Little and Large

Yesterday's offerings were 2 normal sized eggs and these two! The paler one on the left is obviously a double yolker. We have one of these about every 10 days. They are not from the same chicken because we once had two on the same day. On the right is the titchiest little egg - more like a quail's than a chicken's egg. When we get around to eating them it will be interesting to see if it has a yolk or is just a 'wind egg'. I also find it interesting that it has much more colour than our usual eggs and has even darker freckles. I assume this means that there is a finite amount of colour available per egg and it gets used up - stretched more thinly for a paler, larger than usual egg and spread a bit thicker for a smaller egg.

Edit - we had the eggs this morning (18/06/09). Sure enough, the big one (100g) was a double yolker and the tiny one (under 30g) was 'all white' - a wind egg!

Corn time!

Amber is wondering what I'm doing on my knees in the chicken run! She knows Himself has the corn tin - what on earth have I got - and most importantly - can you eat it?


Boss Hen Topaz is giving voice - come on, get on with it! Have you brought corn or not? If not, stop wasting our sun-bathing time!

THAT'S more like it!

Follow those trousers!

After a good long scratching session on Chicken Field the girls follow behind (hoping for meal worms no doubt!) back into their run. If there's any suspicion that someone else might be getting something you're not you break into a little gallop - and boy can a chicken run fast! They never seem disappointed to be back in the home run - everyone gets on with the usual things - dust bath, scratching, having a rest under the house in the shade.

Troublesome weeds?

Process them through a chicken!

My neighbour's allotment neighbour (still with me?) is ill at the moment so his friends are rallying round and keeping his plot in good nick. Neighbour returned with a barrow load of weeds and the chickens are delighted to help!

It's mainly chickweed, not called that for nothing! I sifted out the bits of 'volunteer' potato haulm, and bindweed and such, and the remaining weeds are ripped across several times as I don't want any stuck crop problems. As you can see it's 'up-tails all' until the green food is cleared.

Digging!

"Do you think we can dig up this damson tree?"

I want HER slug!

A jolly interlude in Chicken Field between the showers on Monday.

Chick Pics

"I wonder why they've netted off those fruit bushes?" Garnet and Topaz survey my attempts to save the Tayberries for us, not them. They don't look well impressed do they?

A little stroll across the patio on the way to Chicken Field. No hurry - there are lots of things to stick your beak in on the way

We all like apple! Roaming around Chicken Field is obviously great fun. However, it is not to be shared if you have a delicate disposition. When a chicken has just found, run away with and fought for possession of a huge black slug, then eaten it with evident relish, she has a smear of sticky slug slime remaining around her beak for ages, getting grass and dirt stuck to it. These chickens grew up in a pen covered in shavings, inside a poly tunnel. No-one fed them slugs. How do they know they can eat them? More to the point, why would they even try in the first place?

Chicken field

We spent several hours on Sunday with old fencing panels, left over weldmesh, stakes and even bamboo canes, producing an area where the chickens can roam safely and scratch at green stuff. Part of the garden contains the vegetables and has to be a no-go if WE are to eat as well as the chickens! Some of the rest contains fox-gloves and other plants I don't think it would be wise to let them munch on.

The area near the camera is fairly grassy - why do they choose the scratty bit with ancient gravel and remains of strimmed comfrey? Topaz and Garnet were test pilots on Sunday evening - to see if we'd missed any obvious problems. To get there they have to cross a patio and gravel path. Every step was punctuated with "Oooh a weed, must peck this!" and "Hey, bit of grass, must beak this!" The journey was longer than anticipated! They have a pop-hole in the fencing to get in and out - we have a bit of a gatey-thing.

We hope to let them have a grassy session fairly regularly while we are there to supervise. This grass run is definitely not predator-proof.

Four eggs a day now. clever little things.