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.

Proud of our eggs!

I bought this Egg Skelter to 'display'/'dispense' our eggs. The oldest one is at the bottom and you add newer ones (from the side) with the pointy end downwards and inwards. It comes in about half a dozen colours - mainly tasteful! I wanted this to shout "Fresh Eggs from the Rock Chicks" though, so it's as in-your-face as they come!

It's only when you have your own chickens that you appreciate the amount of effort that goes into producing those eggs, and you really don't take them for granted any more. I have had them hidden away in egg boxes in the kitchen. I shall now display them proudly in the Egg Skelter!

The Riddle of the Sands

The chickens have a sand pit which, being chickens, they regularly fill with wood chippings. I regularly rake it out for them. Last week I bought another bag of sand and today, with one to sieve and add and one to distract the chickens, we gave them a refill. I took in the old garden riddle and sieved out most of the wood, scraped the dry sand to one side and added a new sack of sand. It had to be investigated. In fact, as I write, I can see all four in there, scraping and scratching. If I go out again with the camera they'll rush me so I still won't get the shot!

Here's Ruby, watching me. I was taking a few snapshots of them interacting with Himself when Ruby decided to jump onto the ladder next to me to see what I was up to.

Here are Garnet (darker, in the background) Amber (lighter, smaller build, middle ground) and Ruby in the foreground. Topaz, being in Boss Hen mode, was haranguing Himself about the lack of treats during the visit and is thus out of shot.

This was another 3 egg morning. I'm no longer convinced that it's a case of 3 laying every day. I think they maybe take turns for a day off? Someone's eyes must have been watering though as the egg on the left was laid this morning. Compare it to the usual size we are getting. Amber had another off-colour day yesterday (she doesn't like Saturdays!) so was she brewing up this monster? Today she's eating for England - making up for being so picky yesterday.

4 x 4

We had a lovely day out yesterday - in the upper reaches of Teesdale where daughter, son in law and the 2 grandchildren are on holiday. We joined them for a walk and lunch out as it was Himself's 60th birthday. When we got home, as if they'd known, the beautiful gift of FOUR eggs awaited us! One was speckled. I don't know if this is just a one-off as a first egg. So far today we only have 3 again, so someone isn't convinced she wants to be an egg layer when she grows up!

Since the first 3 eggs last Sunday we have had a consistent 3 a day and they are getting gradually bigger. The first 3 weighed in at 110 grammes total. The three above (apart from the speckled one) weighed a little over 140 grammes. Good girls!

They are also becoming either braver or greedier. (No points for guessing!) I occasionally go in (with a few greens as an offering) to sit in the run with them, and on several occasions Topaz has flown up onto my knee and tolerated, if not actually enjoyed, being stroked and petted. A couple of evenings ago, Himself was doing the tea time corn treat and evidently wasn't scattering fast enough. He too was in the chair and 2 flew up to his knee at once - to poke their heads in the little yellow corn bucket. Chickens are so much fun!

First eggs!

After a worrying Saturday morning when Amber went all mopey, wouldn't eat or drink, and stood around hunched up, occasionally closing her eyes, we were very relieved when she started to scratch about, eat and drink again by afternoon. No other symptoms! Don't they scare you? Anyway, she is happily nicking greens from others and scratching about as always.



On Sunday morning I filled up the nest box with clean bedding and Ruby was in after me - almost as I was doing it - and scratching about and sitting in there. I closed the lid and we had to be out all day. I wondered if Amber's little 'blip' and Ruby's anxiety to get into the box indicated eggs on the way. When we got home there were 3 - perfect little pullet eggs! I'm not sure who isn't laying - both Amber and Garnet have slightly paler combs and wattles. Anyway, I'm sure whoever it is won't lag for long.





The eggs were absolutely beautiful with lovely golden yolks. They almost looked too lovely to eat, but it would be a shame not to make use of their sterling efforts. Good girls!

Cupboard love!

What a welcome you get when you go down the garden! All the chickens rush over making little coo-ing, persuading sounds, to get me to give them some goodies! Usually they get a few chopped up grapes, some greens or a very few dried meal worms. The evening treat is some mixed corn which I usually scatter in the run, together with mixed grit, so they can forage for a while before bed time. Here, though, they are keen to take it from my hand. I've been offering them all their food - apart from the layers' pellets - by hand to get them used to me. After they've had a scattering of corn they don't take any notice of me at all, even though I pass their run many times afterwards on the evening plant patrol. I take my tender plants indoors to the dining table each evening from the cold greenhouse and back out again in the morning. Scratch time is the only time I'm ignored passing the run!