cluckie

Henry trains the chooks

2009-03-29T21:35:00.002+01:00

Henry spent the morning trying to train the chooks to jump for a worm!!!! Babette wasn't playing up to the camera though, as soon as i'd put the camera down she was jumping like a maniac as usual!

Secretly I think she was gloating as Penny now has a bumper bit on......

More bald botties

2009-03-29T21:25:00.002+01:00

Well just thought i'd show you all how the girls botties are not getting any better!

As a result we emptied the run AGAIN in case it's the compost that's making their bums sore! We are tearing our hair out to be honest. We are frantically trying to organise building a new walk in run to give them more space, and also in readiness for the new girls in the summer.

Nick spent the morning relining as the little monsters had dug the other one up!! This one is supposed to be super strong and chicken proof!

Hazel on drugs!

2009-03-23T19:20:00.002Z

So, how do you give antibiotics to a chicken? It's an olympic sport! The theory is you wrap her in a towel, tuck her under your arm or inbetween your knees, prise open her beak and squirt it down!!! Nice and easy............... Ha!

An average the first 2 doses took about 30mins as she DIDN'T want to be caught, I think that she could see that towel under my arm! So the 1st day I was at work there I was in the run at 6am trying to catch her...... I tried to coax her with corn, which work eventually. But if I carry on like that they'll all be the size of a house! It wasn't so bad while they were having their afternoon mash, so maybe i'll try porridge for breakfast as the last 2 doses are tomorrow, so wish me luck!

Hazel goes to the vets

2009-03-23T19:14:00.002Z

Well. Hazel has been unwell :-( After sitting in the nest box most of the day she made it out onto her favorite perch and stayed there. She was not to be temped with any yummy food and would not socialize with the others....... So as we were under the pressure of time as Nick was away for the next few days, off we went to the vets!

She was a lovely vet and was great with Hazel...... Poor hazel though, she was brill even when the nasty lady stuck her finger up her bottom!!!!! Luckily she couldn't find anything wrong. She now has antibiotics........... Great.

basting the chooks!!!

2009-02-10T20:33:00.002Z

In a nice way of Course!!!!! After Harriets trip to the vet, he advised removing the garden lime from the run as he thought that it may be scorching their little tums.... he gave us some flamazine to apply, but with 6 girls it doesn't go far!!! And at £17 a tube we soon found either sudocreme or a tea tree & lavender alternative....

Now we have to creep down their in the dead of night wearing thermals, wellies, hats scarves and gloves, take each girl by surprise ( as if) swing them upside down and baste them with cream by torch light!!!!

Lets hope we see some improvements soon...............

dustbath

2009-02-08T16:30:00.003Z

here are the girls loving their new bed!!! I think it's their own version of clean sheets!!!!

SNOW!!!!!!!!!!

2009-02-02T10:54:00.002Z

Well, the snow came!!!! We are not sure if the girls are impressed or not to be honest... We went out and opened their door to see if they wanted to come out and play, but they were VERY reluctant to say the least.... They did venture out, but only into the outer run.... Penny just stood with one leg in the air shaking it vigourously, then they tried to strip my poor honeysuckle AGAIN and then promptly put themselves back in - now that's a first!!!!

Babette does her thing!

2008-12-07T18:36:00.003Z

At last! Babette has done it and laid her very first egg!!! What a clever girl, we thought we had a free loader for a while, a barren girl, but NO, here it is!

It weighed all of 17gms and wasn't even as big as a Cadburys Creme egg! But a very dark brown, slightly speckled egg has arrived!

Posh

2008-11-15T17:30:00.002Z

Today we got our new egg boxes - pink of course! We have made labels to go on them too!

Pecking

2008-11-15T17:23:00.002Z

Wellllllllllllllllll as we are not sure why Hazel is pecked and Bald we decided to cover the girls in Red Mite powder - not easy. The man suggest taking each hen dangling them upside down, the only struggle for 30seconds and sprinkle it everywhere! Like I'm gonna do that!!!!! So we picked each girlie up and sprinkle them as much as we could......

Next time we might try the pillow case technique, where you put them in, head out of course, then sprinkle and shake!!!

We have also sprayed them with Ukadex anti peck spray. Excellent idea if if didn't smell so foul!!! It took us days to recover!! Cilit bang wouldn't get it off my hands and the clothes went straight in the machine!

Coops went for his usual sniff of the feathered botty and got the shock of his life!!! Which would be really funny if his face didn't smell of the stuff now! He has had many washes and it's still REALLY bad!!!! lets hope it wears off soon...

