Funky Punky Chicks - 27 days old

In the last day or two the Chicks have started to develop feathers on their heads and necks. This gives them a wonderful, punky, look.   They are also  starting to "fight" with each other. If they were big Girls that we were integrating, I would describe it as bosom-bumping.











They are very large now, I'm sure they are as big as Milly and Jasmine were when we got them at 11 weeks old.   We're going to section of a bit of flower bed soon so they can have their first free range.     The cats are a bit of a worry here but, despite all the things in their run to amuse them,  the chicks need a bit more stimulation, so it'll be a risk we have to take.

Who's broody now?

The other Dorking hen went broody over the weekend!

It's all getting a bit complicated now, as we have eggs everywhere.

We have the original incubated hatch of 3 Sassos and 2 Ixworths, who are now 25 days old and are occupying the Eglu during the day, and a brooder pen overnight. 

Under one of the Dorkings, we have three Silver Dorking eggs, which are due to hatch next Wednesday (9 September).  Their henhouse is three feet off the ground, so we need to move mum and newly hatched chicks as soon as possible to new, temporary, house which we bought and installed near the original house.

In the Incubator, we have the Broody's original brown eggs  (she's a Dorking cross) which unexpectedly turned out to be fertile (none of the eggs of either broody were fertile up to that point).  We don't know when they are due to hatch, our best guess is today, tomorrow or Friday.  When they have hatched they will move into the Lunar module for a week. Hopefully, by the time these are ready to leave theLunar Module,  the first hatch chicks will be overnighting in the Eglu.     And by the time they are ready to leave the Brooder,  the First Hatchers will have moved to their permanent home on the allotment.  DH just needs to build another coop for them, if we are planning on keeping them. 

Also in the Incubator, we have three more Silver Dorking eggs, due the smore or less the ame time as those under the Broody and we intend to slip those chicks under the broody as soon as they have dried out.   We've had to stop the auto turning of the incubator now that the Brown Eggs are due to hatch, so we're having to turn the Silver Dorking eggs manually for now.

And now we have one or two eggs under the other Broody, no idea if they are fertile or not.  We'll check as soon as we've moved Mum1 out.  Hopefuy the temporary broody house will be vacated by the time her chicks, if the eggs are fertile, are hatched.

It'll be fine.   It'll just need a bit of organising.  And it'll put us in good shape for breeding next year.  We hope.

Chick Pics - 23 days old

The Chicks are now 23 days old.

They are out in the Eglu and run all day, and back in their brooder at night. During the day, I keep a heated Snugglesafe pad in the next box, so they can snuggle up with it if they need to.

It rained heavily a couple of days ago, so I covered the Eglu run to protect the chicks. They aren't really old enough to deal with "rain" yet.

The development continues, and new feathering is appearing all the time. The Sassos are much more feathered than the Ixworths, so we need to be careful to make sure we aren't progressing things just to suit the Sassos.

They adore courgette. They ignored corn on the cob, but this morning one of them must have tried it again and discovered that "mmmm, tastes gooooooood", as they were all fighting over it when I looked out of the window.

I've been out snapping pics...

Judge Dredd and Chicky Adolescence

A couple of the Sassos are starting to look like Judge Dredd. Their shoulder feathers are now really sticking out in a Judge Dredd epaulette sort of way.

The most developed Sasso has also started to get breast feathers.

Weather today is chilly with showers, so I've left them in the Brooder so far. Every time I pop in to see them they rush to be picked up. Not because they particularly want to be picked up per se, but because they have learned that being picked up = going outside to grass.

Dust bathing chicks

One of the Sassos seemed to be having a fit.

As usual (well, for the last 3 days) the Chicks were brought out of the Brooder early in the day to spend the day (or until the weather changes) in the Eglu and Run. They are obviously keen to do this, they are very happy to be picked up out of the brooder each morning.

I watched them out of the kitchen window, and I saw one of the chicks had hisher legs in the air. I went out, concerned that I was to be confronted with a Dead Chick.

But no. By the time I got out there, s/he was on hisher side, and was obviously attempting to dustbathe in the grass.

I went upstairs to rummage in the spare room for a small, shallow, box, and I found one. Added compost and some sand, and put it in the run. The Chicks seized upon it! No dustbathing, but lots of rooking and chicken-Salsa. Trouble was, it was only big enough for 4 chicks to rook, and they were taking it in turns to not be in it. All my other boxes were too deep.

Then I saw a seed tray. That's now in there, and there is plenty of room for all.

Isabelle's new sunbed

Izzy's attempts at getting closer to the chicks whilst pretending not to, took an interesting turn today...

Meet Rita the Meter

We had Rita the Meter installed on Thursday.

We've been considering changing to a water meter for...more years than I care to remember. In theory, we should save money, as the rule of thumb says that if you have less people than bedrooms, you'll be better off. But that rule wasn't designed for people who have very productive gardens.

We have been doing a lot to minimise our water useage - fitting doodahs in the cisterns (with mixed success as I'm sure one toilet doesn't flush properly now); catching the water that we have coming out of the tap while waiting for the hot water to come through, and using it to water the plants; bought an energy/water efficient washing machine, that sort of thing.

Our next door neigbour had a meter installed last year. The bills have been slow to arrive, but she has saved a lot of money. So, we decided to take the plunge. We have 18 months to decide whether to keep Rita or to send her packing, and I wanted to try and include 2 summers in that so we could see what difference the garden makes.

It was relatively easy to sign up to have a meter fitted, but a bit of a faff with the contractors. It took longer than promised to get it installed. In the intervening period we've been practising being even more water miserly. We've fitted one of those water restricting shower heads, which has dramatically reduced the water used in our shower. It took a while to get used to, but now its fine. I do find I spend longer in the shower though - not because I need to, more because I can.

The plumber took quite a long time to fit Rita, which surprised me as she's about the size of a baked bean can and is installed under the sink (we have a shared supply). There isn't a huge amount of room under there. It's a wide enough cupboard, but we have the water softener under there, plus the pipework for 2 sinks, a three-way tap, and a separate hose spray. And a water filter cartridge. And then of course there is The Stuff. You know. Washing up liquid. Cream Cleaner. Dishwasher tablets. Dishwasher Cleaner. White vinegar solution., bin bags... The stuff we use all the time. And the stuff we use occasionally: stailnless steel polish, baby oil, Milton, stove cleaner, bicarbonate of Soda, wasp killer, ant killer, bleach, disinfectant, baby bio, stickystuff remover. It all had to come out.

Eventually the plumber emerged from the darkest recesses of the cupboard and said he'd found it. He had spent 20 minutes trying to fix a leak, which turned out not to be a leakm but to be a split pipe. I apologised for having crap pipework, but it wasn't our pipework, it was his.

Having had Rita installed, I phoned the water company to find out what the cost of water was going to be. I had sort of expected it to be on the literature the plumber provided, but it wasn't. It works out at £1.40 per cubic metre. Our water nill for this year was £310, which means that if we use less than (310/1.40) 221 cubic metres a year. we'll be ahead.

We need to get in the habit of checking Rita before and after a Washing Machine cycle, a dishwasher cycle, etc so we know how much they are costing us.

