So we're one chicken less ......

Sadly, one of our ex-batt chickens died last week. In the past she'd had a few episodes of feeling ill, standing around and looking miserable for a day or two before recovering and getting back to her usual self. But this time was different. I don't know what it was exactly that killed her but she had escaped from our front garden while free ranging and I found her a little way down the road surrounded by poisonous laurel berries. I can't be sure if she'd eaten some or if she had some other underlying condition.

But the upshot is that I'm left with 4 chickens spread across 2 coops so my plan is to buy one bigger plastic coop, to combat the horrible red mite problem in the ex-batts coop, and merge both flocks into one. I'm rather apprehensive as Crispy, the thoroughbred chicken, is something of a bruiser and jealously guards her position as alpha hen. The ex-ex-batt was the alpha in the other coop and if ever they saw each other there would be blood. Literally.

The remaining ex-batts seem a bit lost without their leader, egg production has slowed dramatically although this could be co-incidence with the colder weather and shorter days but I think they'll be happier once they're under the thumb again. And Crispy is already twirling her moustache in anticipation.

On the Value of Neighbours.

Life with 5 chickens agrees with us. Currently we're getting 5 eggs per day which is a nice amount, enough for all our egg eating/cake baking needs with some left over for random gifts for friends and neighbours - which is just as well given the latest developments.

The hens live in 2 coops in the back garden and they free range in the front garden. We do have a persistent escape problem though. Our Omlet chicken proof fence is anything but, not only can the chooks stroll through the squares in the fence at will but they can hop over it in one leap. Next door's large shrubs are a magnetic draw for them providing the ideal foraging/perching/dust bathing environment. Once they get bored in our garden, they vault the fence into next door's chicken paradise.

To date, we've been able to bring them back with a shake of the sunflower seed jar, as soon as they hear that they come thundering back down the path in anticipation of a tasty snack.

Until yesterday that is ......

One ex-batt stubbornly fixed me with a beady stare and hunkered down into the dust in a defiant fashion. Have you ever tried to out-wit a chicken inside a thick hedge? It's depressingly difficult but after some scratches and swearing I managed to bring her home.

We have lovely, lovely neighbours who claim to be charmed by the persistent dust bath holes under the shrubs and scratched up flower beds ("They do a good job of raking the weeds out!"). They say they appreciate the softly clucking company as they weed and mow their garden. Personally I think they're taking 'polite' to a whole new level but nonetheless, I'm very grateful for their relaxed attitude. I'm giving them our excess eggs as a thank you, if they're having the disadvantages of chicken ownership they may as well share in the benefits too.

Now listen up chooks - if you want to keep your free ranging rights you really are going to have to consider the neighbours and come back when you're called, I think you've pushed them far enough!

Chickenopolis

Wow, what a chickeny weekend we have had. We decided to buy a bigger new coop so that we could put non-laying Feathers out to retirement and replace her with 3 new point of lay hens. The coop was ordered when I received a call asking if we had space for a few ex-batts someone was collecting. I immediately agreed to take 3, now that we'd had a bit of chicken keeping experience I felt more confident about taking on chickens who potentially could have some problems, plus there's the fuzzy glow of doing something good, plus, well, umm, they're free so I've saved the best part of £60.

Once the new coop was assembled we realised that we had room to keep the old coop too so our plans expanded, we would go from owning 1 coop stocked with 2 hens so 2 coops with a combined total of 5 hens. The pre-existing Crispy plus 3 ex-batts meant we only had to buy 1 extra hen.

Sunday dawned cold and sunny and our day of avian runaround began.

Feathers was taken to her retirement home, namely a work mate of Adam's who adopts waif and stray birds from bantams to barn owls. He agreed to make a chicken sized space for Feathers who will no doubt thinks she's suddenly grown a foot overnight after being introduced to the bantams.

Next we sped off to collect the ex-batts. I've never seen one before so was a bit shocked, not at the lack of feathers so much, but their wilty combs and anaemic appearance. The lady who'd rescued them told me they actually had more feathers than most ex-batts so I think I'd expected them to be a bit more conventional looking.

