Slippery When Wet

The girls are happier now it's getting warmer, Omelette seems much more herself and the girls are out in the garden now they don't have to wade through 6 inches of snow. They have been enjoying the fact that we're off work as they get to run around in the garden all day.

They are getting so used to their morning porridge that this morning they were waiting outside the patio doors for the gorgeous one to put it out for them, but then they couldn't eat it as it was too hot for them! They circled it a few times before tentatively pecking at it. Now, it's much cooler and Mabel and Omelette are devouring it whilst their mate Robin scoffs their crumb from the decking.

The rain came and washed away lots of the ice, which the chickens are also liking as it's slippery stuff and the other day I did see one of them slip on the ice whilst chasing me up the garden which is a pretty amusing sight I can tell you!

Strange

Okay, so we've had one or two weird shaped eggs right? This one takes all prizes. Hands down. No question. Just bizarre! We cracked it open and it seemed to be okay (not much white in it at all but a lovely yellow yolk), but it had an extra bit of shell on it and a hole in the top.

Who would lay an egg like this?

I Swear

The snow has come down with a vengeance and is full leg deep if you're a chicken, I guess it's the equivalent of being thigh high for us humans. The girls have been walking round the garden in it but have been holding up their legs (which are covered in snow) and shivering, Ma, get knitting those leg warmers! Needless to say, they don't like it much and have pretty much been staying in and around their house (except for Omelette who has been trudging round the garden looking thoroughly hacked off!).

On Saturday the gorgeous one went up to their house to clean them out/fetch eggs/etc and as he walked up to their house he called out to them "hello girls" now he is convinced that in return one of the girls swore at him! Maybe he's losing it a bit...

Yoko is still worrying me a bit, she doesn't seem to be getting herself in the house at bedtime and ends up under the house instead, we keep having to put her in the house before closing it up for the night which isn't good if we're out and don't get back until they should have been in bed for ages. She does look rather sorry for herself at the minute too. The gorgeous one gave her a cuddle over the weekend because she was cold and I did this morning too, although I was pretty cold myself! Brrr! One good thing is that her limp seems to have gone so perhaps she just twisted it or something.

Their friend the robin has been back to see them over the weekend and has been hanging out with them in their house and helping them eat their crumb, I wonder if that's good for Robins too? I think the Robin knows that if the big birds (the chickens) are not worried, then it's safe to eat and sit around. I think it is incredibly sweet that they have another little friend and I wonder whether it's the same one that was here before?

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

It started snowing, Omelette is very happy as she's found something new and interesting to eat...

Frozen

We are slowly becoming a 3-egg-a-day family, although 1 of these 3 eggs a day is being pecked in and eaten, if I find out who it is, they're going in the pot!!! Okay, that's not true, a. because I could never do that to one of our girls and b. because you can't eat layers apparently.

Omelette laid the most bizarre egg the other day, completely misshapen and a weird colour. I think they were in the eggs that we gave to the gorgeous one's Ma last night but I'm not sure it will be worth eating! I had hoped to take a picture of it to show you all but when I looked this morning it was gone, I was too late.

The girls are not enjoying the cold on their feet, Yoko especially, although she has a little bit of a limp at the moment so I need to keep an eye on her. I let them out on Tuesday as I was working from home and she was limping quite badly on it and although she's still limping it's not quite so bad as Tuesday. Ma and I were talking this morning about knitting them some socks, but thinking about it, I think they would get ruined with their scratching around so maybe we should make them leg warmers instead? They could pretend they were the kids from Fame!

Yoko has become the scruffy one now. It seems that Omelette has had a complete regeneration going on over the last few weeks and although she's not quite as pretty as Mabel, she's grown all new feathers on her tail and her wings and looks almost like a normal chicken (I did say almost and even if she looks like a normal chicken, we all know that she really isn't normal).

I have a picture of them in the snow from a couple of weeks ago which I will add onto this post, they really didn't know what to make of that, they'd never seen anything like it before! As we are expecting heavy snow this weekend, there'll be more pics to come I'm sure.

Breakfast at Tiffanys

We're a bit worried that the girls will get cold, so we've done the whole Vaseline on the combs and wattles to prevent frost bite as the weather is definitely turning arctic out there and we wouldn't want them to get sick now would we? The only problem is that we're not sure how often you have to do it, they were very good though and the gorgeous one held them and I smeared it all over them. Their combs were very cold too!

The gorgeous one has also upped their straw allowance considerably and lined the perching(ha!) area with extra straw as one of them tends to end up in there to sleep. He doesn't put the perches in there any more as the chicken that ended up sleeping in that area just sat between them anyway.

I've also posted a picture of them enjoying their latest treat - porridge! We weren't sure whether they would like it but as you can see, it's gone down a treat! Yoko was less keen on trying it but Omelette and Mabel have very much enjoyed filling themselves up with the delicious warm oaty goodness. I'm wondering whether they'll get that glow round them from those adverts that used to be on telly years ago (although we didn't use that particular brand of porringe).

I was talking yesterday with a colleague of mine (Daniel this is the bit about you) about whether we could get people knitting little jumpers for them, but then I thought it might be a little difficult to make sleeves so they'd have to be tank tops! In my head I now have a little picture of them wearing tank tops, knitted, stripey tank tops. Go on, close your eyes and think about it, funny huh? we could have a whole line of chicken clothes, designer chicken wear for the smart chicken about town. I'm not sure how much our girls would let you put clothes on them though - especially Omelette, who runs a mile if you even go to touch her!

That's not my name

Ive been working from home this week and the girls are LOVING it. They get to be out all day, putting themselves to bed at about 4.30pm when it starts getting dark. The gorgeous one is also loving it as there's not a lot of poo in their run if they are out all day, that's probably because it's all over my decking! Honestly, it is caked in it.

Mabel is being a bit of a bully at the moment, I just had to shout at her through the patio doors. Omelette was laying in the sunshine quite peacefully and quietly (for a change) and Mabel comes over starts scratching at the floor where Omelette is laying and then pecked her! I shouted "Mabel!" and she walked away, either she knows her name, she knows she was not being very nice or the loud noise made her walk away. I don't really mind which (although I would love her to know her name) because it made her stop pecking Omelette.