Chick chaos

The chicks are growing rapidly, and are getting extremely adventurous. A couple of days ago, we had to change from transporting them between brooder and Eglu in a small Trug, to using a very big Trug.

Today, even that isn't big enough!



The weather was supposed to rain, but mid morning it was still dry. We decided to put the chicks out for a bit, and I put a Snugglepad in the run as well, just in case they found it cold (apart from amnything else, if I saw them snuggling, I'd know it was too cold for them).

Isabelle tried to disguise herself as a chair, watching the chicks from the gap at the bottom...


Here she is from the other side


Today, I tried them on peas. They had one pea (specifically un petits pois) each. There was a lot of running around with said pea in beak, but not much eating going on. However, when I checke later there was no evidence of pea in the run.

I've ordered some chick sized grit today from flytesofancy.co.uk. It'll be here tomorrow, and it's necessary as we're starting to give them stuff other than the chick crumb.

The feather growth continues, with much bigger feathers appearing on the shoulderblades.

At about 2pm I was getting ready to take my DgS (who has been staying for a few days) back home, and I needed to get the chicks back into the Brooder.

Sasso 1 came and jumped on my hand. I put him/her in the larger trug, and tried to persuade the others to come along as well. S/he decided it didn't want to be in the trug, and jumped up and on to the side, wobbled a bit, then leapt back into the Eglu run.

So. I knelt down, put my arms in the Eglu run and manged to catch one chick, trug himher, then catch a second. The two in the trug began to cheep. The three in the run cheeped louder. I laid down on the grass, scooshed up, and caught number 3. I had to get in further to get number 4. I had to get almost right in the run, which is not easy when you are a woman of a certain age and ample bosom.

Number 5 managed to run past me and out of the run door. Cursing, I had to wriggle and wiggle myself out of the run. By this time, Chick 5 was running around the Eglu cheeping wildly. I gave chase, hoping that I got to himher before the cats did.

S/he stopped for breath, and for an extra pitiful cheep, and I scooped himher up. I then had a bucketful of chicks, all trying to get out.

By the way, I forgot to mention that the Broody Dorking has accepted the other eggs and is still broody. Fingers crossed she doesn't get bored.

Chicks, Day 11/12

Gorgeous day today, so this afternoon we popped the Chicks in the Eglu & run on that square of garden we call a "lawn" outside the kitchen window. They seemed to be having a great time, so we left them there all afternoon. They had a shade over part of the run, so they were neither cold nor hot.

The shoulder feathers are significantly more pronounced than they were yesterday. They are also bigger, but we need to weigh them again to confirm this. We started adding Lifeguard Tonic to their water yesterday as well.

Isabelle is fascinated by the chicks. I'm sure she thinks we are very kind, bringing her some chicken nuggets.

More Eggs

Did I mention that one of the Dorkings has gone broody?

Did I say that we'd ordered some Silver Dorking fertile eggs to put under her?

Well, they arrived today (I can highly recommend this ebay seller http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/john_negus/). We've disinfected them and they are waiting, pointy end down, for us to put them under the broody Dorking.

We've also got the incubator ready; we'll put her current eggs in the Incy, and possibly also a couple of the new ones as well.

Watch this space!

First outing

We built the Eglu yesterday evening, just putting one lengthe of run on. The door was attached with cable ties, which worked well.

This afternoon we put the chicks in the Eglu, and waited. Half an hour later, a head appeared. Eventually, after much squwarking and discussion between them, two chicks popped out. To our surprise, it was the Ixworthsl maybe they drew the short straw.

After a few minutes, all five were out, and then they were having a whale of a time, trying grass, running around with their wings outstretched etc etc etc.

The cats were very interested.

Baby combs

Boldest Chick (Sasso 3 or 4) loves to come out of the brooder pen. Put your hand in, and s/he comes running over to step on it to be lifted out.

This morning I noticed that s/he's going a little bald on the shoulders. Presumably getting ready for the feathers to grow. His/her comb has also started to grow, a row of tiny orange beads on the top of the head.

Today s/he stood on my shoulder, Long John Silver/Captain Flint style, and I carried him outside to see the World. The Big Girls were fascinated.

Chick Peas

My Garden Girls love peas. Whenever I cook some for me, I put extra in for them. I've even given up salting my peas so that the Girls can have them.

This afternoon I was giving the Garden Girls some petits pois, and I decided to see whether the chicks would like some. Up until now all the Chicks have had is their specialist chick feed, so I wasn't sure what they would do when faced with Something New.

I dropped a couple of petits pois in their pen, and then I nearly wet myself laughing.

One of the Ixworths grapped a pea and ran around and around and around the inner ring, chirping loudly. Everyone else gave chase. They all ignored the other peas, all they were interested in was the Pea in this one chick's beak. Eventutally, exhausted, the chick dropped the Pea and one of the others picked it up. Another chick then stole it out of the second chick's beak.

A fourth chick then discovered another pea and tried it. And spat it out in disgust. At that point my sides were hurting so I left them to it.

I'll go back later and see whether any of the Peas have actually been eaten.

EDITED TO ADD:
DH has come in and said that all the peas have gone.

Chicks move house, part 2 (with pics)

So, we released the chicks into their new home. Understandably, they were a bit nervous; they tried to nibble on the Aubiose.

We moved the new feeder closer to the inner chick-hole, cleared a path, and put food on the path. True to form, it was Boldest Sasso who ventured out first, blocking the doorway. I moved the food a bit further away. Boldest Sasso scooshed forward, still blocking the doorway. I moved the food a bit more, and then Bold Sasso popperd out. Cleopatra Sasso allowed himherself to be picked up and carried to the food. The Ixworths weren't having any of it, thank you very much.

Boldest Sasso had an explore, then let me pick himher up to go to the water. One dip of the beak, and we're fine. The Ixworths refused to move.

In the end I scooped up one of the Ixworths and put them outside. S/he ran around cheeping, then discovered food and started to eat. Other Ixworth refused to come out and started cheeping pitifully. After much effort, I managed to scoop himher up as well and put himher with the others.

Here they are.
1) This is the inner and outer pen










Here are the chicks in the inner pen, before they discovered the ChickHole










And here is Boldest Sasso, can you see the wing development?

Chicks move house

The chicks have been developing at an alarming rate. They haven't particularly grown. Well, they don't seem to have grown. But their feather development is amazing. It started with the wing tips. Now, one week on, they all have proper (albeit Lilliputian) feathers on the ends of their wings.

The Sassos are developing much faster than the Ixworths, which is surprising as they are at least a day younger (and given they are only 6 days old, that's quite a difference). The Sassos are also much more inquisitive and bold than the Ixworths. All three of them are quite happy to step onto a hand to be lifted out of the lunar module. Two of them are quite happy to snuggle down in my cupped hand and go to sleep. One of those two is the one who likes to be at the front of the photos, and s/he still likes to have a good look out as soon as the door is opened. Yesterday, s/he even hopped up on to the sill while the door was open then had a little roost.