Back home, we had a minor escapage during our complicated re-cooping schedule which resulted in Crispy and the ex-batts coming beak to beak a bit sooner than planned and, completely unexpectedly, Crispy turned into Rambo Hen. Making a growling noise I've never heard before, she launched herself ruthlessly at a hapless ex-batt, stamping on her neck and pecking viciously at her head. Naturally, we quickly separated them so we now have the 3 ex-batts in the new coop and Crispy the Bully is on her own in the old coop. She won't be alone for long as I'm getting her a brand new point of lay playmate tomorrow, I'm hoping that if we follow conventional rules, introduce the new hen after Crispy has gone to bed and get a newby that bears a passing resemblance to Feathers, Crispy will accept her a bit more readily.

Meanwhile, the ex-batts have been named. They're Spark, Katie (after the singer in the Ting Tings) and Lady Gaga (believe me, not my choice, but I suppose she's wearing about as many feathers as Lady Gaga wears clothes) and they seem really happy. They've made themselves at home and are really curious about us, coming out to line up and stare out at us from the run every time we come out of the house. And the icing on the cake (not literally) this morning, less than 24hrs after arriving, all 3 had laid an egg!

So hurrah for the Bash Street Hens, although they do have really long claws, does anyone have any experience of trimming chicken claws? Is it easy to do?

Flippin' Heck Crispy!

Normally Crispy lays quite small eggs, about 55g which is on the cusp of Small and Medium in terms of supermarket eggs. Feathers lays massive eggs of around 65/70g which makes them Large. But Crispy excelled herself yesterday and laid this monster. It weighs about 80g which is off the scale and puts it in the Extra Large category.

I wasn't quite sure whether I should be delighted or concerned, I certainly felt somewhat guilty that I hadn't been out there mopping her fevered brow and telling her to breathe. There's a vague niggling worry that it can't be good for her, I was half expecting her to be walking like a chicken John Wayne but she seems quite active and jolly today.

I've tried to give a sense of scale in the photos, in the top one you can see how the monster egg doesn't fit into a standard size egg box, it won't sit in the compartments and I can't shut the lid. In the photo below, a standard Crispy egg is on the left, standard Feathers egg in the middle and monster Crispy egg on the right.

She's in the nesting box as I type, doing her bit for Norfolk Kitchen egg production, can't wait to see if we've got another monster!

Unveiled at Last: Crispy the Chicken

Here she is at last, the latest addition to our postage stamp sized nod towards self sufficiency: Crispy Chicken. After school on Thursday the children and I went over to the Hen House people to choose ourselves a suitable companion for Feathers.

It wasn't quite the idyllic childhood moment I had in mind - but they never are. In the car on the way over Willow decided she wanted a white chicken and sold the idea to Xanthe who embraced it enthusiastically. By the time we got over to the coop of point of lay hens, Willow changed her mind and wanted a little brown hen. Xanthe stubbornly stuck to the white hen idea and tears ensued. I decided to go with brown as I thought a white hen would look grubby quite quickly so Xanthe was allowed to choose the name as recompense - hence 'Crispy'. (don't ask, I've no idea where she got it from)

Back home Crispy was pitched into the coop once Feathers had gone to bed. The theory being that the established hen gets to sleep in her usual roosting position and the new hen has to fit around her. The theory was overturned somewhat when Feathers woke up in a grump and came out to berate the new comer (I think I even saw curlers and a rolling pin if I'm honest) I was quite proud of the terribly British and frostily polite way they settled their roosting differences, every now and then I peered out into the pitch black and listened to silence punctuated by the occasional muffled thump and a testily clucked chicken equivalent of "Excuse me, I think you'll find I was here first! Harumph"

Crispy has been confined to barracks for a couple of days while she adjusts to her new home. She obviously approves of her new surroundings as she starting laying immediately. Today she was allowed out to stretch her legs for the first time. The new coop mates seem to be getting along fine, they're following each other around the garden like, well, umm, birds of a feather I guess.

Winter Preparations for the Garden.

Ugh, it's definitely winter. Poor old chooks are feeling very disgruntled. Digby is pictured listing her demands for winter which, judging by her expression, I'm guessing include a wood burner in the coop and some cosy slippers. Feathers has responded in a slightly more despondent fashion and has commenced moulting once more. I don't think this is the smartest move at the onset of winter but I'm not sure there's much I can do about it. I do feel sorry for her though, with her little baldy head getting all wet.

