Hens in the City

And then it was 2012

2012-01-01T18:25:00.000Z

So the start of a new year and a chance to reflect on the year that was and the year ahead and a definite sign of old age when you think "that was a really fast year!".

It may be the middle of winter however our special early flowering daff's never fail

After such a severe winter in 2010/11, so far we have hardly had a frost never mind the snow and freezing temperatures of last year. The mild weather has had some odd consequences with daffodils already in flower, hawthorn in early blossom and new leaves already showing. Tender plants from last summer are still growing (cannas, gingers and echiums all doing well) though I guess at some stage that we should get ready for some chill conditions.

Nigella and Ruby both managed to complete their moults though both of them looked truly dreadful for a while however both are looking lovely at the moment, shame then that egg production has dried up again. Harriet managed to finish her broodiness AND started laying again. All doing great then Tallulah decided it was her turn to go broody and as we know from experience, Harriet is never one to pass up the opportunity of sitting next to somebody in a nest box. So both silkies then decided to take up nest box residence! Serious broodiness was not on Harriet's mind however she stopped eggs and even though she only sat intermittently she then had another huge moult, white feathers all over the garden (looked as if a pillow had been murdered!).

"middle of winter, of course I'm going to moult" - as told by Ms Harriet

Talking of murder, and excuse repeating myself if I already have mention this but even in London we are not free from marauding herons. So a trip down the garden to let the chickens out one morning I noted that there were no goldfish to greet me when I walked past the pond. Okay the fish hardly leapt out of the water to shout hello but on seeing somebody walk past they generally swam up on the chance of food. This I fear could have been their demise as instead of hiding at the bottom of the pond on the arrival of the heron the poor goldfish actually swam to him for a cheeky fish pellet or two. Tragedy really as we lost 9 of our fish including the lovely Mr Swishy who was here when we moved in some 8 years ago. We now have a leaking pond so the liner needs replacing (thanks heron), and five very scared fish who live in the very bottom of the pond and we never get to see them!

Still, although I fear some form of winter will still materialise, the longest night has now passed and although we are slow to pick up on it Mother Nature is always a gear up on us so hopefully at least three chickens laying within the next few weeks. Already mistle thrushes are singing out and pairing up and the more correctly seasonal bulbs are pushing up through the winter earth ready to give us a wonderful show of flowers later this month and into the early spring.

I am not one to make resolutions however last year I vowed to not buy ANY bloody food magazines. Yes I love cooking but I also have a huge amount of cook books and in truth if I have ever cooked more than 10 recipes from any individual book than I think that it would be a wonder. Plus there is a huge resource on the internet anyway so I did it. One year, no food magazines purchased - same that I spent the same money on buying gardening and French living magazines instead. Well at least the thought was there. 2012 and my resolution is to get back into the allotment. Not for any reason other than time and circumstance has that poor plot been neglected in the past couple of years really though it has produced far more than we should have got. Needless to say I hope to have some good updates this year.

As you can see I think that we might have a lot of work on at the allotment.

Personally it has been a somewhat full on year and not all for the positive as the saying goes "such is life". 2012 is going to be great so may I take this opportunity to wish you all a most prosperous, happy and successful year.

Autumnal scribbles

2011-11-16T17:17:00.000Z

Cotoneaster laden with autumn berries

Summer theoretically arrived as a large moist patch over the UK and then promptly left. Autumn has been a heatwave and only now in mid November are the temperatures slowly heading to where they should be. It has been until the last week amazingly mild. Saying that I have just come in from walking the dogs and although no jacket was required gloves were and there was a distinct hint of chill in the air. Wonderful, I need some realistic seasonality.

There is an incredible amount of berries festooning all the bushes this year and the colour of the leaves has been truly one of the best years I can ever recall. However not quite cold enough yet to see any winter thrushes to take advantage of the bounteous berry harvest.

Summer has also not been best either with a continuing battle with my spondyloarthropathy/gouty arthritis and uveitis. Once one seems okay, another kicks off so some of the projects I had planned have been shelved and work at the allotment again has suffered.

Tallulah

Despite this the chickens have gone through the normal cycles of chickendom. We had a very odd period of almost eight weeks with no visible eggs. As the girls had the run of the garden during the summer and early autumn they had access to lay in a nestbox in the garden shed however nothing in the shed and nothing in their normal chicken house? I did think at one stage the eggs were being stolen by some wild creature as Tallulah (she of the thin eggshells) was most definitely laying somewhere. However a good clean out seemed to reveal the problem - the eggs were being broken in the nestboxes. The lump that Tallulah has underneath her has grown, she seems very happy as ever and apart from the lump and an occasional mucky bum she looks in wonderful condition (she is now familiar with the hosepipe and hair dryer for that quick chicken makeover) however I do think that whatever that lump is it does affect the way she produces eggs. The last couple of eggs that have been laid by Tallulah that haven't been already broken are so fragile that they normal break when you pick them up. So much for trying to aid her with added calcium in the diet. At the moment we will leave her but as soon as she looks the slightest bit uncomfortable then down to the vets I think.

Anyway Harriet to the rescue as she is now laying her regular 5 eggs a week. Nothing from the Sussex girls as both are going through a major moult at the moment.

Good to see Stella

In October we went and spent a week in Cheshire and took a visit to the lovely Sue and her Mum at Victoria's Poultry. As ever they were incredibly busy and doing a major overhaul of their waterfowl area. We even got to see Stella, the Buff Orpington we hatched took back to Sue. Needless to say we came away after a great morning with dreams of all the new chickens that we wanted! Max and Millie our naughty dogs came along and actually I was quite amazed at how well behaved they were.

So its now dark when I leave for work in the morning and dark in the evening when I get home. The winter run is now in its fourth? year so no more garden time for the chickens however they do have their luxury winter home. Super skylon, nestbox in the sky has been reinstated this year along with "The Terrace" a row of three outdoor nestboxes so that should stop any squabbles over laying space!

Harriet happy in Skylon

And finally - a bit of sad news. After eight years of happily keeping our goldfish in the pond we had a raid from a heron who has wiped out most of the fish - they are in shell shock at the moment and hiding at the bottom of the pond but but I think we have lost 10 out of 15 including Mr Swishy our original fish - 9 years was not a bad inning for him.

Okay folks - Christmas ahead, brace yourselves for 6 weeks of marketing hell and just to let you know I have already seen a Christmas tree and lights in the window of a house in our street and its not even "Stir Up Sunday" yet.

Happy Christmas (just teasing, hopefully a blog before then!)

Weekend Chickens and the joys of a weather "app"

2011-08-30T21:26:00.000+01:00

Forest Hill's noisiest chicken - Tallulah!

Sometimes I bloody dislike those chickens! Right I'm the first one not to have a lie-in but seriously, 7am on a Sunday morning and you are not going to be best popular with husband or neighbours when all the girls start screeching.

Not an alarm call, just that really annoying noisy clucking cum half strangled squawk that got me out of bed to both see what the matter was and stop the wretched din. And the problem causing this poultry furore? That would be Harriet using the nestbox that Tallulah wanted to be in. For goodness sake you would have thought that Tallulah could have at least used the nestbox next door but no, she stood there screeching at the top of her voice, Nigella joining in just because she could and Harriet answering them back. Letting them into the garden solved the problem however after all that din we only got one egg.
As I said, bloody chickens.

By odd coincidence I took some video of the girls feeding off a corn cob stuck on a skewer and dangling from a wire. A bend in the skewer has been a new addition as it twirls the corn around and keeps the girls amused for considerably longer than previous. It's alway good to do at this time of year as corn is so cheap however I do realize it's not doing anything for the girls egg laying abilities and girths. Oddly looking back it was almost a year to the day since I last videoed them doing this very thing.

Chasing the corn

RainAlarm failed to tell me about this

Much can be said of the Great British summer, for I remember it well and sadly finished in June. The past week has been the normal cycle of rain, sunshine, heavy rain, glimpse of sun, very heavy rain, vague daylight, monsoon.
In a moment of apparent or indeed abject stupidity I downloaded an app for the iPod called RainAlarm - what a wonderful waste of time.
Firstly due to the constantly inclement weather it doesn't stop pinging and telling me that there is precipitation 4.3km away, 4.2km, away, etc. Of course what it's not telling me is that I am soaked to the skin while cleaning the chickens out and it doesn't seem to realise that the heavens have actually opened up over me! Why no monsoon warning for SE23?

Still, we can but cherish the moments of sunshine and warmth and rejoice in the fact that at least all the slugs and snails that are reproducing rampantly in these moist climes are providing a veritable feast for the girls. Lets hope it provides the edible stimulus for laying more eggs!

Harriet - all she wanted to do was lay the egg.

Three years of chickens and Hens in the City

2011-08-23T18:56:00.000+01:00

Goodness me - how time flies when you are having fun/keeping chickens.

It's now three years since Harriet arrived in our lives, closely followed by Ruby which means that its also three years since I started this blog - heavens, that's longer that a Katie Price marriage!

The one and only Ms Harriet Princess Ping Pong McEllis

In some ways it really doesn't seem that long ago since we got the chicken run shortly followed by the Silkies, Harriet and Lottie, the first occupants however they were followed the very next day by the Sussex bantams Ruby, Cybil and Margot. I recall with great trepidation the first time that we let them out into the garden.

A rare photo of Ruby NOT moulting

I have no idea why we ever thought we had to worry. After three years we have gone through the process of hatching and loss, arrivals and departures. The garden has developed into an area of plants that can generally withstand the girls once they are established though the lawn does need areas re-turfing each year.

The girls do an excellent job at demolishing slugs and snails though this year they did wipe out the lettuce faster than the aforesaid molluscs!

There is no doubt that the greatest joys of the chickens are the eggs. Glorious in taste, there is absolutely no comparison to shop bought eggs to the eggy joys the girls produce. Although they are bantams and therefor bantam eggs we have found that the yolks (as well as being the most amazingly bright orangey yellow)are larger that those of a normal sized egg which could well account for the fantastic flavour. It really doesn't take long to get the hang of working out recipes with bantam eggs instead of the normal "recipes are based on large eggs" scenario. I wonder if the slug and snail diet makes the eggs tastier?

Tallulah - her of the saggy bum

Nigella - beware dogs and actually everything!

Poor Lottie passed away at a fairly early age. Cybil and Margot departed for a new life in rural Bedfordshire due to the fact that noisy early morning bloody chickens in the city do not go down well with the neighbours (and no, rural Bedfordshire is not a synonym for "in the oven")

So onwards to the next two lovelies that arrived. One is a partridge colour Silkie (I think she's a partridge colour? Do correct me if I'm wrong)called Tallulah. To say she was shabby when she arrived is an understatement however she moulted out into a lovely bird. She does have something of a dropped undercarriage and all the old poultry keeping books suggest that she should be straight into the pot however she's a happy hen and not a bad layer though she does turn out some very thinly shelled eggs. And of course Nigella the Destroyer. A silver Sussex (as was Cybil whom we had to move on) Nigella is full of attitude. On the positive side she takes no nonsense from the dogs and will quite happily chase Max. Unfortunately Max thinks that Nigella is playing so he takes his ball over to her so she can throw it! I have to say that I do love the Sussex bantam as a breed.

So still very happy with our "girls" and we are forever indebted to our lovely neighbours who are always more than happy to chicken sit when we are away. It was also lovely to meet Alan and Sarah in the park the other day, more fellow chicken keepers in our road. Hopefully at some stage I might get to upload some pics of their girls.

Despite the oddness of the weather and blight attacking lots of people outdoor tomatoes we are doing good, harvesting lots of fruit and veg. Tomatoes and outdoor ridge cucumbers are doing well, just planted out kale, calvo nero and celeriac at the allotment for winter crops and also just had our first chilli of the year - yup it was a right hot little bugger even though it was still green. Courgettes haven't overwhelmed us yet - you can always tell when there are too many as its straight to the glut crop recipe pages! We also have some really good squash coming on for later in the year. Just trying to fit in a last crop of Florence fennel as the first lot got too hot and bolted but think I'm too late.

So three years just went that'er way. Thank you for reading and your comments and all of those of you who contact me via facebook about the chickens (and don't forget the read the latest Max and Millie

Ruby after being severely "app'd" by my hubbie

Celebrations - any excuse for a glass of fizz

2011-08-14T11:22:00.000+01:00

A bit of a celebratory blog this time for a couple of reasons. Firstly it's now two years since my lovely husband and I got "married". It seriously doesn't seem to be that long ago and it's been a wonderful two years.

Me and my man

Secondly its a year since Millicent Hermione Oprah McEllis arrived into our lives. From the frightened little smelly black dog she has now grown into a very beautiful young lady with a huge appetite, wiggly bum and the most lovely demeanour as long as she can't see another dog!

Being licked to death by a very happy Millie

The joy of chickens - how I love to see them wandering around the garden, scratching through the lawn, trashing the dahlias, getting into the pots and rooting everything out, eating lettuce so loving grown. How I would love to see them all in a nice chicken casserole!

Seriously for a moment, the garden has passed the point of being established for the summer. All the delicate young shoots are now healthy plants and strong enough to usually survive an onslaught of the chickens so as they pass through the borders chomping snails and bugs as they go all is normally well. This year Miss Harriet has had the devil in her. Every pot is fair game and despite my continued optimism that the damage is never that bad the sight of a white silkie surrounded by the devastation of what was a collection of lovingly grown plants. Silkies can thank their lucky stars that their blue skin stops me from throwing them in the roasting pan.

Naughty chickens - Harriet, Ruby and Nigella waiting for a treat

Saying that, egg production, while not going to make us millionaires, is doing okay with a couple of eggs each day which is more than enough for our needs.

For some reason a couple of the chickens (Miss Harriet and Nigella shall remain nameless) seem to get mucky bottoms. Why this should be I can offer no answer, especially as Ruby has never ever had a problem. It just means that once a month there is a rather undignified bum washing ceremony however the girls do look especially lovely after the event and they always get a treat to counteract the indignity.
Thanks to all who baked and commented on the plum clafouti recipe. I’m glad that you enjoyed it. Saying that I am still loving this huge harvest of blackberries and can hardly stop myself picking more every time we go out to walk the dogs. Our dear friends Tim and Katt came over for Sunday lunch with their lovely son, Finn so decided to cook another clafouti recipe I found which was even more delicious. Here it is

Blackberry and raspberry almond clafouti

Heat the oven to 190c/gas 5. Lightly butter a 23cm flan dish or tin (again not loose bottomed or it all dribbles out)

To make the batter mix together 50gm ground almonds, 2 tbsp plain flour, 100gm golden caster sugar 2 bantam eggs and 3 bantam egg yolks. Beat this up with 250ml of double cream.

Scatter 400gm mixed blackberries and raspberries in the buttered dish

Pour over the batter

Bake in the oven for 20 – 25 minutes until well risen and golden.

Best served warm as opposed to really hot, and with lots of cream

So the end of another week, here's hoping that summer returns soon, I need some sunshine! As ever, don't for get to also check out Max and Millie's blog - link in the sidebar.

July ramblings

2011-07-28T16:26:00.001+01:00

True to say that a week was going to be far to optimistic in doing a follow up blog however I think that in current times five weeks is not bad going for me.

Enjoying a French evening

Summer as described in the prior update has now fizzled out, the scorching temperatures of earlier months has now returned to the norm of grey, moist and humid days, the occasional glimpse of sunshine equated with torrential rains. Needless to say it plays havoc with your tomatoes if you are growing them outside.

At the end of June we went out to Limousin to visit my sister and her partner who have very happily settled into the French way of life. While we were in the lovely little town of Le Dorat it really was exceptionally hot but glorious, the downside being that for a couple of nights sleep eluded everybody due to the heat and a bloody black redstart that insisted on calling at 4am for about an hour! All of our adventures are in husband's excellent blog, just click on the Max and Millie link opposite.

What I wanted to mention was how lovely and completely unspoiled the entire area is, for me it recalled country lanes in the Cheshire of my youth and a pace of life that somehow I think I want to embrace. Needless to say its not a fast process however I do feel that we shall be spending more time in Limousin.

While we were there we did visit a very large country market which not only had the most amazing selection of goods from stunning pre 1970's nylon leisurewear to mattresses, tripe sausages (which we accidentally bought and manfully tried to devour but failed miserably) but lots of stuff for the garden from plants to mini-tractors and livestock. You literally could by anything from a horse to a hen.

On the practical side of it husband wasn't overly happy with the way ducks, geese and chickens were dealt with, crammed into cages then boxes, dignity and welfare out of the window. It's a farming community with little time for compassion, in real terms it looked worse than it was in reality. Once you left the utility area however there was a good selection of fancy poultry, silkies seemed very popular, and lots of other odd pets. If you wanted to buy a chocolate labrador well you were in luck along with a good selection of ferrets, budgies and indeed all manner of creatures that were not going to end up on the table.

All in all it was a very interesting and fun experience though despite my general happiness at eating most things apart from celery I very much doubt I will be having andouillette (tripe sausage) again.

Recipe with eggs as promised in last blog is as follows and not only is highly seasonal but of course uses eggs. My sister made this for us (the cherry version) and it was delicious (and apparently from the Limousin anyway)
Cherry (or in this case, plum) clafouti
Firstly bear in mind that this is a kind of sweet Yorkshire pudding and secondly make sure your baking dish is big enough as if the batter is too deep it gets stodgy in the middle (not a bad thing but the idea is summer and not stodge)
You need a 22cm dish in which you put 2 tsp vegetable oil and get it into a hot gas 7 oven
In a big bowl mix 75g plain flour and 50g caster sugar (or more if the plums aren't ripe) then whisk in 5 bantam eggs (or 4 normal sized ones I guess) along with 250ml milk (full or semi-skimmed).
Stone and chop 400g plums, small plums got chopped into quarters so take it from there. You do need them cooked after all.
Once the oiled dish has hit the required temp quickly mix plums into batter then whip dish out of oven, pour in plummy batter mix then get back into oven asap!
Cook for approx 30 minutes - don't peek!
After the prescribed time you will have a lovely golden puffed clafouti which will collapse within 5 minutes but no matter as it tastes better after waiting around for 10 minutes.
Dust with some icing sugar and serve with cold cream - delicious

Needless to say you can use cherries. It also tastes great cold

Nigella

The chickens have of course been feeling the seasonal desire to go broody. Harriet as reported, did eventually finish her spell only to be followed by Tallulah who I managed to persuade to finish slightly early, Ruby who got finished off within two weeks so hopefully all have now had a broody attack which will see them over the summer. All have gone into a huge moult apart from Nigella so the garden looks as if it is suffering the remains of a major pillow fight. We did have a most odd week when there were no eggs at all. At one stage I thought that maybe the eggs were being taken but no, laying resumed this week. It's odd not having any eggs!