Here in my room

The gorgeous one has taken to putting the girls food an water on the edge of the decking lately. I think it's because the garden is so full of leaves, the feeder and waterer (?) don't stand upright and the girls have a tendency to knock them over! More than once we've found the top of the feeder off and food all over the grass, which they then just scratch into the dirt and walk away. Well anyway, the point of me telling you this is because I just saw Mabel making a claim for the comedy chicken award! Her and Omelette were walking around the feeder (for some reason they walk round the feeder in circles) and Mabel didn't realise quite how close to the edge of the decking it was and she slipped off the edge onto the grass. She got up on I could almost see the shock in her face as she stood upright with her head up as if to say "what? I meant to do that!"

There seems to be a bit of a queue at the minute. Yoko is in their house laying a lovely egg for us and Mabel is hanging around in the run. Mabel doesn't like to lay with company see so she has to wait until Yoko is done, looks like Mabel is getting desperate, I guess it's like only having one toilet in the house and when you gotta go... Yoko's out and Mabel's in. I had hoped I'd be able to get Yoko's egg before Mabel jumped in, but Mabel was too quick for me - oh well. I just like to know who laid the eggs...

Mabel hadn't laid actually. I just went up to give their house a bit of a clean out (as the gorgeous one pushed the snooze button one too many times this morning)and there was only 1 egg, it definitely looked like a Yoko egg and while I was halfway through cleaning the wood shavings, in came Mabel, looked at me as if I were interupting and walked out again. Two minutes later she was back again, wandering around in the clean wood shavings and going in and out of the nesting box, which I hadn't cleaned. She's definitely settled down in there now, so I expect another lovely egg is on it's way - I didn't stop to watch, it felt like something she should be alone for...

As we head for winter and everything gets colder, the gorgeous one now has given the girls extra straw and extra wood shavings to keep them warm at night and is making sure that he closes up the house, all snug and cosy. We're supposed to put vaseline on their crests apparently to stop frost bite getting to it - that's going to be fun when we get to that I'm sure, especially trying to catch Omelette! Yet another adventure for us to have as chicken keepers...

Honky Tonk Woman

I have to tell you about a quirky little thing that Omelette does, it had to be her, right?

Well, she has this noise that she makes, it's like a little "honk". The gorgeous one does a very good impression of it actually, hmm not sure if I should be worried about that or not! Anyway, she'll use it to get your attention or to let you know if she's unhappy with you about something. I tried to think of what it sounded like in order to explain it to you, chicken fans.
The best I could come up with was this; have you all seen Sesame Street? Well on that great educational programme there were these creatures who used to make a honking noise when they hit their own noses (yes, I know, completely ridiculous), well that's what she sounds like. If you haven't ever seen Sesame Street (there may be one of you who has never watched TV), then I strongly suggest you Youtube it to fully appreciate the sound of the honking!

Look under "Sesame Street honkers" for a plethora of honkers clips!

Shout

The girls shout at us. Yesterday morning, the gorgeous one stayed in bed while I got up to go to work (yeah, I know lazy right?). He'd left their door open so they could let themselves out in the morning without him having to get up to let them into the run (!). Well they're smart and they can see into the kitchen from their run and I'm sure they think that if they shout loud enough someone will take pity on them and come and let them out - so very stupid...

Even when I go back upstairs I can hear them shouting to be let out. They must have known that the gorgeous one was staying home to let them have a day in the garden.

He did tell me that he had to lock them in their run later in the afternoon as the wind was so strong that it blew the barbecue over (and you know a certain chicken has a habit of sitting on the shelf of said barbecue). If they'd had their wings open a gust could have taken them away, at last they would have been able to fly!

After the Fall

The girls are loving the autumn and now the fact that the cherry tree
in the garden has lost all it's leaves. Where there were cherries
earlier in the year for them to rush out to eat, now there's a thick
pile of leaves for them to scratch around in. I guess it saves my
garden a little bit from being completely destroyed by them and their
digging. Sometimes I think they are tunneling their way through to
next door they dig so deep!

We had 3 eggs this morning, which had stopped for a while, but they
were all whole and Omelettes egg was whole with a fairly strong shell
so that was good! It was still a bit torpedo shaped but the gorgeous
one seemed to think it was a lot better than some of her eggs have
been of late.

We seem to have a real lot of eggs at the minute as we were on
holiday and we've been really busy at weekends ad not had a lot of
time to enjoy them. I did make the gorgeous one a lovely omelette on
Sunday, it was a vivid yellow. That's the thing most noticeable about
having very fresh and free range eggs, they are much more 'yolky' than
other eggs and the yolks are bright, bright yellow. Scrambled eggs
look almost radioactive!

The girl child thinks that Yoko has put on weight and I think she may
have something there, she does look like she's had a bit of a growth
spurt, maybe it's just because we haven't seen them much recently or
maybe they are getting ready for the winter? Do chickens get a winter
coat like cats and dogs?

Ah, questions to make the long winter nights fly by...

Speaking of which, the girls are putting themselves to bed much
earlier now as it gets dark earlier. If the eggs haven't been laid
before we leave in the morning, we're having to move them out of their
nesting boxes to retrieve the eggs from underneath them! They don't
like that much, I can tell you. They do let you know about it if they
are annoyed about something too.

The other morning the gorgeous one went to let them out and they have
a habit of running their beaks along the wire of their run, kind of
like prisoners would with their metal cups on the bars of their cells
in old films. Well, when he was walking up the garden two of them
were running their beaks along the wire and one was running her claws
along it. I think they wanted to come out!

Don't get bent out of shape

We've been managing to save Omelette's eggs for a couple of days now so we're a 3 egg a day family - woo hoo!

BUT (yes, there is always a but)they are weird. I took some pictures this morning to show you just how weird they are. Yesterday's egg looked like a torpedo and today's egg is kind of triangular - I have attached the pictures for you to see for yourself if you don't believe me, I put them next to a lovely Mabel egg for your reference too.

The girls have enjoyed a day in the garden today, although the sun hasn't been out and they've been knocking at the cat flap, I'm not letting them in. They have a habit now of rushing you when you open the door to try to get in the house (our house not theirs), I asked them whether they'd been in whilst I was away and although they weren't giving anything up, the gorgeous one confessed that he had walked away from the door and come back to find the 3 of them in the kitchen. I guess they think that's an extension of their territory too now.

