More than twice as long?

I was emptying the poo trays in both Cubes today.  How come it took me more than twice as long as when I only have 1 to do?


It started with Delilah occupying the Big Girls nestbox.  This was a surprise, as Delilah went through the henopause some time ago and hasn't laid for months.  So, I left her to it and went to do the Little Girls Cube (LGC).


I emptied the poo trays into a carrier bag, wiped the roosting bars,  and went into the house to get some newspaper.  When I came back, I found that the Cube was occupied...

I

He looked very comfortable, in spite of having a Lily roaming around underneath him, so I left him to it.


Back in the Big Girls Cube (BGC) I was able to empty the poo trays, as Delilah had wandered off.  She wandered back again before I had started to line them, so I left her to it.


I sat in the garden trying to take pics of the hens. They didn't want to be snapped.   So, I raked the ground where the LGC cube had been,  and moved the fencing so that it could stay moved.  As some of the fence posts had been hammered in, this took a while.

Delilah came out, so I rushed back to the BGC to line the poo trays, and to move the old nest box Aubiose to line them. I scooped the rest into a bucket to use in the LGC, in the hope that the smells would mingle a bit.   New Aubiose in the BGC,  and a quick snap of some photos of the LIttlees, who had congregated underneath. Underneath the Cube there are rubber chippings, which seem to work OK there.  Wouldn't want them in the whole of the run though.

I added Louse Powder to the BGC nestbox,  then went to see what the status of the LGC was.    Wash was enjoying himself, and posed for a few photos:

He showed no signs of getting bored, so I sat at the other end of the run trying to get some decent pics of Lily and Delilah, which I could cut out and use to frame my blog.


It didn't work.


Wash is a bit of a camera monkey though, so he came out....

..and then proceeded to sit on my lap (not recommended when on hard ground. Numb b*m!!) and be very cute.


I might post some more pics later.


In the end, he got off, got on to the Cube run and continued to own it.


I quickly finished doing the poo trays, put the back on,  and then went and picked some corn on the cob for my lunch. it's under the grill as I type.(Tastes at least as good as barbecued corn on the cob, and a lot less mess).


Yum.

What to do for the best?

I had forgotten quite how stressful trying to integrate chickens can be.  It's stressful because I so much want to do what's best and least stressful for them,  and it's very difficult to balance the needs of the differing "flocks".

In the garden I've got my established flock of 4 girls.  Geriatric (but still gorgeous) Delilah;  loopy Milly,  who has decided to stop laying despite only being a couple of years old;  and the hyperactive Lily and Daisy, who are about 18 months old but because they've been bred to lay, they are likely to have a fairly short life.  There was a lot of trouble when Lily and Daisy joined the flock, as they were rather impervious to manners and etiquette.

In the other Cube I've got 4 girls that we hatched this year.  Two of them are planned to be long term garden residents,  the other 2 will join the breeding flock at the allotment.  These four girls have grown up together and so have established a pecking order without any real hassle.

After much discussion and debate, I decided to combine all four newbies with the oldies, even though 2 of them would be moving on later.   The deciding factors for this were that four to four was a better introduction rate,   and I felt that going through the experience here would equip the two breeding girls to cope with the rigours of being introduced to their new flock better.   Tehy would also be older, possibly laying, and so not be as nervous.

So. I started by moving the Newbies run and coop close to the Oldies.  For some time, we ran them in adjacent pens, separated by netting.    We put Delilah in with them occasionally whilst free ranging,   as she was least likely to be able to terrorise them, but would at least give them some experience.  Then we let Milly and Delilah in with them occasionally.


Eventually we removed the partitions, and opened all the doors on both coops and runs so that there was no where for a scared bird to get cornered.      It's been like this for a few days.  The two flocks ahve mostly been keeping to themselves,  when the paths cross, the Newbies move rapidly out of the way.

Yesterday afternoon I had to go out, and DH wasn't here, so I had to put everyone away.  What a blinking palaver.  It took forever.


The Oldies have been hogging the Newbies food area (the Newbies are still on Growers and will be for another couple of weeks).  I couldn't get Milly and Delilah out from underneath the coop.


Of course I managed eventually.  We had a similar situation in the evening.  I decided to shut the Oldies away, so that the Newbies could enjoy the whole outside area without any interference.   Lily and Daisy went in easily. Milly and Delilah didn't.   In the end, I shut them in the Newbies Cube run.


A bit later, I managed to get Milly into her own run, but Delilah wasn't having any of it.  So I left her to it.

Much later,  she deigned to come round to one of the Run doors so she could go to bed.  The LIttlees stayed up for another half an hour or so.

So the next decision


I read somewhere that it can be a good idea to completely swap houses and runs before trying to integrate chickens.    I can see the positives of this - in theory - the Oldies are not on their home turf;  the Newbies can get a feel for their new house and feel a bit of ownership.   I can see that it might hep the Newbies, rather than taking the drastic step of moving them into the new bed at night.   But what about the stress on the Oldies?   Is it fair to stress them out?  What about when they want to lay?  And would they really forget that their old home was their home?  I don't think so.   


Roo and Mrs have been in temporary accomodation for several months while Rose and Ruby have been healing.  Yet they've settled back into their old house, as if theyve never been away.     I don't think they forget.


So does it mean that I will be stressing everyone (including the Newbies) for no real reason?

But is it kinder than just shoving the Newbies in one night?

Oh, I don't know. 


And then I've been wondering what the heck I am going to do when it comes to taking Roobarb and Custard down to the Allotment!   I'll share that with you later.

"Chicks" at 12 weeks old

The boys are already crowing.  They are all very solid little birds, but still very active. They are perfect crosses of their mums and their dad.


Here they are waiting for corn...

And here's one of them a bit closer up...