The Ixworths are quite different. They don't like to be picked up at all. They also have an inbuilt need to scratch around, so as soon as we fill up the food trough they jump in and start hoiking all the food out with their feet, making that backwards and forwards Salsa movement. It wouldn't be a problem except that the floor of the Lunar Module is a grid so that the poo - and the hoiked out food - falls through. We're getting through lots of chick feed, so maybe it wasn't such a bad thing that I got a 20 kilo bag after all.

We've decided that they now need a bit more space and a bit more stimulation, so today we're moving them to their next home, in the shed. There they have a more traditional circular pen, with a big white light infra red lamp suspended above it. There is a different style of feeder, so they wont be able to hoik the food out. The flooring has Aubiose on it though, so they'll be able to scratch about to their hearts content. We're also making an inner ring of cardboard, so they will be able to have an inside and an outside. This means they can get away from the heat lamp if they wish.

We've moved the lunar module in there for a few mins for now so they can get used to the sounds and smells of the environment, before we transferred them.

Watch this space!

Lemon (and Lavender) Marmalade

When we were in Cornwall the other week, I bought a jar of "Lemon & Lavender Marmalade". I didn't like it when I tried it, but I left it in the fridge. Feeling the need for marmalade one day, I tried it again, and I really liked it.

As I got to the bottom of the jar I realised that it wouldn't be easy to get any more, so I decided to try making it. My excellent Margeurite Patten Jam book had a recipe for Lemon Marmalade, so I decided to use that and just put some lavender in at the soaking stage.

According to the original jar, it was 49% Lemon, 49% sugar and 2% lavender. Hmmm. Don't think so - at least, it cannot be quite what it seems. For a start, what about the water? And I can't believe that you'd get a good set/preserve with a 50/50 split of fruit and sugar. And 2% lavender is quite a lot of lavender.

Anyway. I picked some lavender and put it in with the pips in a little muslin bag while the peel soaked overnight, and while I simmered it this morning.

I've now made the marmalade, and I think I should probably have used more lavender. I can't see me needing to make another batch for a year or so (the recipe made nearly 4 pounds), so I've had to make a note in the recipe book.

Hope it tastes OK. I'll find out tomorrow morning.

Chick Pics

Here are some pics of the chicks.

In the first two, the chicks were placed in a small cardboard box for a few minutes while we cleaned out the lunar module.







Number 5 is completely different to the others - just love the eye makeup!






In these two, they are back in the Lunar Module, under white infra-red bulb. (I know that sounds like a contradiction in terms, but it itsn't).


This one is poor quality, but I think it's so sweet that one of the chicks kept muscling in on the picture








And here's one of all of them in their Module.

Fearless

The Chicks are doing well, and are starting to be interested in what goes on *outside* their pod. They are happy to hop onto a hand a be taken "outside" to be inspected. Not really a good idea, as I can foresee problems later down the line When The Time Comes.

Numbers 1 and 2 have already started to change shape and their wing tips are starting to develop proper feathers.

Number 5 is absolutely stunning, his Egyptian eye make up is just gorgeous!

1, 2, 3, 4, 5...

This morning, the three Sassos were all dry. They are all very different to each other. NUmber 5, who arrived last night at about 9.30 and spent a lot of time on his back, is still a bit unsteady on his feet, but he's only 10 hours old. He's very dark.

We decided to pop them all in the Brooder. This caused a bit of a consternation, and a lot of pecking as they tried to establish who was bottom chook. Sadly, I think it's going to be Number 5.

At least there were three chicks put in in one go.

Tayberry Vodka

I was looking in one of the cupboards for a bottle of my homemade Elderflower & Lemon cordial, when I came across a couple of "taster" bottles for cordials I'd made earlier.

One of them, the Tayberry Vodka, was marked as being ready for testing on or after 4 August. So we had a shot each before dinner.

Oh. My. God.

What amazing fruity goodness. No hint of vodka at all.

DH doesn't eat fruit (or most vegetables), and he really liked it. Amazing.

A few minutes after starting the shot, the Vodka kick hit me. But it was a pleasant kick. This could be a real winner. Can't remember how much I made - but I wish I'd made more!

And now the Sassos...

Two of the Sasso eggs pipped this morning. Later on today, one of started to crack. I dropped a note round to our neigbhours on the Other Side inviting them to bring R over to meet the Day Olds.

They popped over this afternoon, and I promised to let R know if the pipped Sassos started to hatch.

We've got a webcam monitoring them. This evening, in the middle of infusing milk to make a Bechamel sauce, I spotted that one was starting to hatch. I rushed upstairs and to my surprise I found *two* of them were hatching at the same time, one of we hadn't even seen pip!

Phoned CP, and went round to Other Side to see if young R was in.

They are much drier than Numbers 1 and 2; and one of them has huuuuge feet. The other one is leaving little blood spots, we're hoping that this is because he's carrying a bit of bloody shell around.

The other two are the same as they were earlier. Sign of pipping, no activity!

Awww!

WOke up at 1.30am, and decided it was too early for Number 2 to be dry.

Got up at 3.30 am to see if NUmber 2 was dry enough to go in with Number 1. He wasn't. Both chicks were resting in their respective contraptions.

Got up again at 6.00, and decided NUmber 2 was as dry as Number 1 had been, so I popped him in the Brooder. First thing he did was dive for Number 1's legs, to ry and get under them. Obviously thought Number 1 was his mum. Awww.

I watched for a while to make sure they were OK, and left them to it.

Got up at 8.30, and they were asleep. And I noticed that one of the Sassos has pipped. DH just told me *two* of the Sassos have pipped!

Dorkings Update

You may remember that we bought a trio of Dorkings to start our new, naturally reared, Dinner flock. We installed the two Girls and their gorgeous cockerel in their new home on our allotment about 10 days ago.

The Girls now come running for corn whenever they see us. The Cockerel eats some corn, but chooses not to get too close. The Girls have been laying regularly and there's been no sign of fertilised eggs. Not such a bad thing as it's getting a bit late in the year for them to raise a brood, and we're happy to wait until next March.

Because they are running with a cockerel, we always take the precaution of breaking eggs into a dish before using them. What we're watching out for is that tell-tale black spot right in the egg yolk. That's a fertilised egg. We always eat the eggs when they are very fresh; I remember my biology teacher describing breaking an egg into her frying pan and it containing an embryonic chicken - it's made me very wary. Of course I now know that her eggs must have been at least a week old to have that level of development.

Anyway, I digress. We put a dustbath out for the Dorkings today, under a specailly constucted canopy. They've turned their beaks up at that so far.

But we also gave them some pasta. My Garden Girls adore pasta, and it's always fun to watch how they behave when it's on offer. The Dorkings were the exactly the same. Cap'n Flint took some persuading, but then he discovered he really liked it. And then the Girls kept stealing his from underneath him.

I already cook an extra portion for the Girls whenever we have penne or fusili; looks like it'll be two extra portions from now on.....

Photos of the Chicks

This is Number 1. I got him out of the Brooder and stood him on top of the Incubator so he could talk to his brother. He's about 12 hours old in this picture



And here's Number 2, taken from the top. (it's very hard to get a good pic because the top of the Incubator is very reflective. He's about 10 minutes old here, and can't yet stand. He's lying down having a rest in the photo.