Small snippets of information. Winter always causes a problem with trying to provide the birds with some greenery or forage. I know that they will do well on just pellets with the occasional scattering of mixed corn but I do like to keep the girls as happy as possible. I have just been reading about feeding them nettles in the winter. I know on various poultry forums there is always debate on nettles, some people say their chickens eat fresh nettles others say that the chickens never touch them. I have been looking into using nettles as enrichment fodder for giraffes of all creatures. Once the nettles have dried the stinging mechanism in nettles is deactivated and giraffes LOVE the stuff. A little research has revealed that if you go and collect your nettles (without getting stung of course), dry them out and bundle them up they can be used to great effect with your chickens and if you have the room and place to keep the nettle bundles dry you could store some for the months when greenery is at a premium. I am going to trial some but not sure quite yet how I am going to make some extra space in the already packed shed in the garden.

Ruby

Allotment is doing okay - of course failed on erecting the polytunnel again this year but with what I think is going to be another disaster with tomatoes I have to promise myself that it will go up this winter! Harvesting is early this year on various crops and we have in mid July already had some bumper crops of blackberries and plums. Have made two batches of bramble jelly so far and jolly delicious it is as well. The most amazing thing is that the jam actually set!

Okay - enough for now. Hopefully I will manage to do another update before Christmas.

Back to blogging and the start of summer

2011-06-12T10:50:00.000+01:00

My darling Mum

Your most unreliable blogger strikes again. It's literally months since I wrote however I do have lots of partial writings in the draft section, they just never made it to being posted. One of the major reasons for starting the blog was as an update for my dear Mum. Not only did she enjoy reading about the chickens and the garden, it also made her use the laptop. It was a major reason for keeping the blog updated, that and of course a phone call from Mother asking when the next posting was due!

It's been six months now since Mum died. There is still a big hole in all our lives and there is not a single day that goes by when I don't think about her. Not a single day when I don't think of something that we would talk about:
"What's the recipe for bun loaf?"
"What else can I try to stop Tallulah laying thin shelled eggs?"
"I think I've found a Jerusalem artichoke recipe that won't have you farting all night"
"Have your dahlia's started flowering yet?"
"Can you make me some green bean chutney if you get any spare beans?"

Sadly they are all now conversations in my head however I do still need a bun loaf recipe, I think I have tried everything with Tallulah, the eggs are okay at the moment but she has only just started laying again, Mum never needs to eat Jerusalem artichokes again, there will never be a competition to see who's dahlias flowered first and the green bean chutney will go down in culinary history as a memorial to Mum's as she made the very best.

Anyway as well as for Mum it's back to more regular updates about chickens, gardens and life in general in South London. Actually the life in South London and the pups is fully covered in The Marvellous Adventures of Max and Millie (click on the link in the sidebar).

Nigella eyeballing the camera

Hen wise we are just about back to all four laying, at last. Silkies I have to say are THE most stubborn broodies. Yes, before anybody comments that being broody is their forte, I know but can you get them out of broody mode until they have done their requisite time? No!
Fortunately the Sussex are fairly easy to get out of it - I can usually get them back out again in 7-10 days if not faster. Saying that both Nigella and Ruby do seem very susceptible to an attack of scaly leg after a broody period. Poor Ruby does get it both very quickly and badly, most topical treatments have never worked however Ivomectin works extremely well so both girls have recently been "spotted". Also after her recent broodiness Nigella was getting a bit mucky behind so she also indignantly suffered the chicken horrors of having a bum wash in the shower! Still, she is looking gorgeous as ever now.

I do enjoy reading about the trials and tribulations of other chicken keepers and even more reading about good food so what a find Five Fat Hens was. The author Tim Halket has some great recipes and also has a wonderful approach to life, one I fully endorse and agree with (like how crap and overblown New Year is). Well worth a read and cooking a few dishes from.

Ruby attempting broodiness

With the amazing weather this spring the allotment and garden really have had a flying start. Allotment wise there has been lots going on - in fact the weeds have been giving us a good run for our money trying to outgrow the veggies. Still we have broad beans, peas, french beans, onions, shallots, pumpkins, squash, courgettes and both artichokes all on the go at the moment.
Garlic failed (no idea why) and the giant french banana shallots also failed to grow but that's about all we have had fail so far.

Scratching about

Oh the strawberries were early and mostly got stolen by the local wildlife as were all the cherries that disappeared and not even ripe! Next year that tree is getting a net over it!
At home we have been cropping all the usual stuff such as salad leaves and radish as well as growing tomatoes, cucumber, melon and have a few trays of kale and celeriac ready to plant out later in the year for some winter crops. God, that sounds as if we spend all our lives gardening, I promise we don't but it makes us sound very busy!
The good thing is that the chickens get lots of veggie clippings and thinnings and they still relish every slug and snail they can get. I wonder if all those scraps and garden molluscs make our eggs so tasty?
So hopefully back to more regular updates, next time I shall endeavour to include an egg recipe, until then have a good week.

March arrives....and we depart

2011-03-03T22:54:00.004Z

One for the galanthrophiles

I can never remember how the old country saying goes about March - "In like a lion, out like a lamb" or the other way around. You get the idea. Well now that March has arrived it seems more like "In like an ice-cube, hopefully out a warm mug of tea".

The plants really have been going mad over the past week, damp and gloomy warmth suits them as it does the frog. Our fish pond has become an orgy swamp for these amphibians and now lumps of wobbling translucent eggs adorn the bases of the iris, merely the product of the wild and noisy copulations of frogs in the pond.

Saying that, everything, including us, got a shock with a good old blast of arctic wind chilling the place out though the night still disturbed with the croaking of frogs and screeching of foxes as the vixens start to come into season. Stay safe little chickens.

Miss Ruby and Nigella on a worm hunt

With one silkie (she who shall not be named - Harriet!) broody it has slowed the other girls right up. As soon as poor Tallulah lays an egg they Harriet has to jump on it and start incubation. The fragility of Tallulah's eggs are just not up to it so they all get broken. As for the Sussex, they have just given up laying for the moment.

"I shall incubate, whatever!"

Harriet continues to be the bane of my life really. She is more stubborn than a stubborn thing. I even constructed a open-bottomed nestbox to put her in but then I went all forgiving (or nesh as they say in Cheshire) as I thought it was a bit cold to put her in there! Revenge would be to give her an ostrich egg to incubate.......

So, slow world for chickens, slowing down for the garden as cold grips and nothing from SE23 for the next couple of weeks are we are away to warmer climes for a holiday. The chickens, dogs, house, fish, plants and frog eggs are all being cared for by Angela, what a brave woman. Stay warm and we'll be thinking of you, beer in hand watching hummingbirds whizz by in sunshine (remember that?)

"Why can't we come with you on holiday?"

TBC

2011-02-24T19:57:00.000Z

TBC - That Bloody Chicken!

Am I also now starting to think that we have had the worst that winter can throw at us and spring is truly on the way? It's somewhat wet and mild, today in London the grey clouds cleared and we had a beautiful sunny day.

It all sounds lovely and of course with all the girls in full egg production TBC Harriet aka Princess Ping Pong has decided upon broodiness.

NO, NO, NO, NO, NO.........we need eggs - those girls don't get pellets, corn, lettuce, sweetcorn, mealworms and treats galore just to sit on their backsides!

Harriet trying to look coy and cute but it won't work this time.

Harriet being broody then triggers Tallulah, which in turn means Ruby who has only just got over her long moult since her last broody spell. Saturday and we start an anti broodiness campaign. We can normally, with work, get the other girls out of it but Harriet? She is the queen of sitting on her hennish bum and sticking it out.

I know we are not going to win but watch this space...................

Eggs and junior chicken wranglers

2011-02-21T12:06:00.002Z

Cyclamen coum

Such great promise this weekend with lots and lots of jobs planned but Saturday just rained, rained and rained - so you get the feeling we were somewhat damp. Sunday was somewhat better so managed to get lots of tidying up done, did some major repotting of our three Actinidia deliciosa okay, kiwi fruit (I was just trying to be flash) and got some celeriac seeds sown. I do feel that we need a major weekends work at the allotment but if it's wet all you do is get covered in clay and come home again without having done anything apart from make a paddy field. You do look a bit trendy with clay leg weights stuck to your wellies I guess.

Loads of lovely eggs

We have had quite a few comments on which cockerel to get - Reginald seems to be an outright winner at the moment. We have had two days this week when all 4 girls laid, they really are getting the idea that spring is on the way. Tallulah, despite all our efforts is still laying such thin shelled eggs that one occasionally breaks in the nest as they all decide to lay in the same nestbox. Indeed the eggs are so fragile that sometimes they can get a dent in just by gently picking them up. All the other girls lay incredibly stout shelled eggs and in truth the diet has all the correct elements, they wade through mountains of oystershell and the amount of snails they eat with accompanying shells should be more than enough so I think its just Tallulah.

Chicken handler of the year

A few other updates which might be of interest. To the left is a photo of our godson Ferdie having a "chicken" experience out in the Philippines. The good thing about having adventuring parents and a mother who is a world renown marine biologist is that you get to visit some very funky places, you know most aquatic species by the age of 2 and your godfathers and grandparents make sure you know all the domestic ones. Our god-daughter JJ manages to do all this and wear glitter as well - we are so very proud of both of them.

I know that Christmas has now gone and I must say that due to events it really does seem to have been a blur however I have for a few weeks been meaning to mention a wonderful gift we received from our lovely neighbours and occasional chicken sitters, Rob and Isobel. We got a chicken, but not a chicken in SE23 but a chicken bought for an abandoned disabled child in Thailand. The chicken is for a brand new project called Eden Farm which will bring in finance for the abandoned children and also teach them vocational skills. It's a fantastic project so why not log onto www.4lifethailand.org and click on the Current Fundraising section. You can help the project by purchasing a range of items as simple as seeds, to of course chickens and even pig huts and you know your money is going to help some very disadvantaged kids and giving them an opportunity of a better life.

That's about it for this week. As ever, any feedback is always welcome.

Cock or not - that is the question

2011-02-14T21:49:00.000Z

Spring has seemingly sprung. If you read this blog you will know I think this is a false spring, I'm expecting another arctic blast before winter is over - however miserable git old me, I hope I'm wrong. Still Mother Nature is enjoying these relatively mild temperatures and lots of rain, with buds, bulbs and shoots aplenty though after a good delve into some protected pots we have lost some prized dahlia tubers and we await to see if the bananas managed to survive the big freeze.

As I said the girls are now in fine fettle, laying well and looking great apart of course from Harriet who continues to believe she is a rare Lewisham Mud Silkie, indeed a rare subspecies!

I'm also keen to have some chicks again this spring we do have a couple of routes to follow. My aim would be coronation Sussex bantams but not sure how realistic that will be merely because of their scarcity. Option two is getting in a cock silkie!! Eek I hear you cry, a cockerel in the city.........well. There are several spare boys at work which we could have on a short loan.

Questions to be raised

How noisy are silkie cocks?
How would the neighbours cope? (even if it is only for a short period)
What is the secret of keeping your cockerel quiet in the early hours? (I know, there isn't an answer but worth asking)

And finally who should we go for..........if that's what we decide to get one.

Reginald

Stan(ley)

I look forward to comments and suggestions - maybe even set up a voting panel!

PS..........

2011-02-10T09:08:00.000Z

A quick note from the update yesterday.

Don't they look fantastic!

Firstly a couple of pictures from Ros who purchased Sebastian (now Boris) and Doris the speckled Sussex bantams we hatched in 2009 - they are now stunning birds as you can see from the photo. Also very jealous as she has chicks already. Thanks Ros for the update.

Chocolate Orpington and silkie chicks as hatched by Ros - I'm so envious

Secondly as a non-proficient user of this blogging medium I just found several comments posted by kindly folk, some just commenting how they like the blog but others with questions. My apologies for not responding however I found your comments by accident in a spam folder? I have now clicked various links and the comments are now attached to the relevant blog entries.

Thank you for taking the time to add to the blog especially Tammy (and I hope you got the response), Mr John Gray who I hope is still doing well with his chickens and allotment (truly John, you can't be more behind than we are this year!) and Lou, did you get your chickens?? Now I have hopefully sorted this, please comment away.

A grey and wet morning here in South London, the girls are staying in the run today - me thinks that Harriet would be straight out there for a mud bath.

Have a happy Thursday folks, the weekend isn't far away at all.

2011 and as the song goes "Things can only get better"

2011-02-09T14:26:00.002Z

Firstly thank you one and all for your messages regarding Mum and her passing, they were greatly appreciated. It seemed fitting that after such a hard winter on the day of her ceremony the weather reciprocated and it was almost spring like and the first snowdrops were pushing through.

Snowdrops for Mum

Somehow winter seems to have been in the right time frame this year - Christmas in Cheshire was classic and white, lots of cold and snow. January was wet and now into early February all is mild-ish (a couple of chill nights have been no problem).

The tree ferns survived the winter but that garden needs a good tidy and sort out

No doubt there is a price to pay and we will have more cold weather but at the moment the very start of spring is already here with lots of bulbs up. The daffodils are flowering (I admit they are a very early flowering variety), hellebores and cyclamen all in flower and the girls fully moulted and laying up a storm - heading for mid-February and we are currently collecting three eggs a day.

Miss Ruby enjoying some winter sun

Of course the girls get every opportunity to go out into the garden, the positive points being that any stupid slug or snail even vaguely tempted out into the late winter warmth is instantly eaten, the downside is that any bulbs or budding plants are trashed in search of such gastropods. There is also such a huge temptation to get into any available pot and have a dust/damp soil bath!

Do you think if I planted Tallulah we could grow some chickens?

On a final note and to those of you that actually read my New Year resolutions

1. Doing very well on using everything we buy with a few exceptions which are more down to my storage methods (or actually remembering where I put food). Failures included half a swede that reverted to a throbbing green state and has gone to the great compost heap and two lots of tomatoes that ended up being shrivelled treats for the chickens and they loved them! Portion sizes are still to large though hence the size of my bearish tum.

2. Not bought ANY cookery magazines

Proof indeed of the early flowering South London daffodil

Here's hoping for continued sunshine, eggs and remember that Spring really isn't too far away

Gone but never forgotten

2011-01-09T22:06:00.001Z

Joyce Ellis

My gorgeous Mum

28th August 1937 - 9th January 2011

God saw you getting tired,

And a cure was not to be,

So He put His arms around you

And whispered “Come to Me”.

With tearful eyes we watched you,

and saw you pass away.

Although we loved you dearly,

We could not make you stay.

A Golden Heart stopped beating,

Hard working hands to rest,

God broke our hearts to prove to us,

He only takes the best

2011 - Happy New Year

2011-01-02T09:47:00.000Z

Ah, the arrival of another year with all that it will bring.

For us it was a quiet transition from 2010 to 2011 mainly as I has a stinking cold so was in bed with a raging temperature at 22:00.

The chickens spent the day ranging around the garden and enjoying a fresh corn cob in celebration. Even bigger news is that Harriet has now become bored with broodiness - she is THE most stubborn broody in the world and despite everything we do she will just stay as broody as she wants as long as she wants. This time she has been broody for almost 8 weeks!

Harriet now OFF the nest

Throughout the extreme cold and snowy weather eggs have been very scarce indeed with only Tallulah laying the occasional very thin shelled eggs. The end of year brought a thaw and now that temperatures have reached a more seasonal norm Nigella has started laying as well! It's good to have a few home produced eggs again - although it's been noted many times, our eggs are on a completely different level to those bought from shops in both taste and colour and just SO yummy.

They always say that never make any resolutions until after the celebrations of the New Year so you clearly know what you are saying. Well worry not, I'm not a person to make any such rash promises however I do think that there is so much more that we as a family and me as a person can utilise even though we think we are fairly good. I also don't think that we make enough of what we already have SO this year we are going to have a concerted effort at:

not buying more than we are going to eat
eat everything that we grow on the allotment and if we can't eat if fresh use it in a different way (chilli and tomato jam I made last year for example)
using left-overs

and finally

not buying any cookery magazines for an entire year as I have so many cookbooks anyway so I'm going to use them more

So let's see how we do over the next 12 months

Nigella and Tallulah in a winter garden

So from Hens in the City we wish you a very wonderful 2011 and hope that at least one of your dreams comes true in the forthcoming year.

End of the year ....again

2010-12-19T16:52:00.000Z

Wow - I can hardly believe that almost another year over and I'm still a bloody awful and inconsistent blogger!

So what a year really. Little did I realise that shortly after my last blog my darling Mum would become ill and our time now together is both short and precious. It has also precluded somewhat "normal" life and the latter half of the year seems to have been spent travelling up and down motorways and dealing with the NHS. Now being cared for at home I just hope Mum's remaining time is spent in warmth and comfort with no pain and surrounded with the love of the family.

The downside of all this time away has been minimal input into the allotment, poor old chickens get a clean out, fed and watered with the occasional egg collected and that's been about it and I have had the dogs with me in Cheshire. 2011 is definitely going to be catch-up time that's for sure.

This time last year the allotment had been cleared and I had already got broad beans, red and white onions, shallots and garlic planted. To my own shame I still have potatoes in the ground which will of course now be ruined and a bed of brassicas including calvo nero that I am sure are in need of a good harvest. I would say that with the early arrival of winter it really has stopped anything happening now as if there is a spare weekend day the ground is so frozen you can't do anything anyway!

