Henry trains the chooks

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

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!

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

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!!!

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

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

SNOW!!!!!!!!!!

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!

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

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

Pecking

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

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

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

Coops blending in!

harriet

Sweetie

Penny

Babbette

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

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