Da doo run, run, run, da doo run, run

The girls new run.

Girls on Film

We're worried about Omelette again. Over the weekend she seems to have lost her spark and is just standing around with her head pulled in and her eyes shut. When I went out earlier to check for eggs, Mabel followed me and even Yoko was quite quick on my heels, but Omelette stood on the decking, looked, saw I didn't have anything of interest and shut her eyes again. I know she's done this before and pulled herself back together again but it is still worrying. Every now and again she'll wander around and peck at a few things, she even chased a Robin away from her food a moment ago but she's not her usual self. There's been no honking, or general stupidness for a few days and that's just not like her.

We also have had a real depletion on the egg production front, moving from 3 eggs nearly every day, to one egg a day and over the weekend we didn't get any at all! No more egg gifts for people now, sorry about that for anyone who was eggspecting any!!! (I am genuinely sorry about that).

They seem to like the extra room they have in their run now, although obviously they like being out in the garden more, I'll post a picture soon to show you the bigger run, although you can also see how different the middle section is to the other piece, stupid chicken house company! (see previous blogs for rant about them), the craftmanship on it is also pretty poor.

Mabel was on telly yesterday, well, on the computer when we skyped with the bessie in Ohio. They think she's beautiful, well she is actually, as chickens go. She didn't seem to mind being on camera and I haven't seen her lording it over the other two now she's famous so that's good. It was also quite funny to watch the gorgeous one try to catch Yoko so she could be on the telly too, but she was having none of it, obviously camera shy.

Mabel just came to investigate a Starling who was collecting leaves and twigs from the garden and is now scouting around where it was to make sure that all the good stuff was left for her! Not sure where Yoko is, maybe she's going to lay us a nice egg, rather than the jelly one we had the other week. It was really strange, like an egg bubble a bit like I imagine breast implants to look (only the breast implants would be bigger as putting an egg sized implant in would be a bit of waste of time right?). I also think that Yoko has been either sitting, treading or laying on her soft shelled eggs. The other day she had loads of straw on her front and when I went to pull it off I couldn't because it was stuck solid with egg!

I see Yoko now and I'll go egg hunting in a minute to see if she's managed to lay a proper egg, I'm going to sign off here now chicken watchers, honk soon.

Our House

Today, we added the extension of the run for the girls, it has nearly doubled the size of their run and the gorgeous one is very pleased with himself! We had to cobble it together a little bit because of the stupid company that sold it to us sold us the wrong bit (I waited for it to be delivered for 6 months and in that time they changed the specs of the house we bought and so, in turn the run extension. Then they wouldn't change it because I should have known that when I placed my order). the laughable thing was that the company are called "Feel Good", well I certainly didn't!

Anyhoo, we now have a new run, which the girls are trying out now, I think they are liking having so much more space and it does make us feel less guilty if we can't let them out in the garden because we're not in (or it's raining).

We are going to fence off some of the garden for the girls, for a couple of reasons really;
a) They are DESTROYING my garden. I love the girls, you know that, right readers? but I want to have a nice garden where the gravelly bits are full of gravel, not holes where they have decided it would be a good place to tunnel under the fence.
b) They are complete poo machines! I want to be able to go out on the deck without having to watch where I tread for fear of landing in a huge pile of chicken turd, which also stinks.
c) I have a cat on the equivalent of Prozac who has lost her garden too. Now, she was here first so it's a bit unfair really that they have commandeered her garden so hopefully this will mean she will go out there again.
d) I want to be able to have the door open in the summer without having to shoo out chickens, or make a child gate out of a chair (and we couldn't do that now anyway as we have new chairs!)
e) I want to grow veggies, the chickens will want to either eat them or scratch around where they are growing, I know they will!

They will still have a big amount of space to roam around, it'll just be away from the house end of the garden.

I was digging up the ivy at the back of the garden for most of the day and the girls were helping me out. Well, when I say helping me out, they were helping me clear the area of worms and other bugs that came to the surface when I was digging. Mabel ate the biggest spider I have seen in ages, so she became my hero for a little while. I made sure that Yoko got a few extra worms to try to encourage her new feather growth a bit. She has loads of the white fluffy feathers so I'm hoping she might stop looking so scruffy! Don't tell the gorgeous one that you think she looks scruffy though, he gets very protective!