Hazel though has a bit of regrowth and looks like she has a beard on her bum !

Hazel's bum emergency

2008-11-15T17:15:00.003Z

So I trudged up to the girls before they went to bed and shock horror, Hazels bum was bleeding!!!!!! Real blood, not good .......... I picked her up to have a look only to find out that she was BALD!!!! double shock.

We brought her in and gave her a gentle bath in the kitchen sink with cotton wool and Ecover (nice) and put her in a box with some shredded paper and she spent the night in the shower in the dark - bless.....

She went straight back in the next morning with a purple bum after being sprayed with Gentian Violet and Coopers spray that stops him chewing his feet!! Calm has been restored.....

Out in the garden

2008-09-28T11:13:00.004+01:00

Well the children are here this weekend and keen to see the chicks in the garden! We have had had much egg checking today! But they were rewarded with 5!!! All good weights too, so they are obviously getting the hang of things.... We are just waiting for little Babette who's yet to grow her comb or wattles, and still has a little pink face!

Fellow Omleteers have reassured me though that they are not essential to laying and maybe she will just go without! she is soooooooo much bigger than when she first arrived though, and is still scoffing for England, so am not too worried....

The kids were thrilled to have them out. We moved the net fencing over to the other side of the garden to try and protect a few small plants that they had previously tried to ravish, and we are pleased to report that it worked. There was a small drama as Coops pushed Penny under it but she was soon rescued.

Emily and Henry were keen to see what the chicks were up too, but alice on the other hand really wanted to pick one up but just couldn't bring herself to do itj!!!!

I brought out the mealworms to encourage the girls to feed from their hands, then they did their really confident thing and started to climb all over them - there was much squeaking from poor old Em. Hen was desperate to get his hands on Hazel, his very own chook, and Alice was determined and got there in the end!!!

Margo

2008-09-24T15:39:00.000+01:00

Coops blending in!

2008-09-24T15:38:00.000+01:00

harriet

2008-09-24T15:37:00.000+01:00

Sweetie

2008-09-24T15:35:00.000+01:00

Penny

2008-09-24T15:34:00.000+01:00

Babbette

2008-09-24T15:32:00.000+01:00

Out into the garden we go...........

2008-09-24T15:10:00.002+01:00

Well they slowly made their way out into the garden and began to explore the jungle around them. It appears that they REALLY love begonnias!! They scratched about them for hours gradually taking each one apart with their feet and what they missed they pecked at incessantly. They lurve the earth, and didn't take much notice of the grass much to Nicks relief!

They seemed happy to just peck about. Coops was following them about like a love sick puppy drooling with his tongue hanging out! All he wanted was to get behind them and put his nose under their tummies and lick their legs! How strange.....................

Gradually they made they way down the garden, but not past the halfway mark! I was really surprised how they stuck together most of the time. They made little bokking noises the whole time so I'm assuming that's a good sign!

We did put food and water out for them, but they appeared too busy to drink it.

While they we out we decided to give the cube a blast! Half way through we noticed Harriet making a rackett!!! We went to investigate only to find her perched on the ladder trying to get in, but alas no roosting bars or made up nestbox - a disaster in her world.

We put one set in and so paper in the box and she indignantly went and sat in it. about an hour later she was sqwarking at the top of her voice and there was a lovely egg waiting for us!

When we decided they needed to go back in we shook the corn box and they ran to find us like 5 year olds to sweeties!!!!! They then promptly scoffed all the pellets they could stuff in!

Hazel picks her own

2008-09-24T15:07:00.002+01:00

1st big Freerange!

2008-09-24T14:56:00.002+01:00

Sooooooooooooooooooo, after the wing clipping came the big outside world!!!

First of all we let them out just into the fenced area, strangely enough they were slow to investigate their new surroundings, but they did eventually find their way around with the help of coops who was closely behind at all times.

They found Nicks runner beans very interesting along with my honeysuckle, where I was hoping they would be more taken with the stinging nettles!! Still they were quite happy grazing for a while.... interestingly they kept going back in the run.... maybe they didn't want to be out after all........

Wing clipping!

2008-09-20T20:45:00.002+01:00

Today we took the bull by the horns and armed with a brand new pair of scissors we marched into the cube comando style though the very small flap and got ready for the big clip!!!

We decided to 'do' them in there and then let them all out together. It went pretty well and with a bit of sneaky wiggling and an Omlet diagram I held on to them and Nick did the snipping with Cooper Yelling by the door! Penny of course was always going to be the tricky one as she aviods contact at every opportunity!