The chickens have been somewhat eclipsed as well by the arrival this year of Max and Millie in that the dogs do take up time that I had previously spent with the chooks. Not that it means that the girls are being ignored, just time and organisation and its still a pleasure to watch them scratching around in the garden. Since the last blog the only real changes have been poor Ruby plagued with scaly leg on two occasions. I had used proprietary creams to clear it up but for some reason they made Ruby's lags very raw and sore and she was in some discomfort. I then resorted to Ivomectin which very quickly cleared up the problem. She does seem to be prone to it after she finishes a broody session and is starting to moult. It also takes her such a long time to get over her moult, bless her. Egg production was great until end of October when Harriet decided to go broody and everybody else decided to stop laying so even now, some 8 weeks on only Tallulah is laying the occasional egg. With all the cold weather the girls are getting far too many treats and I can't help myself buying the occasional corn on the cobs for them if there is a special offer on!

So what else of 2010? With no chicks being reared this year it was a little quiet in truth. Depending on time constraints it would be really good to hatch a few off in 2011. There is a good chance that we will be getting a Silkie cock sometime in the spring so hopefully chicks from Harriet and Tallulah. Then see if we can get some fertile eggs for Ruby and Nigella - lets see what happens. After our adventures last year I really do think that even bantam Orpingtons are to large for the garden so will probably stick with more bantam Sussex. Shame really as I love the chocolate Orpingtons however this year I saw for the first time Coronation Sussex and they really are very high on my "I want" list, lovely, lovely birds.

So that's it really - a cold and snowy end to 2010 and although still a fortnight away my resolution for 2011 is more frequent updates so for now have a very happy Christmas.

Late summer (b)ramblings

2010-08-29T14:07:00.000+01:00

As ever summer rushes forth, actually if you can call it summer. Great June then the rest has been somewhat nondescript.

Home life has been as busy as ever. Click on the link "The Marvellous Adventures of...." to see news of our new arrival, Millie - so now a two dog, four chicken and fourteen goldfish household. Millie is still very nervous but growing in confidence every day, not exactly helped by coming into season almost as soon as we got her. Also I don't think that she is going to be as easy as Max to mix with the chickens.

The lovely Millie

The past couple of months have been filled with broody chickens and very poor egg production. Last year we hatched chicks but this year we decided along with the dogs and lack of time not to do any. Of course that didn't stop them going broody!

Harriet of course went first and almost lasted the longest, despite all efforts to discourage her she was having none of it and went 35 days. Ruby was next, both girls deciding they were going to use the same nest box to sit in. When they both decided to give up (after some pressure being locked out of the shed) at the same time and moulted, Ruby is looking positively oven ready and the garden looks like it just held a pillow-fighting competition.

An almost oven-ready Ruby

Once those two were out Tallulah decided upon broodiedom! This time we did encourage her to sit as we had a special task for her. One of the peafowl at the zoo decided to lay an egg but showed no interest in incubating it. As it was a somewhat rare species of peafowl it would be far better for the chick to be reared by another bird as opposed to being hand reared. Excitedly we get Tallulah happily sitting on the egg however her foster motherhood wasn't to be as the egg was infertile - better luck next time.

Tallulah out of incubation mode and looking good

And of course at the end of it all Nigella wasn't to be outdone and decided that she was going broody as well. Nigella stopping laying to sit on her arse all day was the last straw so as Tallulah was no longer needed for the peafowl egg all access to the nest boxes was cut so there was no option but to take in the fresh air and no where to sit in a comfortable nest! At last all four chickens out in the garden - now just waiting for everybody to get over moulting!

Over the course of 8 weeks we managed to produce 5 eggs a week at best, hardly the realms of self sufficiency however enough for the occasional bit of baking and fried egg butties at the weekend.

I have to say that with the summer at least feeding costs are at an absolute minimum. If not sitting on eggs the girls have full access to the garden now that all the plants are established so they spend the entire day happily scratching away. On top of that sweetcorn on special at the shops in a super treat they all enjoy especially with the "sweetcorn swinger", hours of fun for chickens and us watching.

Of course late summer and the hedgerows are full of blackberries, even more obvious now as we are walking the dogs on a regular basis. Inspired by my latest read "The Allotment Chef" by Paul Merrett we have been taking plastic tubs with us on walks to collect the bounty - this evening we will be enjoying blackberry and apple crumble and taking on the challenge of bramble jelly if we get enough berries. Mentioning allotment, we had a fairly good year.....but that's another blog entry.

World first for vultures facing extinction

2010-06-29T13:25:00.000+01:00

Amazing stuff!
World first for vultures facing extinction

Photos from Ros

2010-06-28T21:58:00.000+01:00

Yippee - Doris has chicks

We are so happy that Sebastian and Doris' owner keeps in touch. Sebastian has now become Boris but he has filled to be a wonderful looking bird.

Boris and Doris having a dust bath

Doris being a mum

...and while Doris is working hard raising the kids, Sebastian/Boris is making out with Mrs O'Bramha

Thanks for the pictures, we a deeply envious so keep the photos coming

Busy weekend

2010-06-14T22:53:00.001+01:00

Firstly, still awaiting photos from Ros of Doris as a Mum so be patient, I can't wait to see them.

Odd really that little things make a weekend. We have been living in South East London for the past seven years and here is SE23 for 6 years. In the garden we have seen everything from great spotted woodpeckers to ring-necked parakeets, herons and nesting wrens, but oddly never ever seen a house sparrow! Remember those chirpy little birds that were everywhere once upon a time and now subject to preservation orders and included in BAP's (Biodiversity Action Plans)? Well Sunday we saw a pair of house sparrows! Deeply pleasing to see such a once common species in the UK returning to what I imagine were old haunts.

I never feel that we catch the growing season in time. One minute its too early and cold to plant anything then blink and everybody is harvesting tomatoes and potatoes and we have only just got our plants into the ground. Saying that we just had our first harvest of broad beans, and have had grazed salad from lettuce and rocket plus lots of delicious crisp radish. Instead of a more formal approach to growing I read the Alys Fowler book "The Edible Garden" and I have been further inspired. No rows, just a mish mash of complimentary veggies and plants and apart from bloody flea beetles all is going well.

And to the girls. The harsh love worked and after 6 days the chickens have full access to nestboxes and good to report that Ruby and Nigella are back to normal. Tallulah is going through a big old moult so only Harriet aka Princess Ping Pong is laying. Ruby has highly indigent this evening as she had to be caught up as she seemed to have a small problem with the right leg however inspection confirmed scaly leg so medication to follow.

Max and Harriet on the lawn

The girls have a big pen along with access to the deck but not to the entire garden as all the plants need to be fully established but we have just returfed the lawn after winter decimation. However on Sunday I needed to clean the deck so the chickens got to the lawn AND to meet Max on a nose to beak level. It all went really well apart from Tallulah who managed to nip into a flower bed and trash two lilies, lemon balm and a small unidentified plant that will never now flourish but at least it made a small scruffy chicken very happy.

Just waiting for eggs to start again..............

Update at last - check back for photos

2010-06-10T21:18:00.001+01:00

Oh hell's teeth, the past couple of months seem to have flown by and after a week in Italy I am more than aware that I have been sadly lacking the the blog department!

Mother and a lovely chicken

The fastest of updates - thank you for all the offers of a home for Stella. Such is life that she went back to whence she came as an egg, to the lovely Sue and her Mum at Victoria's Poultry in Chester http://victoriaspoultry.co.uk/ It was such a pleasure to meet up again, Sue has such an incredible enthusiasm for her birds and Mum is a really keen waterfowl breeder along with knowing all the chickens as well. We were again greeted into their home, had a lovely time and Stella very soon settled back into life into rural Cheshire after her Hens in the City existence. I am very wary of ever giving recommendations however I only have the highest regard for the work, quality of service and birds from Victoria's Poultry.

With the departure of Stella life soon settled down to something bordering normality with Harriet taking over the mantle of head bird, not that Ruby bothered as she just runs the flock. Nigella is no doubt at the bottom of the pecking order but it all changes in that Harriet beats up on Tallulah,Tallulah beats up on Nigella and Ruby just gets on with them all until somebody (Harriet mostly) steps out of accepted hen behaviour then they get a smack in the head. And despite this Harriet still think she rules the roost!

Stella returns to the flock

So Italy was wonderful however on our return we found Nigella AND Ruby had become broody over the week we were away. Not good news. Harsh treatment as they were both turfed out of the nestboxes and after three days of no access I think they are getting the idea however I know the second they see a nice cosy straw filled nestbox they will revert to super broodies!

Finally this very evening we just got news from Ros about Doris but more of that over the weekend as photos have been promised.

Trials and Traumas and a Chicken for Sale

2010-04-27T09:38:00.000+01:00

Fantastic weather - I love it and so do the girls. Five chickens, four eggs a day (even Nigella is laying albeit very small and somewhat wobbly shaped!) so lots of egg mayo sandwiches for lunch, omelettes and frittatas and no, my cholesterol won't get worse as recent papers have shown that eggs are actually very good for you (not that we didn't know that already).

It's been a bit of a sticky week for the new girls. When introducing any new birds into a new flock there is always going to be some ructions as they fit into the group structure. Firstly we increased the size of the lawn run (still no access to all of the garden until later in the year when the plants are established. Tallulah and Ruby got into the rest of the garden during the week and delighted in eating the newly emerges delphinium and hosta shoots and scratched out lots of new plants that had recently been put in). Tallulah and Nigella got exclusive use of the lawn run during the day just so they could build some confidence.

At least four girls in the run are getting along well!

Ruby has been hugely graceful and has accepted the two of them very well so she joined them during the day. Harriet was in complete princess mode and decided that they needed to be kept in there place so had to spend a few more days in the day run before getting to spend the day out on the lawn and all four a getting on really well. Stella.............well Stella!

Wanted - new home for Stella - are you interested?

As the lowest ranking chicken in the original group even though she is the biggest, Stella was determined to raise her ranking to ensure she didn't stay at the bottom of the pecking order and she has been doing it by brute force. A week after the new girls arrived and Stella still only gets mixed with them in the evening when she has a couple of hours out on the lawn with them and of course overnight but all seems to be okay then as everybody is roosting. I think that after this coming week they will all be together but we have decided to put Stella up for sale. Even though she is a bantam she is VERY solid, I picked her up the other day and now understand where all the food is going! She is also the most destructive bird in the garden. I hope we do find a new home for her as she is a stunning looking bird and laying really well at the moment (and her eggs are probably the best, for some reason Orpingtons always do produce huge yolks).

This week I watched "The Edible Garden" on BBC2 for the first time.
It's great - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s1lc8
The presenter Alys Fowler has also written a book to go with the series - I just ordered it to see if its as good as the television programmes.

Allotment is very busy at the moment, we have lots of trays filled with seedlings and working hard to get the beds ready for planting out. We also still have the mini polytunnel which we need to get erected soon as cucumber, tomato and melon seeds have already germinated and growing well!

I love Crocus http://www.crocus.co.uk/home/ (plant nursery and online store but not open to the public)they do great plants and put together some really good planting plans. I'm always inspired when the seasonal catalogue arrives so when we saw Crocus were having an open day we leapt at the chance and it was well worth the journey. Got some fantastic alliums, Cardiocrinum giganteum and a stunning dark red Dicentra however I really do need to stop mucking about with the pretty things and get on with the allotment and grow some veg to go with all the eggs.

April musings, two new chickens and the dog!

2010-04-19T16:36:00.012+01:00

Wonderful weather over the weekend, the added bonus being clear blue sunny skies devoid of aircraft due to the volcano in Iceland!

A couple of months ago I did mention that we now had a dog, Max, who is now a well established chicken hound. Despite his puppy inclinations at excitement he is and the girls get on great probably with the exception of Stella who, despite being a grown up girl now still flaps at the smallest thing. Not that we are worried, having recently having picked up Stella she is very, very solid and could probably withstand a small nuclear attack and a small puppy isn't going to do any harm whatsoever. To ensure that hens in the city doesn't become Uptown Puppy you can follow Max's adventures at http://johndentonmckenna.blogspot.com/ - link also in the side panel.

My approach to stopping the girls being broody worked! Less that two weeks later and we are already have Ruby and Stella laying - hooray. I cannot tell you how wonderful the taste of our home produced eggs are so its great that the supply has returned.

We have been been doing some reworking in the garden, moving some old border edging and replacing it with wicker hurdles. Needless to say the girls were there to help! They have over the winter months been confined to the end of the garden and as you can see from above, there isn't a lot of lawn remaining (so some returfing in a month or so me thinks) however once the plants are established again they will again have access to the entire garden.

And thank god that the girls don't eat daffodils however my new delphinium regrowth didn't last long!

Now don't ask me why but for some reason we had an idea that we should get another silkie to keep Harriet company. So it was with glee that we saw urban-chickens.com were holding a chicken auction in Essex. Off we went and were amazed at the number of chickens available for sale and how many people turned up. It was great fun in the auction itself and we became the proud owners of two new chickens.

Firstly we did indeed acquire a silkie. Duly named Tallulah she is I think partridge coloured (most appropriate considering our recent visitor) and was supposedly hatched in 2008.

On exit from her box (one of the problems with the auction was it was not easy to see into some of the boxes to completely check out your prospective purchase) she was a bit rough looking to say the least and a bald bum. Saying that she appears to be full of character and Tallulah is a bold one that's for sure.

The second purchase was a second choice. First choice was a lovely gold-laced wyandotte hen however we were firmly outbid on her. Secondly we were taken with silver Sussex hens (again) and there were a few for sale. As it happened the lotts in the catalogue didn't match the actual birds being auctioned so it was a little confusing and we ended up not buying the bird that we had originally looked! Still we have a 2009 bred silver hen named Nigella.

Bless her, she couldn't be more distant from our last silver Sussex hen Cybil. Nigella is very shy, very nervous and would you believe a pigeon-toed chicken! I do think she is going to take a while to settle in and she is most definitely at the bottom of the pecking order.

So would I get chickens from an auction again? I have to say that I probably would but would be happier if the birds were in cages that you could see the birds more fully................the biggest job ahead of us now is integrating two new girls into our resident flock of three!

Spring, Swallows and an occasional Partridge

2010-04-14T21:17:00.011+01:00

A few sunny days and managing to see a swallow indeed make it feel that spring is eventually here.

For us it meant time in the garden and for the ladies it meant that the mean man would be turfing them off their nests and broodiness, locked out of the nestbox and no chance to try and hatch imaginary eggs. The reality is that now back from the joys of Cornwall those girls needed to start earning their corn again and lay some eggs!

Reality was that with the sunshine and bribe of a few mealworms and no access to nestboxes Ruby and Stella were soon out of broody mode. Stubborn as ever Harriet took a further day to realise the fruitlessness of the cause so she is also back in the flock so just on countdown for some eggs now.

We did have a most amusing interlude with the brief arrival and departure of a red-legged partridge. The partridge was caught in north London, semi-tame or stunned not sure but it (for we knew not whether it was male or female) however we took him in on a temporary basis.

Partridge did not appreciate being in the run however had a very good feed and then spent the evening with the girls in the garden plodding around. Finally partridge walked down the garden, flitted up onto the fence and went into next doors garden. Although we've not seen the bird again we have heard calling so partridge is still in the area.

Belated happy Easter

2010-04-07T20:52:00.003+01:00

Writing once a month really isn't good!

That was a long old winter in the proper sense of a winter. Spring has eventually arrived and its lovely to see some flowers in bloom, wild birds in the garden and some sunshine at last.

Of course to celebrate the arrival of longer days, ALL the girls are now broody! And they were doing so well at laying....

Harriet, Stella and Ruby all share a nest box

Done some work in the garden (major tree fern move about), broad beans, onions, shallots and garlic all doing well at the allotment but needs quite a bit of work over the next few weekends.

Hopefully the girls will get back into laying mode very soon and then back to laying some eggs. We need eggs.

The late late post!

2010-03-07T21:42:00.006Z

Wow - I'm really slacking on adding some new post here. A scolding from my niece reminded me that I should get an update sorted so here it is.

A few things to say (sloppy excuses actually) on why posts haven't been forthcoming

1. We were away for two weeks on Langkawi Island in Malaysia, our official "honeymoon". Fantastic time, temps well into the 80's each day, blue skies, warm seas, you get the idea, and a wonderful antidote to the cold grey chill of the London winter. Again our deep thanks to Studley Ruffle and the lovely JP for chicken sitting duties.

2. I've been off work for a week or so with the joys of another arthritic flare up so with walking sticks and taking a plethora of pills I've hardly had the inspiration or will to write anything however well on the way to recovery now I'm glad to report.

3. Not a lot going on with our girls however now some great news from down the road in Sussex.

Home first - Stella the bantam buff Orpington really has filled out into a lovely looking chicken. She is still bonkers but will happily take mealworms from your fingers if not indeed accidentally removing your fingers as well during enthusiastic mealworm taking. As a bantam she is still a big girl, (big bones I think the correct saying is) however still bottom of the pecking order.

After a couple of weeks at 16 eggs a week Harriet decided to bugger it up and go broody. I know, silkies go broody faster than you can look at them but come on Harriet, some pay back please!

Sussex way and Ros, now proud owner of Sebastian (now shortened to Boris which we love) and Doris. Ros has really got spring underway with chicks already this year and two chicks from Boris and Doris as well as a good sprinkling of others. We really appreciate all the photos Ros has sent and hopefully we will get to visit sometime in spring.

yippee

2010-02-19T19:08:00.002Z

Today was a big first - three hens, three eggs :) full production targets have now been reached!

Also tomorrow we take possession of Maximilian Sidney Bruiser McEllis, our chicken hound puppy. Photos and update tomorrow.

Not chickens this time but Nepal

2010-01-31T22:00:00.000Z

This is something of a departure from the chickens however I was working out in Nepal during November 2009 and really wanted to do a quick note on what I was doing out there. I have eventually managed to get around to sorting a few photos so I hope it's of interest.

Nepal is a small country, money poor for the most part but rich in its lovely people, incredible landscape and generous nature.

My work there was two fold:

(1) working to assist the captive management programme saving vultures from extinction and (2) advisory work at the Central Zoo in Kathmandu

The vultures are one of the biggest man made tragedies in modern times however as they are not tigers or elephants they don't get the press or public support they need. Natures binmen they scavenged throughout Asia but due to widespread use of a simple veterinary drug Diclofenac 99% of the world population of three species of vulture have died out.

See http://www.vulturerescue.org/index.html for more information.

Young oriental white-backed vultures at the Rescue
Centre

As a last ditch attempt to save the vultures from imminent extinction birds have been collected from the wild and being kept in aviaries in order to hold them and breed them so at some stage in the future when all chances of the drug being removed from the environment are realised, birds can be released back into their natural habitat.

