scrub... takes about 10 minutes... including a period of time that I leave the solution on to kill any bugs...


after this I returned to the house to do some washing up and boring stuff... this I did not photograph... for obvious reasons... lol


eventually .... I returned to the cube and after sliding the roof forward and unbolting the back panel and removing it then un-slotting the partition between the nest area and roosting area I hosed it out to remove any debris.... then it was liberally sprayed with coop mix that also kills red mite...(better to be safe than sorry! ;D) then I hose this out to remove any chemical residue....


Usually I leave the coop to dry naturally... but as it was getting late in the day and the heat of the hazy sun had passed I quickly mopped up any remaining water with kitchen towel and set about rebuilding the coop...


The partition slotted back in...


the drawers replaced...


as I am using a bedding matterial that is finer than straw I have added a piece of rubber to stop it from falling down the drainage slot....


filled with bedding....


and the excess I sprinkled in the drawers... should make it easier to tip on the compost heap .... the drawers I pull out and empty each day... I use to line them with newspaper but I ended up with poopy paper that was tricky to compost as it really needs to be shredded to compost down quickly....


Roosting bars dropped back into place....


end panel slotted back on....


and bolted in...


roof slid back and bolted into place....


these are the dirty roosting bars that I will take back up and give a good scrub and then they'll be ready for next weeks clean...


This is Hettie... who's always in a flap about something... she's top chicken and enjoys pretending to be a cockerel.... I think she's a Speckledy... she's not laying properly at the moment... she was quite poorly a couple of months back after laying a huge double yolker... I found a pink fleshy sausage shaped lump in the run of the coop and after a bit of a panic and internet searching I found talk of a think called a LASH... this is where the lining of the reproductive system is expelled... although I have seen on explanation on Back Yard Chickens saying that it is a tape worm...
However, she is fine in herself... she did lay two eggs that had strange wobbly shells.... however she has now started laying soft shelled eggs... they have grit and oyster shell but I will be buying some poultry spice the next time I am at the farm shop.

Daisy Kate is my favorite girl... she had a good molt after hatching out the chicks and now she looks stunning in her bright white plumage... after the weeks of quite close contact, during her brooding, she is much less skittish and will wander around my feet... whereas before she would always keep away from me... I think she's a Sussex... however I'm not sure what the difference is between a Sussex Star and a Sussex... however she lays an egg every day without fail and last winter she laid eggs all the way through... she's amazing...


This is Amber.... she started laying in February and I think she must have seen her reflection in a puddle as she really is full of herself! lol
Noisy, opinionated and an eating machine... give her the option of layers pellets or corn ... she'll scroff corn! ;D
She's a Barnvelder and lays almost every day... sh's bigger than the other two... and waddles like a cowboy thats been on his horse for far too long! lol
While Daisy was away raising her chicks she stepped into number 2 of the pecking order and on Daisy's return to the coop bullied her mercilessly... hence the reason that I am holding off on the integration of the chicks....


The red one is the Cockerel... he's started flapping his wings and making kazoo type crows... so funny... he looks shocked afterwards as if to say "where did that come from?" the other 3 I am pretty sure are girls...
these were hatched from eggs from a flock of Black Rocks, which I later found out do not tend to breed true.... however they are beautiful... and all the black ones are slightly different... which is perfect... I'm still trying to think of names.... especially for the rooster...


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Chick naming....

Well after last nights fun and games this little soul has been awarded HIS name!


Yup... this little toe rag is a cockerel...
I was a little late popping down to shut up the coops ... so grabbing a torch for extra light in the dimming dusk I first closed up the youngsters in the classic coop.

I always open up the side door to do a head count and the ginger monkey was missing.... after a quick scan around I went and got Les and he came down to help search... the youngsters and the grown ups are currently separated by a 4 ft Omlet fence .... it would appear that for some unknown reason he had decided to join the big girls but as I found him hunkered down on top of the 5ft run on the eglu cube I assume the meeting did not go too well...