And here is their Dad, the gorgeous good natured Roo

Putting the pieces back together

So. Down on the Allotment we checked over Rose and Ruby and decided they were ready to be re-saddled.    Fitted lovely saddles (from Orpingtons.co.uk - adjustable!). and watched the girs run about for a bit while we got on with skipping out.

The two girls adjusted to their saddles surprisingly quickly,  so we decided to take down the barrier between Rose&Ruby and Roo&Mrs.  The four birds were quickly together.

We carried on with the rest of the tasks: disposing of dead rats from the traps,  topping up the feeders,  scrubbing and refilling the waterers,  skipping out, etc etc.   I caught Mrs and checked her over,  and gave her a dusting of powder under her saddle.

In the Baby pen,  three of the boys are crowing.  But they are only 12 weeks old!  They are already wearing 18mm rings, and I think we will need to change them soon.   Checked over everyone else and made a note of who needs a ring change.   I must take a camera,  they have changed so much.     2 of the 8 are definitely girls,  4 are definitely boys; not sure about the other 2. They look more like the cockerels, but I'm not sure.

We had a little bonfire to burn the rubbish (away from the chooks of course),  all the time we were keeping an eye on Roo.    He jumped on poor Rose, who didn't look very impressed.  We scooped her up immediately afterwards to check that she was OK.

And then it was time to leave.  What to do?   Separate them again?   We really want to get Roo and Mrs out of their pen, as the cockerels in the baby pen are starting to irritate him.   We could also do with the space to move the baby girls into,  in the hope that it causes less trouble between the boys.  But was it too soon?

We decided to leave the fence open.  DH has gone back now with strict instructions to catch both Rose and Ruby and inspect them.    We'll also go back this evening, to see whether they are sleeping in the same coop or whether they have gone back to their separate coops.  (Hopefully they'll be in the same coop, and we can close the other area off, providing a very large "no mans land" between Roo and the Boys. 


I hope this goes OK.

EDITED TO ADD: DH just got back, both Girls fine.  (And one of the 5 Laydees-who-lay had managed to get in with the Babies).

In the All together

This morning I let everyone out and, against my better judgement, left the two pens connected.    My BJ (Better Jugement) told me that it would be better to have them free range separately for the morning, and then join together this afternoon.  That would give everyone time to eat their own pellets and settle down, before the excitement of being able to invade someone elses area.

I was tired (didn't get to bed til past 1, 3 hours later than normal);   It had taken ages to do the Allotment crowd this morning (explanation shortly), and it was already 11.00. 


So I didn't listen to BJ, I just opened up and then went in to make some coffee and something to eat.


Result?  The Big Girls (BGs) have been monopolising the Little Girls' (LGs) Cube run.  The LGs have spent most of the time in the fruit bed,  and have done a lot of dustbathing.


Not sure what else has gone on, haven't heard too much yet. 


(Although there was a bit of a squawrk just as I typed that).


And on the allotment?  I'll do a separate post in a moment.

Plums and Pears

Today we made Pear Cider.  Not perry, as we only had our own dessert pears  We used the cider method, just used the dessert pears instead.  Not expecting it to be great,  but it might be interesting.

The skins of a lot of our pears are "blighted",  but it's really only skin deep.  It meant we had to peel the pears though as, contrary to popular belief, you don't throw manky stuff into cider (unless you want to introduce all sorts of problems).

There are still a few, as yet unripe, pears on the tree,  and I'll be converting those into Pear Vodka. If I can beat the starlings to them.

I also picked a load of plums.   I made Prunelle,  which is currently sitting in the dark of the utility room, and it'll be a month before we can bottle it.   I also ate some,  and I put some on next door's doorstep along with some eggs.

I've also got a recipe for a Chinese style plum liqueur, but it requires Plum Wine.  I mentioned this to DH and he said "Didn't we make that one year?"   He dug around in the utility room, and came out with a bottle.    We realised that we must have read the recipe some time ago, saw that it needed plum wine and decided to make some.  And then we forgot about it.

I see that the Damsons (or Bullaces, not sure which) are also nearly ripe.  Hmm.   I might try Damson Vodka as well.

I didn't expect that.

In the end I left them out together right up until bedtime.  

It was mostly OK.   After the excitement of being in the other pen waned, the Girls made their ways back into their own areas.  Tired little girls sat in a cluster in a flowerbed;   Big Girls mooched around under one of their favourite shrubs.   


I needed to pop out, so I had to go and put them all away.  3 of the Big Girls ran into their runl the Littlees obliged by going into theirs.  Delilah wouldn't budge from under the shrub.   We had a little dance around the (rather prickly, ow!) bush;   she skipped around my feet;  eventually I managed to corner her, pick her up, and put her in her run.  She wasn't happy.


And then Milly attacked her.


Not really badly.  But it was more than a gentle or accidental peck.  It was a definite attack. Peck, peck, peck on the top of the head.  Several times.   I growled at Milly. She stopped. Well, she stopped for at least as long as I was watching.


Obviously introducing the new girls has caused the pecking order of the existing four to be reviewed,  and the matronly Delilah is losing her place.


I didn't expect that.


Nature can be so horrible sometimes.

First time together

Today was the day.

Over the last few days I have occasionally let Delilah, or Delilah and Milly, into the Little Girls run with them;  and on one occasion, I swapped all the chooks over for a couple of hours.

Today I decided we'd let them free range together. 

I waited until after lunch, thinking they might be less antsy if they had had a morning's worth of eating and stuffing themselves.  Then I opened everything. I was trying to make siure there was no where that a Little could get cornered.  So, all gates were opened, the netting across the fruit cage removed,  and the two cubes had both ends opened.

The Little Girls ran into the Big Girls bit.  The Big Girls ran intothe Littlees' cube and starting scoffing, but staying in a gang.  The Littlees took it in turns to tiptoe past the Biggees.

