Carol's Chickens

We had my boys and their partners over for Sunday dinner. I cooked roast lamb with all the trimmings and our daughter in law provided the dessert.

Easter cup cakes

My youngest son and his partner bought us a chicken coup with bantam sized Easter eggs inside.

Easter chicken coop

Open coop with bantam sized Easter eggs

For Sunday breakfast the girls provided our eggs

Breakfast eggs

We also gave out cartons of our eggs now that we have plenty once more. It has been a lovely Easter weekend with time spent catching up with family and an abundance of eggs both chocolate and bantam.

Yesterday morning Toffee was in the left coop trying to lay her second egg this year. Topaz was in the right coop and Peaches wanted to lay her egg. Peaches decided to join Toffee (Toffee is a safer bet than Topaz).

Peaches moves into the nest box with Toffee

Toffee would like to be left in peace

I decided to move Topaz out of the right coop to free up another nest box as Topaz isn’t laying at the moment.

Peaches however stayed put and laid her egg in front of Toffee. It’s as if Topaz has a sixth sense for an egg being laid as she went straight in to the left coop to sit on the egg.

Topaz and Toffee

Poor Toffee is desperate to get her egg laid and as usual has sprinkled her back with pine shavings.

I returned a little later to find that Toffee had left the nest box and Topaz was sitting on Peach’s and Toffee’s eggs. I have found that if I gently ruffle Topaz’s tail it annoys her enough for her to leave the nest box and I can then collect the eggs and she will stay out. She does sometimes try to peck me though.

Topaz seems to spend all morning trying to sit on any of the girls eggs but so far once turfed out of the nest box she will go off and feed and scratch as normal. I wonder how long she will behave like this before starting to lay again.

Yesterday we were out visiting family so I put one of the turfs from the allotment in the run for the girls.

Once again Honey stands on the turf

Peaches is missing from this photo as she is in the nest box laying her egg.

The girls love the grass

When we got back the grass had been stripped. My husband turned the turf over and the girls were exited by it all over again. It has now been broken down, scratched and pecked to bits but is still scattered in the run to get the last bit of value from it. The allotment pickings are still giving great value to the girls.

Three days ago I gave the girls another sprout stalk from the allotment. They immediately set to work on it.

A sprout stalk for the girls

The girls missing from this photo are egg laying or practising in Toffee’s case

As the eggs are laid more girls join in

Three days later the sprout stalk is pretty comprehensively stripped and yet it still gets attention before bedtime.

A bare sprout stalk after three days of fun

It’s still getting attention

There is so little left on it

It still entertains though

Despite being bare the girls are still pecking at the sprout stalk. I have long ago learned never to take anything away too soon. Things that look done to us still have extra value to be got by the girls. I only remove things when they completely stop getting any attention.

I think we can safely say the girls have had good value from their sprout stalk.

For a while I have thought Toffee was getting ready to lay as she had started investigating the nest boxes in the mornings. Yesterday morning she sat in the left coop for a while and was scratching around in there. I thought she was going to lay her first egg of the year.

A little later she came out of the nest box with a pile of pine shavings on her back. I wished I had my camera. I checked the coop but there was no egg so it seemed that this was a practice run.

This morning Toffee looked in both little coops then selected the left coop again. She settled in and I knew this was going to be the day she laid her first egg. I checked back a short while later and sure enough there was her first egg with a tell tale slight blood streak on it. It was smaller and paler than Emerald’s eggs. Hurrah! Well done Toffee.

This means in theory all eight girls are back in lay but Topaz hasn’t laid an egg for a month now. I have worked out why I think this is. Topaz wants to go broody. As soon as any of the girls have a laid an egg she will go into whichever coop the egg or eggs are in and sit on them. When I try to take the eggs from her she will peck at my hand. Topaz is the only one of my flock that will peck me.

So far she hasn’t committed to going broody. As soon as I take the eggs away and especially if there are some treats on offer she will come out of the nest box and stay out. I think the reason she went broody last summer was because we were away for a couple days for Steve’s wedding and with no one to disturb her she settled in and stayed that way for three weeks.

I am hopeful that as long as I keep taking the eggs and encouraging her out of the nest box she may not settle in as this clogs up a nest box when all the other girls want to lay. Only time will tell if this will work.