I managed to pick him up (only one small nip to my finger!) and put him back in the classic coop with his siblings...

This morning when I let them out I looked for injuries and found none... however I assume the kazoo like warbling's are his attempts at crowing...

Therefore Les has now named him .... Sir Crowalot...

he's also searching out food and making a different chirping noise and the others run to see what he's found... I think he's going to be very good at looking after his girls...


He's only eight weeks old ... so I assume he's an early bloomer... :D

The next stumbling block will be ... do I keep him... or do I get rid of him...?

I'd really love to keep him... but I am not a noisy person... while my neighbours have no problem with their loud music, barking dogs, screaming children, noisy cars and drum kits... I don't like to disturb others... never play my music too loud, don't allow my children to run around screaming for no reason... even the dog only barks on command... unless a visitor arrives and he tells us.. so can I keep a cockerel...

we'll see how we get on... I'd love to see him in all his plumage... he has some beautiful petrol tail feathers growing... I think he might be a good looking Rooster...


I changed the classic base from the flat rabbit base to the chicken coop base with roosting bars and nest box.... now it should be easier to keep cleaner... lol

Well thats all for today...
More to come soon... I thought I'd share the joys of cleaning out the Eglu cube with you all... lol ...





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The beginning ....

This is long.... very long! lol ... so you might need a drink and snacks!

It all started when I began a blog called Pinkfeatherparadise... and throughout the
following couple of years I read so many inspiring blogs and got a glimpse of all the possibilities that your life could possess if you chose to do something different and take a chance.... So I started dabbling with the idea of keeping chickens...
I had after all managed to learn to crochet and I was drawing and creating once again...


August 2010....

Seeing as we have a long grassy garden that the children never seemed to use it seemed a better idea to use it for something else....

So after weeks of investigation I bought an eglu cube on eBay and we drove to Wales to pick it up...

It stood empty... Ready for inhabitant for quite some time...



I was unsure if I was woman enough for the commitment I was about to under take... Could I learn everything required to keep some chickens healthy and happy... So I stalled in the purchasing of chickens...

September 2010....

As I hummed and ha'd about what flavour chickens I should get and where should i get them from and was I ready... would I manage... etc etc... we watched our almost 5 year old son start school... our 11 and a half year old daughter started secondary school and we decided to make sloe gin... and went gathering the berries from the surrounding fields around our village....


October 2010...

All the usual things happened during October...



and still I deliberated... and many excuses kept popping into my head... wait till the kids are on holiday... wait till after bonfire night... wait .... wait ... wait ...



November 2010...

Then I received an email from a fellow blogger who lives nearby and she enquired if I could re-home 3 of her chickens as she was expecting her second child and would no longer be able to keep her girls...

So with my heart in my throat I said yes and on Friday 18th of November Daniel and I popped over to collect them... Realizing for the first time that I didn't actually like things that flapped! ....

Karen and her husband caught the girls and placed them in the dog carrier and then it was lifted into the boot of my car... Once home I plucked up the courage to lift them out and place them in the cube...


I was now the terrified and yet so very excited owner of a white Sussex called Kate, her first port of call was the nest box...



a grey speckledy called Hettie, and a Barnvelder called Rusty... These two entered the cube flew down the stairs and investigated the run...



They settled in well... Kate, who is now Daisy Kate, soon laid her first egg... The Barnvelder wasnt yet laying as she was still a baby really... (Daisy have gone broody and Karen had placed some eggs under her and Rusty, now called Amber, was hatched) and if I remember rightly it wasn't long before Hettie stopped laying and started to molt.... which for a new hen owner was quite unnerving to watch... so with the aid of the internet and books I concluded that this was all very normal and all was well with my little feathered world...
I very soon realized that they deserved more room than the run gave them... plus Daisy Kate had dug a hole in the grass to teach her young friend how to dust bathe.. .which also scared me to bits to find the chickens lying on their sides rolling around on the dirt... lol ... so the garden was de-cluttered and the gate was made chicken proof and the stock fence in the hedges checked for holes.. I had no clue if they could squeeze through the fencing but there was only really one way to find out.... so I set them loose and waited with baited breath...


