Silence IS Golden (as is Ruby!)

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

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

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

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!

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

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)