So we lured her with corn and then nick went in for the big grab and while she wiggled I snipped off the feathers in question! She was most indignant......

However, they then went out into the big wide world..........................

2008-09-15T16:14:00.002+01:00

Found this today! It was laid this afternoon! I had already collected 3 when I got in from work, so I've not idea who is responsible!

Hazel did lay her first one yesterday but it was a lovely deep brown colour and henry scoffed it before the camera could get to it!!!

Clever girls

2008-08-31T19:54:00.002+01:00

Well, as you know the girls have been excelling themselves since we managed to do the worming thing! So to celebrate their wonderful efforts we have invested in a 'egg-skelter' so that they can have pride of place in the kitchen!!!!! And don't they look lovely???

tonight for treats they had probiotic yoghurt with bokashi bran, they loved it even if they did end up wearing it, and then they each in turn scoffed what the others were wearing = clean chicks once a again!!!

Harriet laid her 1st Egg!!!!!!!!!!

2008-08-28T12:33:00.001+01:00

................. and it was massive man!!! A whopping 53gms!!!! No one else is near that! What a clever girl she is... I wonder it there will be a repeat performance???

Also on a good note Margo laid also!!! Fingers crossed it's not just a one off!

Pecked off!

2008-08-28T12:27:00.002+01:00

Sooooooooooooo the wormer arrived and the doseage is per 300 birds, so have had to to many rudementary calculations!!! Basically you cut a grape in half, and coat it in worm powder and Bob's your uncle!!!!

So we dutifully went to the run with 6 bits of grape... a Margo stepped up and took her medicine like a very good girl!!! Then she had Babettes, Hazels and Sweeties!!!!!!! Obviously a new technique was required, so Nick distracted them with a handful of corn while I tried to shove a grape down the remaining 5......

Success!!! But not until there was much pecking of the mummy, Hazel took to sitting on my shoulder and the other took advantage of my hands being full and tried to mug me for what I had left!!!!!

Hmmmmmm will try harder tomorrow, Good job we only have to do it for 7 days!!!!

Think we have worms :-(((

2008-08-28T12:14:00.002+01:00

Argghhhhhhhhh................ We think we have a case of worms!!! Inconvenient to say the least. Margo has been on strike for a week now, and as she is really well in herself, scoffing like she's never seen food, and has poo's like i'd really rather not describe, between the Omleteers and our books here we have diagnosed worms... We have sent off for some stuff toot sweet!

Sweetcorn

2008-08-24T11:04:00.003+01:00

This is excise for our girls! They love it!

Dust bath

2008-08-24T11:00:00.002+01:00

Well with the spring clean, also come the clean dust bath. However, Penny and Margo were not impressed and decided to make their own!!

I'm afraid the pics aren't that clear, but think you can get the general idea!

Spring clean!!!

2008-08-24T10:53:00.002+01:00

Well, as saturday is the only sunny day forcast for the bank holiday it was Spring clean day for the girls!!!

We took the cube apart as much as we could and washed it on the lawn with a power washer!!! Thank fully it didn't take too long. Although there was MUCH poo to deal with! We waited until Penny and Sweetie had laid, Penny is up to 45g now, she's such a good girl, and then when mad with a bucket! Coops was loving it as I think he secretly lurves chicken poop!

The girls took it all in their stride and Penny, Babette and Hazel had their normal chat on the high perch. they just love it up there!!!

Worried about Margo

2008-08-24T10:47:00.002+01:00

Poor ol' Margo.... we are worried about her....... She hasn't laid since last week. She seem fine in herself, but I'm not sure... I've posted on the Omlet site for some advice, as I know it takes a while for them to get into the swing of things, but this does seem odd....

She has a few symptoms..... she scoffing ALOT, but they do eat more when they start laying, her comb is no longer bright red but pink, and she has poop like water! Not nice..... The concensus is that she may have worms.. I've already ordered some Flubenvet but am kicking myself that I didn't do it earlier as i'll have to wait until tuesday now....

Then we will have to work out how to give a minute amount to each hen on half a grape, and for seven days!!!!!!!!!!! Will be a military operation....... wish me luck!

Preparing for Lottie!

2008-08-24T10:35:00.002+01:00

Well, as you know, Claire and Duke are going away for a well deserved holiday, and when this happens we return the doggie sitting favor and Lottie has a little holiday too!!! We always love having Lottie here as she is such a big personality it's like having a whole other person in the house!

However, this time we have the added complication of 6 flappy chooks in the garden..... Lottie being of the working variety will be beside herself!