We've had bouts of enraged squawrking,  and a number of vocal complaints.

It's too soon to tell really.

Pumpkin and Maple Spread - Part 2

So, a couple of hours later, the pumpkin, maple syrup and honey mixture was apparently cooked.  In their recipe book Nick&Johnny said it was possible to store the pumpkin like this, but it was better blended.  They listed the uses ofthis marvellous confection,  so I blended it.

And then I potted it up.  All that stuff and it really did only make just over 3 pounds of product.  I was wincing as I bottled it up, thinking how sweet it smelled, and how sugary it would be (and this is from someone who occasionally as a treat eats condensed milk from a tin in the fridge).

As I bottled the last of it, I thought I had better try some. I put some on a teaspoon and braced myself.  It wasn't bad.  It was very sweet, but not at all sugary as I had feared. (Too sweet for friend Kevin though, I think).

I bet it would be even better if I used ordinary pumplin instead of Marmello.

I might try some on my toast this morning.

Pumpkin and Maple Spread

The pumpkin marmalade (from the other week) seems a bit...insipid..to me.  I'll save it for my friend K, as he doesn't like sweet things and it might suit him.  


So, for our next pumpkin, I decided to try Sandler Acton's "Pumpkin and Maple Spread".  I'm sure this is going to be too sweet, but as they also have a recipe for "Pumpkin Maple and Raspberry Tart" which uses some of this confection, I thought I'd give it a whirl.


First "problem". When they say "1.5kg orange pumpkin, peeled and diced", so they mean take 1.5kg of pumkin then peel and dice it? Or do they mean 1.5kg of prepared pumpkin?    For a pumpkin, it makes quite a difference.


I looked at the other items in the recipe. I scrutinised the pictures.  I decided to assume it was 1.5kg prepared pumkin,  as that was still only 2/3rds of one of them.


So, it's in the jam pan now, along with 600g (2 bottles) of Waitrose's Canadia Maple Syrup,  300g runny honey,  and a cinnamon stick.    I hope this works.  2 bottles of Canadian Maple Syrup makes for an expensive mistake.


I've only just put it on to start cooking, amd it's likely t be another 2 hours or so before it's ready to bottle.


In the meantime, the Girls have been gorging themselves on pumpkin middles.

Cheeky Roobarb!

Roobarb (the Welsh Black fertile egg that was laid on the way home from collecting Ruby and Rose) is a funny little thing.  She has a very red face like her mum, but she has a coat of brown and black feathers (she was black originally). She also has green legs, which makes her look like she's either gone mouldy, or has lichen growing.

She's completely doolally, which I think is part of her Indian Game heritage.  During the day, she quite likes to roost on the Cube wheels.

Today I went out with some mealworms (a very rare treat in our house),  and I found her roosting on the gate between the two paddocks.  I have no idea whether she was on her way in to the Big Girls or on her way back.

There may be trouble ahead.

Ready for bed

The cats have taken to snoozing in a stone planter in the garden.  Neither of them quite fit in, but they still manage to sleep...

Relocation, Relocation

We moved the 4 Little Girls coop and netted area yesterday afternoon. This means we have a whole section of the garden that we can rest and reseed if necessary, so that it is ready for the Winter (In Winter, the Girls have the entire garden, we just fence them out of certain areas;  the rest of the year we fence them in and move the fencing every few days to give them a fresh area to explore).

Of course the Little Girls decided to be awkward.  Matilda and Roobarb ran up the ladder into the Cube.  We managed to get Florence and Custard into the netted area so they could sit safely while we moved house.  We ended up moving the Cube with Tilly sitting in the doorway of the cube.  It looked like she was in a caravan being moved. Bless.


When they got to their new area, it took them ages to explore...and a long time to realise that the fruit cage was part of their new run.   One of the blackcurrant bushes still had some late-ripening fruit on,  and the Girls were very excited to discover this.  There was something a bit disconcerting about seeing Tilly (who is a very heavy hen) jumping up and down to snatch the currants.



The Little Girls' paddock now adjoins the Big Girls' paddock on two sides.   The Big Girls aren't really very happy about this, although they haven't really been happy about it since they first spotted the new girls.

We've tried the "sprinkling treats along the joint boundary" malarkey.   This has worked before, but it wasn't very successful this time - mainly because Lily and Daisy have incredible metabolisms, and can hoover up treats so fast that no one else gets a beak in.

We'll persevere with the boundary-treating, as it probably isn't doing any harm.


Once the LittleGirls have got familiar with their new area and feel that it is "home", we'll look at removing one of the barriers to let all 8 free range together - under supervision of course.  The two Sassos (Custard and Matilda) are 15 weeks old now,  the Welsh Black (Roobarb)  and the Australorp (Florence) are 14 and a half weeks old.  I'm thinking that we'll maybe start the joint free ranging at the weekend, see how that goes, and then make plans for full integration.  As we have two houses, we might try swapping homes for a few days before integration... it's supposed to help by adding confusion.  I'm just wondering if it also adds extra stress?

Decisions, Decisions

Sometimes it's hard to know what to do for the best where chickens are concerned.


Let me just give you a reminder, before I explain my dilemma.  On the Allotment we currently (and temporarily) have 4 runs and 4 coops.  One Run contains the  5 Ladies-That-Lay; a second contains the 8 Taffo chicks, who are all (eventually) destined for the table; the third contains Roo and Mrs, who are in temporary accommodation while in the fourth run Rose and Ruby are convalescing.


At home, I have my 4 garden girls on one part of the garden,  and 4  14-15 week old pullets in an adjoining part of the garden.   Two of the four pullets will eventually join my garden girls, and 2 will join the breeding flock at the Allotment.

