Carol's Chickens

The day before yesterday we had our first egg of the year. I thought that as it was so tiny it must be Freckles egg.

This morning for our Sunday breakfast we had the last two shop bought eggs plus the small egg, half each. Once in the pan the yolk was a similar size to the medium sized shop bought eggs but the white was really tiny.

The first egg of the year in the front of the frying pan

Today Barley went into the nest box and I realised that I had probably made a mistake.

Barley is in the nest box

Emerald and Speckles come to have a look

Peaches comes to have a look

There is a bit of a meeting about it

After the other girls dispersed Barley settled into the nest box. When I returned about five minutes later she was outside the nest box pecking at a bit of apple and there was a warm egg in the nest box. All the other girls were perched in the run so there was no doubt that this was Barley’s egg. She was so quick that it’s not surprising I didn’t catch her in the nest box the other day.

Because we ate the other eggs for breakfast we now don’t have any eggs to compare the size with but we both think that this one is a bit bigger than the last one. She must have just laid an extra small egg as her first one. I photographed it in the egg stand as the best comparison I could make.

Second egg of the year

First egg of the year

The first photo is today’s egg and the photo above is from the day before yesterday. We definitely think today’s egg is a bit bigger.

Well done Barley! I feel a bit silly now for assuming it was Freckles but it was so small. Barley seems to be starting to lay a bit earlier each year which is a bonus. Last year Peaches started two weeks later and her comb isn’t as red as Barley’s comb so I imagine it will be a few more weeks yet.

Hurrah for the start of the egg laying but we will still have to wait a bit longer for the little girls to start.

Every winter we have a pheasant visit the garden. I don’t know if it is the same one of course, but it is odd how a single, beautiful, male pheasant chooses to visit our garden regularly at this time of year.

Last year I took some photos of it on the path just outside the chicken run. This year I have tried to get photos but it is so nervous and it’s really difficult to get anywhere near close enough to get a decent photo.

We have speculated why it visits our garden as opposed to the neighbouring gardens. We have wondered if it actually comes to visit our girls. It spends a lot of time in the ferns at the side of the chicken run. Oddly enough the girls are not bothered by it’s presence. They shout at cats and they freeze and listen to the sounds of kites but they take no notice of the many squirrels or the pheasant.

A few days ago this was the closest I managed to get.

My photo of the pheasant

It’s on the step in the centre of the photo. A rubbish photo but I had already tried for many days and each time it got away from me. A day or two later my husband had a go.

My husband’s better photo of the pheasant

Then today the pheasant was once more in the ferns beside the chicken run and my husband said it appeared to show interest in the girls and they also appeared to be interested in it. Peaches and Barley went to the wire for a closer look. The little girls just watched from their position on the perch beside the ladder as did Speckles from her position above the ladder.

The pheasant visits the girls

Frustratingly, my husband took several more photos after this one but the camera malfunctioned and said the photos could not be accessed, grrrr!

The pheasant and Peaches and Barley were studying each other through the wire but showing no signs of aggression, just interest. It is very odd but interesting.

The reason I titled this post “winter visitors” (plural) is because I thought it would be a good time to mention another subject. I don’t want to jinx this by saying this but …. this is the first winter since we have kept chickens that we have not had a rat problem. Every year we used to spend time fortifying the run and still they got in. We always felt that it was next doors decking on the other side of the run that was where they were coming from. They would chew through the fence panels or dig under.

Last year we so fed up with it that we had our fencing guys come and put marine ply in front of the fence on the chickens patio with a layer of chicken wire in between. Then we got them to put the marine ply against the fence beyond the patio and sink it to our layer of horizontal roof tiles buried below the soil. It doesn’t look greatly attractive but I think this is what has done the job. Rats can’t seem to get through from next door any more.

We have recently had a couple of cold and frosty weeks which always caused us to have a rat problem in the past but this year we have had no sign of any rats. I am so elated that we seem to have finally managed to keep them out.

I am always afraid to say something like this and have put off mentioning it until now but I really think that the marine ply has stopped rats being able to chew their way through. So the rats have stayed away this year (so far and hopefully for good) and the pheasant has continued to visit our girls but doesn’t seem to cause any upset so all is good with garden visitors or lack of them!

I am so excited to have the first egg of the year today. The disappointing thing is that I didn’t see any of the girls in the nest box.