We have already had a trial run, and it went brilliantly! We kept her on a lead and she was very quiet albeit very interested in them.... we had invested in a mega pump action waterpistol just in case but it wasn't needed! You could have knocked us down with a feather, as even when Benji came there was a degree of swarking and flapping.... and it's not pleasant to see. So we were on full alert!!!!

We are sure now that Claire and Duke think we were being over cautious for our new additions but it previously had not been a pretty sight! Regardless we are jubilant that things went well....

The plan was though to put a temporary fence around the cube and run to stop Coops and Lottie forming a pack and chasing them round and round. Plus the first weekend she is here I am home alone as Nick is at the farm for Janes birthday bash!!!

So the fence is up and looking good.... is not too visiable and will do a good job.... Nick toiled away and did it very quickly on our only sunny day!!!

Desperate Hazel!!!!!!!!

2008-08-17T21:42:00.003+01:00

Well, the girls know where the door is now. Every time we go anywhere near the run they make a break for the door, hoping that I'm about to chuck something yummy through it! Yummy is a very broad term mind, it could be corn, worms, fruit, cabbage, lettuce.... wouldn't make the most of us do back flips, but the girls literally climb over eachother to reach it first.... Once at the door should it open they ALL huddle and try to squeeze through it at the same time....... A tricky manouvre with me with my knee in the door, a bowl of goodies AND coops trying to wedge himself through from the other side!!!

Anyway...................... when you have to bodily go in you have to sort of flap the top half of the front down, stop coops from doing a sneaking high jump, bend at a strange angle and lauch yourself in whilst of course carrying treats and a back sack to sit on, as you wouldn't want to get a dirty bum! Nick of course in waiting patiently and laughing ready to hold the flap up once I am in and covered in rabbid chooks scrabbing about for food!!!!

So, the flap was undone.... we began to open while cooing nicely for them to wait nicely, when Hazel takes a running jump and is up through the 6inch gap in a jiffy!!!!!!!! Not good... she was silent and deadly! I was so shocked but managed to 'catch' her by her very skinny body and wedge her against my chest! We then forced the flap shut with her still squashed in my hands - painful! I was trying very carefuly to put her down, but the angle made it impossible and she made a flappy 'plop' onto the floor looking very put out!!!!

Man they know what's out there and are desperate to find it!!!

A three egg day!!!!!!!!!!

2008-08-12T20:53:00.004+01:00

Well, how lucky are we!!!!!!!!!!

I went out this morning only to find 2 very light coloured eggies in the nesting box!!! Now I know that one belonged to Penny, Margo lays fairly dark brown speckled eggs, so it's not hers... so am guessing that Sweetie is responsible. Nick had found her lurking in the nesting box over the weekend just getting a feel of the place :-))) so maybe it is her... her comb is still quite small, but maybe she an early starter!!!

When I went out there later, there was margo's one warm and waiting for me!! Clever girl.... she's always an after noon girl!!!

I took 4 small eggs in a box over to nannys, our first gift of eggs! We are very proud of our girls.. now though we'd like them to concentrate on producing one over 40gms, that seems to be the ceiling at the moment!

We also gave them a few crusts cut up as a treat today, and the yummed it up! Will remember that one... have put their Bokashi bran in a cup and they've scoffed that down too, so maybe i'll stop putting it in their food now......

Clever, clever girls!!!

Bedtime

2008-08-03T20:24:00.002+01:00

At 8.40, we tip toed up the garden to see what was occuring! It's a truely amazing thing but they were they lined up in a row to make their way up the ladder.... very strange.. so we came back in...

8.50 we went back up again and only two left!!!! Hazel was in and out alot.... but eventually she was up there, and as soon as her tail feathers were in - Shoop! It was shut!

Night girls....

Coopers great home coming!!!

2008-08-03T20:07:00.002+01:00

So the time came on saturday to go and collect Cooper from Claires where he'd been having a luxurious holiday! We could have left it until sunday, but in for a penny, in for a pound!

He already knew that something was going on, because the odd construction that had been occuring in his garden.... so we explained to him that he had some new playmates in the garden at home waiting for him and that they were all going to get on famously....... It was obvious however, that he was not listening as he hates the car and clearly had his paws in his ears with his head pointing the other way!!!!

We parked in the hole in the back and let him out and he scampered up the steps to make his way in, when he stopped dead! There was something in the house!!!! Man he flew over there like a rocket - the girls unfortunately were not ready to recieve visitors and went completely mad, which threw Coops into a flurry which made them squeak and fly back and forward up and down the run, bumping into the perches and sides, feathers everywhere... mess......