They are going to bed earlier as well now, as the nights are starting to draw in, so much so that the girls have to be lifted up slightly to get the eggs from underneath them when we get in from work as they've already tucked down for the night! The gorgeous one had a birthday yesterday and his colleagues bought him a "head lamp" so that he doesn't have to stick the torch in his mouth to go and put them away or sort them out in the morning now. I think he was more excited about that than the gift I got him - I should have saved my money!

Oh, one more thing, we've been linked (again) from a great site about other rescue hens, check out Valerie Chicken at www.valerie-chicken.co.uk

Da doo run run run, da doo run run

Ha! I got there in time yesterday to get all 3 eggs! Yay! They were all in the nesting boxes too, the ones we've been losing have been in the perching area, so perhaps whoever was laying has decided they might be better off in the nesting box after all. That is what they are for after all, not sleeping in!

The gorgeous one was going to build the extension on their run today as it was finally delivered after a 4 month delay due to flooding in the far away country that they are made. He took it out of the box, put all the pieces together and told me that it wouldn't work. I didn't know what he meant. This is what has happened.
The house and run of the coop we have are the same height. The new run is way shorter and doesn't match the old run. There would be a big gap between the old run and the new run for a) chickens to eggscape from or b) Mr Fox to have easy access and a good feast on our poor girls! So you can see, it won't work, the gorgeous one was right ( don't tell him I told you that).
Having looked on the web site, it's plain to see that they have changed the design of the house so the new run is much smaller, hence the reason the two don't fit!
Hopefully someone will call me back tomorrow ( like they promised to) and we can either get an old run section or a new but to replace the old section we have on the house now. So no new run for you just yet girls . Sorry about that.

Need a break from the old routine

Wow! On Tuesday we had three eggs! We've worked out what's been happening to the third one every day now, so we have to be quick if we want to save it!

A little background first.

Now the mornings are darker, the girls don't want to get up until it's light so the gorgeous one's routine is all out of kilter and anyone who knows the gorgeous one will know how stressful that is for him!

Well, on Tuesday he had to evict the girls out of their house (much to their dismay) and he found a lovely egg in the perching area! Recently we've just been finding squashed egg shells in this bit so we know that one of them (mentioning no names, but I think you'll know which one I mean) has been pecking open the egg and eating the inside! Unfortunately yesterday and today we have been unlucky and the chicken has gotten there first and now we've changed our morning routine to cope with the darkness, I'm not sure we'll be able to get there before she does any more!

Maybe that's why she looks a bit under the weather sometimes, maybe an egg a day isn't good for her? God, there's so much to learn about chickens!

All the small things

Did they miss me? I don't think so. I was two weeks away and they just care about what I have for them.

I cleaned out their run today (cos I'm a wonderful girlfriend) and what did they do? Almost as soon as I'd left them they went straight back in the run - they'd better not have pooed in there! Especially when they have the whole garden!

I heard a racket out in the garden earlier, can you guess who it was, knocking over the watering cans and pushing stuff around? Yep, Omelette.

They've been coping pretty well with the rain today and they have been sheltering under the tree for the most part when it rained, perhaps they are learning? Nah! Brains the size of peas them girls!

Sunshine on my Shoulders

Another week, another country...

I feel less guilty about leaving the gorgeous one as he has the girls to concentrate on and to occupy his time! But, as I'm not home right now, it's very difficult for me to give you a true and/or full update on how they are and what they've been up to.

So what I'll have to do is share a couple of pictures I took of the girls sunbathing last week and not tell you about the carpet of poo I cleared up from their run on Sunday (2 bags worth). Oh, I wasn't going to tell you that was I?

Sorry.

Anyway, here are the pictures as promised.

Speak soon!

You've got a friend

The gorgeous one is cleaning out the girls as we speak and he just had a little bit of a row with one of them as he needed to get them away from the house to hose it out and one of them wanted to be in the run. I could see him trying to reason with her to get her to leave the run! It won't work, you know, they won't be reasoned with. When you want them in the run, they want to stay out and when you want them out, they want to go in!

They're following him round the garden as well, although they still don't want him to stroke them (Omelette especially). Must be because he gave them a treat this morning, even if it was unintentional, I'll explain. There was a moth in the kitchen this morning so, friend to all animals, the gorgeous one, picked it up and chucked it out the back door. It flew for a bit, landed and was promptly eaten by one of the chickens. Not very friendly that, he's now insisting that the girls are murderers. It's true actually, they chase butterflies and flies round the garden trying to eat them!

Omelette and Yoko have more new feather growth which is good as Omelette still looks like we brought her back from the battery farm yesterday and it's such a contrast to Mabel who is just beautiful. Yoko has lots of the new feather growth too which is good and hopefully they will both catch up to Mabel. Omelette is still worrying us slightly as her eggs are not really forming their shells as they should. The gorgeous one is going to look into what else we can do, specifically to help her. they already have a mineral added to their food to help strengthen their shells and it seems to be working with Mabel and Yoko (who produce just lovely eggs). I think we need something we can give to Omelette directly that's a bit more concentrated. I feel another internet search coming on! She's laid another one like that again today.

At the weekend the girls got a new friend, this new friend was very happy to follow in their footsteps and gather all the leftovers and small bits of loveliness that they dug up and missed. Their new friend even came over to their house and hopped around a bit, it looked very funny actually as their new friend was a Robin! It was a little odd actually as the girls are normally a bit funny about birds in their space and when we had cherries on the floor they wouldn't let anything else near them!

Anyway, they have a nice treat and are out all day today and they will be again on Friday. They do believe it's their god given right now, they have forgotten completely that they only used to have a tiny bit of room which they used to share with four other chickens. Everyone should adopt a chicken or at least stop buying battery eggs.

Walk like a man

Hey there chicken fans

Updating you live from the garden - okay, well the house but I can see the garden!

I know that there has been a big gap in the lives of you all which I am now going to fill with Chickens!!!!! As an apology for this you will get an update picture of the three of them!

This summer we have been infiltrated by some MASSIVE spiders - they seem to be hiding in the drying washing for some reason, and when I say massive I mean HUGE! Now neither myself or the gorgeous one like spiders very much but I haven't been as brave as my lovely man as he has been catching them under glasses and bits of paper. This has made me big happy as they are too huge to just be left, this has also made the girls big happy as he has been feeding the spiders to them! They are big juicy spiders but they don't stand a chance against 3 hungry hens and they do love their bugs!