I think this egg is Freckles first egg. The egg is tiny and is creamy beige in colour. I haven’t seen the little girls go in the nest boxes but I have seen them going to the grit and they are eight and a half months old now. I have been checking the nest boxes every day just in case.

Barley followed by Peaches are usually the first girls to lay and that is usually half way through February with Speckles starting at the end of February. These three girls also lay pure white eggs and the biggest eggs of the older bantam flock. Emerald lays a beige egg but doesn’t start laying until March. Game girls have a shorter season.

I am assuming that it would be Freckles as she looks more mature than Rusty and silky feathered seramas are known to mature a little later plus Freckles comb and wattles are really red.

The amazing thing is that she knew where to lay it. I always wonder how they know the first time. I shall be keeping a very close eye on the girls over the next few days to see if I can catch her laying.

A tiny egg in the nest box

The tiny egg compared to a medium sized shop bought egg

The two eggs in my egg stand

I have examined past photos of the girls eggs on this egg stand and they were bigger and whiter than this egg. I think it must be Freckles but I can’t wait to catch her in the act to be absolutely certain.

Freckles and Rusty

Freckles comb and especially her wattles are very red in colour. I can’t wait for the next egg now. I was beginning to think these little girls were never going to start laying. Hurrah!

The sitting room mark four! We both agreed that we couldn’t live with the last colour for even a few days. It was totally wrong. We both really disliked it and wanted to change it as soon as possible. It reminded us of a not so great pub! It’s a good job we are not busy at the moment.

We have made more work for ourselves because painting a lighter colour over a bold colour would need two coats. We decided to mix our own and add a little bit of the bold colour to the previous colour meaning we didn’t need to spend any more money. We felt this would make the previous shade a little warmer without risking another colour that we may not like.

Different shades of paint

The paint pot on the right was the previous colour, the pot on the left was the offending bold colour and the little pot in the middle was our trial mix. It’s only a subtle change but we didn’t want to mix too much and risk not liking it and having to do it yet again. We both agreed that this needed to be the last time for now.

The bureau has been in and out of the alcove like a yo yo! It’s fortunate that we don’t have carpet and have been able to slide it along the floor boards.

The difference between the two colours

I started on the fiddly radiator

A wall of each colour

T.V. corner

Opposite wall

The finished room

Curtains closed

We are so much happier with the room now. Steve (eldest son), you will probably say it doesn’t look any different in the photos to the time before the bold paint job, but we can see the subtle difference. You can see it for yourself on your next visit to us.

We feel that there is now enough of a contrast between the shade above and below the dado rail and it has satisfied us that a bolder shade is not for us! We don’t want to repaint this room for a very long time! We are feeling much happier with it now.

We recently repainted under the dado rail in the sitting room to provide a bit more contrast between the shades above and below, see here. We said we would live with it for a while before deciding if it needed to be a bolder shade.

I liked the shade but knew my husband would like a bolder colour that would provide more of a contrast. I suggested we go for it and go for a much deeper shade this time. In the words of the late, great, Leonard Cohen “you want it darker” (his final album title). I used the swatch colour cards to match a shade to the curtains. We both agreed that this shade appeared to match the colour of the curtains.

My lovely husband started to paint. Gulp! That looks much bolder than I had expected. We told ourselves it would be okay when it dried.

Ooops, that shade is nothing like the curtains. I soon realised that trying to match the curtains was a mistake.

Repainting again

The first wall is done

The wall behind the settee

T.V. corner

The first wall with the furniture back in

Bureau corner

Curtains closed in the evening

The room in daylight the next morning

Message for eldest son Steve – you can’t say the photos don’t show the difference this time!

The colour is all wrong. It is too orange. I wanted the terracotta colour of the curtains, this colour is called jungle ginger. I think we will have to have “painting the sitting room mark four”. We did say that it is just a job that takes a few hours so we can redo it until we get it right.

I think we need a shade that is in between the last one and this one. Nothing ventured, nothing gained! We would always have wondered if a really bold colour would work. I feel sure that the next shade is going to be just right.

My mother in law is ninety six, ninety seven in August and has lived alone for many years since she lost her dear husband. Unfortunately she lives up north, a minimum of four hours drive from us.

For some time now she has been wrangling with the decision of going to live in a home because she doesn’t want to be alone any more. She made up her mind recently that this was what she needed to do because she needs to have people around her.