I can't take the 2 breeding pullets down to the allotment until a run is free.  (Unless I take them down and introduce them to Rose and Ruby, or Roo and Mrs in advance. Probably not a good idea).   Really I want them to live in an adjoining run for a short period before I try and introduce them.

In the meantime, I want to get my Garden Girls integrated as soon as possible.  I've been waiting until the pullets are old enough to hold their own,  and I'm planning to move on to the "free ranging together" in a few days time.


But is it fair on the two pullets who aren't staying?   I mean, it'll hep the other two as there will be 4 newbies to be picked on.   But the two who are staying will end up going through intros here, and will then have to go through intros at the Allotment as well.  Is that fair?


On the other hand, maybe going through the process here will better equip them to deal with it when they are introduced to the Allotment crowd?  I'd like to think so.    And I tell myself that it's not as if they've had to worry too much before - they've been with the same flock since hatching.


It may also be that they can't go into the "spare" run.  By the time Rose and Ruby are well enough to have Roo and Mrs back,  I might need the "spare" run to move the female dinner chicks into.  Doing this would mean we could keep the boys longer before having to cull them.


Next year, we'll hatch a large number of chicks, and do one hatch.  That will simplify things.





The questions are about merging the garden flocks, and merging the breeding fl

Pumpkin Marmalade

Each year for the past few years I have made one batch of Pumpkin Marmalade.  The first time I made it, it was a desperate attempt to use up a mountain of Butternut Squashes. It came out rather well, much to my surprise.  In fact, it was so delicious, I persuaded our friends S&K to try some.  K really, really liked it.
So, the next year I decided to try again. Except I couldn't find The Recipe.  I found lots of Recipes for Pumpkin marmalade, but none of them seemed quite right. I made some using the nearest recipe I could find,  and it was OK. (And was declared "quite nice" by K.  So, not quite right then.

The next year, I managed to erm...caramelise.... the squash.  It had been taking quite a long time to reduce to marmalade consistency, and I got bored and left it alone for a bit.  This was declared as "lovely".


This year, I tried again. We didn't grow Butternuts this year, DH planted some special squashes that are specifically designed to be jammed. 

I did vaguely remember that it took a bit longer than the recipe said to reduce down. The recipe said 30 minutes.  it's been 3 hours now.  I've only caramelised a bit, and I managed to stir it in so it wasn't obvious.


I hope it'll taste OK as we are going to have a mountain of these squashes.

Lily's frustration boils over

So, the Big Girls have their own (very large) netted free range area; the Little Girls have theirs. The two areas share one boundary in the middle, and the Girls can see (and reach) each other through it.


We were having dinner this evening, with the back door open so we can see into the garden.  There was a sudden noise, like wings flapping wildy,  and then I saw Lily in the Little Girls enclosure.  She had obviously had enough of something (although we're at a loss to know what) and, in her frustration, had managed to launch herself over the barrier and into Enemy Territory.

Once there, she started squawrking loudly and chasing the Littlees;  the Littlees were doing their best to get out of her way.  I jumped up (down?) from the table, rushed outside, and tried to catch Lily. No chance.  DH had to come and help, and it was a while before we managed to catch her, calm her down, and pop her back into her own half.

We have no idea what the Littlees had done to wind Lily up so much.  It reminded me of when the children were small and would do things to each other behind out backs, so that one of them got in trouble.

Sausages

We made Bockwurst sausages last week using our new, bigger, vertical sausage maker.   This week we ordered more belly and shoulder pork from the butcher, and today DH and DGS1 made 2 kilos of sausages - 1 kilo of garlic and herb, and 1 kilo of Cumberland mix.  The Garlic and Herb are lovely,  not very keen on the Cumberland.  We usually get our seasonings from Weschenfelder,  and I really like their Cumberland mix (we use it for norrmal sized sausages) but we bought some from sausagemaking.co.uk this time.     I've ordered from Weschenfelder again now.

So, it'll be sausages for dinner.


A Salami kit fell in my basket while I was ordering from Weschenfelder today,  so we might be making Salami before long.....

Mood indigo

When I let the Big Girls out this morning, I was slightly disconcerted to see a pile of indigo poo in their dust bath. And more indigo poos all over the run floor.

I realised, of course, that it was just something they had eaten - and then I remembered that I had been feeding them blackcurrants yesterday afternoon.

So, red cabbage turns the poo bright blue; and blackcurrants turn it dark indigo.

The Morning After (pic added)

This morning, the Garden Girls were not happy bunnies.

We knew this from very early on, long before we got out of bed.

When I went out to let them out, and to let the Little Girls out, there was a lot of complaining.   Whinge, whinge, whinge, whinge.

The Little Girls explored along the netting, doing that chickeny thing where the grass the other side must taste better.      I've set the netting up so that  one side of their "run", is actually a length of the iig Girls run. This  is so that they get used to the sight and smell of each other for a while, before we statr trying to integrate them.    Lily was most upset to see her grass being eaten by someone else.  She set about trying to gobble it all up, pecking any head that popped through.

The netting for the Little Girls hasn't been put up properly. The ground is rock hard,  and I'm waiting for DH to bring the proper length of netting back from the Allotment, so I didn't push the posts in too hard. There are gaps in some places as our lawn undulates somewhat.

Whilst having my breakfast I could hear a bit of a kerfuffle going on.   Tilly (the short fat Sasso with the dodgy wing and the huge fat legs) had got out. and the others were telling tales.  For a short fat chicken she can move surprisingly quickly.  She's very much like her mum both in looks and in surprises.   Eventually I managed to waslk her into a corner and I could catch her and put her back.    Tilly actually doesn't mind being picked up, she's been the same since she was hatched, always watching me with her beady eye. I think I must have been imprinted on her when she hatched, and she probably thinks of me as her mum.