Not only are we keeping chickens in our garden, but I have been growing vegetables in pots at the bottom of the garden (protected from the chickens). I have been growing parsnips, beetroot, carrots and cucumbers. It's my first time growing anything and I was super excited when green shoots appeared in the tubs! Well, with a busy life, they maybe haven't had as much attention as they should have had and so the harvest has not been the greatest in the world. BUT, I have had carrots, admittedly very small carrots but carrots nonetheless. Well, when I was pulling them out of the tubs on Sunday, there were certain girls who were incredibly interested in what I was doing but when offered carrots fresh from the earth they pecked at them and then walked off. These chickens don't like carrots then. Do chickens like carrots usually?

Omelette, our comedy chicken, has started to do this move every now and again. It reminds me of Louis Spence doing one of his over the top dance moves. She stretches out her wing and the leg on the same side goes stretching out behind her and it just looks very funny and a little bit strange (well, that's Louis Spence for you isn't it?).

On Sunday we had a little (!) gathering to celebrate the girl child's (and mine) birthday so we had a few people over. The gorgeous one wanted to put music on in the kitchen and so he wanted to keep the door open, I kept telling him that he had to keep an eye on the girls then as they do think they should be allowed to go wherever they like (including the house). Well, he wasn't paying all that close attention and Mabel got in the kitchen and made it as far as the fridge! Now I don't mean she stopped when she got to the fridge for a snack, I mean she got that far before the gorgeous one stopped her!

They do like it when we have a lot of people over and they're not at all worried by anyone. I think they know that there will be crumbs or little bits of dropped foods so they're quite happy to hang about, wander round, socialise with everyone - it's lovely to see.

The girls are at various stages in growing back feathers and looking lovely, Mabel is ahead of them all, with a full plumage of lovely new feathers. Yoko is middling with some nice new feathers but still has straggly wings and Omelette, well she looks like she came from the Battery Farm yesterday! Bless her.

Anyway, sorry for the long drag between blogs, I'll try and keep you better informed next time, so until then I'll be clucking off now!!!!!

Steal my sunshine

Once again, I am a roving reporter, coming to you live (well kind of) from Berlin.

Have I told you that the chickens are stupid? Did I explain that they thought it was sensible to stand out in the rain? On Saturday it was nice for a bit in the morning so we let the girls out for a bit of a run around as they hadn't had much time out during the week (mostly due to the gorgeous one being out and about and partly due to the diabolical weather we've had since August hit). One minute it was sunny and the next it was raining, instead of taking shelter in their run or under their house our chickens think they can just stay out and what? Do they believe that they are the chicken exceptions and are the only ones that are water proof? Who knows? The gorgeous one made a bit of a shelter under the tree out of a cardboard box and two of them used that - guess which one didn't? It was very amusing later on to see her spreading herself out on the decking with her leg out and her wings wide to try and dry herself off in the sunshine (when it did make an appearance).

We also have moved their house and run to the other side of the garden and turned it round so that the door on the side (with the window in it) now faces the house (our house). We had to pick up the house (theirs not ours) and move it and I didn't quite have my fingers under it fully so when we were nearly in position my fingers slipped out from under it and it bashed me on the head - ouch! It also bashed the gorgeous one on the shoulder but I was more concerned with my head I must say. You can also now see that the girls are looking out of the window of the door when going to let them out in the morning!

The gorgeous one wanted to make sure I mentioned that he watched Yoko lay her egg on Saturday too. He was cleaning out their house (as he does at the weekend) and had taken it apart to give it a really good clean (again as he does at the weekend). The nesting boxes are not really accessible to the girls during this time as the perching area comes out and just leaves a gap. Luckily, the gorgeous one was outside and noticed that Yoko was getting a bit agitated so lifted her into the nesting boxes where she proceeded to settle down and lay and egg. He did show it to me and was very excited about just how fresh it was! He put a Y on it so we know it was Yoko's (aah).

He has also become obsessed with our fly trap. Whenever you have animals (and masses of poo) you get flies, obvious right? Well, the gorgeous one has found this fantastic fly trap which has kept the flies well away from the run (and they were getting to be a bit of a problem) by luring them into the trap and drowning them in this disgusting liquid. Anyone who has chickens should invest in one of these things although they are supposed to last 12 weeks and ours is nearly full after only two and a half. They also stink but that smell wasn't a patch on my cab driver this morning!!!!

I cant stand the rain

Another week, another business trip.

We had a turn in the weather this week with torrential rain on Tuesday, pretty much all day. Now, try as we might to tell the girls that they aren't waterproof, there's one of them who is either too stubborn or too stupid (you decide) to realise this and will stand out in the rain getting herself well and truly waterlogged. There are no prizes for guessing which one of the girls I'm talking about - I think we all know by now!

This then creates worry and concern for us because she's so waterlogged she cant get up the ramp to go into the bed area. We had been out for the evening and when the gorgeous one came and told me that Omelette wouldn't go in the house and I made him go back out in the dark and pick her up and forcibly put her in the house. Well she had to dry out somehow!

I left very early on Wednesday morning (another flight at stupid o'clock) but the gorgeous one was reporting to me regularly on how she was doing, which wasn't so good. She slid down the ramp in the morning when he opened the door but had a drink and pecked around at something to eat too, which he took as a good sign. When he let them out in the evening she was walking funny like her legs didn't want to work for her, but she does seem much better now - thank goodness.

The girls are out now pecking around in the garden, it's so much harder when the weather is bad to give them a good run out but the gorgeous one got up early this morning to let them out as he felt so guilty about them not being able to be out because of the rain (not exactly his fault is it?). They're going to have a good clean out today and he's going to treat them to some mealworms as they haven't had any of them for a while either. Spoiled chickens!

Laughter in the rain

Fear not chicken fans, Omelette is doing much better now. I was really worried about her for a while as on Tuesday night she actually took to her bed! She was the first in the house and that is not like her at all.

Luckily when the gorgeous one went to them on Wednesday morning she seemed much better and when I let them out yesterday morning (I had a dentist appt) she was back to her usual nutty self - PHEW!!!! I can tell you that the gorgeous one and I were not looking forward to a trip to the vets with her I can tell you, not only from a cost perspective! Putting them away again was a bit tricky as they don't like to be put to bed, rather to go to bed by themselves, when they feel like it. I managed to con Omelette and Yoko back into the house with some bread (give them food and they'll pretty much do whatever you want them to), but Mabel wasn't having any of it. In the end I had to con her with the mealworm tray and when she looked in to grab some juicy loveliness I grabbed her and put her back in the house, much to her dismay!

