Carol's Chickens

The two broody girls continue even though it’s now been two and a half weeks for Marmite and three and a half weeks for Smoke. When Ebony wants to lay her egg the broody girls share the nest box next door.

This morning Flame also wanted to lay her egg. Despite the third nest box being empty Flame decided to share with Ebony.

The two bigger girls share a nest box

The two broody girls share a nest box

Four girls share two nest boxes

The third nest box is empty but it is quite cute to see the girls sharing.

The leek seed heads on our veg plot have been dramatic all summer. They have now come to their end so my husband decided to cut them down and put them in our enamel jug in the kitchen and see what they do.

I arranged them and took a photo but the corner of the kitchen was a bit dark so I photographed them on the table by the back door to show them off properly.

A jug of leek seed heads

In the kitchen

A bit later my husband visited the allotment and bought me back some wild flowers.

Another jug of wild flowers from the allotment

And some poppies

The poppies are so fragile that I put them in a separate little vase. The flowers are so pretty and provide such a lovely splash of colour.

We have a thriving, breeding, colony of slow worms in our garden. This summer we have seen them in all different sizes. We have seen small ones, medium ones and really big, fully grown ones.

This morning I opened the back door and there was a tiny, baby, slow worm.

Baby slow worm

I took a photograph and then slid it onto a piece of paper and moved it to a flower bed. I thought it was a bit vulnerable out in the open. It is a joy to see these little critters every summer.

Our garden is full of bees. We have something in flower nearly every month of the year so there is always something to attract the bees. At the moment it is the sedums that are busy with bees.

It is difficult to get a photo that shows how many bees because they are so small and so busy but there are dozens of bees on each sedum.

Bees on the sedum

There are four bees in this shot.

Close up of the bees

I love to see the bees busy in the garden.

Our friends and allotment sharers (who live opposite us) have been on holiday for two weeks. For the first week they went abroad and then a day back home and then off to the lake district in their camper van.

We were in charge of watering their pot plants although the first week we saved them from drowning and the second week we watered them.

They invited us over for a drink with them on their day home before setting off again. They gave us a sweet little gift of a bottle stopper.

A holiday gift, it’s so pretty

On the day they got back the second time my husband collected some more wild flowers in his water bottle and took them over to them to welcome them home. My flowers are still going strong so my husband will pick some more for me when they begin to fade.

More allotment wild flowers

My husband is rather good at making these little wild flower arrangements.

I haven’t been blogging so much recently for two reasons. For one there hasn’t been much happening in chicken world which is no bad thing and for another I have been learning to sell on e-bay.

We have been in catering for a life time and are now slowing down towards retirement and are just about part time at the moment. This means we have an awful lot of catering equipment that we no longer need.

My eldest son who is my I.T. guy has been teaching me how to sell on e-bay. I have now listed my first twelve items and have already sold four. I am really pleased with how it is going.

Back to chickens. Vanilla went broody but I broke her out of it in just two days. This meant she soon got back to laying again, just one week, after she went broody. She has laid three eggs over the last five days.

With Smoke and Marmite it is a different story. They are determined to stay broody. Marmite has been broody for the last two weeks and Smoke has been broody for the last three weeks.

Still broody

Marmite is a sweet and docile broody while Smoke is an angry broody. You can see the gentle look in Marmite’s eye and the anger in Smoke’s eyes.

Sometimes I put them in the same nest box to free up the other nest boxes when several girls want to lay at once and sometimes, as on this occasion, they choose the same nest box. They will often choose the same nest box if Ebony wants the one next door as she has no time for broodies sharing her nest box.

When I lift them out for a break Marmite will sit where ever I have put her and eventually will move off for a dust bath. Smoke on the other hand will puff herself up and hold her wings at full stretch and if any of the other little girls cross her path she will angrily chase them away.

It takes three weeks for a hen’s eggs to hatch so Smoke should be coming out of this by now but she is showing no signs of giving up. I wonder if she is challenging Ebony with her record of four weeks broody. Sigh!

Speckles is our oldest girl and we can tell that she is feeling her age. We have had her five years and she was at least two years old when we had her because she was moulting and had lost her tail. Chickens don’t moult completely in their first year but do from their second year on so she was at least two years old already.

Speckles when we first had her

This was a few months after we got her when her tail had grown back.

Speckles

It’s a slightly unfair comparison because Speckles tail isn’t quite it’s complete length after her moult, the first photo was taken in September, but the way she stands is different. Her age shows in her eyes and she has more white feathers on her head. These days Speckles spends much more time sitting on the ground or perching.

Speckles and Cinnamon are inseparable. Cinnamon at nearly three years old is our oldest serama. Whenever Speckles is sitting or perching Cinnamon will keep her company.

These two are always together

They are never far apart

If Cinnamon isn’t sitting with Speckles she will  be pottering about around her.

Speckles spends a lot of time sitting or perching

Speckles age shows in her eyes

The other thing that has changed with Speckles ageing is that she is much more easily spooked these days. When we first had Speckles she was the most nervous chicken we had ever had. She moved up the ranks from bottom girl to top girl as other girls left the flock.