Yesterday we decided it was time to get the veg plot ready for planting. We dug in the green manure that we had planted on the plot and we dug in the chicken manure that has been maturing for the last year. The compost bin is now empty ready for me to start adding chicken poop along with kitchen peelings ready for next year.

Last year we moved the veg plot to the spot that had been a thyme lawn which hadn’t thrived. The chicken run had been extended over what was previously the veg plot. This was the new veg plot once it was ready for planting last year (broad beans were already in).

Veg plot in May last year

My husband wasn’t happy when I planted potatoes following the curved brick edge. He said everything in the veg plot should be planted in straight lines but I said this wasn’t easy when there is a curved edge.

Jackie, my mum and myself have come to the conclusion that this is a “man thing”. All our husbands have felt the same about wanting straight lines in the veg plot.

This year my husband decided something had to be done about this and he set about making the veg plot straight. This is how it looks this year.

The veg plot is dug over and compost has been dug in

The other advantage of this is that it has made the plot a bit bigger. I dug over and added compost to the strip by the chicken run too. I am going to plant chard and leaks in this strip along with the dandelion patch I have already planted. This means that this strip can stay planted over the winter and the main plot will have crops that will all finish in Autumn allowing the main plot to be dug over at the end of the year and leaving the chicken run strip planted until spring.

The chicken’s strip is ready for planting

Amber is checking out the delicious looking dandelions. Now all we need to do is get planting. The seed potatoes that Jackie gave us can be planted in the main plot. Jackie has also given me chard seeds which I will plant in this strip and we will go out to buy some leek plants this weekend. Watch this space!

I have two lovely sons and received two lovely Mother’s days gifts on Mothering Sunday. I know how to get the best value from my gifts. As Easter is approaching I am still enjoying my gifts.

Steve, my eldest, lives in Cambridge and on Mothering Sunday I got a knock on the door and a vase of flowers was delivered from Steve. This is how they looked on arrival.

Mother’s day flowers

A little later in the day my youngest son Robert and his girl friend arrived with a gift box of mixed green teas. Green teas are something that, any one who knows me well, knows that I love.

Green tea selection box

The flavours are Earl Grey, Jasmine, Ginger (my favourite), Elderflower (love it), Apple and Sencha (lovely breakfast tea).

I am really enjoying these teas. I have sencha for breakfast when we have bacon, egg or sausage and jasmine when we have toast and marmalade and at lunch time I alternate the other flavours with ginger and elderflower being my favourite. These will last me ages.

Back to the flowers, as they started to open I removed the yellow collar as it was distracting. I think they looked much nicer like this.

Flowers opening

After a week the irises and tulips went over but the rest of the flowers still looked good. I decided to add a bunch of red tulips which cost only £2.00 to put some contrasting colour back in.

Tulips are added

The flowers looked good as new again.

Another week later and the tulips were starting to go over and the other yellow flowers in the display had also wilted. I decided to add a £1.00 bunch of daffodil buds and move the display to my chicken vase. I moved the tulips to my matching chicken mug so that once they had gone over I could throw them out while maintaining my chicken jug display.

Flowers part three

On a visit to Jackie’s allotment one of her friends gave me a bunch of daffs. I decided to add these to my displays.

Allotment daffs

I think I am now getting a bit obsessive as I then decided that as the daffs were in full flower and wouldn’t last long I needed to move them to a separate vase so that when they were over I could throw them out and the buds I had originally added to my Mothers day flowers were now just beginning to open.

Allotment daffs are now in a glass vase

The chicken jug is back to how it was before I added the allotment daffs

A few days later and the daffodil buds are opening up.

The display looks as good as new again

I think these flowers may just make it to Easter Sunday when we are having both my boys and their partners over for Sunder dinner.

To my surprise the allotment flowers, despite being fully open when I got them, are still going.

These daffodils are still going

The daffodils in my remaining Mother’s day flowers have now opened and are looking lovely.

Mother’s day Flowers

I am amazed that my flowers are still going and the green pompom shaped ones are still good as new.

It’s now April and my flowers are still going

My flowers have made it into April and still look good but I think it’s probably time to end this story here. We are a few days away from Easter and I think they will just last until then but some of the daffodils are just starting to go over.

I am still enjoying my teas every day and have had excellent value from my flowers too. I am looking forward to having the boys and their partners to Sunday dinner on Easter Sunday and having a bit of a catch up.

Happy Easter to everyone.