Captive breeding centres already exist in India and Pakistan and recently Nepal began its own programme.

My job, along with ZSL Head Vet Andrew Routh was to run a workshop on the captive management and veterinary care of vultures as well as looking at the work being done in Nepal.

It was a hugely inspirational time and the people we worked with ranged from the vulture keepers to field workers to vets to park rangers - all deeply committed to saving vultures and having a real understanding of the plight of the birds.

Adult oriental white-backed vulture in the wild

I was deeply impressed with the work being done and I have to say it was a great pleasure to visit a vulture restaurant "Jataya" where the vultures are fed carcasses safe from drug contamination. The most encouraging signs were that the area where the vulture feeding place is situated is now "drug free" and that vultures are actually nesting around the area where the safe food is placed. The most incredible thing is that vultures are seen as messengers of bad tidings but the entire local community has really taken to getting behind and supporting the recovery of the vultures. The vultures still totter on the edge of extinction, lost forever but if what I saw in Nepal was anything to go by I feel hugely encouraged.

Me on elephant back

The vulture work was carried out at the Chitwan National Park where I also had the pleasure of going out early in the morning on elephant back to try and see Asian one-horned rhino. Once you get a hang of the rolling gait of the elephant you realise what an amazing platform they make for wildlife watching. I am truly happy to say that we did manage to see some of these incredible rhinos.

Asian one-horned rhino in the wild - mum and baby

Secondly was work at the Central Zoo in Kathmandu. It has over a million visitors a year but charges a tiny amount and urgently needs funds. The money is needed for raising the standard of life for the animals held in the zoo, to support the hard working and dedicated staff and ensure through education and interpretation (in all its forms) the Nepali people come to appreciate the incredible creatures that live in their wonderful country.

Discussing work on the rhino enclosure at the zoo - and a chance to get up close

There is no doubt that there are welfare concerns for some of the animals (anybody with a spare £5000 would hugely improve the lives of clouded leopards, leopards, jackals and a black bear so just drop me an email :) however for the most part the staff work hard with what they have. The Zoo has many old features and has many issues to overcome but with the dedicated Zoo Director and most enthusiastic Zoo Vet I only had admiration for the perseverance they have in making the zoo work.

Again another couple of days of workshops and it was great to have an exchange of ideas and how the lives of the animals could be improved. It's important to also remember that all we did was bring forth the ideas from the staff - the ideas were there, they just needed some coaxing. And seriously - if anybody has any funding thoughts PLEASE let me know, the zoo is the most amazing opportunity to get the next generation to understand more about animals, plants, biodiversity and making sure Nepali wildlife and habitats have some chance of survival in the future.

Discussing bird husbandry with the hornbill listening as well

Most people think that Nepal is cold, snowy and tottering on the edge of the Himalaya and Everest. Think again, down in Chitwan where the vulture centre is, it's positively tropical with elephants wandering down the streets, rhinos and tiger in the Chitwan National Park and gharials (tropical fish eating crocodiles for the want of a better description). Even in Kathmandu, where the name conjure images of a snowy mountain-top hidden city, its very warm even in November and snow is as rare as hens teeth!

The second part of my time there was with husband who flew out and we then had an amazing ten days holiday/adventure and that's going to be part II if I ever get around to writing it - maybe a job for hubbie??

Never put all your eggs in one basket (or in your pocket!)

2010-01-29T21:55:00.003Z

The snow has gone (so I do need to find a new photo for the header pic) though as a well known Cheshire saying goes "it's as cold as a witches tit". However its getting lighter and lighter each morning, very slow in our eyes but interesting that both Harriet and Stella are now laying on a regular basis so the birds are noticing it.

Out in the dark at 05.45 checking and feeding the chickens, Stella had laid below the perch (in truth probably from it) so I popped the egg into my pocket and carried on feeding and giving them clean water. I bent over to pick up some rubbish off the floor of the run and heard a gentle pop followed by a warm sensation on my leg. "Dammit".......... note to self, do NOT bend over with thin shelled egg in pocket as they break!

Joy, as the egg just didn't break in my pocket, bloody messy anyway however in the pocket was;
my iPod
my mobile

All I can do is apologies to those neighbours that heard a stream of expletives far too early in the morning, you may have thought it was a nightmare but it was me!

Big Garden Birdwatch this weekend http://rspb.org.uk/birdwatch so join in if you can.

Homes Wanted and Big News

2010-01-17T17:35:00.005Z

Firstly if you read the last blog a full 24 hours ago you will know that Annie, the owner of Eggnog and the Borg (Shirl and Pearl the silkies) had a sneaking suspicion that Shirl could actually be a Stan. Well all her nightmares came true yesterday as when Eggnog was crowing as he should, well BOTH Shirl and Pearl joined in! Needless to say Bob and Barry as they are now known will need rehoming - they are great chickens - if you are interested in owning a lovely blue silkie cockerel (or two) do get in touch and I will put you in contact with Annie.

Now the Big News. As predicted yesterday, Miss Harriet produced an egg this morning!

As ever it wasn't a simple process but one that took Harriet an hour to decide where to lay. In one of the carrying boxes in the shed or in skylon which had new wood shaving and straw in? Back and forth and back and forth with much clucking to ensure the entire world was aware that she wanted to lay an egg. I was eventually ejected from the run while cleaning it out so Harriet could lay..........and 30 minutes later - result!

Of course, having gone through the entire stress of laying an egg a lady, and a chicken lady at that must instantly rush to bathe, theoretically dust bathe but in this weather?

"wot are you looking at?"

As ever, Harriet delights in finding mud and having a good old shake around, heaven's only knows how she ever managed to get white again but she does and after producing an egg she deserved it - well done Harriet.

"Daddy, I'm not really THAT dirty am I?"

2010

2010-01-16T16:56:00.007Z

It's amazing that January is already half way done - most of the time has been spent whipping the huskies into a frenzy to get the sled going to transport me to and fro between work and home. Well watching the news you would think that's how it was. Sure its been snowy but isn't that what winter is about? A few inches of snow and transportation seems to collapse - the trains are bloody useless!

Anyway, I think the girls are glad to see the end of the all the snowy weather. Of course with snow on the ground even when they were given access to have a run about in the garden they were not having any of it and stayed resolutely in the run. Now the lawn is clear they are more than happy to run about on very soggy grass eating all the wild bird seed that has been thrown from the bird table and then revealed by the receding snow.

And no news - nothing really has changed. Ruby is eventually looking slightly better, lots of pin feathers now so not long until she is back to glorious normality. Saying that, in the condition she is now there is no chance of eggs from her for a while. Harriet on the other hand is fairly close to laying and I would be surprised if we didn't get an egg in the next week. She crouches as soon as she gets a hand any where near her, she is looking wonderful and lastly I would say she is eating really well but as her other name is "Pigsy" its hardly surprising, that silkie will eat anything! And Stella - still looking gorgeous and still being an orpington to the core and not laying a ruddy thing. Have to say she really is calming down a lot.

Its really interesting to note that last year we gave the girls lighting every morning so they could start feeding at 6.30am. As this entailed a right rigmarole of swapping lights, recharging batteries, etc this year we didn't bother. The girls seem fine however last year we have eggs virtually all winter and this year obviously not, the last egg being laid in mid November. Might revert to lighting up mornings again next winter to see if it really does keep egg production going.

To finish - a quick update on the chicks that left us in the autumn, and proper chickens they are now and we are so happy to still be in contact with the wonderful folk who now have them.

Sebastian and Doris looking splendid

Firstly Sebastian and Doris the speckled sussex bantams. Ros has sent us some great photos of them, both are looking marvellous especially Sebastian who seems to have grown into a very handsome chap - and looking at the pictures they look as if they are living in rural paradise!

Secondly Eggnog and the Borg (Shirl and Pearl) who went to Annie and Tim, again from south London suburbs to the beautifully green countryside of rustic Dorset. Now the kids were going in with an already established group of chickens and initially they did have a bit of a slight kicking however the Borg are happily settled in and Eggnog really does rule the roost and keeps his girls very happy according to Annie. Slight problem in that Shirl might be Stan so we will await further information.

Eggnog with Shirl and Pearl in the background

Okay, that's it - hopefully next update will include the joyous news of an egg!

Festive Greetings

2009-12-25T17:54:00.011Z

Firstly a very Happy Christmas to one and all.

...and Happy Christmas from Harriet as well.

I have been a complete slacker of late on the blog however I was half way through a huge piece about Nepal then all of a sudden it was the festive season! Somehow I need to get it finished off and posted as Nepal really is the most amazing place.

It has been an incredible year really with some big ups and downs. Poor little Lottie died early in the year while Cybil and Margot went to a new life in rural Bedfordshire which left us with Ruby and Harriet. We then went and got eggs from Sue in Cheshire and the girls hatched out six chicks, all of whom survived and they spent a very happy summer trashing the garden. With the arrival of autumn we had to move some of the chicks on so the speckled Sussex, the blue silkies and Eggnog the black Orpington bantam went to new owners and we remain with Ruby, Harriet and Stella the buff Orpington bantam.

It's been great fun rearing the chicks though my husband's stress rate did go up somewhat at times and I'm glad to say that we couldn't have had nicer people have the birds when we moved them on (thank you Ros and Annie). Not sure if we will do it all again in 2010 though we probably will, I'm very much in love with Orpington bantams and hubbie wants at least another silkie to keep Harriet company.

Doris in the snow at her new home

Both Ruby and Harriet went through a major moult after going broody. Harriet is now back in almost normal feather however poor Ruby looks half plucked, not the best look in all this highly seasonal but cold weather. Stella has grown into a beautiful chicken however she is still very stand-offish but slowly getting the idea that we aren't that bad. Needless to say we are getting NO eggs, it's very odd having to buy them and even the organic free-range eggs are poor in comparison.

Girls in the winter garden

Christmas Day and the first day the lawn hasn't been covered in snow for a while so the girls were out and having a good feed on the grass (what remains of it) and also dined on treats such as fresh sweetcorn, mealworms, finely chopped apple and a little bit of wholemeal bread - I think they enjoyed the day.

Well this is the last blog of the year (unless I get the Nepal one finished off) as France beckons for the New Year so to you all - a very happy and prosperous New Year

Urban hens on the rise as townies shell out for Eglu chicken houses - Times Online

2009-12-05T15:13:00.000Z

Urban hens on the rise as townies shell out for Eglu chicken houses - Times Online

Apologies for no posts for a while - catch up this week but been away for three weeks

Damn good and damn bad

2009-11-05T20:05:00.002Z

Good bits and not such good bits.

Very best news - Stella laid for the first time, bless her so three eggs in skylon this evening. Full scale egg production swings in - but then..........Harriet "Pigsy" McEllis has decided that she wants to go broody!

Went down the garden this evening only to find Harriet not in the shed roosting on the perch with Stella and Ruby but happily sitting outside in skylon on the three eggs. For the record she was unceremoniously removed and put back into the shed and on the perch. Needless to say any more of this broodiness nonsense and she will not be making us happy.

Let's see what the weekend brings

Autumn and more chickens departed

2009-10-31T07:53:00.010Z

And back to three chickens again.

The adventures of summer are now over, after an amazing Indian summer some proper autumn weather returned with blustery skies and the occasional heavy rain shower. As also reported in the last update the winter run has gone up for the girls and Eggnog but also came crunch time as Eggnog and the Borg had to go due to our winter carrying capacity so we were delighted that they have a wonderful new home in Dorset with Tim and Annie, friends of our lovely mate Tracey. We took all three down to Annie and Tim's last weekend, with Eggnog in the back of the car having a chat to us all the way down.

Below - Tim, me and Annie

Bit of a shock for Eggnog when he got there are although all girls in the run there were definitely some right bruisers in there (i.e. full size chickens). The Borg were really funny as all of a sudden they were Eggnog's best friend. In fact a few incursions happened though that's inevitable and its going to be interesting to see how young Eggnog takes over the flock (as he should do). Messages from Annie say that all is going well, still the occasional scuffle but all settling in fine.

After the departure of Sebastian who was number 1 gardening chicken, the loss of Eggnog who was number 2 has made cleaning up in the garden a bit of a lonely old task. Its very quiet when tidying up the borders with nobody at your side removing all the earth you just replaced and trying to dig out any newly added plant. Saying that its been a great experience hatching all the chicks out and watching them grow into lovely birds and we really will be doing it again though I think we will just stick to one or two breeds instead of the mixture we had this year.

Harriet, not the cleanest of silkies at the best of times with her wanton desire for mud bathing however of late she has got a bit of a mucky bum. She's not managed to completely clean up herself so it was time to intervene. Harriet is no stranger to the sink and a bath so madam got dunked! Of course only Harriet could sit there having her bum washed while she stuffed out on mealworms...... And sat on the towel while she had the hair dryer treatment (hair dryer especially purchased for the purpose as the two of us hardly have any hair left to blow dry!) At least she had a clean bum now even is she did go straight out and have a flap in the mud.

So back to three birds for winter. Harriet, Ruby and Stella (name changes failed and she is still Stella). The old birds are still laying well and Stella should be coming on line soon. She, Stella, is still a nutcase and terrified of most things however she is slowly coming around but its going to be a long haul I think. She does have the deepest and most lovely cluck and her colour is wonderful, just waiting for the tail to fill out a little for a prize winning hen :)

And finally, had a really busy day at the allotment. Managed to clear out three beds and planted up one with onions, shallots and garlic - aching bones but enjoying a glass of wine on the sofa after having had a good soak.

Autumnal musings

2009-10-14T20:16:00.004+01:00

The departure of Sebastian and Doris did leave a big hole in the flock personality wise however we did realise that Sebastian was the major scoffer of food (food bill has definitely gone down). Working in the garden this weekend I really did miss Daddies Little Helper getting in the way and being a complete pain in the arse, and nobody to leap on my knee and try to scoff my bacon sandwich.

The weather has been generally very good however a couple of very heavy downpours have turned to remains of the lawn into a mud slide. The borders have really stood up well to full scale chicken attack however with 8 of them being out their for most of the summer has taken its toll. Departure of the speckled Sussex have given a little relief but as the autumn gathers pace the garden is really showing the strain.

The light is also disappearing far to fast - dark when I leave for work and only light until just after 6pm so the birds out in the garden during the day really isn't an option now so at the weekend we erected the winter run on the garden deck.

Now the chooks have a wonderful big run to play in all day. Lots of new wood chips and treats, Skylon nestbox back which the girls love and lay eggs in every day we don't have to worry about the girls (and Eggnoggin the Nog) in the dark now. I just can't believe how quickly the nights are drawing in!

Harriet and Ruby are both in top form and currently both laying and we are getting 11 eggs per week at the moment. Ruby as ever talks to you all the time and Harriet, well Harriet is Harriet. On the occasions that they have been out, even if only for 20 minutes when we get home if there is enough light, Harriet is straight into the soil under the bananas and has a good old mud bath! For some reason she has a soiled bum so I think this coming weekend she will be getting a shower and blowdry (I promise to have some photos to post if we do it).

We do still need to get rid of the blue silkie hens and of course Eggnog. Since the departure of Sebastian he has become a proper little man and he is now getting the idea of being able to crow, not something conducive for hens in the city that's for sure. This evening I have put a blackout on the sleeping quarters so hopefully he won't start until we let him out into the run in the morning. Most importantly we need to find a home for Eggnog as he is a stunning bird.

Husband is not happy with Stella being called Stella - she doesn't seem like a Stella so I think that we need to come up with something else. Personally I'd call her "Ginger" because she is! Anyway poor girl is the shyest of all the birds as she is bottom of the pecking order, even the blue silkies give her grief and Eggnog chases her away from the treats. Oddly in the run its no so much of a problem as it is when they have full run of the garden.

Stella - what should we call you?

Somewhat late update and sad departure

2009-10-03T21:06:00.003+01:00

How, how, how busy has life been!

Apologies (Mother) for not updating for a while but been away (work), very busy (work) very busy (chickens and repairing garden after chickens) and have also been lacking on allotment maintenance.

We also took the decision to sell some of the birds which I have to say was sad but realisation that a small garden cannot cope with eight chickens and the volume of chicken poo. Saying that the fertilisation the garden has received must have been a contributory factor to banana flowers so not all bad.

Sebastian of course had to go - suburbia cannot take a boy crowing in the morning and noises were already coming from the run in the morning. Not exactly crowing but a throttled croak - young man with his voice breaking, and his clucks were getting really deep. But so friendly and lovely..........anthropomorphism and me don't do deals but Sebastian would push the limits. Converted from chicken language here are some of Sebastian's favourite sayings:

"I know you just kicked me out of the kitchen but I'm sure that means I can come in again"
"I know you look as if you are really enjoying your tea and toast and reading the paper but it will be far more fun if I come and sit on your knee and try and steal the toast"
"I know you are walking down the garden for some reason but if I get completely under your feet I'm sure you'll pick me up, give me a hug and give me some corn instead of those boring pellets"
"Daddy, give me a treat, now!"

As Sebastian and Doris got on so well we decided to sell them together even though we wanted to keep Doris. We were really happy that a lovely lady called Ros bought them and hopefully we can do an update as we are really keen to see how they turned out as they were both very lovely looking birds. Have to say it was very sad to see them go but I'm sure they are going to have a lovely life.

Stella was up for sale however there was a big shock (though not that big for me) Eggnog really is a boy - I knew those wattles were too big for a girl - so Eggnog is up for sale :( and we are keeping Stella (who is still very shy but a stunning ginger/brown). Eggnog's colour is lovely and he is getting the lovely iridescent green in the black feathering. If you are interested in a very loving and lovely young black Orpington bantam for all of a tenner check out his ad and just scroll down the page until you see him https://www.omlet.co.uk/breeds/breeds.php?page=Orpington&menu=Chickens&submenu=Orpington

Also for sale are the Borg. They have become two lovely girls and more friendly and now join in all chicken crowd participation events apart from the kitchen raiding. It would be nice to sell them together however happy to split them if they are going with other chickens. Again scroll down the ad to find them https://www.omlet.co.uk/breeds/breeds.php?breed_type=Chickens&breed=Silkie

Harriet and Ruby go on as ever - both now laying and thankfully Ruby over her broody moment.