We got coops to make a sharpe exit, and those of you who know him know the only way to do that is pick him up and run for the house! the girls settled immediately, but there was a bit of blood on some beaks from too much bashing occuring.

Coops then became a soldier at his post by the back door! We decided on approach number two.... we took him up there on a lead, much crying from him, and a small amount of clucking from them.......

Approach number three was to put him on his garden spike attached to his long lead and let him run about! The girls were fine with this, coops however was very frustrated!

We retired in doors... what to do???? We decided to go on the offensive with the water pistols which we got to stop the girls pecking at eachother, so why not use it on the dog???

Off we went back up there with coops on a lead and a fully loaded water pistol..... after many squirts and surprised looks he did eventually settled down... so we retired back in for a conference and much research on fencing!!!

OMG it's an egg!

2008-08-03T15:30:00.002+01:00

Well....................... I was just on the phone to nanny and went up the see the girlies and THERE WAS AN EGG ON THE FLOOR!!!!!! Much jubilation!!! No idea who's responsible but, we certainly wasn't expecting one so soon.

I made poor Nick go in a rescue it in case it got trampled on! Penny was sitting next to it, but didn't look like she was owning up!!!

I rushed it still warm inside a straight to the scales! A whole 36gms. Small but perfectly formed. What a clever girl!!!

1st Morning

2008-08-03T15:18:00.002+01:00

Well, we charged down the stairs fairly late, about 8am as we don't want them to get used to getting up too early.... I am always very conscious of Karen....

We swiftly collected the camera and hot footed it down the garden. Will me hovering at the door end Nick pushed the cube door open... We could hear feet scrabbling about and when it opened there they were all hogging the door way looking out as if to say 'blimey it's daylight, what shall we do now?'

Babette was the first one to make an exit attempt.... graceful is not a word that springs to mind I must say... the was a lot of noise as her feet tried to make contact with the ladder, and much flapping as she tried to keep her upright and steady.......... it didn't work... she flapped down and landed with a 'boof'. Then went like a rocket to the food! She was closely followed by Sweetie, also not a ballerina.... then they all came on mass, with much clucking and flapping.... Then all to the food for breakfast, it appears that there was a famine during the night!

Day one

2008-08-02T14:46:00.002+01:00

So they spent today mooching about. They did come out from under the cube and babette went straight for the food!!! They were happy to be pecking about and kicking our newly laid bedding everywhere..... We sprinkled some mixed corn around and about and man they mad for that!! They are very quiet, but maybe that's because they were in shock after their long journey......

We spent the day marching up and down the garden wearing a hole in the newly recovered lawn, and they were pretty non plused, but fingers crossed they become more people friendly......

As the day came to an end, we were thinking 'How will they know when to go to bed?' 'Will they know what to do?' We've spent many an hour on the Omlet forum reading about people having to do all sorts to get their girls to bed including putting a torch in it went it's getting dark to 'show them the way', if it's the only light they can see the tend to go towards it...... others have had to physically put their girl into the cube for a few days... plus theres always the quandry of 'can they get up the ladder' which you know doesn't reach the floor.... not sure why, maybe it's to put FoxyLoxy off.....

At 8.30 we began another back and forward regieme up and down......... At about 9.00 Margo made leap onto the ladder, and the fell straight off again!!! But soon made another attempt, and this time made it into the cube... had a little walk about and then came out again.... so we came away.......

Five minutes later we went up there again and 2 were in the cube!! With another one on the ladder, so we came away again!!!!!!!

At 9.10 we went up there and they we nearly done one on the ladder another one patiently waiting.... then she made her way up... what clever girls they are!!!

We zipped the door shut and listened to them scrabbling about for a few mins and left them to it..... We did check back before we went to bed and SILENCE!!!!! Phew!!!!

Cant wait for day two!

And finally Penny a Coral Nick

2008-07-30T21:05:00.003+01:00

This is Harriot a Pied Suffolk

2008-07-30T21:00:00.001+01:00

This is Hazel a Black Tail

2008-07-30T20:57:00.003+01:00

This is Margot, a Fenning Black

2008-07-30T20:52:00.004+01:00

This is Sweetie, she's a BlueBelle

2008-07-30T20:48:00.002+01:00

So Lets meet the girlies! This is babette shes and Amber

2008-07-30T20:37:00.002+01:00

Their new house!

2008-07-30T20:25:00.002+01:00

So, Nick very carefully struggled into the run with each box and opened them up, and they fluttered out VERY quickly!! Think they must have been in a bit of shock as they had been sitting by the side of the run while we put in fresh water, food and stuff.