Number 2 is through!

NUmber 2 has just emerged from his shell.

Number 1's cheeping has increased in volume by several decibels as he encouraged his brother to push harder. NUmber 2 is currently rolling around the floor of the incubator, pushing the remaining 2 eggs (in his section) all over the place as he tries to stand up.

He's cheeping, but he's exhausted and keeps stopping moving (and cheeping) for a rest. During these quiet periods, Number 1's cheeping gets even louder. I can't believe something so small can be so loud!

No signs of pipping on the other two eggs; and nothing on the Sasso eggs yet.

Lonely chick

Well, Number One has dried off, and was getting very active in the Incubator. It's been 8 hours since he hatched, and the books say "up to 24 hours" in the incubator.

Number Two is showing no sign of appearing; even when he does it'll take a few hours for hiim to dry off. It'll be during the night, and we dodn't really want to leave Number One in the iIncubator that long.

After much discussion, we decided to transfer Number One to the Brooder. Poor mite was so surprised to find life, thhat he started cheeping vociferously. We showed him the food. We led him to the water and let him drink off a dunked finger. He got distressed when the finger was withdrawn.

Can you give a chick a comfort toy?

Nervewracking

It's been very hard watching this Chick.

Because this is the first time I've seen one hatch live, even thought I know what the book says about it, it's hard to watch.

Poor little Chick is exhausted, and is trying to stand and walk. It's all so much effort, he stumbles and falls on the other eggs. I'm sure this is Nature's way of telling the other eggs its time to hatch. He's cheeping continuously, and I feel very sad that he doesn't have a mother hen there to reassure and encourage him. He's drying out, slowly, and we can't do anything with or for him until he's completely dry.

I know he doesn't need food, the egg sac will keep him nourished for 24 hours.

I know it's normal for him to keep falling over.

I know it's normal for him to be wet and looking so weak.

But it's hard to watch. I wish Number 2 would get on with hatching!

And I hope the other eggs are OK.

Slow

Got up in the middle of the night to check on Egg, no progress.

Just been in to have a look (7.30am) and the hole is slightly bigger and I can hear cheeping. A second egg has also pipped.

It's a slow business!

Egg news

All day, nothing happening on the Egg front.

Lovely next door neighbour, CP, popped over with a parcel, and I told her that they were due today and I'd keep her posted.

Over dinner this evening we started to discuss what might have gone wrong. Given that there are two sets of eggs in the Incubator, and the second set isn't due to hatch until Friday, how long should we give the first set? We decided they might as well wait until Friday.

After dinner, nothing.

Then DH went and had a quick peek at about 9pm, and found that one of the eggs had pipped! This means the chick is starting to emerge. The book says it can tak e4 hours before the chick tries again, and it can take 20 hours for the hatch to complete.

I phoned CP to let her know that it had started, but there wasn't anything to see. I told her I'd call in the morning when we were up so she could come over and take a look.

I'll let the other side know tomorrow, and they can bring young R over to look if they like.

Watch this space!

On tenterhooks

It's 20 days since the first eggs were put in the incubator which means, if we're lucky, they should be hatching tomorrow!

We stopped those 4 turning on Sunday, and the other 4 yesterday. I bought a special brooder - looks like a diving bell - which will be their home for their first two weeks, and we've got it all ready. Everything was moved from the kitchen table to my study, as we'll need to keep the cats away from the hatchlings and can't see how else to safely do it.

I miss having the incubator on the kitchen table, but I don't miss the hourly chimes as it turned the eggs.

I've got a 20 kilo sack of chick crumbs under the stairs. I don't know what possessed me to ask Graham at Paws 'n' Claws (http://www.pawsandclawsonline.co.uk/) to deliver a 20kg sack od chick food when a 5kg sack would have been more than ample. Never mind. The Garden Girls - and the Dorkings for that matter - can have some as a porridgey treat. For the next few months. Or so. I have a vacuum sealer, I might vacuum pack some to help it keep fresh.

I also have a 20kg sack of Growers pellets under the stairs, but they will get eaten. And a 20kg sack of Organic Mixed Corn. And the Ash Pan where I store wood ash to make the dust baths. And two mountain bikes. It's a big space, which is just as well under the circumstances.

Now that the Garden Girls have started moulting, I've been giving them poultry spice each day, in some yoghurt. They love yoghurt. They get it everywhere, all over their beaks, their combs, their wattles. If I'm passing, they shale their yoghurty heads and get it over me as well.

If I leave the empty bowls down, when I go past they rush to the bowls and start pecking frantically. I guess it's the chickeny equivalent of a cat staring at it's empty dish. It's a bit disconcerting, to be honest.

Well, that's all for now. I'll let you know as soon as the chicks start hatching!

Dinner Chickens - all done, for now

Today DH and OC (Other Chap) culled the remaining Dinner Chickens. Six of them, again too many in one go - but we wanted to get it over with. One of the Girls had been injured by the cockerel treading on her. DH very tired and a bit glum.

He brought home all the feeders and drinkers so we could scrub and sterilise them ready for when the hopefully-hatchlings are big enough to move to their permanent home. There's a lot of work to do on the allotment; the ground needs rotovating, liming (to neutralise the poo), and reseeding; the chicken house needs emptying, scrubbing and disinfecting. We also we need to make some other changes to the Dinner Chickens house; there will be a lot less birds in one go from now on, so we need to divide it to make it easier for them to keep warm when its colder. We'll use the freed-up space to store the chicken feed etc, which means the current feed shelter can be used by the Dorkings to keep cool in the heat. If we get heat.

The geese are more subdued since 2 of them moved to a neighbouring allotment. Hope they perk up, it's not like them to be so meek.

Sometimes I think it would be easier to give up eating chicken. I can't imagine what it's going to be like when it comes to the birds we're raising from eggs!

Balding babes

My Garden Girls have started their annual moult.

I noticed a few days ago that Lily was looing a little "oven ready" underneath so today, when I was giving each of them their Flubenvet-laced cucumber, I had a quick rummage to see what the situation was with each of them.

All bare in the same place. It's not wildly noticeable from above, and they are still laying. I'll need to put a note into next doors' eggs this week to let them know that (a) the Girls are going to look very unkempt and uncared for very soon, and (b) the eggs are likely to stop.

I put Lifeguard Tonic in their water as soon as I spotted Lily's situation and, now that I've confirmed theu're all at it, I'll introduce yoghurt with poultry spice and also some cat food (non chicken variety of course). Feathers are all protein, so they need extra protein in their diet.

Other possibles are tuna in water, and that's probably what we'll give the Dorkings. I need to check them over too to see what stage they are at,

Unexpected death.

Went down to let out the Dinner Birds this morning, and one of them was dead in the coop.

Very sad, it was a bit of a shock to say the least. No signs of trauma, best guess is that she had a heart attack. It's strange how sad I am about it, as they were due to be culled on Monday anyway. I think it's because it's such a waste - as we don't know what the cause of death is, she won't be eaten.

On the positive side, she had a good - free range - life. Last night they were busy rooking for their mixed corn and eating tomatoes & courgettes.

Still sad.

Eggs - two thirds of the way!