Today the girls had a bit of a panic when a helicopter flew overhead quite low and they ran for cover. Mabel ran in their house and Omelette and Yoko ran under the swing chair on the deck. It was quite funny, I'm not sure they knew what it was and I'm certain that they thought it was coming to get them! They also remained out while it was raining, I'll have to tell them (again) that they aren't waterproof and that they'll end up waterlogged if they're not careful!

Mabel still has the lump on her wattle so I'll have to do some investigative work on the internet and find out whether there is a reason for this to happen or whether it's something we need to be concerned about. It doesn't seem to be bothering her at all so we'll not worry just yet about it. I did notice that Omelette has a little bald patch on her back and I'm not sure how that's happened, have to keep an eye on that too. My word these girls are hard work!!!!

Every step you take, I'll be watching you

I'm a little worried about the girls.

Yesterday, Omelette was a little lethargic, she was sleeping a lot and generally being very quiet, every time I looked at her she had drawn her neck in and was sleeping where she stood. Then she went into the house for AGES, I checked on her a couple of times and she seemed okay, then when she left the house there was a HUGE egg. The gorgeous one said that it was quite often a sign of brewing a big egg but she was doing it later on last night too. The others weren't "hanging out" with her either and that's apparently not a good sign, perhaps she's sickening for something - I do hope not.

Mabel also has a swelling on her wattle, it looks like she's got a gob stopper in her mouth, but it doesn't seem to be bothering her, I hope it's something that will go away soon and that it's not contagious!

Add to that, the Charlie fox was back again this morning in next door's garden and that all adds up to a big old worry-fest. Sophie always get a little more nervy when the fox is around too (yes, even more nervy than usual) so it's upsetting everyone. I know how much some people hate them, I know that given half the chance they would eat all the girls, including Sophie and I know that there are some people that truly believe they are vermin, but I have to say that the fox next door is incredibly beautiful. He's just a young-un and has lovely red fur and black ears.

There was a very funny moment in the garden yesterday. I had been to the bottom of the garden, the girls were out and I walked slowly towards the house. I stopped by the decking and turned around to find that all three of the hens had followed me and were standing behind me, it's like we were playing that game, you know the one you play when you're little when someone stands facing the other way and you have to creep up on them and if they turn around and see you move you have to go back to the start. The gorgeous one says it's called "Peep around the Corner" but I don't remember calling it that when I was little!

Well I have to go now and we'll just have to keep an extra special eye on the girls (all four of them) and make sure they stay well and protected from Charlie fox.

Hold me in your arms

Hey there chicken fans! So sorry for the delay in blogging but I have been away on business and not seen the girls hardly at all!

I had Monday off and was home in the afternoon so I let the girls out in the garden and anyone would have thought that it was their first chance of freedom! Now they have had a taste of it, they always want to be outside! On Tuesday, the gorgeous one worked from home and so they had all day in the garden, the lucky things! I did see a sneaky red-head in next doors garden(no, not Chris Evans), but little Charlie fox was heading in the opposite direction. I wondered in fact whether urban foxes would know what chickens were? Is it instinctive? How does a fox know the difference between a chicken and a dog? That's not a joke by the way. I wonder how intelligent a fox is. I know they're supposed to be sly and cunning but how clever are they? Are they cleverer than chickens or do they just overpower them with their size?

Whilst watching Jimmy Doherty's programme on chickens the other week (yes, chicken books, then chicken programmes), which was excellent by the way and had a big thing about rescue hens (which of course our girls are)it showed how clever chickens are at alerting each other and avoiding danger from predators and how they knew the difference between a real fox and a stuffed one! Some students even trained some of them to recognise where food was behind some paper windows, which just shows you how clever the chickens are - they got students to do something rather than drink and spend the tax payers money in the SU Bar!

Our girls are looking so well now. Mabel has absolutely beautiful feathers now, round tipped (which shows how healthy a chicken is according to the gorgeous one) and lush. Her fluffy white legs have turned brown with the new feathers and she doesn't have a scrawny neck any more. Mabel is also okay to pick up and has been having a few cuddles with the gorgeous one (but don't tell him I told you right?).

Yoko has also grown all new feathers, although she's the easiest to tell from the others as she's still a good few shades lighter brown than the other two, she will also let you stroke her and is my garden shadow. Yesterday she did an impression of Omelette running up the garden with her wings out which was very funny! She's also okay for a cuddle, should you fancy one!

Omelette has grown new feathers but her wings are still a bit sparse, I guess those will improve with time. She's still the comedy chicken and keeps trying to get into small gaps, I guess she'll never learn! She's also very vocal and desperately wants into the house, trying to get past the barrier that we put up so we can have the patio door open but keep the girls in the garden and if you leave the kitchen door open she makes a bee line for it!

One of my chicken followers has arranged for some meal worms for the girls (thanks so much) which I'm sure will go down a treat, they go frantic for them! I think our follower should come and give them to the girls themselves, the girls don't mind visitors you know, perhaps I could charge and be like a petting zoo????

The weight of the wind

Omelette (the stupid) likes to try to squeeze herself between the brown garden waste bin and the house. The thing is she's a little too big to get all the way round it and so she goes halfway and realises she'll have to turn around again but can't because she's too big, so she always makes such a racket when she's trying to turn around again! Noisy, stupid chicken. It is quite funny watching her after she's done this actually as she always walks along the edge of the decking and 9 times out of 10 her right leg will slip down the gap between the decking and the fence. It looks like she's been drinking (you know when you slip off the kerb), perhaps she has? You'd think she'd learn after doing it once but I've seen her do it tons of times - oh well, it is Omelette we're talking about here. Today, she has also continued her obsession with the barbecue cover, but as it's on the barbecue right now, she was happy to get underneath it and sit herself on the shelf of the barbecue trolley.

Egg production is somewhat sporadic with a very strange egg arriving last week. The shell was very thin and looked like it was rumpled and had creases in it. The gorgeous one ate it and said it was very nice (as they all are), but I'm sure I read somewhere that it's a sign of the bird getting older (yes, all I read are chicken books) although we've not had one like it since - very odd. oh well, odd eggs from odd chickens....