Initially they all huddled under the cube, and we just stood there like lemons thinking 'What do you do with a chicken?' But we had stocked up on grapes and poked one through the bars and they were more than happy to scoff them up! The brown one Hazel is the most friendly/nosey and was following us about.. We dutifully spent the next hour or so just watching to see what they do.... Soooo we have discovered that they are going to be mamoth time wasters!! Shame....................

The big day!!

2008-07-28T09:14:00.002+01:00

So we were up at the crack of dawn, packed and ready to leave at 9am - talk about eager beavers!!! We found it very easily a normal semi detached house with a note on the door saying 'very busy today so come down the garden'. so off we went down the garden, and down, and down and down.... massive man, Ben says he's not sure how big but 7 or 800 feet long!!! Man it was amazing, dotted all the way along were various chickens in wooden houses all looking very happy...

Ours were in a big pen with many others who all looked the same, Ben though knew exactly who was who thankfully..... We put our boxes together and some shredded paper in the bottom and we were ready!!!

So how do you catch a chicken???? Well the brave Ben goes in with a HUGE fishing/butterfly net and charges about trying to net them!! funny thing was we had joked about how they would do it, and never thought it would be true!!! So out he came with either one or 2 chickens and straight into the boxes, he did tell us who was what though which was very helpful, then the lids were on and straight into the car! Aircon on and away we go..... only to realise 200m down the road we had forgotten to get him to clip their wings!!!!!! No returning for that though, we will have to cross that bridge when we come to it, hopefully the man round the corner will help us out with that one.......

The journey went very well, about 90minutes with no clucking in the background, then we unloaded them straight away!

The Great Dilemma

2008-07-26T22:11:00.002+01:00

Soooooooooooo, there we were, tucked up in the Whitehouse B&B in Highcliff on sea.... glorious place everyone should spend some time there, good old fashioned seaside. You park on a cliff top and walk down a very steep wiggly path to the beach! Grrrrrrrreat. We spent 2 hours there scoffing a sarnie and managed to burn to a crisp even with cream on! Nick has a very desirable 'man tan', you know the sort, brown from the mid bicep down - nice!!!

Anyway. I'd had a 'feeling' in my water and wanted to call Ben the hen man! 'Have you got my email' he says? We've had no mobile signal all week, let alone internet access, so the answer was no! 'Well' he says, 'there was a mix up, and i've sold all your hens!!!!!!' Well after i'd picked myself up from the floor, and he'd apologised 50 million times, he said he has a lady in the same business who may be able to help us out, and to call back in next evening...

Talk about frantic, we'd arranged our entire holiday around this, so nanny and donna were on case texting me info on other breeders we'd researched - yay a life line.....

But relax.......... the lovely Ben had managed to 'source' all of the hens we wanted, they were from the same 'batch' as his and all would be well..... just turn up at lunchtime the next day, and the family would be complete!

It's complete!!!

2008-07-12T20:36:00.002+01:00

The big build is complete!!!! Yay for us.... we are feeling very proud of ourselves... its looks great. We began after i'd come home from work... poor Nick had been digging up a stump in the front garden ALL morning.. I got home and he was up to his chest in a massive hole with an even more massive stump in front of him... it appears that the bugger will not be moved.. so we literally are stumped! Might have to ask the paving man if he can do something with his digger, so the hole is here to stay for a while...

After lunch we tottered off to the back garden and reinstated the big build...Once we got going it didn't take too long, it appeared that we'd done the worst of it yesterday with the leveling of the ground, so we literally had to snap it all together... there was no swearing, stamping or huffing as it was all very smooth.

We've made as much room around it as we can so that we can get to the nesting box for egg collection, and do that without wading through masses of mud. We had to chop a couple of mini trees down to make way for it, but that means we can see it a bit from the house which I quite like!

Nick made use of his new chain saw and lopped a massive branch off of our unwanted elder tree and fashioned it into a perch for them, they can also go over or under it!!!!

Just need to get a bit of trellis for a small piece of fence in case they want to try for the great escape over it!!!

1st Attempt!

2008-07-11T21:27:00.002+01:00

Well, we decided to have a go and get some of the cube constructed today as the forcast for the weekend is poo, much like the monsoons we've had this week!

So out there we went tools in hand, got the wheels together, the under side grills on, and the downfall came...... in we ran to check on how the omletteres were getting on who had theirs delivered today - sad ha???