The garden is well and truly trashed however it is the end of the year garden wise so not long now until the winter run goes up and the plants and lawn get chance to recover and brace themselves for next year!

A poem for today

2009-09-05T09:33:00.003+01:00

From John Keats' poem (1820),

To Autumn

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells

Weather and the end of summer

2009-08-30T18:36:00.011+01:00

I have a fond affection for the Met Office (the same as you love your bonkers Auntie Doris). I'm not quite sure what they are supposed to do apart from groom young men and women for a career on television in the fiction market as the weather forecasts are nothing like the real world. The August Bank Holiday weekend and we usually have the pleasure of being in Cornwall for one last grasp of summer however due to lack of time and money we are in London having been told at the start of the week its was going to be a scorcher. Of course as the week has gone on the predictions have slowly got cloudier and gloomier until at last we get here and in truth, gloom and cloud and not even that warm! Still, it allows time to plonk about the garden.

What a shame as some lovely sunshine to slowly bring the summer to a close would have been wonderful. Autumn seems so close, I know it is but it's arrival seems to be rushing in. The evenings seem to be getting dark quite quickly and its already gloomy when I get up in the morning - I yearn to keep some of the light and warmth.

Still, Ruby seems to be getting over her broodiness (only by booting her off the nest twice a day and shutting her out of the nestbox) and Harriet is laying well. I cannot tell you the joys of having home-produced eggs again.

With the cloudy weather it's been a working in the garden afternoon and however fast I tidied the borders the chook force - the hen garden untidying service followed closely behind ensured that all soils and mulch were removed to the nearest path, physalis and lemon balm foliage eaten and fertilisation of the lawn was abundant. Saying that, the large established plants seem to do really well with the soil aeration from the scratching though small plants do need some protection from chook force. The bananas Musa basjoo pulled back really impressively after the the snows of winter and the chickens love being under them. Be it the extra fertilisation combined with the warmth and wet of summer we have a banana flower - how very cool is that! Okay, so basjoo's don't really produce banana fruit but hey......we're impressed.

Banana flower and husband

I love our little garden - it's a well cool and chilled place. Planting maybe eclectic (two very differing styles and colour palates) but somehow it comes together and we love sitting on the deck with a drink, its a good way to catch up on the day. It does make me a wee bit sad that now evenings are drawing in it's going to be weekends only now until spring next year when the light evenings return.

Chick Update

2009-08-27T20:17:00.007+01:00

Not really chicks anymore but real time small chickens and all individuals in their own right (apart from the Borg but more them later)

To recap we got 12 fertile eggs and put them under our two broody mums to be - Ruby and Harriett. Hatching wasn't maybe as good as we had wished however we did 50% and a range of birds, 2 speckled Sussex, 2 Orpington bantams (1 buff, 1 black) and two blue silkies. Here follows themselves

Speckled Sussex bantam

Jason and Sebastian - truly lovely birds.

Jason is now we believe Doris, in fact 99.9% hen. Really lovely plumage but a bit shy as Sebastian and Eggnog are so forward (not to mention Ruby and Harriett).

Doris

Sebastian - Mr Bleedin' Independent himself. No fear what so ever, he happily jumps onto you in search of a treat, sits on your arm and actually enjoys being stroked. Down point is that he does get under your feet at times and has no problem leaping straight into the mealworm tub!

Sebastian - the Sebster

Orpington bantam

Black Orpington bantam: Eggnog - the ultimate chickenette. From point of death twitching fluffy blob to androgynous (praying a hen!!) gorgeously funny, iridescently black/green chicken. She engages, she chases and she want to get hugs. I say she in the most optimistic manner as we really are hoping Eggnog is a girl, she just has big wattles though fortunately the comb is not big at all. We LOVE Eggnog.

You can't get cuter than this - Eggnog

Buff Orpington bantam: Stan - well you can't call a girl Stanella so Stan is now Stella (however still will be called Stan for ages until we get the idea). Definitely a lady chicken Stan/Stella suffers similarly to Justin/Juliette in being overly dominated by the Ruby/Harriett/Sebastian/Eggnog domination syndrome, however......

Stella/Stan

Blue silkies

Satan children of foster mother Harriett. Originally Pearl and Shirl, now renamed the Borg. A single brain cell joins them. No interaction with humans. Food is all. Pointless running around is a second all. No personality (I'm sure it will develop when they move as they look to Harriett for everything). We can't even tell them apart! and we are very sure that they are both girls

So there we are - up to date as much as we can.

The Borg hopefully are soon off to a new home
Sebastian,though a cockerel will be staying here until he starts crowing as he is so lovely
Stella and Doris will get more confidence
Eggnog will not hate me too much when she gets wormed

Best of all it's been a great experience (if not occasionally fraught) so if you do have a virgin broody hen (sometimes having a cock in the city is just not possible) ((that doesn't sound quite right! )) do try and get some fertile eggs from a recommended poultry keeper - hatching chicks is GREAT

Late August Update

2009-08-24T14:49:00.009+01:00

Poor ignored hens, I don't think they love us anymore. We've also ignored the blog - reason below

"Married at last"
(photo courtesy of Paul Batterham)

Well we did it - civil partnership - and then away in France on honeymoon for a week and now back to the real world. Needless to say the requirements and care of the chickens (and indeed the garden) have been ably taken care of by the Loxton-Ruffs, Isobel and Rob and head of garden chicken management, Jill and Patrick. Thank you all.

Ruby actually out of the nestbox

And how much have all the kids grown AND Ruby has gone broody again (just as she started laying dammit). Harriett has now gone out of "mother" mode and has returned to her normal self and lost some of the "dimness" she acquired as a brood mother as she has now started laying - thank goodness.

Good to have Harriett eggs again

It's great that we are getting eggs again be it few. Despite buying organic and free-range eggs they don't come anywhere near as good as the home produced offerings provided by the girls. Our eggs, even though from bantams, have larger yolks than "normal" eggs and there is no competition in the taste and colour stakes. Obviously eggs produced on a diet of slugs, snails, sweetcorn and woodlice with the occasional mealworm are absolute winners.

And to the kids, as I said, phenomenal changes. From gangly teenchicks to real small chickens. First day back at work and I'm knackered so I'll update more later this week but as a teaser below are (from the top) Jason (who needs renaming Justine), Stan (now Stella), Eggnog, thankfully ambigously named but heading to be a boy I think and finally the one we did get right, Sebastian.

It's August already

2009-08-02T19:44:00.002+01:00

Huge news has prompted an update - Ruby has laid an egg! Okay, it was in the middle of the lawn as she tried to find somewhere comfortable in the kitchen all morning and kept getting kicked out but great news, back to real eggs. Even though we have been buying organic free-range eggs they are still very poor quality compared with the eggs your own chickens produce. Anyway well done Ruby for getting me to write on the blog.

Okay so I admit it's been a while since the last update. Things going on (like our civil partnership in less than two weeks....eek) and when we get home on these "summer" evenings (normally grey, warm and raining) its more a case of seeing the chickens, feeding and watering them while they have a good grub about and commit various horticultural desecrations and destructions. And they really have grown so quickly.

Ruby of course now in egg laying mode has cast off the cloak of motherhood, smacks the kids about the head, dominates Harriet (who is still in full mum mode) and sod giving them tasty morsels, she scoffs the lot! Oddly for the most stand-offish hen in the history of the entire poultry world she is now Miss Confident. Ruby will not be stroked however if a mealworm is involved she will just about accept it however she is absolutely not adverse to leaping straight onto your lap if she thinks a treat is imminent.

The chicks have now passed into adolescence.

Orpington bantams
Eggnog is still a star. She, and we really hope it is a she. All the signs are however "she" is very cocky and males tend to be a hint more assertive - if we renamed that bird again it would be Hitler. Eggnog has no fear. She likes a hug and is very inquisitive and more than happy to sit on your leg watching you. She also follows you (along with Ruby and Sebastian) where ever you go so the kitchen is frequently full. The yellow on the front has now gone and Eggnog is now all black with a lovely green sheen but still baby naked gaps which will fill in I hope.

Conversely Stan is the perfect baby buff Orpington and we think and hope than Stanley is in fact Stella. Stan's plumage and colour is wonderful and is just the most amazing Orpington shape. He is also possibly the very best insect catcher ever. Downside is that Stan is not having anything to do with the humans. Oh no - chicken independent.

Speckled Sussex bantams
Wow, have the "turkeys" come on or what?
Both monster chicks have changed from the Borg to complete individuals, however still huge in comparison with the rest of the chicks.

Jason, the darker of the two is the one that has more chances of being a hen though still "big". Bless him, he still has some chick down on his neck and tries to be as butch but fails as Sebastian is the big brother.

Sebastian is Mr Snowflake. Far whiter on his front than a speckled should be, I'm sure that he will get darker as he gets older. Oh and such a boy and with the biggest feet ever! He is also Mr Confident. No problem in sitting on your knee, arm, shoulder and in fact humans are his next best friend. Watch this space......

Blue silkies
Pearl and Shirl of course are silkies - vaguely brainless and bordering on lack of personality disorder. They haven't disappointed. They fit in as part of the tribe, they don't interact with people, we love them.

Okay, there we are - update! (pics to follow)

Its's a late post!

2009-07-12T06:34:00.009+01:00

What a difference two weeks makes!

It's been busy over the last couple of weeks so I failed to update the blog however fortunately John has been keeping up with the photos.

In the period of two weeks we have gone from heatwave with warning of the entire UK population about to meet its demise over 2 days of hot weather. As pleasant as it was (most enjoyable to feel some sunshine at last) the past week has been dominated by westerlies blowing in with some quite spectacular rain. I note the Government have not yet started giving alert level foot rot warning.

The chicks and girls have been doing very well. Unfortunately the chicks are very quick at picking up tricks and tips from the Mum's and as soon as they see us they rush to the run door and start cheeping wildly. I can virtually hear them saying "Daddy let us out, we want to go trash a flower bed!".

After initially going through the overly protective stage and either having them all in the lawn run or being outside with them to keep the chicks from possible predation by crows or cats, and keeping them on the lawn and off the borders we have now given up on all.

My attempts at keeping the borders in some form of orderliness have failed. Fortunately most of the plants are now well established enough to have the poultry version of an auto weeder scratching around without detrimental effect and with of course some natural fertilisation and snail removal. Of course dust/mud bathing is far better enjoyed in the middle of a flower bed!

Likewise, Ruby is such a great mother that I have no problems leaving them out while we are at home as;

1. she is very quick to sound the alarm even if it is a plane flying over

2. she is highly feisty and will attack anybody or anything (which unfortunately included Harriet on occasion) if she thinks the chicks are in any danger what-so-ever.

3. while I am typing this both Ruby and Harriet are trying to teach the chicks how to get into the kitchen!

So how are the chicks doing?

Eggnog Tallulah is still the smallest but one of the most independent and has a great love for getting up to the highest point she can with the mums. This morning she managed to get to the top of the bench with Ruby and looked very adventurous before she realised that she couldn't get down so just threw herself off! Still thinks of Harriet as his main mum.

Stan (still convinced that its a boy and the buff Orpington bantam) continues to be the lone explorer. Definitely is in the Ruby camp of children. His feathers are coming on well and looks okay because they are all pale.

Laverne and Shirley (the blue silkie chicks) failed as a naming option however it has evolved into Pearl and Shirley. Definitely Harriet's children (I am convinced silkies have a regional hen dialect) they rarely stray far from her. Getting lots of little feathers now but still staying small - there is a low chance that Shirl may be a boy.

The turkeys, Jason and Sebastian - which are supposed to be speckled Sussex bantams - are very large and I wonder at times if they are indeed not bantams but regular sized chickens. I am sure that both are boys, feet the size of small ostrich and looking real youths with scruffy feathers sprouting everywhere and a need for running madly everywhere in the "I want to be there first" mode.

It is amazing the change and growth rate so I will try to keep up! (and we will be needing homes for the boys at some stage)

Ruby and Harriet are now enjoying the freedom of flower border exploration again and Harriet has regained not only her skill of dust bathing in the wettest soil she can find but has got back the permanent soil staining on the front of her head. Both of them are looking particularly scruffy as are in mid moult - Ruby only has half a tail and Harriet has shed so many feathers in the run it looks like the aftermath of a pillow fight! After their "spat" they are now getting on fine again however Ruby has very successfully now made herself top hen.

Garden looking lovely with the warm, wet (indeed moist) conditions being perfect for rapid growth (bananas, cannas and gingers are going great guns) and the tree ferns have fully recovered from the winter trauma.

Allotment is now beginning to provide lots of produce - courgettes, french beans, globe artichokes, turnips and radish while the pots at home produced a small crop of peas and we are about to start harvesting pot grown carrots.

So busy times in the garden, the allotment and with the chickens, but highly enjoyable. Promise a faster update next week.

Two weeks old

2009-06-28T21:13:00.007+01:00

What a difference a week makes!

It's been a busy old week and I have been away for some of it so the chicks seem to have been growing at a most impressive rate.

Eggnog, although still the smallest, is doing extremely well and devoted to Harriet. We are dithering on what sex it is. Although Eggnog started out a boy in our minds I get the feeling that Eggnog may in fact be Tallulah! As you can see below, that chick has been eating lots!

The buff Orpington bantam has been named Stanley, as I am convinced he is indeed a male due to already visible and fast growing comb (please tell me if I am completely wrong here). Stanley is THE most independent of all the chicks and is quite happy to go off exploring the garden without mother hens in tow.

The silkie chicks - I personally think they are a definite for being named Laverne and Shirley (for those of you who remember "The Fonz" the names should be familiar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laverne_&_Shirley ). They do everything together, are slightly dim (I think it's a silkie thing) and so hope that they are both girls as I would hate to lose either of them. Any comments back to the blog voting for Laverne and Shirley would be deeply appreciated.

Harriet with Shirley and Laverne

And then we get to the baby turkeys. What we think are the speckled Sussex are growing at an alarming rate. They are probably twice the size of Eggnog. They are always the first to the food and I am sure that at least one is a male if not both of them.

Speckled Sussex chick realising its got wings!

After the "confinement" the girls have undergone both incubating and the start of rearing, they have now had both a chance to spend some time in the "lawn run" and if we are about, free-range in the garden.

The "lawn run" was a quick internet purchase which in the guise of a guinea pig run seemed to suit the purposes of getting one of the mums and some of the chicks out onto grass and some peace from the other. However that proved to be impossible as Harriet and Ruby are joint mums so dividing them, never mind the chicks just didn't work.

The positive is that we can get all the birds out onto grass for a good scratch about and a hugely enjoyable dust bath (it's hysterical watching the chicks emulating Harriet and Ruby dust bathing, usually underneath the mums and getting kicked out on a regular basis, not that they minded) when we are not around.

Best of all is that when we are about we now let all the birds out into the garden. Still not quite confident enough to leave them alone as although Ruby as turned into a complete headcase if she thinks any of the brood are in peril I still feel a cat could take a chick. However if we are about they now all go out and love it.

Of course for ever positive there is a (slight) negative;

Newly seeded lawn trashed and reverted to a dust bowl within a few days
How quickly newly planted vegetation is removed in search of the occasional bug
Physalis (Cape gooseberries) were outrageously victimised and eaten without mercy
Borders instantly scratched out onto the paths

So bless them a couple of rules are now applied;

chicken training - they now move easily between the lawn run and home run
when free ranging, mums are not allowed on the borders
when free ranging, physalis is seen as a legitimate target so that is a sin they are allowed
Stanley does exactly as he pleases
can chicken herding be classified as alternative employment? I love it.

All in all, could life be any better?

Allotment update to follow as I ran out of time.

Back home

2009-06-21T20:07:00.005+01:00

Well the good news is that Eggnog is doing great!

Eggnog munching out in the lawn run

We have just had the most wonderful weekend in Devon with our dear friends Bunty and David. They are wonderful hosts though I fear our livers may disagree.

Also visited Paignton Zoo and met up with my great colleague and friend, Curator of Birds Jo Gregson. As ever I was very impressed with the work Jo and her team are doing, especially with cassowaries - here is a picture of one that I hope will soon be at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo.

Now that is an impressive bird!

We did take out time to visit Devonshire Traditional Breed Centre in Crediton http://www.dtbcentre.co.uk/ where I acquired three hopefully fertile buff Orpington eggs.

I'm not a fan of Bramha chickens but this lot were great - full of personality

It's still a lovely collection, the chickens and grounds were a pleasure to see and as ever the staff were great (Thank you Tracey for rushing around and getting fresh Orpington eggs)

If only I had a really big garden it would be FULL of buff Orpingtons

Back home and it was a pleasure to see the mums and chicks. It's been good weather in London over the weekend so some of the plants were a bit saggy but nothing that a good water around the garden didn't cure. Rob and Isobel had done an excellent job with the chickens though Harriet and Ruby had done an excellent job at trashing the run with the chicks.

Ruby on guard

First we got all eight out of the home run and into the lawn run - of course Ruby kicked off big time when we moved her chicks but once they were out on the grass they loved it. Slight problem in that the silkie chicks walked straight through the wire (well the gaps were a bit big) so a rapid job with some smaller wire soon secured the pen for the mums and chicks.

Harriet and Eggnog in the lawn run

So how are the chicks doing?

Eggnog is doing brilliantly. I have NO idea why we are calling him "he", I really want Eggnog to be a girl so fingers crossed. Still staying close to Harriet, Eggnog is now far more visible and he eats with gusto and is becoming a little mister independent.

The two silkie chicks look gorgeous and are fast as hell, they have got the idea of catching flies, just like Harriet - is fly catching a silkie thing?

The buff Orpington bantam is growing really quickly and had the fullest crop.

Most impressive are the speckled Sussex. They have grown faster than anybody, you can see the flight feathers already starting to form on the wings. They scratch about just like the mums and with the size of them I wonder if they are indeed bantams!

It was lovely to be away but it's equally lovely to be home.

Eggnog - it's a long story

2009-06-17T22:06:00.013+01:00

Sometimes you wonder where your partner is coming from - seriously.

We have and indeed continue to worry about the little black Orpington bantam. It, although now a "he" in our minds, has ended up with the most unusual of names.

Aforesaid chick is black with small white stripes (though these have now turned yellow) so I instantly thought, in an alcoholic sense of course, that we should call him Guinness.