I was going to be very hard hearted today and not let them out to distract me but I always crumble and feel sorry for them - they always give me such forlorn looks! So I told them they could come out as long as they'd laid some eggs for me and when I looked, there were two, so I couldn't really not let them out. It was very windy today but the girls didn't seem bothered and even seemed to stretch their necks out and stand taller in the breeze, letting the wind ruffle their feathers, I guess they've never felt the wind in their hair....

Watching you, watching me

I must apologise, dear readers for the delay in getting this update to you, but I have been away and then busy and I've really not had time to write about the girls recently.

So, quick update and I promise the next one will be longer.

The girls are now so used to being out in the garden during the day that they line up at the door as soon as you walk anywhere near their run. If you don't let them out, you get quite a few disgruntled clucks, it's enough to make you feel a bit guilty (if you were that way inclined). If you don't want to let them out but need to get into the run (to change their water or food), you have to block the whole of the entrance with your body to prevent them from escaping and sometimes that doesn't work and they slip out through the smallest of spaces! They're getting canny, those girls of ours.

The girl child is convinced that they watch her when she eats her breakfast and thinks this is extremely funny, although both the boy child and the girl child felt really bad when we were eating chicken for our dinner on Saturday in the garden while the girls pecked around our feet, eating peas that had been dropped!

When they're not trying to get out, they're trying to get in! The gorgeous one was in the front room helping the girl child with her homework on Sunday when I walked into the kitchen to find Omelette also in the kitchen at the cat's dinner bowl, helping herself to Sophie's food as "someone" had left the back door open. Of course, that's an invitation to Omelette!

The girls continue to look healthier as each days passes, Omelette's comb is a darker shade of red now and is standing up more, Yoko has loads of new feathers down her front and we're going to have to watch Mabel with the rate she's growing new feathers to make sure she doesn't try and fly!

The gorgeous one has a new name for the girls, which is all around what they do all day but is not suitable to be written here, so if you really want to know, mail me and I'll tell you....

Cool for cats

Only one egg yesterday - a lovely big Mabel egg. The other two are destined for the pot - only joking, you can't eat layers....

On Saturday both Yoko and Omelette laid very late, so late Omelette wouldn't let Yoko go to bed, so you can see how late it was! I guess this could have something to do with the lack of eggs yesterday as they were all out of kilter.

Speaking of yesterday, the gorgeous one and I decided that as it was such a lovely day we'd have a barbecue and went off to get a lovely bit of steak and some corn on the cob. The gorgeous one barbied, while I ironed and the girls continued to destroy my garden. Whilst we were sitting down to eat said lovely barbecue, we heard a great ruckus in the garden on the decking. The gorgeous one got up to find that Omelette had gotten inside the barbecue cover and was laying down inside it - that is one strange chicken, needless to say she was evicted immediately.

I decided to work from home today as I had lots to do and thought it would be better to stay home and just get on with it. I wasn't going to let the girls out today as I find them a bit of a distraction but I felt mean keeping them in on such a lovely day while I'm here, so I buckled and let them out. I'm so soft.

Omelette was pecking around in the garden this morning and it looked like she was choking so I rushed out to see what was wrong and make sure she was okay. When I got to her, I saw she wasn't choking, she was eating a massive slug. It was quite disgusting, but she seemed to enjoy it - EW!!!! Yoko also made me laugh this afternoon, a magpie landed in the garden and Yoko walked to wards it to investigate what it was while the magpie looked on a little bit confused as to what this was walking towards it. Yoko kept walking and the magpie walked away, in the end it looked like Yoko was stalking it around the garden until it got worried that Yoko was getting a little too close and it flew off, much to Yoko's disappointment!

Sophie is happy to stay in and sleep on the windowsill all day - using the chickens as an excuse not to have to get up and go out. It's a cat's life eh?

3 is the magic number

As I write this morning, Mabel is sitting in her nesting box giving us a nice fresh egg! I know she's laying because she does have a tendency to announce it to the world. She does make some funny noises but then when you think about what she's trying to do, I suppose she's allowed to!

Let me give you the most exciting update of all.... Yesterday, we had 3, yes 3, eggs! Last night the gorgeous one was away for the night so I was the first one home. I went to let the girls out for a bit (to curry favour, you know) and on opening their nesting box I found an egg in each box and one in the perching area! How fabulous! We were a little worried that one of them wasn't laying at all and maybe we'd have to take trip to the vets, so that's a relief for us and our bank balance! I wonder if chickens can be covered by pet insurance?!?

This morning, as the gorgeous one is not here, I was on poo duty. I got up and let them out of their house (but not out of their run) and went back to bed and I don't have to be in the office today. I got up about half an hour later and went to do my "poo duty". I must say that it isn't a great job to do and the quickest way to get the poo out of their beds is not the most pleasant! BUT, I did it and with no complaints - that bit above was an explanation rather than a complaint. So they have two fresh beds, which Mabel left a lovely big egg in and then vacated to be replaced by Omelette (don't worry I removed the egg first), fresh food, water and a run that isn't full of poo - that is until I need to go out later for my meeting! I wonder if we'll get three eggs today and if I can capture each one after their laid so we know whose are whose....

Oh and I just wanted to plug another blogger, who is also a very enjoyable read...
www.worldcupmadefun.blogspot.com - check it out!

Cat among the Pigeons (or in this case chickens and not really among, more like anywhere but)

I'm not very popular today. The girls haven't been allowed out of their run today and I keep getting pleading looks from them. Now before you go complaining that I should let them out there are a couple of reasons why I haven't.

1. My Fraidy Cat
Sophie is very scared of the chickens, if she comes back from being out on the town and they are out in the garden, she won't come in. She'll just sit the other side of the fence meowing pitifully - a noise that I cannot bear to hear from her! So I am trying to encourage her to be a bit braver and have got her halfway down the garden (we played with some grass) until the girls made a noise and then she ran off again. She has woken me up in the middle of the night for the past two nights meowing at me so I am determined that she's not going to be in sleeping all day (therefore up all night), hence why she needs to be able to go out in her garden.