Out we went again, turned it up the right way, got the front on and the ladder, had to move it into place with much tooing and frowing, only to discover our flat patch, was not flat!!! There was an episode of frantic raking and a side panel went on...

THEN THE HEAVENS OPENED!!!

Tarpauling everywhere.... a very wet boyfriend, rain had stopped play in true british fashion......
better luck tomorrow.....

They are ordered!

2008-07-10T09:03:00.002+01:00

So again after much trawling of the web, we have decided to get our hens from Hen House Poultry in Teston near Maidstone. That means they will have a much shorter journey home... we have put in a order for 6-7 chooks so that we can decide on the day which ones will be best for us!!!!

But there will definately be a ranger an amber, a black, a blue, we are torn on the speckledy so will have to wait and see....

All very exciting........

It's Here! It's Here

2008-07-10T08:54:00.003+01:00

Well it arrived!!! A whole 24hrs early......... I'd been glued to the forum as when I called to check the order they said it could be a day either side! Not good as I'd arranged it for when I was a day off...... Was feeling a bit gloomy about it as we've all had monsoon for the last few days..... So was on the phone to Donna who was explaining that her plants were drowning and she was going to put a brolley over them and a naffing great big lorry appeared outside!!!

Think I took the man by surprise as I was SOOOOOOOOO excited!!! We were both out there getting drenched! There were 5 huge boxes... and they had to come inside as getting up the side of the house in lashing rain is just toooo tricky.... poor coops was a bit put out I can tell you.....

When nick got it we took it all out of the wet boxes and it's now safely stacked in the living room until the big build on the weekend!!

The Plan..... Da Da Daaaaaaaaaa

2008-07-06T18:09:00.002+01:00

All Plans as you know should be pretty simple!!! However, you ALL know me and know that absolutely nothing is simple with me!! I think we really have settled with this one though, which is why I am pretty confident with posting it on here!

So July 21st we are trekking off to Dorset to stay 2 nights in a little B&B called the Fox Inn in Antsy, the main reason for this is 100 years ago I caught some program or other about gardening, and they were saying about some Jurassic gardens in Dorset... I really wanted to go and have kept it in my tiny mind all this time.... so off we go to Abbotsbury where they are situated...

http://www.abbotsbury-tourism.co.uk/gardens.htm

There is also a swannery there which I'd like to see... Nick assures me he does too and I'm not just dragging him about by the scruff of his coat!!!

From there we are settled to travel the short distance to Highcliff on sea which is near Bournmouth..... Nick has never been to Beaulieu, and with him being a big car person I thought he may enjoy it, plus it may be a minor trade off for the gardens!!! We will also have a look into Bournmouth, and maybe come back for longer another time....

Soooooooooooooo on friday the 25th we will start our trek back..... not that easy though.....

We will have to call 2 breeders to see which one has the most in that we want and then we will hot foot it over there as most appear to shut at 1pm - not that convenient.......

We have tracked down boxes as vets it appears don't sell the cardboard cat carriers any more and pets and home only appear to have them for hamsters!!!

So we are all set, stock allowing........

Wish us luck!

Helping out the neighbours

2008-07-06T17:51:00.002+01:00

Well today Nick and Henry put up a willow fence. They braved the gusting winds with a two meter very bendy fence.....

It's going all the way around the back and down one side of where the chooks will be living. It's been well staked with tree posts to keep it up round the back and it nailed to the fence on the other side.....

It's predominately to help out Karen who lives at the end of the garden to help to shield the noise and noise limit to what she can see, although I think she's quite keen to keep her beady eye on them... also to sheild us from next doors very nutty dogs! They are constantly either trying to come under or over the fence and I fear that the chance of a chick will be too much for them to keep their restraint... I'd like to see the bugger pole vault over 2m of fence... maybe we should keep a CCTV cam there just in case!!!

Surprisingly though it really does sheild from the elements.. We were put to a good test up there today as it was gale force at times, and it really does cut it down by at least 50% if not more. I think our chooks will be very warm and cosy in there; it's pretty private for them now, so they should be very content!!!

Hen party

2008-07-02T17:42:00.002+01:00

Go on, laugh your heads off!!!!! But a Hen party it is..... all organised by omlet of course to learn how to look after your chooks!

Off we went on a mystery tour to the depths of Rettendon to the lovely Kathryns house..... massive garden... jealous not.. and at least 10 hens, 2 cubes, an eglu and built in run.......... now feeling very inadequate!!!

Honestly though we had a great time.....learn what to feed them, how to clean them, what their 'vent' does! Yukk is a gapping pulsing tunnel looking thing which is multi-purpose for egging, pooing and weeing!!!! Bit of a shock I can tell you!

