A very productive Sunday

Another beautiful if cold day here, have so far managed to achieve all I have tried to do , without it going wrong, blow up, die, try to kill me or in some other way injure me...or just plain not work.

So a HUGE improvement on yesterday!

Have cleared a flower bed of all the old seed heads and dead stuff ( now all eaten by birds) the new growth coming means I need to clear away the dead stuff, finally. Rather sadly I found the remains of Henny and Ginger hens whilst doing so, :-(

I moved 2 hen runs and dug out the droppings, trodden down chippings etc, composted them , put back the runs and laid down new chippings for the feathery ladies.

I managed to re capture the wild Legbar pullets and put them inside the ( newly cleaned out and freshly spruced up) Eglu house and run. They seemed pleased and relieved to be back inside, to be honest!

I dug out 3 compost bins full of compost and composted bark chippings, ready to put in the soon-to-be-made raised beds on the veg patch.  I am going to try a strip with raised beds and see if I get a better yield from them than the bare soil beds next door, by growing the same crops in the raised bed and in the flat bed.

Did 4 loads of washing, and got 2 loads dry OUTSIDE!!! oh deep joy! I have been drying washing on the kitchen dolly and it is NOT the same as air dried stuff...

Also have measured up the area where the Mega Hen Pen is going to go, and discussed what I want with Compostman, and what materials we wil need to order for him to make it.

Have eaten various meals, tidied up, sorted out some fabric for a quilt, have looked at my soap making supplies longingly but decided I have no time at the moment! Ditto making any creams or balms. I will just have to make some time some other day!
I have lots of work coming up which I need to plan and prepare for, also the next phase of the Teacher training starts on the 22 Feb (eek!)

Wish I did not need so much sleep...if I only needed 4 hours a night I could get SO MUCH done...but sadly I need around 8 hours on a "Normal" day and often more after I have had a busy few days....the revenge/legacy of the CFS/ME I suffered for so very many years....

Am going to go and sit down and watch "Being Human" in a bit.

Sad news about Ginger

This is a hard post for me to write.

When Compostman went to let out the chickens this morning he found Ginger dead inside the Broody Ark, where she had been recouperating in isolation since the fox attack.

Yesterday she spent her second day outside with all the other chickens, running around, scratching around in the soil and generally being a normal hen. She still hadn't laid an egg since the fox attack, but she didn't look egg bound and shock can often stop a hen laying for some time. Also the hot weather has put a couple of the other girls off lay, so we were not worried about Ginger not laying. She looked absolutely fine when I shut her in at 9pm and at midnight Compostman checked on her and she crooned at him from her nest box.

Ginger wasn't injured in any way when he found her this morning, she looked as if she might have had a brief struggle (the bedding was churned up) but apart from that she had ..just...died. So we assume that perhaps she died of heart failure, possibly bought on by another egg in the process of developing, getting stuck overnight. Or, maybe, she just, died.

Ginger and Henny were the first 2 hens I got when I started keeping chickens again two and a half years ago, Compostman bought me an Eglu and Henny and Ginger as a birthday present.



We were all always very fond of Ginger, she was very clever and always keen to come and join in with what we were doing. She also seemed very bright for a chicken and would lead us over to gates she wanted opened...and she had a trick where she would jump up to get food from your hand.



Ginger the amazing jumping chicken! Her feet are around 2 foot off the ground in this photo.

Ginger spent yesterday re asserting her "top hen" status by getting first dibs at any tasty morsel of food and by re-enacting a "coldiz" style raid on the veg garden. She dug a tunnel under the wire and got inside the veg garden then encouraged some of the others through, to wreak a bit of havoc in there....





I tried to take a few pictures of her during the afternoon to show you all she was back in action, but she was too busy to pose for me.



SO, all very sad here and we buried Ginger on the edge of the wood today, near one of her favourite scratching spots.

RIP Ginger Hen, you will be much missed by all of us here at Compost Mansions.

Chickenailia Feb 2009

It is that time again! February has whizzed by in a having-a-rest-from-writing-my-portfolio and planting seeds and stuff but I DO have the egg and general behaviour report for all things chicken related here at Compost Mansions ;-)

February sees the day lengthening noticeably and thus egg laying really starts to improve. The girls all look happy and pleased to be able to eat some bugs and worms and are very happy that nasty cold white stuff has all gone!





I have had a good lot of eggs from all the girls and of course the BIG story this month was the Fab Four Dorking girls all started laying!



Henny laid 21 eggs in January, she lays the biggest eggs! 90 - 100 g dark brown speckled whoppers!