We candled the eggs in the Incubator last night, and were pleased to find that four of the Ixworth eggs and four of the Sasso have chicks in them. One of the Sassos looks a bit small, so it's a question mark really.

We took the 4 other eggs out, and destroyed them. If we'd waited much longer then they would have smelt vile....like rotten eggs.... but these weren't too bad.

Less than a week and the Ixworths should be starting to hatch!

Rubber dub dub

Our little next door neighbour, R (aged 8 and 11/12ths), came over the other day to see the Girls. He does it quite a lot, usually under the pretext of retrieving a ball or other missile that accidentally came over the fence.

He's a lovely chap, very inquisitive, and we always try to answer his many questions. This particular day he decided it was time he held a chicken (Daisy obliged), and he wanted to go inside their walk in run. Then he wanted to crawl into the "T" part of the walk in run, which is actually 3metres of Cube Run. I said no. He was in there before I'd finished the "n..".

He crawled along, and then told me it smelt. I explained that it wasn't surprising, as the flooring had got wet when I washed the Cube, and I hadn't taken the cover off to let the air get to it. I was a bit embarrassed.

Yesterday, I decided I'd better empty the flooring out, and I cursed my laziness for not moving the Cube properly to clean it. It had saved me a fair bit of time on the day, but it was now going to take me much longer to remove all the flooring and replace it. I looked at the flooring in the main run, and thought I might put that into the "t" piece, and put fresh stuff there.

I filled up the bags with the old stuff and sprinkled Stalosan (a poultry-safe, powdered, disinfectant. I piled the old stuff into the trailer, realising that the stuff from my last main run clear out was still there, and some stuff from the time before. A trip to the Tip was needed.

I stood and looked at the bare earth under the Cube Run, and decided that now would be a good time to try rubber chippings. The "T" piece is self contained, and stuff from there cannot get into the main run. I'd been thinking about Rubber Chippings for a while, I'd been considering using it for our Allotment Birds. This would be a good test run.

It was "on sale" at B&Q, but the nearest "in stock" place was 20 miles away. Alison, at Hook Farm is 28 miles away. In the end we decided to buy from Alison, so we had to take the trailer to the Tip to empty it, and then we Trailered off to Hook.

In fact, we didn't really need the trailer. We only bought 6 bags to cover the 3m2 in that part of the run. We got back quite late, went off to do the Allotment Birds, and it was too late by the time we got back.

So this morning, I've been out there spreading the chips. I decided not to put down weed matting first. Reason for this is that parts of the run are quite shallow, and I think the Girls would easily reach down to and tear the mesh. It's also contained on all sides by slabs, so it's not like it's going ot get kicked out and lost. So I decided to try without. Worst case, it doesn't work and we've wasted some chippings - but it'll be a good test.

Not sure I really like black chippings, but I'll get used to it. Looking forward to seeing how the Girls react.

Daisy's beak, again

It's been a week since we took Daisy to see Mr Cook, so today we took her back.

Her beak is still split, and has split further. Mr Cook did a diagram of an aeroplane wing to tell us what is done to repair cracks there, and he explained that it's not possible to do that with Daisy at the moment because it would go into her the sensitive part of her beak.

So, he clipped it back to the Quick (ew, and ow), and then applied surgical glue. We now have to wait until her beak has grown considerably before we can do anything more.

Poor little girl.

New flock installed!

The founders of our new flock of birds have been installed in their new home.

Yesterday we collected three Dorkings (or Dorking cross, they have yellow legs) from Sarah (thank you!). The two ladies are just 9 months old and are really pretty, very petite, and will continue to grow for the next year or so. The Boy is older, and is absolutely stunning.

Got the home last night and popped them straight into their new coop. Left them shut in while we fed the other birds, sectioned off some grass, organised feed bins etc, then let them out. They were at home straightaway, scratching about and exploring everywhere.

The Geese in the pen the other side were fascinated.

We went back down to make sure they had ound their way into the Coop, to find they had decided to roost on the very high fencing. Got them down, popped them in the coop, shut the pop hole.

This morning, we decided to clip a wing on each bird. They are very light little things and we can see they'll escape into next door's allotment, or into the other chicken pen, so it seems the best thing to do. They were very good while we did it.

A bit later, the Boy emerged, crowing, and all the Dinner Girls next door came rushing to the fence to see the new chap on the plot. They'd make mincemeat of him, they are huuuuuuge in comparison. There was a bit of a crowing competition between the new Boy and the Dinner Girls' cockerel. We're keeping an eye on how things progress - if there's trouble, the Dinner Cockerel will just have to go a bit sooner than we planned.

Their Newbies names are Captain Flint, Buffy and Willow; Other Chap refuses to call them by these names, so I expect they will have two names for some time. He immediately called the Girls Itchy and Scratchy, because they were so active in rooking around the moment they came out of the coop; the Boy he's been calling Mutley.

I don't really mind what they are called, as long as it's done with kindness. We want to make sure they get used to us as soon as possible, and that they learn to come when we rattle corn. As soon as they do that, we can let them out onto other grassy areas while we are at the Allotment. I'll post pics as soon as I've taken some.

Dinner Chickens - the problem with giving them a decent length life

After our last cull a couple of weeks ago we were down to 11 chickens; 10 very large and happy Ross/Cobb girls and one large unidentified breed, who we had previously thought to be a hen but were having suspicions he was an underdeveloped cockerel. They have all bloomed and been displaying proper chickeny behaviour, such as dustbathing. They look wonderful.

In the intervening couple of weeks, more girls have come in to to lay. We've had to make them a nesting area in their shed, and there is usually a couple of eggs in there. I find this very sad. They've shown no inclination to be broody.

Yesterday DH and OC (other chap) culled four girls. The unidentified brown chicken is definitely a cockerel, he's developed all his tackle since we culled the other cockerel ("Lumpy") last time. We've decided to leave him to the end, as he's doing a good job of keeping the Girls in order.

Anyway, DH dressed three birds yesterday at OC's house. He brought the fourth bird home and we kept it in the salad box to be dressed today. He commented that it was much easier to dress the cockerels, as with the Hens there is now oviducts to deal with, nor partially formed eggs. I saw what he meant today. I thought there were cherry tomatoes in the entrails (I gave the girls lots of tomatoes and cucumber on Sunday night before they went to bed) but they were the eggs.

It's very sad. I sort of wish we'd culled them before they got to Laying age.

Split beak

Daisy is a dirt magnet. She's an off-white Amber Star; she often dust bathes when her head is wet, and the compost/sand/woodash sticks to her making her look somewhat uncared for. I bathe her head from time to time when nature seems unable to get the clumps off.

I did this on Sunday, and noticed that her beak was split. Vertically - along its length. Bit scary. I hadn't noticed it before, but it was possible that I just hadn't seen it IYSWIM.

Looked up what to do, but the books didn't really talk about this sort of problem. I found a posting on the Practical Poultry forum where someone else had had this, and he had been advised to superglue it together.

Now, I can sort of see that this would be tempting. With a stretch of the imagination, I could see this possibly working in theory, but I don't see that it would work in practice. Even if the superglue didn't actually harm the bird (or the beak) long term, the application would be fraught with risks.