My husband went up north at the weekend to settle her in and she will be selling her bungalow. She wanted my husband to have the brass ship’s lantern that hung in her hallway.

Our house is overstuffed with old things but my husband grew up with this lantern always being part of the family home. We have a lot of paintings and very little wall space that hasn’t something on it. We could only come up with one corner in our dining room between a large painting, painted by a former neighbour of our previous garden, and the under stairs cupboard.

This space would have to do. The lantern is very heavy but my husband’s father had made a bracket that would attach it to the wall safely. The lantern is now in place.

Brass ship’s lantern

Now hanging on our wall

I think my mother in law will be very pleased to know that the lantern is now on our wall and is being kept in the family.

I love seeing the girls dust bathing. You just know that you have happy girls when you see this. I also love the way the other girls just have to help.

Rusty and Freckles dust bathing

They are getting a little help through the wire

Barley and Speckles help

Emerald helps

They had such a lovely time and it’s such fun to watch. I am sure their little fluffy feathers are now all pristine.

Yesterday afternoon we felt we needed a trip out. We just needed to do something. We decided to take a trip to Wendover, which is about half an hours drive from us, to visit the antique shop. We then like to visit the local pub for one drink before returning home. The pub is very friendly and cosy. We have been doing this about once a month recently and the patrons make us feel like regulars.

We don’t need anything from the antique shop but we enjoy browsing and there is always the chance of a vintage china bargain to add to our collection. On this occasion I fell for some shot glasses. We don’t need shot glasses but I thought they would look good in the kitchen cabinet. They are very fine and lightweight and decorated with what I think is a white leghorn cockerel. They were eight pounds for the four so not expensive.

Four shot glasses

White leghorn cockerels

I just couldn’t resist them and they look sweet with our other vintage glasses and my egg cup collection.

Kitchen cabinet

Vintage glasses

These are the two shelves of glasses. I think the new ones fit right in. No room for any more though!

It was so nice to have no frost this morning and a mild day. There was a bit of sunshine throughout the day and a short shower in the late afternoon.

I wanted to take some photos of the girls enjoying the change in the weather. Seeing the craters in the dry area I could tell the girls had had a dust bath but I missed that.

The girls perched together above the ladder in the sun but I have already taken loads of photos of that recently.

What really strikes me about the flock at the moment is that it is made up of two pairs and two single girls most of the time. Emerald has become a bit of a loner since Toffee went and Speckles has always been a bit on the outside probably because she came in with Butterscotch who was also a loner.

Peaches and Barley have always been a tight pair and Rusty and Speckles have also always been a very close pair.

Peaches and Barley have some apple together

Whatever one of these girls do the other will just have to do too.

Rusty and Freckles peck at shavings together

Likewise these two always do everything together.

Emerald often struts across the patio on her own

Speckles is often on her own too and likes this spot on the wooden table

Speckles comb and wattles are getting quite red.

Fluffy bottoms

I loved this moment when the whole flock came together around the apple slices and the food dish. They all have such adorable fluffy bottoms.

There was a sudden shower and these three headed for the shelter

Whenever it rains these days these three girls will go straight to the shelter. Speckles always seems to get right inside the shelter and Peaches and Barley also like to perch here before bedtime.

Speckles is looking good

Emerald is in the food dish

Emerald has such lovely glossy feathers. She is still dropping the odd feather.

The little girls peck together

It’s difficult to get good photos of Freckles white feathers and just as I clicked this photo Rusty pecked at the ground.

Look up Rusty

Rusty looked up but Freckles white feathers lose detail. You get the gist though. You can see the pattern of how they are among the flock. Two inseparable pairs of girls and two single girls but altogether a happy flock.

I am so happy that we have at last reached the end of this freeze after two long weeks of it. Today’s temperature has reached a balmy 4 degrees with a forecast of 9 for the weekend and 12 next week, hurrah! There are no more freezing overnight temperatures forecast for the next week.

We have one casualty from the recent frosts.

A casualty of the frost

These terracotta pots contain our hostas. I am not complaining as we have had these pots for many years and it’s not the end of the world to buy a new pot.

I am just so grateful that this is the only casualty. I was so worried about how the little girls would cope with the winter and they have been absolutely fine. I think if they can withstand the past couple of weeks they will be fine with whatever our weather has to throw at us.

My little flock of six have come through the freezing temperatures looking non the worse for the experience. All I can think now is roll on spring.