They didn't escape... they did however have a ball racing around investigating everything and anything....
As the weather started to take a change for the more wintery I decided that I would move the cube up under a flat roof area that the previous owners put up... so with a bit of huffing and puffing I managed to get it into place... its actually fairly easy to move but I had to bump it up a little step and it would have been easier with another pair of hands... but I'm and impatient girl and managed on my own.. lol



December 2010...

Well as predicted the snow arrived on the 2nd of December and I was relieved that I had moved the cube....



The girls were not overly impressed by the white stuff... for the first time every Daisy was in her element as she was now totally camouflaged... lol



January 2011... to March 2011

In February , Just before Valentines day, Hettie and Amber started laying eggs...



To say that I stunned my other half during the following months would be an understatement... from cold icy days through to warmer spring days I let out, cleaned out and fed and put away my girls... I had fallen in love with their clucky greetings and excited flapping and the coop was a fairly straight forward and easy clean.... no shoving my head in a smelly wooden box... I don't like big sheds so this was so much better for me...

April 2011...
After all the watching and spending so much time just watching them I realized that Daisy was not her usual self... so after chatting to Les (the very patient other half!) and a bit of research we realized her grumpy, growly, feather fluffing attitude was broodiness.... do I let her brood some eggs or wait for her to get over it ....?



So I waited and hummed and ha'd ( I do that a lot! lol) and I researched some more and eventually I dug out an old rabbit hutch and Les and I set about altering it so that it would work as a broody box... I wasn't too concerned about her stopping laying for a few months and she deserved a rest as she had laid right the way through the winter...


May 2011...
I set up the hutch with some fertile eggs that I bought from a friend in the village and transferred her from the cube (where she was hoarding the other girls eggs!) and placed her on her new fertile eggs...


The other 2 started poking their noses into the broody coop... so I erected a fence to keep daisy in the nursery area and the other 2 free ranging.... plus this meant if daisy came out to feed and poop then she wouldn't be tempted to go back to the wrong coop... she is a fabulous broody... she sat on those eggs for 21 days... some days I lifted her and made sure she did her business, fed and drank before she went back in...



We all waited with baited breath on the 21st... my neighbors must have thought me mad on all fours listening to a rabbit hutch... I think a web cam will be fitted for next time! lol

and on day 23 I opened the broody coop and she hopped out and tried to bring her 4 chicks with her.... you may notice in the edge of the above picture a little bit of green... yes I bought another coop from Ebay... this time an eglu classic rabbit hutch... its the same as the classic chicken although it doesn't have roosting bars or a nest area... (I have bought this though ready for next year and also in case I need to separate a bully once they are big enough to be all integrated together...)


it only has a meter run but we built an extension....

So where were we.... ah yes... mum escaped and babies were quickly shut in the hutch... I fetched a bowl and put wood shavings in the bottom and with much clucking and protestations from mum I placed the chicks in the bowl and transferred them to the classic coop.... mum could not be caught... she was not a happy hen... so I opened the side hatch


and in she jumped....



we added wood to stop the chicks form squeezing through the meld mesh... and a wooden ramp so that they could get up into the coop.... I did have to add a liver to the coop as the base is plastic and slippery and the chicks would not have been able to walk properly and run the risk of splayed legs...



Three black and one brown....
The eggs were from a flock of Black Rocks... which I later learnt do not breed true... so even now I have no clue what they will become... want to see them now?












Sorry for such a long post.... but I decided that I wanted to stop filling my original blog with all things hen..... lol ... I you read all the way to the end.... big hugs to you and well done... you deserve a cuppa and a sticky bun...:D

I'm no expert but I have learnt so much ... so if you have any queries or questions please ask... I will try to help if I can...

I will do a july post in a few days...

take care
Alex
x


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