Category Archive: coop

December 20th, 2012
post by Timber-Gray | | 0

Long time needed catch-up!

Well now things have changed with the girls BIG time! We have added @roseycosie after the major loss of Cluck-Cluck. Rosie gladly let us use her name for our then newest girl who we still need a photo of I know!

Now we have three more girls! We have two brothers that are mates of our from the allotment site who have been deployed and we took in three of their chickens. Yes I know we need photos of them as well, but they aren’t looking proper as they’re molting and refuse to have their photos taken until spring when all  new feathers have come in and they look chickalous! Their names haven’t really been decided yet because I’ve not been able to spend the time with them like I was able with the first six. But I have some names I’d like to use with them, Mabel, Gretta, and Bird-Brain. It seems that the girls molt during the winter (burrr cold!) so they just wouldn’t look their best so we’ll get their new photos come spring, even new ones of the older girls of ours, because they’re all about the same age. The three new girls will be easy to tell apart, they definitely look different then the others and two are different breeds then our lot. So all we can do is hope they don’t drown or turn into ducks over the winter with all the rain! The new girls had another house put in the run just for them, but from what Si can find out, only two girls are using the new house which is good as not all nine girls are squished in the larger coop.

We also need to start getting out seeds together for the allotment and what we’ll be planting, but as I write this the allotment is a swimming hole due to two days of nothing but rain! Si took photos for me when he went to let the girls out, good thing we now have wellies as if not his feet would be drenched it’s that deep! I hope to try some corn again, spinach (us and the girls), potatoes, peas, rhubarb, our apple trees, and berry bushes, onions, carrots, garlic (trying again this year), broccoli (us and the girls), lettuce (us and the girls), strawberries (US ONLY!) sunflowers for their beauty and then the girls to peck apart again this year, some peppers Green and possibly red and Hot Peppers for the chili, maybe lavender in the tubs again this year, carrots again in the bath tubs, tomatoes, and who knows whatever else we decide or not decide to plant this year.

 

allotment, apples, beans, broccoli, carrots, chickens, coop, eggs, food, lettuce, onions, peas, peppers, potatoes, rain, rhubarb, strawberries, sunflowers, tomatoes, tub
April 1st, 2012
post by Timber-Gray | | 0

We’re on an egg roll!!!!

We have found our egg culprit or at least we think we have, it’s THUNDER!!! She was making all kinds of noises this morning, making us think she needed to deliver us another delicious egg. We let her be while we did our things on the allotment. HINT Look at the new allotment photos! Any way back to the egg deliverer… We gave her time and didn’t check on the nesting box nor did we go near the run, this was about 9am when she started with the cries and running in and out of the coop. We stayed at the allotment until about 3p and then Simon checked the nesting boxes again and found a nice and warm egg!!

The allotment all tidied up

Rhubarb

The Rhubarb plot marked out

Again we broke open this heavy egg, and cooked it and then shared it together. Another delicious, melt in your mouth egg. We’re hoping that she continues to grow strong, bulk up and that the eggs start to get bigger!! We think that our next egg layer will be Freida because of her size, comb (the red bit at the top), wattles (the red wiggly bit under the chin) and all of these are near the size to Thunder. So we were lucky to catch Thunder with her cries and running in an out of the coop.

She doesn’t have to lay her eggs inside her coop, we have a mate who has chickens and his chickens lay them all over the yard, under the coop, and in the manure pile! So we check daily on where the egg is in case Freida starts laying and doesn’t want to lay in the coop and finds a nice spot under their house.  So it takes a while at night when they go to bed to do a full egg check, and again check the coop in case we have a chicken egg eater, which we don’t seem to *Knock On Wood!* This is what it sounds like a chicken who finds an egg cracks it open and then eats them.

allotment, coop, eggs
March 24th, 2012
post by Timber-Gray | | 0

All The Girls Are Here!!

Well we now have four more sisters for Thunder and Lightning. Their names are Cluck-Cluck and she is a small pure white lovely unknown breed.  Then there’s Freida, our Black Rock, who seems to have the colours of the rainbow in her dark feathers, she’s a real beauty and Simon named her and she’s his gal! Charlotte is a Grey Speckled, very fancy and very pretty looking. Finally there’s Purdy she’s a wonderful White with a Black necklace, White Sussex, and Black tail feathers, she’s a real beauty that knows she’s beautiful!!

They’re going through Pecking Order now, I hate seeing the other girls bullied by Thunder and Lightning but now matter how we got them it would happen. A mate on the allotment with a ton of chickens helped us with the breeds of our new girls. He’s teaching us how to cut wings so they can’t fly out. Lightning and Thunder are cut already so the new girls are next!!

Over all they are great, very pretty and having six different colours makes it wonderful!! A real mix of attitudes, from those who don’t like being picked up to those who don’t mind too much and those who think my crutches are things to peck on including my leg when they miss my crutch!! Oh well better then Cluck-Cluck who ran onto the fence as Simon was trying to pick her up for me. We hope in time all will get used to being picked up without screaming their lungs out! LOL We want them friendly and pet-able at the drop of a feather :) We’ll get there we know it because we see them everyday we’re in their pen so they’re used to us.

Today they had a Sweet Corn treat so hopefully everyone will continue to be friends as they eat the corn and dig all around. Plus we put the green cover over them for shade. They are wonderful gals and we can’t wait for the first egg now!!!

chickens, coop, eggs
February 27th, 2012
post by Simon | | 0

>Coop and run

>Well our entrance way is filled with coops and runs awaiting the girls. They have been picked out already and it’s just a matter of time for the approval.

They’ll be having a huge run area and a large house, starting with three girls then going to three more as the coop holds six in total.
Maybe I’ll get some paint and decorate the exterior of thie house as its already painted for the weather, so I’ll just get more on it so they can strut around proudly and lay lots of eggs for us!!
Simon is getting the Feburary seeds ready to plant and I can’t wait til they sprout and it is time to go into the ground. We have a lot to do and hopefully the weather will play nice and the seeds sprout. Wish us luck and we’ll have a full lot of crops this year!!
chickens, coop, eggs, hens
January 20th, 2012
post by Simon | | 1

Chicken coop

>We got a great pressie from Mum a chicken coop for Yule! So come March time we hope to get a few chickens, and fencing all ready by the time Simon builds the coop and the yard and fox trap for them. The chickens are from long ways away but organic eggs and a patch of food just for them!! Cabbages, carrots, lettuce, and lots of other veg for them daily!

I can’t wait until we have them!!!
broccoli, Carrot, carrots, chickens, coop, lettuce