However a very pleasant 2 hrs it was, 8 prospective parents all staring at chickens wondering what we are going to let ourselves in for....... some obviously had done NO research we on the otherhand new most stuff so no great shocks - thankfully!

We did come away with a very nice Omlet reusable bag though!

completed

2008-07-02T17:19:00.006+01:00

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. with the patch complete and much acurate measuring it was decided we had room for a cube!!!! Plus EVERYBODY says you'll up date to a cube within a week as it's addictive, so we decided to jump straight in.....

There was much debate on the omlet forum..... ALL in favor of a cube... but which colour... we had decided upon a green eglu but a purple cube won the day!!!

After almost crying on the phone with the lady she agreed to deliver it on the 10th July - Yay for me... or us I should say...... the chooks however will have to come at a later date after a few days away... no great shakes as I really want a white one!

Patch!

2008-07-02T17:04:00.002+01:00

Well, now we had decided where they were going to live the stumps had to go...... a stump grinder was the obvious answer, however, the nice man at the hire shop had other idea, he reckoned that we wouldn't get it in the garden - not a great start.....

So off Nick when with henry for the great excavation..... there was much grunting and grinding, pick axe flinging and sweating and the first one was out!!! The next one wasn't so easy.. that required the most complex of equipement.... a car jack!! An excellent edition to any tool shed! however it did the trick, and thats what's important.....

Nick seemed to come off relatively well, and didn't even ache too much the next day.... take a look yourself!

Omlet

2008-07-01T22:30:00.003+01:00

Next... we became glued to the omlet site.. www.omlet.co.uk like strange anorak people... there's nothing we dont know about them!! Plus I discovered the forum!! Man you can't get me away from that.....

Now we needed to decide what colour, there are 7!!! Also what length run for how many chooks? What do they eat? How do they live? Omlet knows everything..... or the thousands of fellow Omletteres always know the answer.....

So after doing many rudimentary calculations we strolled up our small garden and decided there were 2 possible places, both of which were under my neighbours window!!!!

However, since a large tree was in the way on one side the veggie patch and compost area were on borrowed time.......

Then the deed was done! A green eglu, extension and 3 chooks all being delivered on the 29th july!!!!

Looking about

2008-07-01T22:25:00.002+01:00

Well................. It was a very dubious place, I can tell you, a well rounded man complete with braces, bald patch and accompanying fag perched precariously on his whiskered chin explains that we can have as many as we like in a teenytiny badly built bedsit for chooks.... best we don't have the cute black ones, nasty eggs apparently.... so we should have the brown ones, which were in a stable with 30 others.... free range? Not!!!!

So we smiled nicely while a very strange couple in dirty Mercedes came and quickly left with 2 peacocks in a small box.... they were housed next to the Llamas!!!

We hastily made our retreat and hot footed it back to the laptop!

Research

2008-07-01T22:04:00.003+01:00

So there we were, laptop on lap and warming our knees.... where should we begin?

We started by chance with the local paper, POL chickens for sale!!! Means about to lay eggs apparently...... so we phoned them up and arranged a look about!

Next was the search for appropriate chick mansions, and there are many to choose from, let me tell you, single storey, multi storey, nesting boxes in or outside, mostly made of wood and costing a small fortune........

So of course the next port of call is ebay! How do we ever manage to live without it? I wonderful invention, much information, but not much help.... Much google searching later we came across an 'eglu' from Omlet! What a revelation! The page was book marked tootsuit and off we toddled to the local chick place......

The beginning!

2008-07-01T15:31:00.000+01:00

It was a normal weekend here, bit rainy, bit sunny, we had been talking about getting a tortoise!!! There we were wandering around pets at home like complete saddos buying 'dog rocks' to try and stop Coops from killing the grass with EVERY early morning pee!!!

It appears there is not much info on tortoises out there, certainly nothing in the petshop. Lots of lovely bunnies though.....

While out walking the lovely coops, discussing the pros and cons of tortoise keeping there was a very quite 'bok' coming from the fence on the corner! 'Have they got chickens' ? We wondered????

Silence for the next week or so, and then while soliciting by his fence one day the man was in his garden.... 'do you have a chicken in there'? We asked..... 'Actually we have 6!!!' Blimey.... in we went for a look about, and there in the corner were 6 hens wandering about having a whale of a time!!! After much chin wagging we came away with a notion and 6 marvellous home grown eggs!!!!

It was easy to see how much better they were than good ole tesco's free range efforts.

Soooooooo the extensive research began!!!