I took her to see the Vet instead.

He clipped her beak carefully, with nail clippers, but couldn't go all the way back. Bring her back in a week for another trim. In the meantime, she's going to find it difficult to be precise when pecking, so make sure all food containers are deep (no problem there, they already are). Also be aware that food can get lodged in the split and (a) make it worse and (b) rot and cause infection.

She's back out with her friends now, I'll see how she looks later.

Incubation Interruptus

We have 12 eggs in the Incubator at the moment. 19 days to go.



Power cut today, just for a short period of time. I hope it doesn't impact on the likely development of the eggs. I suppose it won't really. I mean, if they were under a Broody, she'd be getting up once a day for a comfort break....


.

Incubation, part 2

Well, things are moving along.

Our 6 Ixworth eggs arrived this morningand are sitting, pointy end down, recovering from their postal journey. I'm hoping for delivery of 6 Sasso eggs tomorrow.

My flytesofancy order arrived, bringing me some really cute, chick sized, feeders and a drinker, and some Sanitiser. The incubator has been running for a couple of days. and we'll be santising it this evening so that it then has time to warm up again before the eggs go in.

I'm trying not to get excited in case none of the eggs prove fertile. But it's tough.

My brave (step)daughter

My lovely stepdaughter abseiled for charity on Saturday.

The participants abseiled from the top of the maternity block of their local hospital. She was brilliant, and we're very proud of her.

Incubation

We've got an Incubator!

I bought an R-Com 20 from the really friendly people at P&T Poultry http://www.pandtpoultry.co.uk plus an infra red lamp and a candler.

We're going to start a flock of Dorkings, which we will use for eggs/flock creation (Girls) and Dinner (Boys). We'll probably try crosses with other breeds (eg Indian Game) later, but that's wa-a-a-a-y into the future.

It's going to be some time until any of them will be ready for Dinner, so we're also goign to be hatching 2 Dinner breeds, probably Sasso and Ixworth.

We were going to hire an Incy, but decided it would be as cost effective to buy one. If we decide that incubating isn't for us, we'll sell the equipment - and the loss will probably be less than the cost of hire IYSWIM.

I've been bookmarking suppliers of fertile eggs for a few weeks now. We just need to check the calendar to decide when we're going to start....

Buttering up

Taking advantage of the cooler weather, I got the cream out of the fridge yesterday morning ready to turn into butter yesterday afternoon. I unexpectedly had to work until late yesterday evening, and it was only when I got up this morning that I saw 4 litres of double cream on the worktop.

It's not a good idea to make butter when its warm. It doesn't churn as readily, and so its keeping quality is impaired. Still, I couldn't face throwing away all that cream so I made it anyway.

I found some old fashioned jelly moulds in the back of a cupboard when clearing out stuff to sell on Ebay, and I thought I'd try them as butter moulds.

The cream did turn into butter today, only takes a few minutes in the food mixer, but it was a very soft and slippery end product. I didn't get out as much buttermilk as normal, so I know theres still some buttermilk in there despite me washing it in cold cold water. The jelly moulds full of butter are stacked in the fridge, along with several Lock 'n' Lock containers of butter. The L&L ones will go in the freezer as soon as the butter has hardened off.

I also made a litre and a half of Tayberry cordial today.

The Tayberry, Raspberry and Blackcurrant vodkas all need attention as well, but it's just too hot!

Cherry busy

We have a sour-cherry tree in the garden. For the first few years of living here, we didn't do much with the cherry tree, the birds usually beat us to it. A few years ago, we tried the cherries but found they were acid cherries, and I didn't know what to do with them. Then the yield declined and we didn't bother.

The year before last I tried making cherry jam. It didn't end well. It was more like cherry rock. Last year, I tried again. Same thing. The tree was looking rather decrepit at this point, so we (by which I mean, of course, DH) did some drastic pruning.

This year we have had an abundance of cherries, beyond belief. I gave up sugar in my drinks a couple of years ago, and I find I can eat the sour cherries without wincing. Much. And we decided to Do Something With Them.

So. DH made some cherry wine. That was 5 pounds of cherries. The tree didn't look as if it had been harvested at all. So, I found a reciple for Cherry Melomel, which uses honey - I guess it's a kind of mead. That was 3 pounds of cherries.

The local yobs of the bird world, starlings, have been ravaging the tree and leaving cherry pits everywhere. The Girls have had cherries (but I stopped after they'd had two each, as I saw one of them swallowing a cherry whole).

And today we decided to make Cherry Cheese. That was another 3 pounds of cherries. It's taken forever. Hope it tastes ok!

And if only it was a sweet cherry, we wouldn't have all this trouble!

Hollyhocks!

Our collection of hollyhocks has grown over the years, and from now for the next few months they will dominate the back garden a bit.

I'm guessing that they breed with each other, as we now have Hollyhocks in an incredible spectrum of pink. Some years ago I started to collect the seed each year (and there is a lot of seed to collect), and dropped the seed of the best colours further afield in the garden. It takes two years to get a Hollyhock. One year after youve planted the seed you get a bit of growth but no flower, and the next year you get a flower. Maybe the plants are bi-ennial, which means it's actually even more amazing that we have so many.

Anyway. I did cheat a couple of years ago, and I bougtsome seed for a black Hollyhock. It's flowered this year!

Hmm... the reporoduction of colours here doesn't reflect the true range of colours of the Hollyhocks in real life...not the colours of them on my camera. Oh well.

Combatting Mother Nature

Mother Nature is very unfair, sometimes.

We have two gorgeous cats, who occasionally bring home a mouse; sometimes, they bring home those creatures we euphemistically call "Big Mice", and we were relieved when we saw Washburn bringing one home from across the road (as it meant he hadn't caught it in our garden).

The other day, Washburn was playing with something in the garden; it was a little bird, too small to be a fledgling, so we thought it must have fallen out of the nest. DH dispatched it, as it was too young to survive.

A few days later, another one. Bit odd, we thought.

Yesterday, a third one. We realised that Wash must be getting them out of the nest himself. But how? Fortunately, perhaps, he gave us the answer himself. No sooner had we removed number thre from him than he ran off down the garden, and we heard the alarmed cries of the mother bird as Wash climbed straight up the apple tree.

He's a fantastic climber, has been since before he was allowed out. He used to climb our large potted plants when he was a baby; and the first day he went outside he ran out of the door and up the cherry tree. Anyway, I digress.

So, he climbed the apple tree, and then went along one very long branch which curved over and gave him access to another tree over the fence. It was very precarious, as the end of the branch was quite fragile, and he was swaying a lot trying to get ready for the jump to the other tree. Horrified at what he was about to do, I persuaded him to come back.

I called for DH, and showed him the branch that Wash was using, and suggested we take it out to stop his access. DH looked at me as though I had gone mad. It was a rather large branch. It was, effectively, quite a large part of the apple tree on that side. It was the apple tree whose fruit I really liked. There probably aren't any babies left, he reasoned. There probably are I, countered, why else would he be going back and why else would the mother be squwarking? He'll use the fence instead, DH countered; Well, he might do, but that's a lot more difficult for him.

