End of the year ....again

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

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

Amazing stuff!
World first for vultures facing extinction

Photos from Ros

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

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

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

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.