So innocently asking my lover what drink name did little chick inspire...........Eggnog!

"Eggnog???" I ask?

"Yes, Eggnog, what's wrong with that? Isn't it champagne and Guinness?"

Rejoice, Eggnog we love you!

Various worries - chicks not getting the idea of running up the ramp to the hut in the evening though Harriet stayed with them in the run as Ruby went to the nestbox.

Eggnog has NOT got the idea of eating and preferring to stay in the warm feathers of Harriet instead of eating however we did see him eat and drink.

Various good bits - all the other chicks are doing great and both Harriet and Ruby are doing a great job at feeding them especially as this is their first time.

Various wonderful bits - the George clan came around this evening to take over chicken and chick rearing duties over the weekend while we are away in Devon. A huge thank you to them.

There may be an update from Rob and Isobel (that would be good) however that's it now until Sunday evening

Day 2 - The Responsibility Begins

2009-06-16T20:57:00.010+01:00

"The official photographer writes" So, day 2 is nearly over but alas, no more little chicks. The other six eggs have not hatched and it doesn't look like they're going to either, so we can only assume for now that they are infertile or dead in the egg. We're going to give them 24 more hours and then we'll find out what's happened to them.

The Mums

HOWEVER, the little'uns we do have are absolutely wonderful, truly marvellous!!! The Buff Orpington chick seems to be developing a very brave personality....we could have another Cybil on our hands here...God help us all!

Buff Orpington - Cybil's successor??

I came home tonight and the little Black Orpington was alone outside, both Mums were inside with the other chicks so I picked it up and put it back with Ruby, then we gave them all some mini mealworms, which they LOVED....the little Buff Orpington was whizzing around eating anything and everything it could get its tiny little beak into....wonderful to watch.

Blue Silkie with the little Black Orpington

The Mums seems to be coping very well although Harriet was sitting in the main inside area without any chicks.....Ruby had them ALL underneath her......little Madam! Ruby has really taken to this like a duck to water. Its amazing that this is their first time as Mums and yet they know exactly what to do with no help from us at all. Mother Nature is truly fascinating!

Come to me my Children

The Speckled Sussex chicks are looking good and healthy and are almost as brave and confident as the Blue Silkies and the little Buff Orpington (we're going to have to watch this one methinks!!!)

One of the cheeky little Speckled Sussex chicks

Anyway, I am loving being a new 'Dad' although all this adrenalin and worry is knackering me!!!

May the joy, stress, worry and sleepless nights continue and may our little babies grow into gorgeous, lovely little Girls....do you hear me??? Girls!

18.45pm and we officially have chicks!

2009-06-15T18:41:00.004+01:00

After the cheeping of chicks this morning there had to be some more chicks when we got home and we were not disappointed. As I walked down the garden I could hear them even over the rumbles of thunder.

Ruby's nest first as she hatched the first chick. Fairly sure that the two brown ones are buff Orpington bantams, very lively and very noisy and climbing all over mum. Not sure about the other one as the writing had rubbed off the egg but its either a black Orpington bantam or speckled Sussex bantam. We think its the Orpington.

How cute are this lot. Two blue silkies and a light Sussex bantam that hatched under Harriet. Oh and she's such a lovely mum. I have to say that Ruby has turned into Mother Warrior!

"Hello world"

Of course all said all we wanted to do was watch chicks with mums but that wasn't going to happen as both girls still had three eggs to hatch and both had newly hatched chicks. Saying that both the little Orpingtons were very happy running over Ruby and the photo above shows a cheeky chick checking out the photographer.

So amidst torrential rain and thundering above we left eggs, chicks and the girls (no longer girls but the mums) safe, dry and snug in the little shed and we'll see what the morning brings.

05:45 am - Hatching news update

2009-06-15T07:05:00.004+01:00

Went down to check how things were progressing and cheeping could be heard quite easily. A quick peek revealed that Harriet had just hatched a blue silkie chick, Ruby had at least one chick as well which had hatched sometime early as it was dry and fluffy - not sure what that one was but could have been either a light Sussex or a buff Orpington. How exciting!
Needless to say a day at work is going to pass very slowly as I can't wait to get home to see what others have hatched.
No doubt further updates when we get home later today and photographs I would imagine :)

Wot a weekend

2009-06-14T13:47:00.012+01:00

Well the suspense has been killing us! The girls have been sitting fastidiously for the past three weeks and have just been brilliant. Every evening at 6.30pm after we have managed to struggle home through the London rush hour (and thanks Bob Crowe for the Tube strike - idiot) we gently lift Harriet and Ruby off their respective nests and eggs. If we didn't I am convinced that they would go as far as they could sitting on their clutches of eggs without food, water or exercise. Anyway they love their 25 minutes incubation break. Food, water, the biggest and smelliest chicken poo ever, a quick preen, and if they can fit it in - a dust bath, another drink and then straight back on the nest for another 23 hours and 35 minutes. Bless them.........and we have just been waiting and waiting for chicks!

It's been a great weekend. Saturday we went to the South of England Show, a huge agricultural meet-up where you can buy everything from a combine harvester to a ferret harness. Watching the cattle and other domestic stock being shown was humbling. The pride that the farmers and owners had in their animals was evident and it was great seeing them being paraded. Saying that I nearly bust a gut laughing at the youngsters trying to steer pigs around a judging ring with a board and stick - some pigs will just NOT do what you want them too!

Glad we got to the Show early as it became too busy and too crowded. The chickens (which was one of the main reasons for going) were disappointing with far fewer breeds than I have seen at other shows and the quality wasn't exactly that good either and in fact without being that rude I think Harriet our silkie would have walked it with first prize and not even a buff Sussex bantam on show (so by default Ruby was a winner). Still, a very enjoyable morning and we picked up some lovely plants for the garden at bargain prices.

Today - main event of the day was seeing "The King and I" at the Royal Albert Hall - a very generous gift from my boss for my birthday. All geared up for seeing it at 7.30 in the evening we were mortified when we got the tickets out at 3.00 in the afternoon to find it was for the 2.30 show - OH BUGGER!

Anyway -we had a good afternoon at the allotment where a spate of burglaries has scandalised the site. The worst was a poor plotholder having their entire shed stolen! I'm never going to complain about the occasional golden courgette (zucchini) disappearing again. We had some very tasty freshly harvested radish for dinner along with lamb marinaded in our own home grown herbs.

So back to chickens - and the waiting and the waiting, however this afternoon as I was putting the girls out for their daily feed and preen I heard cheeping. And it was the chicks in the eggs cheeping as they started to hatch from the eggs. John was amazed as the calling of the chicks was so clear and loud. Didn't take long for Harriet and Ruby to do their business this evening - its hatching night so tomorrow evening check to see how we and the girls did (and like there is going to be any sleep tonight).

News in early June

2009-06-08T18:16:00.005+01:00

After the week of sunshine and very respectable temperatures we are now back into the early summer run of sunshine and showers. I think our incubating girls prefer this weather as opposed to the very hot times. Saying that, with no mud to bathe in Harriet has returned to her most white and pristine loveliest.

They are creatures of habit are our hens, as indeed we are, and get lifted gently off the eggs once a day for a good feed, drink and a very big poo (which as previously mentioned is very smelly and getting smellier as the incubation goes on it seems!). Both revel in having a good flap about, a quick preen but they are normally back on their eggs within 15 - 20 minutes.

We are getting excited now as the eggs could hatch as soon as Friday (only 5 days time). I think that we have got everything ready for the arrival(s) and needless to say no doubt lots of photos on the way.

The blue tits did very well and although we are not sure how many left the nest the parent birds still have a minimum of 6 chicks with them. The entire family are now using the bird feeder in the garden so we see them on a regular basis. The female blue tit looks as scruffy as ever - I wonder if they will do another clutch? There also seems to have been a small explosion on long-tailed tits, lots of them in the trees at the end of the garden.

Allotment and although we were a bit late in getting it sorted this year the strawberry plants have given a wonderful harvest and we are now getting to crop radish and salad leaves. The little fruit trees that we put in three years ago are doing well with apples and cherries on the trees but the Victoria plum has never done anything like producing blossom or fruit.

Finally the garden. Obviously lots of chicken poo has worked wonders and with the girls now incubating there has been a flurry of plant activity and its looking lovely. The downside is that the slug and snail populations seems to be on the increase as there are no little poultry predators to polish them off.

Next update hopefully we'll have some exciting news.............

Spring has sprung (a leak)

2009-05-26T07:25:00.003+01:00

Bank Holiday Monday, after a slightly cloudy start, was glorious. It started raining late last night and 10 hours later its still raining, however the bananas are loving it.

Had a major tidy in the garden, yesterday, it needed it. Interesting that plants are a little later in flowering this year and quite a few didn't make it through the winter however all is very verdant and the aphids are rampant along with the plant growth.

Ruby and Harriet are still happily broody so yesterday we gave them 6 hopefully fertile eggs to incubate and hatch (all being well)

Our future flock still in shell suits

A few facts relating to broody hens

As they come off the nest just once a day for a flap, feed, drink and clean up they do produce the biggest and smelliest chicken poo ever!
They have got some new calls and sit next to each other gently clucking away (hopefully in contentment at sitting on eggs)
They are not nest fixed - whoever gets into the shed first always seems to go to the nestbox closest to the door

It's also being very odd being in the garden and no chickens helping you remove the border to the lawn, rushing around in the hope of mealworms and dust bathing right in front of the lawn mower. Still, twenty days to go

Happy hens on the eggs

Spring has sprung

2009-05-25T03:37:00.004+01:00

Life has now settled down - it's quiet, in fact its very quiet. Ruby is getting more confident and will happily take food from your fingers but touching her? Oh not a chance. Harriet remains a big white fluff ball of poultry happiness.

Both were producing an egg a day, garden devastation down to a minimum and truth is it was all getting a little to easy - and then they both decided to go broody. Ruby first but in truth the sniff of a hint of broodiness and it triggered Harriet as well. Most improper that both insisted sitting in the same box even though they had no eggs!

Hmm......an opportunity we thought. We are looking to replace the chooks that have gone but not sure what we wanted. Several breeds came to mind, more silkies in perhaps different colours, bantam Orpingtons and of course another attempt at bantam Sussex. No chance of buying all of these however as we now had two broodies it seemed a good idea to get some eggs for incubation.

As we were visiting Mum up in Cheshire a quick internet search found Sue Feild in Chester offering a selection of the breeds we had already talked about. May 23rd saw us (Mother included)off to visit Sue and collect the eggs and into the bargain got a tour of not only all Sue's wonderful chickens and marvellous garden but some great ducks as well! We left very happy with 12 eggs but some trepidity in that there is no way we can keep 12 more chickens if they all hatch however boys will needless to say have to find a new home (noise factor alone I imagine though Sue did say that the cock silkies were quite quiet)

So what did we get egg wise? 2 x BOBS (buff Orpington bantam), 2 x black Orpington bantam, 2 x speckled Sussex bantam, 2 x light Sussex bantam, 2 x white silkie and 2 x blue silkie.

A gorgeous black Orpington bantam hen

Both lots of Orpington bantams were stunning, the blacks especially so. The speckled Sussex were bigger than Ruby however Sue's light Sussex bantams were smaller than Margot was. As for the silkies we did see red silkies, never seen them before but very impressed, unfortunately Sue had no eggs available. Also saw for the first time miniature (bantam) white silkies. Tiny and absolutely lovely!

So eggs in today, 25th May and we await with anticipation the 14th June - hatch date!

Silence IS Golden (as is Ruby!)

2009-05-09T11:36:00.006+01:00

What a difference 4 days makes!

Still very much noticing the absence of Cybil (missing her tons!) and Margot, but oh how quiet it is with just Ruby and Harriet!!! It's lovely I tell thee, lovely! There have been a couple of "squawks" from Ruby but nothing at all to the level of decibels that Cybil was reaching.

The Girls (all 2 of them) and I have been home alone these past few days while our BA World Traveller jetted off to Athens (God help the Greek men!) for a conference....so we've had treats and quality time and peace and quiet (but we missed him tons, of course!!!!!)

Obviously, half the flock and you get half the eggs. I would have thought that the disappearance of Cybil and Margot would have meant that Ruby and Harriet would have slowed down a bit, but no I was wrong....still 2 eggs a day, bless their little bums!

And what news of Chez Tit I hear you scream??? Well, we have titlets!!!!! Yes, we have baby tits....we haven't seen them yet but Mum and Dad are racing around like little feathery mad things (a bit like the Girls really!!) picking caterpillars and the like....the titlets are well fed if nothing else!!!!

I shall leave you with a gratuitous picture of a Tit!

The Sound of Silence

2009-05-05T19:38:00.003+01:00

I came home tonight feeling nervous, a small knot in my stomach, knowing that when I got home and opened the chicken house door to let the Girls out, there would be only two little faces looking up at me. Yes, today after much deliberation, soul searching and quite a lot of screeching, Cybil and Margot went to their new home in Bedfordshire.

I'm sad they've gone and I'm happy they've gone.

They are living out their (hopefully) long little lives in a wood in the countryside with other hens and a cockerel....oh what fun they will have.

The oddest thing is the silence. I've longed for peace and quiet for so long and now that it's here it's very strange. Cybil was definitely the character of our small flock, with her constant chirruping, squawking, screeching and always under your feet to see what you were doing and had you found something that she could eat. Margot is her trusty sidekick, her Lacey to Cybil's Cagney and she will also be missed but Cybil is noticeably absent.

Harriet and Ruby seem no different from yesterday when there were four of them, although I think we witnessed Ruby asserting her 'Queen Bee' status on Harriet earlier, which is funny when you consider that yesterday she was at the bottom of the ladder! What a difference 24 hours makes to the life of a little hen.

Anyway, we'll give it a little while and then introduce a couple of new quiet hens to the flock....probably another Silkie (Harriet is sooooo quiet and also needs another Silkie to communicate with) and we might get a bantam Orpington, we'll see how the future pans out.

Another chapter in the ever changing lives of Hens In The City....it's never dull here at Hen HQ!!!!

P.S. My partner did not want them to go...but then he's deaf so what would he know?!?!?!

Pain in the back and the ear

2009-04-25T08:42:00.007+01:00

Old age - catches up with all of us at some stage. I've just spent the last few days off work with lumbago - I know, its one of those problems you associate with old folk "oh I've had a touch of lumbago luv, must be the weather", you know how it goes. Well did I get a shock. Lumbago is defined as mild to severe pain or discomfort in the area of the lower back. The pain can be acute (sudden and severe) or chronic if it has lasted more than three months. Lumbago often occurs in younger people whose work involves physical effort and is not uncommon in people of retirement age.

Well it hit me quite impressively and a visit to the doctor got me prescribed with tranquillisers to relax the spasming muscle in my back and pain-killer and the instructions to not move and not to drive (the pill combination was chilling :) This did however give ample time for chicken watching.

1. I now fully understand the chicken screeching worries of my partner - Cybil and Margot can really let it rip and quite truthfully it was somewhat noisier than I was overly happy with. Not so much volume for any length of time and perfectly in tune with the countryside but the suburbs of south London? (I do appreciate that being on medication for the back may well have contributed to low noise tolerance)

2. Again Cybil and Margot are a right pair of destructive little buggers. Where as Ruby and Harriet gently scratch amongst the plants and on the lawn Cyb and Madge are right in there, border being showered all over the lawn or deck, the small tunnel they are digging under the birch tree seems to be a constant provider of treats and the two of them both trying to get whatever goodie they have unearthed at the same time is highly amusing.

3. If any of the chickens find a snail it turns into a Benny Hillesque chase sequence. I couldn't watch as the laughter made my back and sides hurt. Basically whoever gets the snail promptly starts running around the lawn instead of discreetly eating it. This in turn has the other three in hot pursuit and snail steal all around - eventually they all end up with a small piece of shell and all seem happy until it all starts again. And note here, excellent snail and slug removal units the girls are turning out to be.

4. Back to the squawking. It seems as previously mentioned to egg laying. Not only do the girls have access to the two nestboxes in the run but there is also skylon (nestbox in the sky) and if we are home we open the shed door and they love laying in their carrying box. Major conflict seems to happen when one of the girls is laying in either skylon or the shed and either Cybil or Margot want to lay in there. Why they just don't go and nest in an empty nest box I have no idea but if the nest box of choice is not available well just stand outside and screech your lungs out. As Cybil is easy to catch (its not catching really, she just waits for you to pick her up) one morning I grabbed her as she was screaming up a storm standing outside skylon while Ruby was patiently trying to lay an egg. I put her in the carrying box in the shed and shut the door. Lo and behold, not only silence but within 5 minutes an egg. Cybil sat there, pleased as punch with herself until I let her out and she reverted to perfect chicken mode (well almost)

So what to do? We do have the offer for a perfect country home for the girls, the noise (of which I have to say we have not had a single complaint or murmur of discontent) seems to be our perception more than the real noise though there is no doubt that Cybil can inspire you to gently wring her neck at time when she does hit the screech note!

Our prospective chicken foster father and mother are currently on holiday so there is a small window of reprieve - lets see how things pan out.

Springtime - lets hope it stays sunny

2009-04-21T22:00:00.006+01:00

Taking it easy in the Cornish Easter sunshine

So Easter has passed, for us it was spent in Cornwall with some of our dearest friends and god children. Wonderful weather, wonderful company and wonderful children (even if the god daughter did have chicken pox!)

The girls enjoying Spring and getting to the lawn

We are really behind on the allotment this year and need a couple of concerted evenings and weekends to get it back on track however a slightly later start should ensure a more even arrival of fruit and vegetables instead of our normal glut!

Ruby in "skylon" adding to the egg mountain

The girls are doing really well. As I mentioned in the last blog entry, we do have a problem with both Cybil and Margot being somewhat noisier in the morning that may be acceptable in a suburban situation. Not sure what sets them off but boy can they make a din. It's only short lived however it does tend to occur somewhat early in the morning, usually between 6am and 9am. Once eggs have been laid normal behaviour returns. It's not every day either AND selection of nestboxes does seem to be crucial. I am stumped in what to do however plan B is to send them off to a more rural setting however we are going to trial some changes in nestbox availability and reducing the run size again as the girls have access to the garden in the evenings again as well as all weekend.