2. Yesterday I was sick. Proper sick. Sick where I couldn't even keep water down. I came home from work early and let the girls out and laid on the sofa waiting for death (I was really sick - honest). I heard the scraping and scrabbling about in the gravel and went out to find that they'd dug up all the gravel right down to the membrane underneath (to stop the weeds) and then they were trying to get the membrane up to get to the earth underneath. Of course, when one started to do it, they all had to have a go so there were several ditches in the border and I could have done without have to tell them off and put them away as punishment.

Last night, Yoko had gone to bed by 8pm as usual and Mabel put herself to bed at around 9 or so, Omelette was last up (again) and just before we were off to bed she made another bid to get in the house, this time attempting to fly in, except her wings are clipped and she can't fly, so she attempted to flap her way in, which of course doesn't work! Stupid chicken.

Anyway, the eggs seem to be coming well, two yesterday and two again today, one really big one and one smaller one, both laid before 10am! I think these girls are morning layers but still only two between the three of them - not sure who's not laying but that doesn't matter, we enjoy having them (well the gorgeous one doesn't enjoy his poo duties) and would keep them if they never laid another egg.

We care a lot

More Eggs! Two on Thursday and two Friday. Only one so far today but I don't think anyone has checked for a good long while. Perhaps it's because I went away for a couple of nights or perhaps it's because they have settled in a bit more now and are getting used to be out and about in the garden more often. It's not like I can ask them is it? Well, I could but I'm not sure I'd get an answer and people already think I'm strange so if they think I talk to the chickens my sanity rating might be shot all together (okay, don't tell ANYONE, but I do talk to them a bit).

The gorgeous one and the boy child went off this morning and bought some mealworms for the girls and they LOVE them. Apparently, when they first tasted them they went into a bit of a frenzy, think cats and catnip! Luckily, there were still some for me to give them later on today and I can tell you that they are very, very keen on them. The girl child fed them some mealworms too but was a little nervous and they ended up having to jump as she wasn't holding them low enough for them but she got the hang of it in the end. The girls do get a bit over excited and tend to not care so much which are fingers and which are worms!

The girls are all sprouting lovely new plumage although Omelette is still very bald on her neck, but she has these lovely fluffy light brown feathers on her legs, it's lovely and heartwarming to see them look so much healthier than four weeks ago when they arrived with us. You can see that they are ex battery chickens though as their beaks are blunt where they burn them down to stop them from hurting each other when they are in such small cages. It makes me very angry. I also get angry when I walk round Tesco and see people with battery eggs, these clearly say "from caged hens", what do people think? That these cages might be a bit bigger or do people just not care enough? Maybe I care too much? The gorgeous one is the same...

They are in a little routine as well now. Yoko is an early to bed girl, she likes to be tucked up by about 8pm in one of the nesting boxes. Mabel and Omelette then stay out and wander about until about 9 or so and then Mabel will turn in next, leaving Omelette without a nesting box to sleep in. She has a tendency to go in and stare at the other two and then snuggle in with one of the other two. The gorgeous one read on a web site somewhere that it's very common for ex-bats to sleep snuggled up together and not to perch on their perches.

Sophie is still not happy about the girls, she seems to try to come back and then spies them and panics. Hopefully she'll learn to ignore them. Bless her she's such a sensitive soul, I need to try to explain to her that we had to rescue the girls like we had to rescue her, perhaps when I explain that they should have a kinship as rescue animals, she'll be less afeared. Ah, yes you've caught me out there, I have to admit that yes, I do talk to my cat, but if you have a cat you'll understand! And if you haven't, go rescue one!

Dig

Another day for the girls to be free ranging, another day to have a garden covered in poo. We're going to build a little fence to block in the decking so that we don't have to hose the decking down every time the girls come out and also so I can have the door open in the summer without having to guard it from them coming in the house. I wonder how long it will take the gorgeous one to get round to that!?!

Omelette was again proving that she is the source of all amusement of the three of them - picture the scene....

A quiet suburban garden, three happy chickens wandering around pecking at the ground, occasionally clucking to each other, a little blackbird flies into the garden with a cherry from the tree and starts to eat it. Omelette spies this bird, notices that it is eating something and runs full pelt, ET waddle and all, she chases the bird round the garden until it flies away.

All the girls like to run though, it's as if one of them remembers they have the space to do it, they go ahead and run down the garden and then they all want to do it.

I had a moment of panic earlier, I could only see two chickens - where on earth was the other one? A quick search revealed Mabel hiding behind the shed, where there seems to be a few empty snail shells - perhaps Mabel is a French Hen!?!

This afternoon we had a bid for freedom - or so it seemed... I heard some strange noises from outside and looked out of the window to see Yoko had made herself a little nest in the gravel near the decking, aah, I thought, how cute. The she started to scratch around a bit, still quite cute, then she started to dig. Away came the gravel, down to dirt (and dirt is hard to find in my garden I can tell you), the unwanted gravel was hoiked onto the decking to join the piles of poo, followed by a whole load of dirt. The other two were stood nearby acting as look-outs (or so it seemed), until Yoko stopped - yay! - only to let Omelette have a go - boo!

Should I be saying goodbye to my nice garden?

Hippy Chicks

The girls are really coming into their personalities now and they are very different.

Mabel - Mabel is the more demure of the three girls. When feeding them some corn yesterday, the gorgeous one had to take her off and feed her separately because she isn't as forthcoming as the other two. I still think she's "special".

Omelette - She's the funny one. She's the one who runs up the garden and will chase the gorgeous one around the garden. She's also the one who doesn't normally get a nesting box at night (not that they are supposed to sleep in their nesting boxes, but try telling chickens that).

Yoko - I'm afraid that she is the bully. She'll push the other two out of the way to get to the food and will peck them to keep them away from the food. Yesterday we had to take her away from the food to let Mabel and Omelette have some!

The gorgeous one picked her up and brought her over to where we were sat and held her on his lap for a bit. She looked at him very strangely but didn't seem too fussed to be on his lap. I did give her some corn and it was very funny because I was sat and she was literally jumping up to take the corn from my hands! Chickens jumping is a very amusing thing to see.

I've got up and let them out of their run this morning and they are all in their run still. The gorgeous one is going to clean them out now, maybe this will help with our lack of eggs - oo he's just got an egg! We bought them some special tonic yesterday that is supposed to stimulate egg production, Cider Apple Vinegar it's made of. Thing is, on the label for the tonic it doesn't tell you how to use it - a bit daft eh? Anyway, I went on tinternet and found several sites and one that explained how to dilute it with their drinking water. Perhaps it's started to do it's job already?