Recently Speckles often gives out the alarm call. The flock have always done this if there was a cat in the garden but Speckles has done this a lot this summer. When spending time with the girls I have come to realise that Speckles now shouts the alarm if a squirrel runs over the top of the run. They have never been bothered by squirrels before. She will also shout the alarm at a bird near by or at a bird call.

One day, recently, I was sweeping the patio with most of the flock milling around me. Speckles was out in the run, past the hatch, having a dust bath. Suddenly Speckles shrieked loudly and ran at speed from her dust bath to the patio area. She seems to suddenly get spooked and I could see no reason for this.

It seems that with age Speckles has reverted to being nervy like she was as a youngster. Toffee and Emerald lived to a good age and slowed down with age but didn’t get nervous like this. While talking to my mum recently she said that her most nervous dog as a puppy reverted to being nervous when she was old so I am now thinking that that is what is going on here.

Speckles seems well in her self though and there isn’t much I can do to make her less anxious. It is heartwarming to see the close bond between Speckles and Cinnamon especially as the rest of the flock don’t have close friendships like some of the past girls have had.

It is also a good feeling to get some of the girls to a good age. Sadly the little girls haven’t reached the sort of age that the bigger girls have but I hope that some of these little girls will get to a better age as it’s always heartbreaking to lose them too soon.  I also hope that we have Speckles for longer yet even if she does spook herself over nothing at all.

Today when my husband brought produce back from our allotment plot he also surprised me with some wild flowers from our plot. He cut the top off his plastic water bottle to transport them home in water. I transferred them to a little jug.

Some wild flowers from the allotment

They are so pretty.

The next day

I was surprised to see how different the wild flowers in the jug looked the next morning.

Wild flowers the next day

They have picked themselves up and look even prettier.

We were disappointed when our whole row of marris peer potatoes, on our garden veg plot, got blight. We dug them up and ate them as new potatoes so they weren’t wasted but didn’t give us much of a yield.

That left an empty row so I decided to sow radish seeds as it is the only crop that would be quick enough to sow so late in the season. Now we are reaping the benefits of sowing a quick salad vegetable.

Yesterday I picked these and they are only a fraction of the row, picking the biggest ones, first.

Radishes

I am happy with these as I love the crunch that they add to our lunch time sandwich as well as any salads we have. It is a great way to use a bit of a late space on the veg plot.

It has been a good year, weather wise, for our first year sharing an allotment plot. Last summer was hot and dry and would have been difficult. Our own garden veg plot didn’t do at all well as we couldn’t keep it watered.

This summer started off hot and then has been wet during the growing season. Recent weeks have been a mix of sunshine and rain which is perfect for the allotment. The two couples that we are sharing the allotment plot with are both away on holiday for two weeks so at the moment it is all down to us.

We are also in charge of watering the plants of our friends and allotment sharers opposite us. They had put their pots in the front garden near an outside tap to make it easy for us. Instead of watering we have had to empty the trays that the pots are in to save them from drowning!

So watering hasn’t been needed. What we have found though is that it has been difficult to keep up with harvesting before everything gets really big. Everything has gone mad. T wanted to enter some competitions. He was hoping for the longest bean, longest carrot, biggest pumpkin and tallest sunflower. He planted the sunflowers from seeds and now the tallest one must be more than ten feet high.

Yesterday I decided to take some photos of the biggest things on our allotment plot.

Giant courgette

We have all been using the usual glut of courgettes and also giving some away to the neighbours. Some got too big and were more like marrows. We decided to leave this one and see how big it eventually gets.

My husband in front of giant sunflower

T’s pumpkin plant is snaking alongside on the left of the grass path.

Me in front of giant sunflower

We think this one could be more than ten feet high and it is still growing.

Giant bean

Beans like this are too big to be good to eat. They are more than twelve inches long. We decided to leave a few plants as we couldn’t keep up with picking. They will be good for taking the seeds for planting next year.

We have filled the freezer with cooked runner beans and given loads to our neighbours too.

Looking lush

Giant sunflower head

This sunflower head is too heavy for the plant to hold up. The seeds are forming on the head and will be good for the garden birds.

Wild flowers

Wild flowers attract the bees and give a splash colour. In the background is hubbies bargain, twenty pound, mower. He keeps the paths and the grass around our plot neat with this mower.

Artichoke

We have a row of artichokes from some seedlings that a neighbour gave us. None of us has ever grown artichokes before.

White onion

Red onion

The onions have been amazing. We haven’t lifted any garlic yet but must have a look soon.

Bee on sunflower

Our car beside our plot

See how neat my husband is keeping the grass around our plot as well as our paths through the plot.

This has been a learning curve and we will tweak a few things next year. Next year we will grow less runner beans as we have been over run with them.

D who lives opposite us is thinking about us taking on the empty plot behind this one. He has an idea of planting the tall things around the edge as a screen and then putting a lawn in the centre with a bench. He fancies a big square of wild flowers and I like the idea of some spring bulbs and some sweet peas for the summer. We could add a lavender bush and a rosemary bush.

We think we might be a bit crazy but we are all warming to the idea. Watch this space!