We are on full production at the moment with 4 eggs most days and generally 22 - 24 eggs per week. We were astounded when we compared our little bantam eggs to normal sized organic eggs. The yolk size on the bantam eggs was substantially larger than that of the regular sized egg, the colour deeper and the taste - well not that I'm at all bias however our eggs won on every front!

Springtime and the joys of a good dust bath

Back home

2009-04-04T05:23:00.003+01:00

Back from my travels its good to see that Spring really does seem to have arrived.

Harriet in now on top form again and all four hens are laying - lots of production mean that we are also able to provide the neighbours with eggs as well as having as many as we can cope with.

Margot got a bit of a "mucky" bum so she was hugely indignant when she got caught up, a little cosmetic trimming and a good bath. She is now a sparkly clean chicken and oddly not quite as noisy.

I think the one downside of the "girls" is that they are nothing if not a little noisy in the early morning, it seems to be pre-laying. Once that egg has passed all seems to settle down.

Ringleader of noisiness is no doubt Margot. It's not a lovely clucking noise but more easily likened to high pitched strangulation at decibels that although in the countryside would hardly be heard a small city garden its hugely intrusive.

Anyway - a somewhat abbreviated version but glad to be back home.

Spring is springing!

2009-03-29T12:27:00.007+01:00

Hello one and all....Hens In The City "Official Photographer" here.......my hunky chap "Johnnie the Blogger" is away in the USA as I type, and as the previous post mentioned something about me posting to the blog, I thought it best I do as I were told...better late than never!

Well, Spring is here!!! The clocks have gone forward, the weather is 'changeable' to say the least and the daffodils are everywhere....a sea of golden nodding heads, quite spectacular.

Spring window boxes

With Spring comes new life and as well as a ton of frog spawn in our pond (dirty little amphibians!!!) we also have a pair of Blue Tits that have moved in to our nestbox that was put up about a month ago....wonderful news! Mr. and Mrs. Tit are busy stealing any and all nest material that they can muster, including the moss that we have around pots of tulips and daffodils, the little buggers, but all in a good cause I s'pose. Hopefully we can keep you updated on "Tit Progress" throughout the Spring and Summer.....I do worry, what with the local, vile cat population. If they'll go after our Girls, the Tits stand no chance at all!

Chez Tit

As for The Girls....they are fine, if a tad noisy!!!! Margot and Cybil in particular have taken it upon themselves to "announce" as loud as they can that they are going to lay an egg and boy do they announce it! Screeching and squawking and pacing until they finally pop one out....Harriet and Ruby do make a little noise, but nothing like these two little sods! Its only on the days they lay so thankfully not everyday....*phew*

Skylon is going well and all The Girls use it now. We're on 2-3 eggs a day...the neighbours love us, I don't think any of them have bought eggs this year!

Ruby in Skylon

Back home from India

2009-03-11T20:16:00.009Z

The Indian version of Ruby

From 40 degrees to 4 degrees - yes, back from India and missing it dreadfully - what a truly amazing place. Incredible birds, beautiful gentle happy people, the smell of smoke in the early morning, heat, vegetable pakoras to die for, frangipane flowers never seen before and a cool pool to dip in at lunchtime.

So there we were sitting in the village square of Samudra in the early evening, warm waves washing up and down the sandy beach and a welcome cooling breeze, never has a chilled beer been so welcome. But there, well after dark and living by the lights of the local stores, was a little white ghost dashing back and to, oddly familiar in some bizarre way. Camera out - captured on film (well not these days but it sounds odd being captured on digital!) It was the Indian version of Margot!!! Renamed in honour of our then holiday residence "Marjeeta" turned out to be a bit of a star It will be a pleasure to return.

We had the most wonderful time in Kovalam and while Paul and Alex were manfully looking after the girls we were sunning ourselves and sipping beers next to the pool overlooking the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean. Still, we took ourselves off for walks (birdwatching) and were entranced by Indian village life and the chickens we saw.

It's a very humbling experience walking through some of the little hamlets with people living on or indeed below the poverty line but all managed to fit into their small spaces a coconut palm or couple of banana trees, a few chickens, the occasional goat but with their pots and pans scrubbed to gleaming silver on show.

To wander into their space with camera equipment and binoculars dangling from us which were probably worth more than they could imagine was very thought provoking.

We met a lovely man who spent his entire day working in truly unimaginable temperatures carrying huge bales of coir. His sister had severely damaged her foot working with the coir and he tried so hard to talk with us. He was totally charming and we gave him a load of rupees - when we had a photo he insisted on holding up the money!

The girls were overjoyed to see us - I wish - they couldn't really have given a damn as they were so well looked after by our wonderful neighbours Paul and Alex. Say that, the following day I let them out into the garden and after only a minute I had to bribe them back into the run with mealworms as after doing a major tidy up in the garden it was a nightmare to see plants sprouting through the soil after a hard winter being trashed instantly! The compromise was fencing off a portion of a border which was then completely dug up, dug over, 4 very happy chickens and Ruby got so carried away that even her immaculateness got down and dirty in the soil. The Verbena bonarensis and the Hedychium I fear have been sacrificed however it was worth it for pleasure it gave those girls. Needless to say that once plants get established for the season those chickens will be stalking the garden again.

Not sure how the next few weeks will go as I shall be relying on my lovely partner to blog as I will be away at conferences so watch this space....................

And the big news? Harriet is off the nest and NOT BROODY any more (well for the time being)

Bugger - meant to post this before we went! Now back from India but this is from just before we left.

2009-02-24T20:50:00.004Z

Not quite sure if spring has sprung but there is no snow, no frost and the heating isn't on continually.
The weekend was a major tidy-up in the garden. There is no doubt that the chickens are really destructive in the garden. Not so bad in the summer as the herbaceous plants are all established and everything else is big enough to stand up to hen power. At this time of year all the all the bulbs are coming up and the first shoots of spring are showing, all delightful green snacks for girls looking for end of winter treats.
Not only that but Cybil and Margot are championship scratchers - like a pair of tiny semi-domesticated velociraptors they rip the garden to shreds searching for any vegetation worthy of plundering - the better point is they also have now got over their fowl phobia of snails and slugs and devour them with relish. Saying that, Rubester is now without doubt our top mollusc muncher taking huge delight in ridding the garden of these slimy little pests.
Anyway - Harriet is STILL broody and we are off to India for a week so good luck Paul and Alex who are looking after the girls

Catch-up time.......

2009-02-15T19:06:00.008Z

It's a couple of weeks since updating the blog as lots of things going on.

Whipsnade in the snow

The great snowfall managed to bugger up London for a couple of days but nothing in comparison to Whipsnade in Bedfordshire where the snow kept falling and falling! Ten days later and London was almost snow free though we had a very wet garden.

Another visit to Rainham Marshes - nowhere near as cold as our last visit but still lots of ice about. We got some amazing "almosts". Cetti's warbler calling but not seen, a flash, glimpse and rustle in the reeds which was almost probably a water rail and a small brown avian predator that we saw on the ground which was almost probably a female merlin - I hate "almosts" :)

Seeds and potatoes arrived this week. The allotment has been sadly neglected over the winter months as its either been covered in snow or so wet that the clay makes it impossible to work there anyway. Despite that we have been planning what we will be growing this year so its always exciting when seeds and the like arrive. Swift and Maris Peer are the spuds we are growing and lots of squash of various varieties - watch this space. (We have hardly made a dent on the jerusalem artichoke harvest - is all the farting worth it?)

And on to chickens;

Our girls do not like snow.

Despite the cold we are getting 2 - 3 eggs per day as all the Sussex are laying.

I did some work on the skyline nestbox - new funky ladder. Margot and Cybil are using it.

This morning (Sunday) I could have seriously wrung the necks of Cybil and Margot and looked forward to chicken casserole this evening. 7.20a.m. and you should have heard the noise. Why do they make SO much noise before they go and lay an egg? In the interests of neighbourly relations I had put them back in the night shelter and covered the door window with a sack so they had instant night. I could still hear Cybil having a right old cluck for a couple of minutes but they all went to roost and we got an hours grace with the locals - God alone knows what will happen when dawn arrives at 4.55a.m. in summer??

The garden is a complete tip! On the good side the girls have really done a good job on wiping out the highly invasive garlic chives, the down side is that anything that looks like a garlic chive has gone as well (bye crocus!). Still, daffodils and snowdrops are doing okay and the soil has never been worked so hard through scratching and general chicken mining. I am amazed at the devastation 4 chickens can cause i.e. as fast as you brush up and put the soil/leaf compost/bark chips back on the border the little buggers throw it back again. SODS!

Harriet is still broody despite everything we do:

she is sitting on nothing unless Ruby lays an egg inside then Harriet will go and sit on it. I am tempted to put our ostrich egg in the nestbox as I am sure she would sit on it.

when I throw her out of the nestbox for the day she goes and just broods anywhere

when I lock her out of the run and she spends the day in the garden without any problem the second the run is open she rushes straight in and even if she can't get in a nestbox she just snuggles herself in for a good old brood on the shed floor

What will we do with her!

Thoughts of the week:

King vulture egg at London - I cannot tell you how exciting that is (4 years of hard work!)

Bloody civil ceremony doing my head in (but all in a positive way)

Blade Runner (one of my favourite all time films) was based in 2019 - only 9 years until we start getting problems with replicants and me worrying if I can get chickens to the off-world colonies.

The great snowfall of 2009

2009-02-02T19:56:00.012Z

Harriet is still broody - what makes a hen want to sit on nothing? I admit that snuggled into a nest of warm straw on these cold mornings is a great idea but as there are no eggs to sit on I wonder how she keeps the inspiration.

Harriet gets down and dirty as normal

Since the arrival of the Skylon nest Cybil and Margot head for the sky to lay eggs so making them unavailable to the Harriet incubation service. Ruby has now started to lay (at last) but not on a regular basis and is using the normal nestbox so Harriet does leap onto any egg that appears but they are irregular.
We do throw Harriet out of the nestbox twice a day for toilet duties, food, water and some exercise however Saturday we kicked her out for a couple of hours while I cleaned out the shed and run. Bless her she went for her mud-bath, fertilised the lawn with the biggest, smelliest poo and then got bored that she couldn't get into her nestbox so decided to brood phantom eggs at the back of the run in the woodchip! Bonkers bird.

"Okay Dad, I don't care if you shut me out, I'll nest in the run!"

Sunday night saw a few flurries of snow. Dire warning on the television about an "Extreme Weather Event" snow, snow and more snow. Heard it all before.

So "oh bugger" when we woke up in the morning!

One look out of the bedroom windows saw that we had substantial snowfall

I am so glad that we had put on the extra plastic - psychic weather insight?

How deep is that snow at 6am in the morning?

From the photo below you can see that trying to get to work was going to be pointless. The road was the quality of a pure white skating rink, for the first time in many, many years the entire bus network in London was suspended and as you can see - no trains were running at all. I gave up trying to get to work at 10am.

So daylight arrived and we saw Honor Oak Park and south London covered in snow.

Fishpond looking like and advert for a polar bear fast food cafe

And you had to get out there and make sure there was enough food for the wild birds.

A visit to the allotment gave some amazing views over a white and quiet London.

Of course we had to let the girls out for a quick look at the snow - they were not keen that's for sure.

Harriet by this time had already been into the run for a quick feed before rushing back to the imaginary eggs leaving Cybil, Margot and Ruby to take to the snowy lawns of Honor Oak.

"ooh Margot, I'm not keen on this white stuff"

I do have to say that the girls should be hating us at the moment as for the last three days we have had to catch them all and dose them with wormer however they have been most loving as normal (apart from the aloof Ruby) and any medicine has been supplemented with mealworms to make the ordeal instantly forgettable.

Margot on the prowl and realising she's not as white as she thinks she is.

The girls looking suspiciously at snow - if you are really eagle-eyed you can see Harriet's brief outing into the snow.

So a horrible period of wetness ahead as all this snow thaws. No eggs for a week as there is a withdrawal period for the eggs as we used Panacur to work the girls.

As you may have gathered, the girls do get a few too many treats and as we are buying "basics" range from the market we pick up any cheap greens and sweetcorn and they are still getting their mealworms. I remember mixing mash with boiled veg peelings and old bread with hot water when I was a little lad, on my grandparents small holding, for the chickens. The smell was so reminiscent with childhood. Reading up I wondered if there was some worth in providing layers mash as part of the daily feed as for the chickens to bulk up on pellets would be really quick - it takes lots of time to eat the same in mash. It's a trial - they aren't impressed as all the pellet goes first but I guess it keeps them occupied and they get so many other treats.

Lets see how this week unfolds.

Tragedy .............................. and moving on

2009-01-28T21:30:00.007Z

Sometimes you never know what life is going to throw at you.

This morning we were so excited as all the signs pointed to Ruby laying her first egg.....which she did.

However today is devoted to another lovely little hen, our LOTTIE

There was no doubt that Lottie had various elements that would class her as totally bonkers, and she revelled in that.

She adored her sister, Harriet, however could be Miss Independent and would frequently ignore the crowd and go off and excavate holes under the bananas - she was a very happy little hen.

Lottie caused arguements on the poultry chat boards as nobody would believe she was a proper little silkie. She was just white, she was just different.

But nothing will ever let us forget Lottie:

- her mad runs across the lawn, mad runs straight into bananas, bushes and the deck!

- her love of Harriet, the two of them snuggling into one nestbox was so sweet

- complete lack of egg-laying

- the puzzled look in her eyes when mealworms were thrown - if they landed in front of her she was fine but having to find them?

- white, fluffy, snowball and totally trusting

Why or how she died we don't know - she was fat, looked gorgeous and had no injuries at all so we can only hope that chicken heaven is as much fun as the garden - hang in there Lottie

Lottie McKenna-Ellis

2008-2009

It's a "broody" thing

2009-01-27T21:04:00.008Z

“In the midst of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.” so Albert Camus wrote.

"In the midst of winter, I instantly decided to become broody." so Harriet decided!

Bugger. Of course silkies have the best or worst ability deciding on your point of view in providing random egg production or organic incubation needs. Harriet had a profound realisation the she wanted to hatch some eggs.

This was a complete surprise and discovered when she didn't appear for corn in the afternoon - a quick glimpse into the nestbox revealed the following photo as Harriet as a closet broody

"No, I'm not broody, it's the way I'm sitting"

Further investigation managed to expose the fact that Harriet was also coveting the eggs of others - the sin of it! Indeed egg production by Cybil and Margot had been encapsulated for incubation however the lack of a good cock renders all eggs infertile so why the broody behaviour?

"Well I might have a mucky crest but I look cute as a broody"

Who knows, however we have been fanatically collecting eggs and as Harriet became broody she stopped laying so most of the time she has not a lot to sit on however another problem arose. As Harriet began to take over the complete nest box Margot became very, very vocal as she needed to find somewhere to lay an egg.

When this happened at 7.30am I can tell you Margot was moments away from a "sage and onion stuffing gas mark 6" episode. In truth not her fault as no where to lay an egg as Harriet was hogging all nest space!

So we built a nestbox, placed it at the highest point of the new run, Sir Norman Foster would be proud!

The idea was that as silkies are not flighted (due to their feather structure they cannot fly) we could provide a place where the other chickens could lay without Harriet instantly incubating their eggs.

Sky Palace Nest Box

As with any modern architectural design, the locals may not be that impressed.........

"Bugger off, I'm not living in a hi-rise"

So, where are we now?

The Skyline nestbox is working - despite the initial worries that it may be inaccessible we retrieved two, yes 2, eggs from there today

Harriet is now having aversion therapy to broodiness, it's not working at present but as the other girls have found a place to lay eggs without harassment from a manic broody silkie bantam she may find it difficult brooding straw!

However, she is the most gorgeous little broody hen

And just to prove this isn't ALL about Harriet, a quick shot of Ruby who's looking lovely at the moment and her first egg must be soon!

Extensions - how to make your home larger in the credit crunch

2009-01-18T19:10:00.004Z

So here's the problem.

Up to late autumn we had been managing to let the girls out most evenings and at weekends and they of course loved it. However as the winter evenings drew in and they only came out at weekends - and if the weather was wet (and weekend rain seems to be a mainstay of British life) they stayed in anyway, we decided to increase the size of the run.

Lottie demolishing the lawn

Positives and negatives as ever.

On the positive it would give the girls lots of rooms so letting them out wasn't such an essential. We also knew that they would take their toll on the garden however the chickens truly are a devastation force. When half a border ended up in the fish pond, virtually all of the spring bulbs failed to appear (well we have found some well pecked bulbs) and the lawn became an urban bog it seems sensible to think that the garden could also do with some rest and recuperation.

Negative wise there were two main factors - money (I jest not, credit crunch has come to Devonshire Road) and lack of DIY skills.

However, reality prevails. As mentioned in a blog way back in the mists of time when the first chickenshack arrived, it was damaged and was replaced, however we still have 70% of a chickenshack carcass to work with. So a quick visit to the local DIY store and some lovely neighbours who managed to track me down some wire and £40 later we took on the chicken run challenge!

Of course the weather was lovely, bloody chilly with the occasional rainy burst however trying to saw wood, screw it together, attach wire, all attended by Harriet, Cybil and Margot made for an interesting time (Ruby was far too aloof to be even bothered looking at the worker and Lottie, as ever, was in "Lottie Land" far, far away). Cybil seems to think she can help by nestling down in the tool box and crapping all over the tools! Harriet additionally helped by knocking my mug of tea over into the nails......... swearing ensued as you can imagine.

Almost there

Lottie gets into the extended home

Architectural log feature and Margot's bum

Completed!

It has to be said that it was very satifying to complete the run. We managed to increase the size to almost three times the size of the original house and run. A complete scrub out, brand new woodchips, a big planter full of soil and innocent forget-me-not plants and lots of treats and the new home was ready for hen habitation.

"Hey, look at our new extension"

"Well the food's good"

Not quite sure where we will place the table and chairs in the summer

Still, it looks fine (once we stain it), the girls have loads of room and the garden gets to live again (and they all lived happily ever after - and still three eggs a day)

In the Midst of Winter

2009-01-04T20:07:00.013Z

So, I go on about it being cold. "Nesh" is a peculiarly Northern term for not being quite as hardy and cold tolerant as perhaps one should be. Today I was "nesh".