I have taken pity of them to a certain extent and bought 2m of clear polythene from the garden centre and pinned it over the run to shelter them from the worst of the weather. Sadly, the hemcore on the floor of the run has been well and truely soaked with today's persistent rain so that will need to be cleared out for maximum avian comfort (woodburners aside).

The borlotti beans are more than ready to harvest so once the rain stops I'll get that done which just leaves the Jerusalem artichokes in the ground. My plan is to chop the artichoke stems down as they seem to be dieing back but I'll leave the chokes in the ground and just dig them up as needed. Last year I seem to remember scraping snow of the ground in my efforts to get at them.

I'm enjoying my mizuna crop which tastes something akin to rocket. I've planted the mini greenhouse with winter salad, pak choi and tatsoi, all of which seem to be flourishing for the time being. I've also replanted the Grand Radish Project of 2009. Older readers may remember my initial radish crop was decimated by caterpillars while we were on holiday in August. The winter radishes have sprouted and need thinning, I'm not sure how long they'll survive, they were sown in a fit of optimism when we were having a warm September so fingers crossed.

Next on the list is getting to grips with the bokashi compost system and rejuvenating the soil over winter.

The Grand Radish Project of 2009!

Has been postponed! My husband took to his bed after the exertion of painting the chicken coop. So here's a photo of the coop instead. Feathers seems to approve, she shot into the nesting box and immediately laid an egg. We've sprayed the hens with anti-mite spray which means we're not allowed to eat their eggs for the next week so I'll be taking myself off to the farm up the road to buy some of theirs tomorrow.

I will be nagging (cough) er, gently encouraging Adam to put the guttering up in the next day or two so hopefully there'll be a radish update soon.

Hectic Sunday.

We have worked so hard today. First of all, Adam and I scrubbed the hen house with Jeyes fluid. I've never used the stuff before but I like the retro yet ruthlessly efficient vibe it has going on. The smell took me straight back to my Great Gran's kitchen so I guess she was a fan too. We're using it as insecticide in the coop but it can also do a myriad of other things like freshen the drains or, my favourite, keep the waterbutt smelling nice. I've sploshed 5ml into our waterbutt so we'll see if it works.

Adam is, as I write, finishing off painting the coop, another anti bug measure but the smart new look is a welcome added benefit.

I've been busy making strawberry jam and when the children are in bed later I'll do a batch of raspberry - boiling sugar and a curious 2 year old are not a good combination. Then tomorrow it'll be a batch of raspberry and gooseberry and some gooseberry chutney.

It's also been a scorching hot, humid day so we're all grubby, sweaty and exhausted. I think I'll sneak out shortly and buy a few cold beers as a surprise for Adam as I think he's earned them but then so have I, think I may have to help him to drink them!

P.I.T.A Chooks

We have 2 chickens, Feathers and Digby or to give them their full names Feathers McGraw and Sir Digby Chicken Cesear. We usually get 2 eggs per day, Adam brought the first one in early this morning, I went out mid morning to check for the 2nd and -disaster - it was smashed.

We've had problems with thinish shelled eggs recently and have had a few eggs with small cracks and this is the second which has been completely broken. It's a problem not only because we lose an egg but apparently if a hen decides to eat a broken egg she may get the taste for it and begin smashing her eggs on purpose.

My current best guess is that this is being caused by the feed. It supposedly contains all the calcium the hens need to make nice strong egg shells. Last time I bought a different, cheaper, brand of food and the shell problems began shortly after. We've now stocked up on our usual brand again so fingers crossed that's the end of the matter.

We really enjoy keeping our chooks and especially appreciate our supply of fresh, free range eggs but, dear God they can be a pain the bum! Keeping chickens in a small space and growing veg at the same is quite a challenge. All our veggies are imprisoned behind chicken proof fences or are grown in hanging baskets, up out of their reach.

The chickens refuse to accept this status quo and are continually pushing the boundaries, poking their heads through 'chicken proof' fences, jumping up on garden furniture to raid hanging baskets and - Adam's bete noir - scratching dust baths in the lawn. The grass is currently festooned with a variety of milk crates, flower pots and childrens toys to keep them off the vulnerable spots. I'm not even going to start on the poo and beaks capable of drawing blood from a 2 year old's finger ......