When DH and I were at the Allotment a week or so ago, we were discussing what to do about the 2 female Sassos, and we agreed that the Orange Ring (now Custard) would be better in the breeding flock because we could see that Green Ring (now Tilly) had dodgy wings.     I remember looking at Green Ring and looking at her mother and thinking how different they looked.  Tilly was lithe and slim, and her mum was short stumpy and brick shaped. 

And now, just a week or so later,  and Tilly is a MiniMe of her mum. Only  less of the Mini.  More of a Maxi. Definitely More anyway.

She's not a very well put together little chicken, but she doesn't seem to be suffering at all.  Her best chance is here in the Garden, so we'll see how she goes.  

In this picture she's actually stretching upwards so she looks rather more elegant than she does in real life.  She's got such a pretty little face.

That evening....

So, DH went back to the Allotment to see if the Taffos had managed to get back in to their coop for the night.  We had high(ish) hopes.  Firstly, they were used to climbing up a ladder to roost (as they had been living in the Cube for a while) and, secondly, we had shut them in the allotment coop for some time upon arrival & let them come out in their own time.

DH got there before dusk, so actually they were in the process of taking themselves to bed.  All went well as one of them went up the ladder.  But then there was a problem. Said chicken decided to roost in the doorway. The narrowish doorway.  In fact, he filled the doorway, making it impossibe for the second chicken to get past him.

DH intervened, and manouevred blockage chicken into the coop, and the second one was able to go in. What do you think happened next?


Yes, number 2 wedged himself in the doorway and settled doen for the night.  

At this point DH decided that the most sensible thing to do was to put them all to bed himself, and bring a saw tomorrow to widen the doorway.


Meanwhile, at home....


The four young girls were peeping sadly to themselves underneath the Cube.  I went out with a torch and shone it from inside. They looked up in wonder,  but did not climb the ladder.  I left the torch and went back to the house for a few minutes.  Went out again, still the sad peeping and no movement.


I clambered over the temporary netting, and opened the Cube run door.  All four girls came rushing forward, and I scooped up Tilly (she with the damaged wing and the very fat legs), shut the door,  clambered over the netting, went round to the Nest box, and posted her.  I then clambered over the netting, opened the cube run door, scooped up Custard (the other Sasso, who will be joining the Breeding Flock). By this time, Tilly had managed to waddle to the pop hole and stare out of the door.


Everyone looked at her.  She looked back. Then she started to climb down the ladder.    I shut the door, climbed over the netting, opened the nestbox, posted Custard, shut the nest box, cimbed over the netting, opened the door, scooped up Tilly, shut the door climbed over the netting opened the nestbox posted Tillly, shut the nestbox climbed over the netting opened the door..... and saw both Tilly and Custard looking at the steps.     Roobarb (the egg laid on the way home) and Florence (the Australorp)  looked at the ladder uncomprehendingly.    They ran to the back of the Cube.


A little exasperated, I realised there was nothing for it. I was going to have to climb in the Cube run.  DH had done this earlier, and he's a bit less supple than me.   Of course earlier, it hadn't had four chickens in pooing everywhere.


I managed to catch Roobarb and, as I did so, Florence went rushing past me and OUT.  I pushed Roobarb through the pop hole, and backed out of the Cube.  I had chicken poo all over my trousers (ew!!).  I managed to walk Florence into a corner, scoop her up, climbed over the netting, opened the nestbox, posted her, shut the nestbox.


I came round to the front and saw all 4 of them standing at the top of the steps.   I told them it was up to them.  If they came down that ladder, I would not be rescuing them.


They stayed in.


Hopefully tonight will be OK.

All change

Well, today was D-Day for the three cockerels at the allotment. I always find this very difficult.  DH and OC (Other Chap) went to the Allotment to catch the three boys and take them away to cull them.


The one good thing (if there can be a good thing) is it meant that the 8 Taffo chicks from here could go to the Allotment, where they'll have even more room.    DGS (Number 1 Grandson is staying here for a few days) went down to the Allotment with me to do all the housekeeping today.   We started by cleaning and spraying the coop,  po it could be drying whilst we did everything else.    We topped up the feeders, cleaned the waterers and put fresh water in,  poo picked the Black Ladies coop,  force fed them their vitamins and  put out some Avipro-laced yoghurt.;  Roo and Mrs had some yoghurt too.  Then we sprinkled corn in all runs to give the chooks something to forage for,    and finally set about catchig and boxing the 4 little girls.

It was surprisingly easy.  I imagine they were still a bit shell shocked from the boys disappearing an hour or so earlier.   We popped them into boxes, and brought them home.  Meanwhile, DH (having dealt with the boys) came home, and cleaned out the Cube ready for the girls.   


When I arrived, we let the girls out into a temporary netted pen,  caught the 8 Taffos and boxed them, and DH took them to the Allotment. I moved the Cube to new ground,  put the girls in, put up the temporary fencing.  I then raked over the ground where the Taffos were, and we'll soak it tonight using water from the water butts (most of which is our cold-run-off water, where we run the shower or a tap before the hot water comes through).

As soon as the two Welsh Black ladies are fully healed (which should only be a couple of weeks as the scabs are now healing rapidly) and we have reunited the breeding flock,  we'll need to plan how to introduce the orange-ringed sasso (who's mum had to be put down) and the Welsh Black from the egg that was laid on the way home from Wales).   The plan (which, let's face it, might well change due to unforeseen circumstances) is to move them back to the Allotment into Roo and Mrs Roo's empty pen.  They can then get used to the breeding flock, before we start to integrate them.



The other Sasso girls, the one with a dodgy looking wing, also has very large but stumpy legs.   She definitely won't cope in the breeding pen, so we'll keep her (along with the Australorp) toj introduce to our Garden Girls, when ghe two of them are a bit older and maybe a bit more able to deal with it. I don't honestly know if she'll cope with that either, but I'd like to give her a chance as she is a sweet natured little thing (has been right from the beginning).