Half the plants in the garden are looking extremely bad, not only is the frost killing them with cold but they are completely dehydrated. I gave in and bought some echiums into the house, a good re-hydration and two out of the three are looking fine, I fear the very tender one has succumbed.

Frost on the chicken run roof

While being on holiday over the festive period it has given the girls free range for garden decimation. Even though it was crisp and frosty, after a good feed all the chickens had a try at dust bathing, and they succeeded in finding a small amount of earth under some large echiums.

As you can see from the photo below, Ruby also got a very brief opportunity to sun bathe.

Weekends are also clean out times. Halfway through cleaning out the shed Harriet decided she wanted to lay an egg so stood there while John rushed and filled up the nest boxes with the appropriate wood shavings and straw. When a girl wants to lay, she will NOT be bothered by the orderlies cleaning the home!

"Come on Dad, I can't lay on newspaper"

So a weekend treat before the great return to work was an early morning bird-watch at Rainham Marshes http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/r/rainhammarshes/index.asp. It's the first time we have visited, no idea why not before as it seems to be our most local RSBP reserve.

Thames estuary on an early sunday morning with the thermometer registering -2 degrees c, it was a real way to wake up and also to wonder how birds manage to seemingly continue as normal in such weather.

Even with the weather and thinking that with such freezing temperatures visiting a marsh (and all that frozen water) was not such a good idea it was in fact wonderful if not slightly bone chilling (as I said before, nesh - gloves don't work as its so long since we had proper cold weather).

However we saw some great birds - a first for both of us was a jack snipe and in the three hours we were there we clocked up 42 species. You can view the list of all the birds we saw at: http://www.birddiary.co.uk/diaryentry.asp?did=6479

Following are some great shots that captured the morning:

Goldfinch on hawthorn and below on fence wire

Coots and waterfowl in a small space of water in an icy lagoon

Grey heron on ice

More chilly coots and gulls

Frosty stonechat - our companions on the walk

The stonechats were very approachable and confident around people

Male reed bunting feeding - not seen one in a while and we saw LOTS at this site

A Day's Escape from Chicken World

2009-01-02T17:26:00.003Z

Winter always hails the best of good bird-watching if you interested in waterfowl, waders and cold, wet and wild places. After the excesses of the festive period it's always a great excuse to head out on a New Year birdwatch so we headed off to one 0f our favourite haunts for a good walk, some dramatic scenery and some wonderful birds.

Yours truly showing his Christmas tummy to the sea!

First stop was the Power Station area - I have to say that we always find this area a little disappointing despite everybody else on the planet seeing thousands of rarities each visit! To make things worse the little greasy spoon was closed so no full english for breakfast!

However, next site visit was just down the road to the RSPB Dungeness Reserve http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/d/dungeness/index.asp This is a favourite place with usually a good number of waterfowl over the winter months and this visit was no disappointment. And it had a very good start as we saw a female marsh harrier just as we passed thorough the entrance!

Shovelers feeding

Stunning male smew

Male red-crested pochard

All in all we had a really good day - not only did we walk a fair way in some jolly cold weather that burnt off calories but saw some amazing birds (smew were the best) and realised that chickens are not the only birds on the planet.

Checklist for birds seen http://www.birddiary.co.uk/diaryentry.asp?did=6441

And if you do one new for 2009, leave a comment especially fellow city chicken keepers but all welcome - thank you

Welcome to a New Year

2009-01-01T08:16:00.008Z

So it's the New Year and time for a quick reflection on the past year and although I never make resolutions perhaps this is an opportunity to highlight some changes that could or should be adopted for the good of the planet, my wallet and the unfortunately expanding waistline.

Chickens - completely obvious that these are now classified as pets. We do enjoy the eggs but on a cost basis we would probably be more cost effective buying them from a shop (I mean who ever thought that you would have to factor in a box of mealworms for treats each week and the mealworms cost more than 4 bantam eggs from Waitrose). Still, we shall thoroughly enjoy each egg irrespective of cost knowing that it came from a very happy hen.

On a vaguely negative point we will have wire off some of the borders as the destructive powers of chickens cannot be underestimated however one hopes that the payback will be some positive fertilisation of the soil (that soil that actually remains on the border that is).

And it would be fantastic to get a clutch of fertile eggs for one of the girls to hatch.

Allotment - despite the bloody awful wet weather the allotment was relatively successful. Again we had a lousy crop of tomatoes due to blight bought on by the wet weather, onions just didn't grow, same for garlic and runner beans again failed to produce much. Winners were shallots, potatoes (Swift were brilliant, Kestrel poor), globe and jerusalem artichokes, chillies, peppers and french beans were a complete success. Carrots have always done badly due to the heavy clay and stones however we grew them in pots this year and they were wonderful, a definite for this season.

2009 and instead of buying more seeds I am going to use up all the seeds we have AND we will try to eat everything we grow.

Friends - we are so lucky in having so many good and dear friends and I have to say that we are bloody useless at keeping in touch and visiting. This year, based on being able to find enthusiastic chicken sitters, we really do want to get and see lovely people we haven't seen in an age so Lollie, Jane and Budge and family on the Isle of Wight, you have been warned!

Stork chicks in Dalyan, Turkey

And finally - get married, go to Turkey, go to France, lose 2 stone, do SOME exercise, don't buy anything unless I really need it, remember that thanks to the Government I have probably loaned more to the banks than they have to me, a day without wine is like a day without sunshine, love Cornwall and finally "Welcome to Planet Earth" Louis Jack and Ferdinand Jack, two bundles of joy that arrived in 2008

Operation Harriet

2008-12-31T17:16:00.005Z

How do you measure happiness? In chicken world, in fact Harriet's world to be precise, the greatest joy of all is a dust bath! The fact that the dust can be mud seems to make no difference what so ever - the main objective seems to get all your lovely white feathers as dirty as possible!

Harriet disguised as a mud slick

We are not sure quite what happened but either Harriet mistook the pond for a giant mudpool or she was trying to dabble in the mud around the pond - whatever, she fell in! Now if one thing that silkies are and that is a very good sponge! I got outside to find a very wet, bedraggled and generally feeling sorry for herself little chicken. Despite giving her a dry off and putting her inside when I checked later she was still not looking happy.

Operation Harriet into action - big towel rubdown, bit of fuss, lots of mealworms and a night spent in the kitchen in a box with lots of nice dry wood shaving and straw and the next morning she was as fit and chirpier than ever!

Lottie and Ruby on a frosty morning

It has been one of the coldest Decembers for many a year, of course the first instant benefit is no mud for Harriet (though I am dreading the thaw). We await to see how many of the garden plants get through the winter. The bananas and echiums are looking particularly sorry for themselves however the tree ferns look spectacular glistening in their frosty overcoats. The other cause of horticultural destruction is of course the girls - I think we will be wiring areas off as spring arrives just to preserve some plants!

Tree fern fronds covered in frost

It's been an amazing year - there is no doubt that five little chickens have helped in that so all that remains is for us to wish you all the most wonderful and prosperous New Year xx

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

2008-12-25T09:46:00.000Z

Santa's Little Helper and its Christmas Eve

2008-12-24T22:05:00.003Z

Who more appropriate than the real living epitome of a poultry snowball to greet you before the big day itself, it's festive Lottie, Santa's Little Helper

A house full of people (actually a very small flat in South London!) but we are aiming to have a fantastic time as we hope you all are.

Girls are doing great - between 2 and 3 eggs a day. We have been able to give all our long suffering neighbours some eggs as a Christmas gift which I hope will at least be some compensation for Margot going into very loud clucking as she gets into egg laying.

So girls well fed and cosily roosting on not that cold a night here in London. Just checked out where Santa is at http://www.noradsanta.org/en/home.html - its Christmas Eve only and he's just delivered in Mongo, Chad. Presents wrapped and after a busy day now about to chill with my lovely family.

Happy dreams and I'll post tomorrow to wish you all a Happy Christmas.

Nothing to do with Chickens

2008-12-20T21:43:00.002Z

Seriously, nothing to do with the girls - just an announcement that Mother has arrived for Christmas. Happy? Absolutely overjoyed. I love my Mum but bloody hell, how much luggage :)

Gutted that Lisa didn't win Strictly - we woz robbed!

My gorgeous Mum and me at Leeds Castle in Kent

Santa's Special Sussex Bantam - Merry Margot

2008-12-19T19:20:00.007Z

The festive season is well and truly upon us now. A week of Christmas parties has left me bereft of normal liver functions, sleep and chicken contact, bless those girls they have been keeping busy without us. I do have to say that baby Jesus has lots to answer for but definitely keeps the UK bar and restaurant trade very busy for a month.

Our Christmas chick on this occasion is Margot. Please note the highly festive tree fern in the background, antipodean version of our very own festive fir.

Margot looking lovely in the garden behind a festive tree fern

We have been amazed at the increase in egg production. We have continued the lighting regime, merely an hour extra in the morning and allowing the girls to get out and scratch through the borders at every opportunity really is paying off. Last night we were away staying at the Sloane Square Hotel (and very lovely it was as well) which meant that the nestbox wasn't checked for 36 hours.

What a shock we had when we got back home. 5 eggs! which means that there have to be at least three hens laying.

Needless to say that Cybil is top layer and Harriet we are 98% positive on number 2 layer but who is number 3?
Bets on, its a difficult call however we think that it could well be our cover girl this evening, Margot.

A quick note on internet purchasing. I ordered a "pecka block" and some 4 egg egg-boxes from Flyte So Fancy http://www.flytesofancy.co.uk/index.html. Can just say that the service and goods well deserve a mention as they were ordered on a Monday evening and were with me Wednesday morning - so thank you!

And finally - HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my gorgeous fella, 39 today (old git in the making)

Seasonal Cybil

2008-12-14T05:43:00.003Z

Okay, so even I have to admit that the photographer and image builder went a little overboard here! Still, with what looks like a clutch of festive baubles instead of eggs Cybil is still cranking out 6 eggs per week.

Yesterday was truly grim, 24 hours of very heavy rain. The girls had to spend most of the day in the run as it seemed pointless letting them out just to get very wet and very muddy. Still, I went and cleaned out the night shed so they did have an hour but were very easy to get back in - mealworms and corn in a nice dry run or scratching around the borders and lawn in the deluge?

Cybil with seasonal spheres and Santa headwear

Despite having 4 feeders in the garden we have a complete lack of garden birds visiting. In previous years we have had a good selection of birds including blue, coal and great tits, robins, hedge sparrow - you get the idea. This winter we a bereft of small birds! We have the occasional blackbird and a plucky robin but that seems to be about it! I did add some food to the bird table (we usually feed just from hanging feeders due to previous problems with squirrels) but the only birds to eat off there was a magpie and a very fat wood pigeon. Some long-tailed tits and the occasional goldcrest put in an appearance in the trees at the bottom of the garden, ring-necked parakeets and crows are also seen over the house but never visit. In the 5 years we have been here we still have to see a house sparrow! So where have they all gone?

Great tit at a feeder - not in our garden unfortunately

Ho Ho Harriet

2008-12-11T21:01:00.004Z

Party season has now kicked off full time now - fortunately the girls have complete party outfits!

Today driving up the M1 from London to Whipsnade it was snowing and once up on the Downs there was a generally scattering of the white stuff.

In recognition of this today's photo is of the hen version of a snowball, Harriet, looking resplendent if not somewhat slightly grumpy.

Cybil laid again, currently running at 6 eggs per week. Why or what triggered mid winter laying? Answers on a postcard (actually just leave a comment)

Ho Ho Harriet in festive pose

Festive Fowl

2008-12-09T23:13:00.007Z

Okay, my lovely partner has been playing around in a festive manner so over the next week or so we'll have a few photos of the Girls in Christmas mode. I am of course useless of any kind of pun however please add comments if you can do better on a photo title (listeners to Capital FM breakfast show with Johnnie Vaughan and Lisa Snowdon should be a dab hand at this!)

In honour of David Beckham, Ruby appears in panto as "Goldenbells"

The real "Goldenballs"

Frosty mornings and a welcome to the world

2008-12-08T20:33:00.007Z

Early December's cold weather continues however it does seem somewhat more seasonal now than in October.

The girls are getting very familiar with frosty mornings and although its damn cold I've no problem going down the garden to open the night shelter door at 5.45am each weekday morning.

They now have a battery (rechargeable of course) light it means that they are straight out into the run and feeding. It works better than having the light on in the evening as once they have gone to roost they are not easily encouraged to do anything where as mornings it gives them an extra half hour before sunrise. Something is obviously working as Cybil is still laying - one a day.

Margot (with Rubster in the background) inspecting a frosty lawn

The chicken house is on the deck at the bottom of the garden and most of the pathway has been covered in large echiums (Echium pininana if you are interested http://www.trevenacross.co.uk/shop/pics.asp?plantid=362 for pictures and http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/plants/plant_finder/plant_pages/11031.shtml for information on the plant).

I digress, the point is that as we can't walk down the path so we are churning the lawn to a slippery, slidey dirty and gunky mud bath - not desirable. So the weekend project was make a new path, consisting of lifting out a muddy stripe of lawn and filling it with woodchip (free from the council). Perfect in execution and lovely to look at, walking down to the chicken house was a pleasure on the new path. No mud all over the place and the fact you didn't need several changes of wellies and boots just to get to the house was an added joy. It took the girls approximately 5 minutes to realise that it was a brand new toy to be scratched, dug up and completely enjoyed. Chicken enrichment at its best!

Ruby wondering why frozen worms don't taste good.

Margot looking all grown up

Christmas has arrived with Harriet and Lottie heavily disguised as snowballs

Few other things of mention that have had me thinking over the past couple of days.

With the smoking ban, more tax increases on beer and people being more inclined to get a bottle of wine to drink at home we hear more and more over the demise of the British pub. Interesting then that French bars and cafe society are going down the same path as the pub - the gauloise plume that hung from every bar ceiling has disappeared, a glass of red wine replaced by a bottle of white at home. Sometimes we think that we have all the problems here in the UK, not so, and oddly another community asset/link/facility slowly disappears.

And finally - welcome to the world Ferdinand Jack, all 8lbs 3ozs, born 7th December 2008

Eggs!!!!

2008-12-03T20:20:00.001Z

Perhaps we are going to have a "real" winter?

Another few days of bitterly cold weather and snow had been covering much of northern Britain and it looks as if the pattern will remain.

The girls have been getting some special attention. They have a small light in the sleeping quarters and I invested in a couple of small LED lamps for the run. They only light the pen for an hour or so each evening but it gives some extra feeding time to make sure they have plenty of food when they are ready to roost.

Most amazing was that we have had a recommencement of laying! Cybil is the prime suspect - amazing or what! And the eggs tasted wonderful :0)

Frosty bananas, muddy hens

2008-11-26T20:13:00.004Z

Late autumn slowly moves on - warm, cold, warm, cold, colder.

I suppose that I will keep saying it through the winter months but I do miss seeing the girls during the week. Weekends are so special as they spend all the time in the garden though maybe a little disappointingly they do seem to spend far to much time habituating with us and if we are in the house they sit on the back door step. Preening, pooing, just chatting to each other. Needless to say where ever we are, we have working gardeners, companions and bug killers at very close hand.

The weekend was clear and blue - somehow bananas and frost don't mix but sunshine is always enjoyed.

The best scratching place in the entire garden is under the bananas and gingers. With the big leaves I assume that the earth stays drier than the rest of the soil in the garden so its a favourite area.

Cybil inspects the garden

Harriett checking out the dodgy photographer - look at the gleaming feathers

Now if there is one thing that chickens love to do and that is dust bathe. Right, dust bathing in summer is fine - the words "dust" and "bathing" seem to make sense.

As the girls are in the run for most of the day we provided them with a lovely tray of clean dry sand that they can have a bath in. Oh so wrong - not interested at all.

What they are interested in is mud - MUD. How do you equate MUD with lovely clean dry sand? Life as a chicken is odd, however I think that if mud is what makes you happy then just think of how you feel when your prize white silkie chicken looks like this!

The happiest Harriett you will ever see!

Well this isn't all about chickens and our other creatures are a pond full of Carassius auratus. Perhaps goldfish is more recognisable as a moniker (referred to as "the children") and when we moved here we inherited a large finned specimen labelled Miss Swishy living in 2 inches of water - mud for chickens and fish may not be the best of scenarios for either!

Anyway we did a big pond makeover and got a few more goldfish (all named but that's another story) and they bred! Add plants and love, pond turned into a frog sex orgy centre (the resultant tadpoles perhaps stimulated the fish breeding?), damselflies and even newts.

But we got a leak so we needed to fix it to save our little haven.

I think the photos below show how I totally managed to mis-measure the pond and the amount of liner needed............ (have you ever seen anybody looking so mystified by the amount of black eco-pond liner wafting gently in the gale force wind)

Still, after a busy day the pond was re-lined, plants re-potted and "the children" (as the goldfish are known) returned to a larger and lovelier home. The frogs are already back, we hope the newts return soon.
And just when you thought it was all over - it snowed again!

Two snowfalls before December is just - well virtually unknown. Winter we await you.

Mid November musings and pics

2008-11-16T12:52:00.008Z

After the snows of earlier this month mid-November is back to being grey, wet but surprisingly mild.

Of course the girls are only getting out into the garden at weekends now, when we are about. We are still being plagued by cats and not happy leaving the bantams out and unattended.

As you can see they really enjoy trashing the garden and I am actually wondering if anything will grow at all next year as they are doing a great job at digging everything up!

We decided to have a bit of a mid autumn clear out so moved the pen, scrubbed the deck down, added all new wood chips and removed the horrid ramp up to the night shelter and made a branch ladder in the style used by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall to replace it. It looks much nicer, makes the pen seem larger and the old ramp got very dirty.

Super Ruby was the first to try it out - no problem

And to prove how easy and stylish you can look on your new designer ladder she showed the girls how to get down as well.

Chicken's eye view - the girls are looking suspiciously at the photographer here but all loving the new bark chips.

I love this photo - its so funny, they look so guilty! Chickens caught by paparazzi :)

Didn't take them long however to get back outside and start helping me move leaves!

I thought that Lottie would have been problematic about going up to the night shelter but it was Margot in the end that was having a small trauma but only took her a minute to decide she was going in after the other two Sussex went in.