Aah, today, the chickens mate, the robin, brought his mate round to see them. We now have a pair of robins who are totally into the girls, perhaps for the lovely sharing of food more than for the stimulating company though. It seems like they are quite friendly and one even sat on the shed door whilst the gorgeous one was cleaning out the girls house. They don't seem too afraid which is nice and have stayed quite close to the food source!
The girls are getting a good clean out today (as usual for the weekend) and we went and got them a special treat of their particular favourites - mealworms. I was feeding them to them and trying to make sure that they all got an equal share of them but Mabel and Omelette seemed to think that my fingers were also mealworms. All I can say to that is OUCH!!! Yoko walked off with hers and was clucking rather loudly, almost like she was talking to it before she ate it.
We've been going through a 3 egg phase recently, not everyday we get three, but on a few occasions recently we've had one egg per chicken, which is nice. Although the gorgeous one has discovered that one of the girls is laying their egg in the perching area of the nesting box and then burying them underneath the straw. Luckily today the egg was found but the other day the gorgeous one put his trowel (that he uses to pick up the poo) straight through it as it buried so well. Today is a 3 egg day. The eggs were very cold as the temperature seems to have dropped somewhat in the last couple of days so we have made them some warm porridge from their crumb, some of the mineral to help them produce strong shells and a few porridge oats on the top. Pour in hot water and there you have it a lovely warm treat for them. I think it absolutely stinks and looks like mud, but the girls seem to enjoy it, so no accounting for taste is there?
We did have another weird egg the other day, which I did take pictures of and will post them to the blog shortly. We think that somehow a Quail got in and laid an egg in their nest....
Saturday 29 January 2011
Sunday 9 January 2011
Let 'em in
Happy New Year chicken fans!
Now the snow is gone the chickens are once again enjoying (destroying) the garden, although after all the rain we've had they're wading around a little at the minute! On Thursday I worked from home and it rained like mad all day, we had let them out in the garden when it wasn't raining too hard and the girls were enjoying being out and about but then even when the rain started to pour they still thought they could wander around as usual - d'oh. Eventually we had to shut them in their run as they were all saturated. How many times do I have to tell them that they are NOT waterproof!?!
Omelette is absolutely lovely looking now (and is huge!)but has sprouted white feathers on her head making her very distinctive looking! She is also concerning the gorgeous one as her comb has gone a bit pale which can mean they are under the weather, but it can also mean that they are a bit broody. It will be interesting if she is broody because she's not laying proper eggs so I'm not sure how she would try and hatch and egg with a hole in it or an egg with a jelly shell!
Yoko is now the scruffy one, but has got new feather growth on her wings, lovely white fluffyness coming through under her other feathers. She seemed to be getting a bit bullied by the other two and she was wandering around by herself a lot when the other two went off together. However, now she seems to be back in the fold, I hope they're not picking on her because she's not as pretty as the others.
Mabel continues to be the mother hen, laying lovely eggs and looking like the beautiful Warren chicken she was born to be! She is the one who sleeps by herself now in the nesting box while the other two sleep together in the perching (ha) area.
Anyway, bessie mate (OH) suggested that I upload some video of them doing stupid things (normal day then) so I'll work on that and get some uploaded as soon as I can. We Skyped yesterday and she got to see them all lined up against the patio doors, it's common picture these days, they even knock on the windows!
A few nights ago the gorgeous one and I were sitting in the dining room and it was all dark. We'd let the girls put themselves to bed as usual when we heard a tapping at the window. One of the girls had come and was banging at us - funny, we thought. As they all should have been in bed, the gorgeous one went to check on them and to shut them in for the night. When he got to the house he saw a chicken under the house so we went to pick her up and put her in the house. That's when he realised that it wasn't just one chicken, it was three and where he'd cleaned out the girls earlier that day he'd shut their house up and not opened it again! I think that one of the girls came to say "Oi! You've shut us out!".
Now the snow is gone the chickens are once again enjoying (destroying) the garden, although after all the rain we've had they're wading around a little at the minute! On Thursday I worked from home and it rained like mad all day, we had let them out in the garden when it wasn't raining too hard and the girls were enjoying being out and about but then even when the rain started to pour they still thought they could wander around as usual - d'oh. Eventually we had to shut them in their run as they were all saturated. How many times do I have to tell them that they are NOT waterproof!?!
Omelette is absolutely lovely looking now (and is huge!)but has sprouted white feathers on her head making her very distinctive looking! She is also concerning the gorgeous one as her comb has gone a bit pale which can mean they are under the weather, but it can also mean that they are a bit broody. It will be interesting if she is broody because she's not laying proper eggs so I'm not sure how she would try and hatch and egg with a hole in it or an egg with a jelly shell!
Yoko is now the scruffy one, but has got new feather growth on her wings, lovely white fluffyness coming through under her other feathers. She seemed to be getting a bit bullied by the other two and she was wandering around by herself a lot when the other two went off together. However, now she seems to be back in the fold, I hope they're not picking on her because she's not as pretty as the others.
Mabel continues to be the mother hen, laying lovely eggs and looking like the beautiful Warren chicken she was born to be! She is the one who sleeps by herself now in the nesting box while the other two sleep together in the perching (ha) area.
Anyway, bessie mate (OH) suggested that I upload some video of them doing stupid things (normal day then) so I'll work on that and get some uploaded as soon as I can. We Skyped yesterday and she got to see them all lined up against the patio doors, it's common picture these days, they even knock on the windows!
A few nights ago the gorgeous one and I were sitting in the dining room and it was all dark. We'd let the girls put themselves to bed as usual when we heard a tapping at the window. One of the girls had come and was banging at us - funny, we thought. As they all should have been in bed, the gorgeous one went to check on them and to shut them in for the night. When he got to the house he saw a chicken under the house so we went to pick her up and put her in the house. That's when he realised that it wasn't just one chicken, it was three and where he'd cleaned out the girls earlier that day he'd shut their house up and not opened it again! I think that one of the girls came to say "Oi! You've shut us out!".
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