Weekend Chickens and the joys of a weather "app"

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.

April musings, two new chickens and the dog!

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!

Autumn and more chickens departed

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.

Chick Update

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

Back home

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.

Wot a weekend

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

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.............

Pain in the back and the ear

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

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 from India

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)

Catch-up time.......

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

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.