We now have seven out of eight girls laying with just Toffee lagging behind. I don’t why she is so late starting but she is investigating the nest boxes each morning so I am sure she won’t be long now. In March we had four, four egg, days and a total of fifty six eggs which is  exactly the same total we had in June before the number started to decline again.

We have been having eggs for breakfast on one mid week day, both weekend days and for one evening meal. I have given our newest neighbours a box of four but have been saving the rest so that when I have the family to stay over the Easter weekend I can do a cooked breakfast for everyone with two eggs each.

An almost full egg skelter

The colour difference doesn’t show up that well on a photo but I can clearly tell Peaches and Barley’s white eggs and Sparkle, Emerald and Honey’s cream coloured eggs.

The egg skelter from a different angle

When I say seven girls are laying that does include Amber who has in fact only laid one egg which was broken and Topaz who has actually stopped again at the moment and hasn’t laid for a month, so in fact I suppose I should say that only five girls are laying on a regular basis at the moment. We are getting an average of fifteen eggs a week.

It looks a lot of eggs on the skelter but being small we can eat them two at a time. However Emerald’s eggs are the size of a small shop bought egg and I wonder if Toffee’s will also be a larger size. I have to say that I just love seeing the skelter filling up like this.

Yesterday on our way back from the farm we called in at Hombase for a few bits we needed and I saw that they had turfs in for £4.00 each. We had no room in the van as it was full of disposables so I intended to go back today and get one each for Jackie and myself. I rang Jackie to let her know.

This morning Jackie rang me and said to hold fire on the turfs as someone at the allotment had dug more grass out. We arranged to go to the allotment this afternoon and collect it.

A friend of Jackie’s also gave us another sprout stalk each. I came home with a plastic box and a bag full of grass and gave one square of grass to the girls straight away. I am saving the sprout stalk for tomorrow.

The girls immediately set about the grass except for Barley who was in the nest box laying her egg.

Some grass from the allotment

Honey stands on the grass

Barley is missing as she is laying her egg

Barley joins in the fun once she has laid her egg

The grass soon disappears

They just love some grass and since they have started laying again they can’t get to the greens quickly enough. Daily greens also give their eggs a lovely rich colour.

Today we needed to stock up on our disposables from the farm where we re-homed Pepper and Dotty one year ago. The last time my husband went there they were fully feathered after their moult. He asked if I would like to come along this time to catch up with them. I went armed with my camera and a little pot of sunflower hearts.

Firstly we were greeted by the geese

I checked the barn and found two bantam pekins. My husband was told that these were the new girls. They were very shy so this was as close as I could get.

Bantam pekins

I then went to the orchard which is always where the chickens can be found.

Pepper

Pepper looked the same as ever and was still slightly fat as she always had been.

Dotty

I was disappointed to see that Dotty had a bare neck again. My husband had said when he last saw her after her moult her neck feathers had grown back and she was looking good. Pepper is obviously still pulling out her neck feathers.

Pepper and Dotty both have fluffy bottoms

The good news is that they both have fluffy bottoms. What this visit really brought home to me is that I had definitely made the right decision to re-home them here. If all this space and a free ranging life hasn’t stopped Pepper pulling feathers from Dotty then nothing I could have done would ever have stopped it. Extending the run and separating them was never going to work.

None of the other flock members have any missing feathers and it’s clear that it’s only Dotty because they are so closely bonded that Dotty lets her do this. I am sure if Dotty had the choice of a life with Pepper and a bare neck or a life without Pepper and neck feathers she would choose to be with Pepper.

I felt at ease with my decision, a year ago, as they are clearly happy with their free range life in a large mixed flock and I feel it’s right that they stayed together. I can also see that if they had stayed with me my flock would have continued to be plucked and my flock are now happy and beautiful too.

Dotty and Pepper together as always

Dotty still has her comedy walk

I said to my husband that even if these two were among a flock of dominiques I would still be able to pick them out. They look so familiar to me and still look quite different from each other.

Claude the cockerel looks magnificent and looks after his ladies

It’s lovely to see Pepper and Dotty as part of this mixed flock

This is a pretty flock

I feel so pleased that I can still catch up with all three of my re-homed girls and I know now that although it was a difficult decision at the time it was the right one for all the girls. A year later Pepper and Dotty have a happy life on this farm.

Bluebell/ Blossom has a happy life with Jackie and I can visit her often.

My flock are beautiful, fully feathered and happy and that means I am happy too.