I hear you knocking...

Another delay in writing due to my busy travel schedule for which I do apologise chicken fans...

The girls have been a bit naughty recently and have been eating an egg a day, we weren't sure which chicken was the bad one until the gorgeous one caught Mabel and Omelette in the act this morning! It has meant that we have only had one egg for the last few days but today we have had two whole ones and one partially eaten one. so at least they have all laid today and I can stop threatening them with the pot for one day at least.

I do wish they'd stop knocking at the cat flap as well, it does worry my already super-stressy cat and no matter how many times they knock, I'm not going to let them in!

Omelette has, once more, re-ignited her love for the barbecue and specifically the shelf underneath the cover, she surprised Mabel the other day by appearing from under the cover (I don't think Mabel realised she was there). Perhaps it was all on purpose and the chicken version of SURPRISE!, or maybe it was hide and seek? Who knows how these chickens amuse themselves (actually I do, they amuse themselves by destroying my nice garden)?!?

Speaking of which, Yoko has been digging a nice big hole in the gravel and discovering that it is REALLY dirty underneath the gravel and so she is now filthy. They all have dirty feet but she has dirty feet, a dirty beak. a dirty belly and dirty wings(see picture above). I'd bath her but as you know readers, chickens aren't waterproof are they? Don't ask the girls that cos they think they are...

Living in a Box

Yesterday we had some new furniture delivered, it came in massive great big cardboard boxes with polystyrene inserts to protect my lovely new table and chairs. Once the furniture was out of the boxes, the gorgeous one put the boxes in the garden until the weekend when we could get rid of them. Well, guess which 3 stupid chickens think that cardboard boxes and polystyrene would be a great addition to their crumb diet?

we have had to put the boxes on top of the garden swing chair and some on top of the table to get it off the floor because despite telling them that it wasn't good for them, they didn't listen (do they ever?) and decided to peck through the cardboard anyway. Now we have moved them out of harms (or chickens) way, the girls look completely lost, like a kid that's had its new toy taken away from it! I did try to tell them that it's for their own good but they're just looking at me as if I'm a complete killjoy.

On another note, two eggs today, both a little bit odd looking. One with a very pointy end and one with a very, very creased shell. The one with the pointy end, I picked up this morning from the perching (!) area, it was just by the door out to the run and was there as if it just plopped out when one of them was on their way out!

Due to the rain yesterday, the ground has been quite damp so on venturing out this morning, Omelette found a great big worm which she ran off with to scoff by herself which she had done by the time the other two realised that she had something interesting. Greedy guts.

Red Alert

The house is on full on red alert today. Yesterday, the gorgeous one worked from home and saw an enormous fox sunning himself in next door's garden. He was just laying there grooming himself with our girls running around in the garden not more than 10 feet from him. He did run away when the gorgeous one knocked on the window and gave him a Paddington Bear hard stare... well who wouldn't?

Today I have had two lovely eggs from Yoko and Mabel, I know it was them as I was trying to clean out the house and both of them made me leave them alone for some "private" time and when I went back, lovely warm eggs from them. Normal shape, normal size, nice colour, lovely shells. Definitely Omelette that lays the stupid ones.

Omelette and I had a cuddle earlier - I know! She normally runs a mile before you can get anywhere near her but I snuck up behind her and picked her up for a lovely stroke and cuddle. I do think I enjoyed it much more than she did!

I have also been out and taken some video of the girls in the garden, we played a little game of chase, which Yoko didn't quite have the hang of and we looked for eggs. Unfortunately, I forgot to turn the video off so there is a bit at the end where I am walking back to the house and talking to them, this is how I talk to them when I think no-one is listening. Sorry if the end makes you feel a bit sea sick I didn't know how to edit this bit out....

Happy chicken watching x

Tiny Alien

Just a quick one today chicken fans, wanted to make sure I posted the egg pictures as promised, the egg on the right is the normal size...