Puberty

Sorry I haven't posted for a while,  work took over for a while.

The Taffos have reached puberty.   They had been growing rapidly - more rapidly than normal - for about a week before it happened.   I noticed this because I could see from one night to the next how they were filling up more and more of their little coop.    We also needed to change the rings  for 5 of them to 16mm rings. At 9 weeks, they are now wearing a bigger size than the 13 week old Sassos are.   Must be their Game Bird heritage - big sturdy legs like their mums.

Then we noticed that one of them suddenly had an even more prominent green sheen to his tail feathers;  then we spotted some brown flecks appearing around the hackles of some birds;  and then, without warning,  one morning they all seemed to have extra glossy plumage with a gorgeous blue and green sheen to it.  They are stunning.

The next indicator was hearing a sound a bit like a kazoo, which was one of them trying out their voice.   Less than 9 weeks old and trying to crow!

We've got a new coop for them now, much bigger,  as they will be here for a bit longer until one of the runs on the allotment is free.  This will either be when the two Welsh ladies are fully fit and we're able to reunite them with Roo and Mrs,   or when the older chicks have been despatched.    I couldn't face dispatching one set of chicks just so another set could move in - it's hard enough dispatching them at the right time!  So , a replacement coop was necessary.

This morning, we let them out and Red (=the one with the red ring on) was running up and down the top of the Run cockadoodling.   Fortunately it was  a starangled kazoo sound at the moment. 


I don't have any pictures of them at their current stage, but here's one of them roosting together about a week ago

Everyone is still here

We decided to wait until the Blue Ring Sasso starts to try and crow before we dispatch him.  Ideally we'd like to dispatch all 3 boys together, and the others are a bit smaller and haven't turned into cockerels yet.

Since making that decision, Bue has managed to get into a bit of a kerfuffle with Roo.  Not sure if it was an accident, or deliberate.    We've now run a second line of fencing between the two pens, creating a "No Mans Land".

I suspect Monday will be "The Day". He will be nearly 13 weeks old then, and the other boys will be 12 weeks old.

This means it is now decision time about the Girls.  We had planned that the Australorp would come and live with my Garden Girls (along with another pullet , different breed, from another breeder);  the Welsh Black and one of the Sassos would join the Breeding Flock,   and the other Sasso girl would be a dinner girl.


I haven't been able to get hold of the breeder,  so we've decided to change plans.  I'll bring one of the Sasso girls home along with the Australorp.  


Even if the other breeder gets in touch now, I'll have to decline the pullet I was planning to buy.  Now that we've decided to keep both Sassos,  getting another bird would mean a death sentence doe one of the Sassos, and that doesn't feel right.







Meanwhile, Rose and Ruby are healing well.  Took Rose to the Vet for a checkup yesterday as it's been 3 weeks since we last went.  Very pleased with how it is healing.  We're stopping  the antibiotics now, but continuing with the yoghurt, Avipro and Nettex Poultry Drops.


It'll still be a few weeks before they are completely healed and able to be reunited with Roo and Mrs.

Cockerelles and Cockerels on the cusp.

Just got back from the Allotment.    Although we (DH&I and Other Chap) take it in turns to go down and do the daily feeding and watering,  I still go down every day to administer the antibiotics to Rose and Ruby.

Both girls' wounds are healing well,  but it's still too soon to put them back in with Roo and Mrs, although we can tell from R&R's behaviours that they want to go back in now.

Their poo has been very mushy whilst on antibiotics. For the last couple of weeks I have been giving them a dollop of yoghurt with some AviPro mixed in,; for the last week  I've been sprinkling Poultry Spice on their pellets; and for the last four days I've given each girl one single drop of Nettex Poultry Drops.    I have been skipping out their poo every day so that I can check what is happening. Today, one of them had almost formed a proper poo shape.  

At least it's progress.


But none of this has anything to do with the title of today's post.


As usual, I visited all four pens and said hello to each bird.   Over in the Laydees pen, 4 of them are broody and Norman has switched to Cockerel mode. Or Cockerelle mode, perhaps.


As usual, she pecked me on my shoe as soon as I entered her pen. That's her way of asking for corn.  I bent down to give her some corn, and she did that little Cockerel dance, the one they do when they are getting ready to fight.   Then her hackles were up, and then she tried to HongKongPhooey me.  She's a tiny bird so she didn't reach very high, and I saw it coming so I moved.


At this stage in the proceedings, the best course of action is to pick her up and give her a cuddle.   She wouldn't let me near her today. 


Oh well.


Next visit was the Littlee pen. They all crowded round to eat corn from my hand, and I spottend that one of the boys is on the cusp of changing.  We already know which are the cockerels but, this  morning ,"Blue Ring",  has cockerel shaped tail feathers and they are green.  And his stance has changed slightly.  He's about to burst out as a proper little Man now... and it means we need to take action in the next day or two before we start having Man trouble.


We initially thought it would be 14 weeks, but when we saw how big they were and how quick,  we thought it might be 12 weeks.    We didn't expect it to be 11.5 weeks.   I know there isn't a lot of difference between 11.5 and 12,  but when I say 12 what I had in mind was anything up to 12 weeks 6 days. 


I'm not sure what it means for the other 2 boys yet.


And it'll be decision time about the Girls.    More about that in a later post;  life is often more complicated than one hopes.

Red wine and skipping rope

..is not a combination to be recommended.

Once upon a time, a long long time ago,  I bought a skipping rope to help me build up fitness.


Not quite such a long time ago, I hung the skipping rope on a hook in the kitchen and then quietly forgot about.


A while ago, about last Tuesday, I remembered the skipping rope, and thought what a good idea it would be to get it out again. I then quietly forgot about it again.


