Chicken Update..

What a difference a week makes in the world of chickens. Tom and dad took delivery of a new chicken palace on Tuesday. That wasn't without problems, the delivery guy hadn't realised that there were two parts to deliver so he only left one. It took a whole day chasing around to get the 2nd box delivered, by that time it was dark and raining so the construction was put off until Wednesday.
On Wednesday morning they got started on the simple to construct 'hen house, run and nesting box' Not sure who would find it simple to construct, because it took the two of them all day. They were supplied with bacon sarnies and tea by mum and eventually finished it in the afternoon in time for Tom to collect Beth from school.


So eventually the new palace was in place and the chooks were installed. It was the next morning that it became obvious that Phoebe was not a hen, 'He' started with early morning 'cock a doodle doing'. He was really ruling the roost, refusing to return to the run and generally being a rooster. So it was decided that he would have to go, the school said that they would dispatch him as they would be unable to keep him, so in the end dad did the deed and he will be Sunday lunch.

Hettie and Maisie are still fine and today two more hens arrived, brown ones from a nearby farm. When the new hens were put in the run, dad checked the nesting box and found the first egg, produced by Hettie (its far too big for Maisie!!)


Mum promised the first egg for Beth, so she was pleased to bring it home and has decided to use it in her cake making this afternoon!!


The weather has been terrible torrential rain and strong wind, Beth had to battle with the umbrella to go and look at the chickens. Carl should be having great fun, he is camping!! I mean camping in November in England, he must be mad, very cold and soaking wet by now!!! I can't wait until he gets back, just think of all that lovely washing I'll have to do...

Welcome to the chicken girls!

This morning bright and early (well 10am on a Saturday is pretty early!!)Tom and Beth went to school and collected the girls! When they left they were expecting to collect two chickens, both aged around 6 months old. When they came home they had three!!
We have been assured that they are all girlies, but I must say we are all very suspicious of one of them, she looks like a cock, although if she is a he, he doesn't make 'cock-a -doodle- doooo' noises (yet !!!)

So here we have Grannnnnny with Maisie, aka Afro Chicken. This is a little bantam, all fluffy and pretty. She is grey but has the most beautiful blue feathers on her cheeks.We love Maisie!!



Here is Beth giving Maisie a cuddle.

Cute little Maisie, with her spectacular hair do. Its hard to tell front from back!!



Here are the other two, the one closest to the camera is Phoebe, We are concerned that she may be a Cock, the man at school, thinks she may well be a cross breed which is why she looks bigger than the other chicken. Apparently they start to crow around 17 weeks and Phoebe is older than that and hasn't started crowing (Yet). Phoebe is very confident and was first out of the coop to investigate the garden,she is not pure white, she has flecks of gold in her feathers. she likes Beth's boots and followed her around the garden.


Lastly we have Hettie, she is pure white and follows Phoebe around, although it was Hettie who first investigated the greenhouse and ate some bird seed that was hanging around in the wild bird feeders.
They are all used to being handled so we need to continue to do that to keep them tame.
We went up to the garden centre and bought them food and water bottles. Beth helped grandad clear out the coop and put lots of straw in there to keep them warm.
Finally we ordered a new hen coop online which will be delivered on Tuesday, it looks quite spectacular. It will arrived flat packed so Tom and Dad will attempt construction!!!

Chicken Weekend.

This week Tom has been helping dad with his garden, since coming home from hospital he hasn't been allowed to do any heavy work, so Tom has spent a few days with him doing the 'donkey work' . He also needs a fence panel replacing, so they needed to clear the bottom of the garden to allow the fencer to get in and sort that out.
Last week Dad decided that he would like to keep chickens, he used to have birds when he was younger and thought it would be good to have a few again. He plans to put them at the bottom of the garden.
When we were in Norfolk Beth and Laura went to a farm and were allowed to handle some tiny chicks, a couple of days old and all fluffy and yellow! Beth and Carl have always wanted to have chickens in the garden so Beth was really excited when she realised Grandad was getting some!

So Beth goes to school last Monday and speaks to the teacher who looks after the school farm, she asked him where they get their chicken coops from as her Grandad wanted one. By the end of the afternoon Beth came home to say that there was a spare coop at school and two 'spare' chickens, Mr Short said that Grandad could have them, they are young and just coming into lay. So what started out as an enquiry has resulted in a mad rush to get everything ready for their arrival on Saturday morning.

Beth is excited as she has been told she can name them!! Watch this space for more exciting chicken stories!!

Beth with one of the little chicks!