We also looked at buying them some mealworms and have discovered (again on tinternet)that chickens really like them and they are very nutritious for them, next purchase now for them I think. There's a lot of very helpful information on tinternet, including how to grow your own mealworms (I don't think I'll be going quite that far!), keeping chickens seems to be a good hobby for a lot of people. We have also got several books - "Chickens as pets", "you and your chickens", "hens in the garden - poo on the decking".

The girls are also growing back the feathers that they lost when they were battery hens, both Mabel and Yoko have these soft, downy, fluffy white feathers coming through, Yokos are on her neck and Mabel looks like she's changing colour completely as the new feathers on her legs are white!

Aside from all the poo, they really are very rewarding, I could watch them all day and the gorgeous one has never been so happy with a Christmas present as he is with these girls! I hope he doesn't think that means he has a chance for a goat...

The Chase is better than the Catch

We have a new game at Casa del Chicken, it's called Chicken Chase. Now before you go grabbing the phone and dialling the RSPCA for cruelty to chickens - it's not what you think....!

On Monday, the chickens were out all day and I thought I'd give them some bread as a treat (yeah, I know, super generous aren't I?). As soon as I walked out to them, they all came over to see what I had for them (so presumptuous). Yoko wanted whatever I had in my hand, despite there being tons of crumbs on the floor, she would just take what I had in my hand and drop it on the floor ready to take the next bit and peck any of the other two who tried to take bread from me! Mabel wanted to peck my toes instead of eat the bread (bless, I think she may be the "special" one) and Omelette just hoovered up whatever Yoko was dropping on the floor!

Anyway, I started to feel a bit crowded by the three of them so I went to walk off towards the back of the garden and they all followed me, so I walked a bit faster - and so did they! When the gorgeous one came in from work, I told him to go into the garden, say hello to the girls and then run up the garden, which he did and the chickens chased him, so he ran around the garden for a bit with 3 chickens running after him. I'm not sure who enjoyed themselves more, the chickens chasing him, or him being chased by his "girls"! It's actually very comical to see Omelette running up the garden with her wings out. Remember the scene from ET where ET runs and he kind of does that side to side waddle type running thing? Well, that's what Omelette looked like, I'll try and capture it in a photograph at some point to show you.

In other news, the girls seem to be slowing up on their egg production at the minute. The gorgeous one says he's looked it up and it can be caused by a change in their diet - well on Saturday they ate corn, bread, my homegrown lettuce, grass and anything that had fallen from peoples plates! Back to only crumb for the girls now I'm afraid, I've only had two eggs - the gorgeous one keeps giving them away!

And finally....
Is there a market for chicken poo? We seem to have an awful lot of it....

I always feel like somebody's watching me....

Oh, yeah they are - 3 chickens, staring at me through the patio doors. Lined up like some sort of chicken mafia.

Freedom

This Saturday was not only important because of the football you know, the girls had a very important day as well. Their first day of being allowed out, free to roam around the garden. Firstly, the gorgeous one and I had to clip their wings (well one wing anyway). He put a chair by the coop and explained to me where I needed to cut - ah, I was the one doing the cutting was I? Mabel first. She's a very placid chicken really and let the gorgeous one pick her up and allowed me to clip her wing with hardly a cluck. Yoko next and a few clucks but not too much difficulty either. Omelette however, wanted everyone to know how upset she was and clucked and fought not to be picked up, but we got to her eventually as well.

The three of them stayed by the coop initially but after a while got more adventurous and started to explore the whole garden.

The gorgeous one had decided to give their coop a good clean out as they are 3 poo machines really and their house was full of poo. So he disassembled their perch area and took all the straw out of their nesting boxes in order to clean and air it. Whilst it was airing Mabel decided that she wanted to go and use the nesting box to give us a lovely egg, but she was most upset to find that there was no straw or even a route to get to the box. The boy child and I suggested that the gorgeous one put the coop back together and give Mabel some straw, which he did and as soon as it was done, Mabel was in it and after much squawking and shouting, she gave us a lovely fresh egg, which was the first one I found since we had the girls!

We had a barbecue with friends and family over and had quite a houseful really with children and screaming and shouting, even before the football started. The girls coped beautifully. We had corn on the cob on the barbecue and after we had finished, we gave our leftovers to the girls who liked it a lot, even taking it from our hands. They were on the decking when it was full of people and Omelette even ventured into the house, quickly shooed out by yours truly as there will not be chicken poo in my house, thank you very much!

So, whilst not a very successful day for England, a very successful day for 3 now free range chickens.

Girls, girls, girls!

Today, I am blogging from Germany, so the news I'm getting is second hand, think about a news company that has a reporter on site, well that's me and the girls today.

On Tuesday night, the girls looked like they had put themselves to bed (which is incredibly cute) so I went to shut them in for the night and Omelette decided that she didn't want to go to bed so when I went to shut the door, she dashed out into the run, clucking at me, so I left her to it, 5 minutes later she'd gone up to bed! Typical! Mabel and Yoko were sharing a nesting box that night - aah!

I got up extra early yesterday to catch a flight so I went down and let them out into their run, I checked for eggs and unfortunately there were none, lots and lots of poo but no eggs. I must explain that the girls don't seem to realise that they are not actually supposed to sleep in their nesting boxes, only lay eggs in them. They don't want to sleep standing up - and who can blame them?

The gorgeous one has run out of wood shavings which are used to put in the bottom of their perch area and he has been putting in the run as well. He had a grand idea that he would put straw in the perch area and that would make for another nesting type area for them. When he arrived home last night the girls had decided that it was a rubbish idea and had taken all of the straw in the perch area and pushed it into the run! You can't tell these girls what to do!

They seem to have slowed down to one egg a day now, not that we could have managed to eat 3 eggs a day anyway!

I haven't even had one of our eggs yet - roll on Saturday and poached eggs on toast!

Introductions

BONG!

Three battery hens, rehomed in suburban town giving them new lease of life.

BONG!

New family decide to call them, Mabel, Yoko and Omelette.

BONG!

Some bright spark suggests I write a blog about them.

BONG!

Many suggestions for blog name, causes much amusement for lots of people that have too much time on their hands.

BONG!

Name decided and blog created and this is it.