Today, after consuming double the normal amount of wine with my dinner - it was a rather lovely Pinotage from South Africa, and I'm talking about 350ml instead of my normal 175ml - I remembered said skipping rope.  And it was cool outside for a change, and not raining.  So I went out into the garden to skip.

Let's just say it wasn't very successful. And leave it there.

Chicky Stand Offs

The 8 chicks are trying to sort out the pecking order, literally.  

We have a series of face-offs.  White and Yellow, for example, will have a Blink contest. They stand like chicky statues for what seems like forever, then suddenly one of them will have hackles risen and will attack the other. There's then a bit of a boxing match (the stance is similar, but obviously they fight with beaks rather than gloves), and the one of them runs off and starts the process with someone else.

Sometimes one of the TopChicks will do a round of the others,  just pecking them on the head to remind them Whos In Charge.

It's funny and horrible at the same time.

Cherries!

The bumper harvest of sour cherries continues.

We'be already put a load in to create cherry vodka (which actually tastes of Christmas),  and we cooked and bottled loads with Kirsch (three month wait to see what they taste like).

Yesterday DH made a sour cherry sauce to have with some duck breasts.  It was lovely.    The sort of thing that would aslo go well with Yoghurt, and cakes, and desserts, especially as I don't like things too sweet.

So today he agreed to pick yet more cherries and make a big batch of the sauce which we can freeze in individual portions.  mmmmmmmmmm

The birds are taking loads of cherries as well, which I really don't mind.   The smaller species grab a whole cherry and fly off with kt.    I'm not quite so keen on the parakeets and pigeons,  who tend to nibble the cherry on the tree, and when they get part way through the cherry falls off and splats on the pathway.  Such a waste of fruit.

 

Cool for Cats

The Cats are also struggling with the heat, flopping around listlessly everywhere. Often across the kitchen floor, which is a bit inconvenient.

This evening, I had a thought about soaking a  cloth, and stroking the cat with it.   I reasoned that this would cool the cat down, and rehydrate her as she washed herself after my attentions.  

I found an old microfibre cloth, soaked it under the tap, and went off in search of Isabelle who, being very hairy, is feeling the heat the most,

I found her under the trailer.  I started to stroke her with the wet cloth. All was going well.  Cloth was getting a bit grubby (she had just been dustbathing) and somewhat hairy, but I decided I could just put it in the "dirty jobs" box when it had been washed.   

One half of Izzy was nicely dampened, and I moved to her head and ears.  At this point, she must have realised that the cloth was wet (presumably her thick coat prevented her from noticing this earlier), and she rubbed her face in the cloth.   So far so good.

Then, unfortunately for both of us,  she decided to lick the cloth.

Did I mention that I was using a Microfibre cloth?  My Microfibre cloths are washed in a tiny amount of detergent, on the hottest wash possible,  and with absolutely no fabric conditioner.  FabCon clogs up the fibres, and stops them working properly.

Microfibre cloths work by having standy-uppy microfibres, which wrap round and ease off dirt.    It would appear they also wrap themselves around a cats scratchy tongue.

We looked at each other, for just a moment. I was wide eyed in disbelief; Izzy was wide eyed in horror at this thing stuck to her tongue.   I did manage to pull it off as Izzy made a run for it.  It was a bit like separating velcro.

For some reason she wouldn't settle down after that. Every time I approached her with my soothing blue cloth, she got up and "slunked" away.

Can't imagine why.

Too Hot to handle

It's too hot.

My house is cool inside, and so I like to stay in, in the kitchen, if possible. 

The poor hens have been finding it too hot as well.  Lots of panting, and sitting with their wings open, as if they had sweaty armpits. (Wingpits?)


The Garden Girls are very fortunate to have lots of hedging to hide under,  and also a couple of large shady shrubs and a tree. They are still finding it uncomfortable.  I let them into the fruit cage today,  and they explored enthusiastucally for a while, but they returned ot sitting under something.  I gave them some hunks of water melon this afternoon,  and that seemed very welcome.


With the chicks it's a bit harder.  We have a shade on their run, but with this heat it's not very effective.  We put up a tablecloth over the netting, to provide a shaded area, and they congregate under it quite a lot.   They try and land on the tablecloth, and then abseil down it.    They don't really learn from their experiences either,  and they always have a surprised look on their faces as they sliiiiiiiiide down the fabric for the umpteenth time. 

They also have obviously not read about Shared Bodily Warmth,  and don't understand that you should only huddle together when you are cold.  There is usually a heap of chicks, I'm sure I can see a heat haze rising over them.  

They didn't even try the watermelon.


We extended their netted area even further now so that they have a flower bed and fence. This gives them more opportunities to dustbathe, and the fence provides further protection from the sun.  I'm going to  soak the tablecloth shade n water as well, so that will provide extra relief.

Thank goodness that all the allotment pens have access to trees, so the birds can shelter in dappled shade.  I'll be taking the rest of the watermelon down to them tomorrow morning.


The grass is in a dreadful state.  Not specifically because of the chickens,  I can see that my neighbours back gardens are similarly parched.


Hope it rains soon!

Hollyhocks

These used to remind me of Triffids, and I didn't like them much.  However, we had quite a few in the garden when we moved in here and they've self seeded somewhat.  We now have an incredible range of pink/red colours, one which is dark blackish burgundy, and one which is almost black.  

I really like them now.

Here's a few of the different colours we have (each one is different, I'm not sure whether the camera picks that up):

Clean run

Just emptied the flooring out of the Garden Girls' run.  I rake it up, Stalosan it, and put it back down once a week, and I usually empty it completely every 8 weeks.   It's been a lot longer than that this time.  I was going to wait until Delilah finishe moulting, but it really did need doing.

I think it looks a bit...anaemic..when it's got fresh Aubiose down. When I had horses, I loved a fresh Aubiose bed.  With chooks I feel a bit sad. Nothing for them to find when they rook around.