Ginger has laid well this month, 22 eggs and she has done lots of funny things as well! I have worked out that Henny and Ginger are now 2 years old, so they are doing very well for us.

Attila laid 18 eggs BUT is in disgrace for trying to eat the eggs from the Dorkings whenever she can steal them from the Eglu...I am going to have to have a good hard think about her I am afraid as I can't have that happening.

Cathy has laid no eggs at all but is a sweetie and very gentle and loving.

Sweetiepie was a joint star of the month in January and has continued this, laying 23eggs in Feb.

Genghis Hen has been ill and I was very worried, I had to up end her and massage her crop this week as she had got "sour crop" where the contents ferment and go smelly and disgusting. So I now can add "making chickens vomit" to the skills list on my CV...



Genghis NOT at all impressed with the snow!

She is also suffering from Sterile Egg Peritonitis where her egg laying workings have gone wrong and she swells up and leaks fluid out of her vent. I had to clean her bum up as it was raw from the fluid, isolate her from the others (as they would have pecked her red, sore bum until it was torn) and give her lots of TLC. She is OK now and back with the others but it WILL happen again, poor old girl :-(

But yet again, the absolute stars are Babs and Goldie! Yep they laid the most eggs! Babs and Goldie laid a magnificent 26 eggs out of a possible 28 this month.

The big girls laid 136 eggs this month, which is really pretty good, from 6 egg laying hens (forget about Genghis and Cathy the ex battys) they have averaged 4.8 eggs per day, which isn't bad going I think! AND the egg laying was 5 or 6 a day from the 6 laying hens from mid Feb.

The Silver Dorkings continue to delight, Cap't Flint has "claimed" the Fab Four Dorking girls as his personal harem and they live in the Eglu, although he still tries to get off with the big hens whenever he can. Long John Silver is now living in Cluckingham Palace with all the big hens and they are HIS harem.

Long John Silver is very friendly to me and I hope that continues. Cap't Flint has chased Compostgirl a few times and I have had to push him off with my foot and show him who is boss!

Ruby, Violet, Buffy and Willow are very sweet and now cluck and croon at me and follow me around! And, of course, they are all now laying!

After an erratic start mid Feb where we had an egg then a day off then an egg from each of them, they ALL laid an egg every day in the last week of Feb AND they managed to do it in the nest boxes, not on the ground!



They lay quite small eggs at the moment but with the MOST amazing yellow yolks! Even more so than all the other hens!

Ruby has laid the biggest egg so far (50g) and so is therefore Chicken of the Week (see top right sidebar)



The Fab Four Dorking girls coming into lay will mean even more eggs for me to sell and recoup some of the feed bill as well. I have now 3 regular customers who LOVE the eggs and think they are fabulous!



Eggs in the 'fridge, 3 days worth, 30 eggs.....

THANK you all, my lovely, lovely girls and boys, you make my life very happy!)

Cleaning out the Eglu!

Here are a couple of photos showing how easy it is to take an eglu to bits for cleaning..undo a couple of nuts...lift off the top, remove the slatted perching bars for a scrub..I have 2 sets so I have one set drying and can put a clean set back...

Hose out the inside to kill any nasty mites..., dry in sunshine (or with a towel if there isn't any!!)

put back togeather, reassemble in about 5 mins...and hey presto the hens have a nice clean run, with fresh straw, clean perching bars and fresh food and lots of chippings to scratch in , inside their run....

We also moved the whole run and Eglu to another part of the Orchard and moved the electric fence so the girls were on a fresh bit of land..

Catch up!

Well, sorry I have not posted for SUCH a long time, but it is a VERY busy period of the year, and a lot has been happening in our lives, as well. The first exciting news is that we now have HENS! Mr CW gave me a magnificent birthday present of an Eglu and 2 beautiful hens,


a Gingernut Ranger called Ginger (!)










and a Mrs Pepperpot called Henny-Penny.









They are beautiful and getting very friendly (especially when I appear calling "chook, chook, chook" and giving them mixed grains......

We await our first eggs with eager anticipation - Miss CW goes and checks EVERY MORNING to see if the girls have "obliged" yet...but I guess they are a little too young just now.....but...SOON!

I must say that Omlet were absolutely briliant in every respect, the ordering, the delivery ( 6 days early!) the instructions and everything - I cannot fault them at all.......

and the delight in having hens again...hearing them croon at me, and seeing them run around, flapping in excitement at my feet, is delightful.....I DO like HENS!