Three years of chickens and Hens in the City

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

PS..........

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.

Busy weekend

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

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.

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