Still. It won't take long to get back to normal.

Feeling fruity!

And the fruit preserving continues.

Last night I made Gooseberry Fool, using home-made custard from my Girls' eggs. I love home made custard.  Seemed a bit of a shame to "waste" it in a Fool... but the Fool came out well. Even DH (who eats very few vegetables and even fewer fruits) liked it.

This morning it was a bit cooler, so I picked all the remaining blackcurrants, pureed them, and I'm leaving them in a bowl for 24 hours.  I can't quite see how this cold extraction method is going to work, but I'll try anything once.

And I moved on to the next step in the blackcurrant vodka.  It's a bit of a tedious process this one. Step 2 involves straining the blackcurrants from the alchohol,   adding water and more sugar to the sieved pulp and keeping both this and the strained liquid for another four days before step 3.

We haven't had as many blackcurrants as normal. I didn't put any Growmore around the fruit in March, nor any compost in May.  And the floor of the fruit cage is a bit choked with weedy plants.  We're going to take up the weed control fabric as soon as the Tayberries have finished,  give it all a good going over (with the help of the Girls),  a layer of rotted manure and hopefully next year will be better.


The Cherry Tree, on the other hand, has produced a spectacular harvest. I'm trying - somewhat unsuccessfully - to enthuse myself to go and pick more cherries to have a go at making some cherry desserty stuff. I was thinking of a sort of cherry puree, which could be used in cakes or as a topping or something.  I'm going to be using the pasteuriser tomorrow night for the blackcurrant cordial, so I could pop some jars of cherry stuff in at the same time.  However. The recipe for the cherry doodah involves going to the supermarket (our local Off Licence seems to have closed) to buy Kirsch,  and I can't face the supermarket on a Sunday.  Maybe tomorrow.

The Parakeets are back.  They land on the apple trees, nibble through an apple until it falls off the tree, then they move on to the next apple.  The half-chewed apple falls on on top of the chicken run,  which irritates the Girls.  They then complain, loudly.  As this tends to start at about 5am, it's not great.

The Pear Tree also has a bumper crop on, it's first good crop for 3 or 4 years (the last one was when we had our driveway done.  I remember that because for all the time the guys were here doing the driveway, I was preserving pears.  I'll have to check my offline diary though to see when that was).

I expect I'll try Pear vodka.Just for a change.



 

What a lot of messing about!


Where to start?  Um, paving/path in front of the kitchen, I think.  All that area is now clear of junk, DH laid out proposed pattern and then we agreed size and he's marked it out.  He started to dig out some of the grass and wanted to relocate the turves (or "bits of dried grass", more accurately).   We agreed we (=he) would turf over a small and overgrown flowerbed.... which needed clearing first.  Despite the dreadful heat, he's managed to do it today.

On the preserving front...


I've just finished making one lot of Tayberry Cordial, and the full bottles have now come out of the pasteuriser.  It's very dark liquid this time.  I've saved a small bottle to sample later in the week.


I'm typing this while my Tayberry & Raspberry Vodka is straining.   I'm at "step 2", which in this recipe is the first straining out of the solids.   This vodka is fairly quick and painless to make.   It'll be ready for final racking and bottling in a week, and then it will need to mature for a month or so before being ready to drink.


Yesterday I made up a quantity of cherry vodka.  That's sitting in the utility room in the dark for a week or so before moving on to the next stage.


The fiddly-but-rewarding blackcurrant vodka is ready for it's next step, but I think I'll save that until tomorrow.


I need to pick the remaining blackcurrants to make backcurrant cordial. I'm trying a different method this year, cold extraction.   It's been too hot to pick the currants, I really need to get up early and do them. Maybe tomorrow?


I've also got some gooseberry puree in the fridge, waiting for me to make up some custard and then turn it all into goosberry fool.  Not sure about this, but we'll give it a go.

I've just placed an order for some more 250ml bottles, some replacement lids (bottles and jam jars), and a few other bits and pieces, as I don't have many left. I do stick a little label on the bottles asking people to return the bottles, but most people don't bother.




On the chicken front...
Good news about Rose from the Vet yesterday. She's pleased with how it's all healing up, and I can stop the salt water bathing.  I'm continuing with the Baytril, and purple spray if it's a bit fly-y.   I'm also continuing with Aloe Vera gel on her bald patch, plus a bit of child-safe factor 50 sun cream.

Ruby also looks OK, and both are laying.  Their poos are very sludgy though, presumably from the Baytil. I'll try giving them some natural yoghurt tomorrow to boost their good bacteria.

Mrs Roo laid an egg today, her first for a few days.  We were worried that she might be egg bound because of the heat, but the egg looks fine.

The Littlees (at the allotment) are managing to work the treadle feeder, it still has a brick on it for now.


Chickens At home...
The Tinies, now  5 weeks old, continue to be bolshy little things.   We put rings on them yesterday, and now we know it's always "Red" who escapes to join OddBod.   They continue to be into everything,  and they are definitely playing "Monkey see, Monkey do".  If one of them flies up on to the coop, then suddenly there is a line of them there.


Delilah is continuing her moult.   All of them devoured the tayberry pulp (just pulp, no sugar) which was left over from me doing the juice extraction.  It looks a bit like Pulp Fiction (pun intended) at the moment,  as they all have red stains everywhere.

We're trying to conserve water so we can water the grass without feeling guilty.   I've got a fermenting barrel in the kitchen, and I've been putting in the run-off water (when I'm waiting for the hot tap to run hot).    I'll also put the used water from the Pasteuriser in it when it's cold...and in the meantime I an using the warm water from the pasteruriser to do some cleaning. 

We're also going to put a tub trug (we don't seem to possess any buckets) into the bathroom, and we'l try catching the shower run-off water and put that on the grass too.

Every little helps.