In the end DH agreed to do it, but because it was quite a large job, we couldn't do it then and there as it was already mid evening. So, we'd hve to keep the cats shut in so they couldn't get any remaining babies.

What a palaver!

Cat flap blocked up (we can't just lock it, because Wash just barges through it, yes, even if its locked) with a special barricade, backed up by the chicken feed bin. Litter tray provided.

having fruitlessly tried to move the barricade, Wash escaped by climbing out of the open fan light on the living room window. It's hard to believe that he could reach, but he sort of jumped up and got his front paws hooked over, and then he heaved himself up. His backlegs were scabbling against the window but he wasn't getting any purchase from it, so in the end he did it with the strength in his feline forearms.

He was retrieved from the front garden, and ALL windows were shut tight. in case he tried ta suicide leap from an upstairs bedroom fanlight. Lots of scratching and running around, but we remained resolute.

Next morning, DH went out to attack the tree. Meanwhile. Wash wanted to go to the toilet and hates iusing the litter tray. He's a lovely little ginger boy, really fluffy, but he has this meow which is really high pitched and pathetic, the sort of noise a six week old kitten would make. He was mewing furiously. Running round the house, hurling himself at ou legs to get our attention, and getting really stressed.

We had a few callers (parcel deliveries, that sort of thing), and each time I had to shut Wash in the living room so that he couldn't slip past me.

In the end, he gave in and did his business in the litter tray. God, what a smell! Just in time, DH came in to announce that the tree was pruned, so we let Wash out. He was overjoyed! He ran out of the house, round the garden, and then just flopped over by a flowerbed and started washing himself.

It's funny. Most of the time he's not really bothered about being out. It was just the fact that he wasn't able to go out that made it the only thing he could think about.

I wish he'd have a go at some of the bigger birds. We're inundated with Pigeons (who are busy mating), and a really raucous gang of starlings.

Chicken number 2 dispatched

The Dinner Chickens were getting rather large. They were a breed designed to grow quickly and be culled young, but we wanted to give them a bit of a life first. That was the whole point in going down the route of raising our own.

Anyway. The remaining cockerels were getting rather large, and were starting to fight amongst themselves a bit, and chase the ladies. The Ladies weren't interested in being chased, or being caught for that matter, food and sunbathing were much more important to them.

So, we decided to cull the six remaining white cockerels. Lumpy, the brown cockerel, has a temporary stay of execution. He's bottom of the pecking order and (so far) has shown no interest in bossing anyone about. DH and OC (other chap) Did the Deed on Monday. We'd been waiting, and waiting, and waiting, for my Tripod Despatcher to arrive, but there had been some mix up somewhere along the line and it hadn't arrived. So they did all six by hand.

All 6 were plucked immediately, and 5 of them were dressed immediately. We had promised a bird to a few people, so that was 4 of them gone, and OC had the 5th. DH brought home number 6 and we put him in the fridge (in the salad box again) and left him there for 48 hours this time.

And DH has just finished dressing him and jointing him now. He's a huge thing (the dinner chicken, not DH), weighing in at over 6 pounds dressed weight. One breast weighs one and a half pounds, which is far too big..... we're having that one between us for dinner this evening, it's in the oven now.

Hope it tastes OK.

Oh, the Dispatcher has arrived. It's enormous! More about that later.

Vodka

The warm weather has produced a rush of ripe fruit. I've been picking loads, eating a lot of it or turning it into smoothies... and yesterday I started off 3 different flavours of Vodka.

I've got some Tayberry and some Raspberry vodka just started; these are fairly simple to do, and produce a very fruity flavoured vodka. I've also got some Blackcurrant Vodka on the go; this takes much longer, and will produce a kind of Vodka Liqueur. Very soft, very sweet, very delicate, with a hidden kick.

I sent some to my dad, and had to warn him that it packs a bit of a punch. He likes the taste, and seems to like how it makes him feel!

Still oodles more ripe fruit, and I'm just not in a jamming mood. Maybe I'll go for cordials next?

Golden wedding

It was my parents' Golden Wedding anniversary a couple of weeks ago. I made them a cake, and I printed one of their wedding photos onto icing for the top. Came out quite well, even if I do say so myself.

Creatures of Habit

A lot of fuss this morning, with Lily calling and calling anf calling.

I went out to see what was what, and found that Jasmine was encsonced in one side of the nest box, and Lily wanted to go and lay. Normally what happens is that Jasmine starts crowing to complain that her privacy is being invaded, but for once she was sitting silently minding her own business. I couldn't understand why Lily didn't just go in the next door cubicle.

I tried encouraging her in, I tried tempting her in with corn - which was a mistake as she then forgot all about laying and just wanted the corn.

Fast forward half an hour or so, and both Lily and Jasmine were clucking like mad. Rushed out to see Lily in the run and no Jasmine. Checked the nestbox, Jasmine was still in the same place but had Lily's egg beside her! Presumably Lily wanted to lay in that nest box, and had just stood on Jasmine and laid her egg.

A bit later, I saw Daisy go in and, when I checked, she was in the next door cubicle to Jasmine who still hadn't laid.

Much later, and I saw that Delilah (she of the very fragile eggs) had disappeared. I checked the nestbox again and found Daisy and Jasmine as before, and this time Delilah had decided to get in the same nestbox as Daisy and was standing on top of her. I left them to it although I realised that, with the state of Delilalh's eggs lately, this would not end well.

Much, much later, everyone was crowing at once. I went outside and collected an egg from Jasmine, an egg from Daisy, and found Delilahs fragile offering crushed. I scooped it out: I hope none of the others tried it, as the one thing we don't need is our hens getting a taste for their own eggs.

Chickens!

Unprotected pruning

I've been a happy pruner since we moved toour current home some 12 years ago. I wear gloves if i'm tackling the spikey or treacherous plants, or if i'm pulling out nettles, but if i'm tackling the friendly plants I only wear gloves if I already had them on. IYSWIM.

On Friday, I decided to cut back one of our enormous shrubs. It had been gradually creeping forward (and backwards, and sideways, and upwards) and was now obscuring the chickens. It's a fairly placid natured shrub. No prickles, bit dense.

Afterwards, my finger hurt a bit. I thought i'd probably scratched it when pulling out some of the pruned branches. Later, my finger hurt quite a bit. Much later I couldn't move it and it had swollen up.

DH suggested i'd maybe strained it. "You didn't get any splinters did you?" he asked. "No". Then "Oh yes, I did". Flash of a memory, me pulling something out of my hand with my teeth, whilst still pruning, and spitting it on the ground. Couln't picture where on my hand it had been. Slathered finger with Savlin, covered it in lint, went to bed.

Rough night. Next morning, hand was purple and finger hurt non stop, whether I was trying to move it or not. Feeling a bit sheepish, I got DH to take me to the local Minor Injuries Unit (MIU)

Upshot, it's infected. Fingers taped up, arm in sling, on antibiotics. Felt a bit of a drama queen, then friend sent me this:
http://www.hamiltonadvertiser.co.uk/news/local-news/hamilton-news/2008/05/01/ex-nurse-dies-after-thorn-pricks-her-finger-51525-20849920/

Don't feel so silly for going to MIU now!

But I will make sure I wear gloves next time!

Ninja Chicken

Today was sunny, and I thought it was About Time that I did a full clean out of the hen pen. When the girls are out most of the time, and it's dry, I normally do this every 10-12 week (more often if they're confined or it's been very wet). I've been meaning to do it for a while, every time it's been good enough weather I've gone in and thought "THis isn't too bad, it'll easily last another week".

Enough procrastinating. I started work, cleaning out ALL the flooring, jet washing the perches (they look like new wood now), and so on. The Girls tend to dislike the disruption, and I'm sure they prefer their well used Aubiose/Hemcore to the fresh stuff, and they like to come and voice their opposition to being cleaned.

Today they were in a group on the narrow path which runs between the hen pen and the fruit cage. Something spooked them (me probably, shovelling poo laden Aubiose into a bag), and they all seemed to jump up at once. It's a very confined space out here, and Milly (she of the floppy comb) did this incredible sideways ninja kick, which just happened to hit the door to the fruit cage. Which just happened to swing open so she could get in. I rushed out of the hen pen to shut the fruit cage door to prevent anyone else getting in, and then I tried to get Milly out.

She wasn't having it. The bottom of the Fruit Cage is very interesting. Lots of bark and bugs. The fruit bushes are full of leaves, so it's lovely and cool. After 5 minutes of trying to tempt her out, I was on the verge of giving up and leaving her to it, when she did something unforgivable. She jumped up and helped herself to a ripening blackcurrant.

So, I came out of the fruit cage, collected some corn, and fed it to the others in a very nonchalant way. Milly took no notice. So I fed the others corn in a much more obvious, Milly-what-are-you-missing kind of way, and curiosity got the better of her. Hah.

But that's not all. Having got her out of the fruit cage, there were now 5 excited hens and me standing in a very narrow space. Daisy rushed passed me, and she jumped up and did a ninja kick and opened the swing gate which stops them getting right to the back of the garden. I was....I was...gobsmacked. So shocked that I just stared as she ran through the open gate followed by Lily and Jasmine.

Delicious

He was delicious.

Very, very tasty; full of chickeny flavour.

He was quite a large bird, just over 2.25kg. Although he works out quite expensive, it was still excellent value, as we're practiced at turning good chicken into Rubber Chicken. No, it doesn't mean it tastes rubbery, it means we can stre-e-e-tch it into several meals.

We had roast chicken tonight; we'll have one of the legs cold tomorrow;the other leg will be turned into either chicken pie or chicken curry; the remaining bits will make a risotto; and finally we'll make chicken stock (some of which will go in the risotto, the rest will be frozen for future use. So, excluding the stock, we'll have four meals for 2 people, 8 meals in total.

And we can always freeze the deboned pieces so we don't have to have chicken every day. Mind you, we haven't had chicken for ages, as we anticipated having a bit of a glut, so I expect a few chickeny days will be fine.

I did have to shut the french door in the kitchen so my Girls couldn't see what we were eating.

The Deed has Been Done

Well, we slaughtered the first two Dinner Chickens.

DH and OC (other chap) did the deed on Monday morning. Not perfect timing really, it's better to do it in the evening while the birds are all dopey. But they managed to do it without stressing the birds, and the birds had not had the trauma of having food withdrawal (they went to bed after eating on Sunday, as normal).

They used a friend's plucking machine, which I wasn't very happy about. The plucking machine is really quick, but it doesn't pluck as thoroughly as by hand. That wasn't my real objection though. Given that they only culled two birds, it seemed a bit.... disrespectful... not to pluck by hand. Still, I wasn't going to be the one doing the plucking, so I shouldn't complain.

The question then arose about how quickly to dress the bird. The correct thing to do is to leave the bird for 3 days. We did this last time (when we went on a course to learn how to cull humanely), and the smell was a bit strong for us. But I read that you shouldn't gut straightaway, because the meat can be a bit tough if you do. So we decided to leave it 24 hours, and DH has just done it. He managed to do it very quickly and efficiently. OC gutted straightaway, so it will be interesting to compare results.

We're going to try roasting the bird, as that seems the best way of evaluating the flavour. I hope it's OK.

Cordially yours

Last year I tried my hand at making cordials.

We have a lot of fruit, and I make jam, fruit leathers, dry it, preserve it blah blah, I've also made fruit vodkas, but up till then never ordinary cordial. They came out really well. I decided that I'd try Elderflower cordial, as I personally keep Bottlegreen in business. Somehow though I missed the Elderflower "season".

This year, I caught our elderflower in time, and managed to cnip enough large heads to make one batch. I followed Hugh's recipe (well, it seemed as good as any other), and I was surprised at how quick and easy it was, easier than blackcurrants anyway.

It doesn't taste like Bottlegreen's Elderflower cordial, but it is a really pleasant drink. I think I might have to go foraing for more Heads so that I can make "champagne"

Yogging

I've given up buying Actimel/Yakult/Pro biotic tablets, and I've gone back to eating Natural Live Yoghurt (NLY) and Kefir. The easiest way I find to do this is to make a banana or strawberry (or whatever) smoothie each day.

I'm consuming vast quantities of NLY this way, and it's most cost effective to make my own. The only "special" equipment you need is a flask, preferably wide-mouthed otherwise it can be a bit hard to get the yoghurt out at the end. Check the capacity of your flask: my "one pint" flask is actually only 500ml, and that's useful to know when you're working out how much milk to use.

So. Put the milk on to boil. You need a bit less than the capacity of the flask. I use about 475ml. You need to boil it to sterilise it, so that the only thing that ends up growing is your yoghurt.

While that's boiling, boil some water and fill and seal the flask. This is to get the inside warm. If it's not, then when you put your final mixture in the flask, the cold walls of the flask will make it too cold to work.

Once the milk has boiled, take it off the heat and leave it too cool to body temperature. You can test this by putting a - clean - little finger in. If it's hot, it's too hot; if it's cool, it's too cold. I Try not to forget about it. If you're in a hurry, you can plunge the saucepan into a sink of cold water.

When it's at body temperature, you can add your other ingredients. I use 2 tablespoons of milk powder (makes the yogurt a but thicker), and 2 tablespoons of Natural Live Yoghurt. You can use yoghurt from an earlier batch; I find that after a while this ends up with a sourer yoghurt, which I don't always like. So, I use a really good quality NLY (My current starter of choice is Rachels's Live). It might seem odd buying yoghurt to make yoghurt, but you can get a number of pints of yoghutr ot of a carton of the bought stuff.

Stir or whisk these in. Empty the hot water from the flask, and put the Yoghurt into the flask. Screw the lid on and leave on the side for 12 -24 hours, or even longer. Sometimes the yoghurt is lumpy (although I've only had this happen once), in which case you just need to stir it briskly.

I've also done this successfully with a Greek Yoghurt (again, I use Rachel's) as a starter, but I find that it's best to use bought yoghurt each time as a starter.

If you don't use that much yoghurt, you can always decant the bought yoghurt into two tablespoon portions and freeze. Defrost overnight in the fridge to use as your own starter.